(15 Jul 2018) LEAD IN:
The lives of Nubians were turned upside down 50 years ago when they were evacuated from villages along the Nile River to make way for the High Dam.
Now a younger generation, born in exile, has revived the long-dormant cause, campaigning for a return to their lands and struggling to preserve their culture.
Their timing could not have been worse.
STORY-LINE:
The Nubian village of Gharb Soheil nestles against the River Nile.
It's tranquil location and colourful houses attracts tourists looking to sample the Nubian culture.
But it is not the reality for many Nubians.
Mohammed el-Sheikh walks through the village of Anibah.
The Nubian activist's family was moved here when the High Dam was built.
The 20th century brought a series of displacements, starting with the construction of the first reservoir at Aswan in 1902.
The biggest came with the construction of the Aswan High Dam in the 1950s and 60s under the rule of the charismatic, authoritarian Gamal Abdel-Nasser.
Some 50,000 people were subjected to forced resettlement in 1963 and 1964, and the creation of Lake Nasser flooded their ancestral homeland.
"The Nubian issue is a real predicament that started more than a 100 years ago, since 1898," explains el-Sheikh.
"But what we are totally sure about is that it is literally a war against the Nubian identity. We are not claiming things or falsely accusing the Egyptian governments, this is the truth. It is a war on the identity, a war of dispersion and displacement."
When the government resettled the Nubians in the 1960s, it told them they were making a major sacrifice for Egypt's progress, giving up their villages for the sake of a dam that would electrify and modernise the nation.
In return, the authorities promised, the socialist system would ensure them a prosperous future: new homes with electricity, running water and farmlands awaited them.
The Nubians were moved to 44 new villages, mostly clumped around the area of Kom Ombo, north of Aswan, more than 200 kilometres (120 miles) from their home region.
What they found was a startling blow.
In some villages, houses hadn't been built yet - there were just chalk outlines.
Even worse for the Nubians, most of the villages were miles away from the Nile.
The fact that all the new villages bore the same names as the Nubians' now submerged home villages seemed almost cruel.
They became known as the villages of "tahgeer", or exile.
For decades now, Nubians have dreamt of returning to their ancestral lands.
Activists were encouraged by the 2011 pro-democracy uprising that overthrew autocrat Hosni Mubarak.
In 2014, there seemed to be a breakthrough when the crafters of a new constitution included a clause that for the first time recognised Nubians as an ethnic group.
It also committed the state to organise their return to traditional lands and develop those areas by 2024.
But so far, nothing concrete has been done, Nubians say.
"The country is doing nothing for us, there isn't anything new," says el-Sheikh's sister, Soraya Saleh.
"Since the Higrah (forced migration) in 1964 they have been saying that they will get us back, every president comes and says that we will be back but nothing happens."
Nubian activists have started to increase their calls for action from the government.
However, recent peaceful marches have been met by swift suppression from the government of President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, which has shown little tolerance for dissent.
Siham Othman, a 30-year-old teacher born in Aswan, was raised on stories of the old country.
It was called the "Caravan of Return".
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