TO OUTSIDE observers a decree issued by Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi in November 2014 may have seemed benign. With the stroke of his pen, Egypt’s president designated a stretch of mostly uninhabited land in southern Egypt as a restricted military zone. In January this year the parliament approved Mr Sisi’s decree. Then came the backlash. The area set aside for the army was part of the Nubian homeland. The constitution of 2014 promised that the Nubian people, who were uprooted decades ago, could return there. “Don’t forget Nubia!” yelled a member of parliament when Mr Sisi addressed the chamber in February. But the state has long tried to erase ethnic distinctions in favour of a single Egyptian identity. So who are the Nubians?
