Is There a Connection Between the Kingdom of Kush, Darfur, and West-Central Africa?

Mohamed Jalal Hashim

As usual, in the article referenced here, our brother and friend Al-Tayeb Mohi El-Din argued that Darfur has no connection whatsoever to the civilization of Kush. Below is our response to him on his page, along with some additional reflections on the subject:

Your argument is unscientific and can be classified as part of the hate discourse spreading these days.

What is the opinion of the majority of scholars regarding the original homeland of the Kushites and Nubians before they moved eastward toward the Nile Valley? Is it not Darfur? Is this not the dominant scholarly view?

Below are some of the scholars who have supported this position:

Ehret, Posnansky, and Robin Thelwall are among the earliest scholars who proposed that the Meroitic and Nubian peoples migrated from the Upper Wadi Howar region:

– Robin Thelwall. 1982. A Note on the Nubian Homeland. In: Millet, Nicholas B. & Kelly, Allyn L. (eds.), Meroitic Studies: Proceedings of the Third International Meroitic Conference, Toronto. Berlin: Akademie-Verlag.
– Robin Thelwall. 2005. Linguistic Aspects of Greater Nubian History.
– C. Ehret & M. Posnansky (eds.), The Archaeological and Linguistic Reconstruction of African History. Berkeley: University of California Press.

Many others later discussed this issue, including William Adams:

– William Y. Adams. 1982. The Coming of Nubian Speakers to the Nile Valley. In: Ehret & Posnansky (eds.), The Archaeological and Linguistic Reconstruction of African History. Berkeley: University of California Press.

As well as Lionel Bender:

– Lionel Bender (ed.). 1989. Topics in Nilo-Saharan Linguistics. Hamburg: Buske.

And Marianne Bechhaus-Gerst:

– Marianne Bechhaus-Gerst. 1984/85. Sprachliche und historische Rekonstruktionen im Bereich des Nubischen unter besonderer Berücksichtigung des Nilnubischen. In: Sprache und Geschichte in Afrika (SUGIA), 6: 7–134.
– Marianne Bechhaus-Gerst. 1989. ‘Nile Nubian’ Reconsidered. In: Bender, Lionel (ed.), Topics in Nilo-Saharan Linguistics. Hamburg: Buske.
– Marianne Bechhaus-Gerst. 2011. The (Hi)story of Nobiin – 1000 Years of Language Change. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang.

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As we know, there is a racist current prevalent in central and northern riverain Sudan that works tirelessly to sever Sudan — with all its history and civilizations — from its broader African depth within the Sudanic belt stretching from the Red Sea to the Atlantic Ocean. In doing so, they swim against the current of history and against all scientific evidence readily available today, especially in this era of globalization.

They possess neither sound logic nor scientific evidence, relying instead on arrogance, sweeping judgments without proof, and ultimately stubborn denial. This is precisely what we fear our friend Al-Tayeb Ahmed Mohi El-Din and many others may drift toward.

Let us examine another aspect of the connection between Kushite civilization and West-Central Africa, as discussed by several scholars.

Meroe became famous for iron production to the extent that it was dubbed the “Birmingham of Africa.” According to the dominant theory, ironworking was first discovered in Persia and spread from there to the Middle East, Egypt, and Europe. One of the key indicators of this diffusion is the design of iron-smelting furnaces.

However, Meroitic iron challenged this theory. The smelting furnaces in Meroe differ significantly in design from Persian furnaces and from those that evolved later as iron technology spread elsewhere.

In 1999, our friend Professor Richard Lobban and others published an article in Sudan Notes and Records discussing this issue:

– Richard Lobban, Charles B. Rhoades Jr., & Walid Bader. 1999. Rethinking Iron Working in Nubia. In: Sudan Notes and Records (New Series), No. 3.

The study concluded that the iron-smelting furnace designs in Meroe were identical to those found in West-Central Africa. The authors supported their findings by comparing furnace structures as well as the composition of iron slag remains, discovering striking similarities between Meroitic slag and that found in West-Central Africa.

Therefore, those who reject these findings should provide evidence to the contrary rather than resorting to denial and bluster.

For my part, I discussed this issue in my book:

– To Be or Not To Be: Sudan at Crossroads (Dar es Salaam: Mkuki na Nyota, 2019).

There, I connected these findings with field observations I conducted in southwestern Darfur and the Nuba Mountains.

During field interviews with members of the Daju people, I repeatedly asked them about their original homeland. They consistently stated that their presence in Chad, Wadai, South Sudan, Darfur, and the Nuba Mountains was not the result of migration from elsewhere. Rather, they had always inhabited all these regions since the days of the Daju Kingdom, which encompassed them all.

They explained that the kingdom’s borders formed a triangle extending from western-central Chad through eastern Niger and northern Nigeria, crossing Wadai in Chad and the Central African Republic, then into Bahr al-Ghazal in South Sudan and South Darfur, through the Nuba Mountains and South Kordofan, finally reaching the Nile Valley.

This was the ethnographic testimony I gathered from them directly.

During this work, my guide in the Nuba Mountains — a simple, uneducated man — drew my attention to two intriguing observations:

First, the Daju differ from the Nuba in that they rarely settle atop mountains, preferring the foothills instead.

Second, they settle only near mountains containing iron ore.

I later verified this observation personally by examining the mountain rocks, which often displayed reddish-brown coloration caused by iron oxidation. When broken open, the rocks revealed a gray metallic interior characteristic of iron deposits.

Considering all this — together with the similarity between Meroitic iron furnaces and those of West-Central Africa — I proposed the following hypothesis:

Could the Daju ethnic group have been the specialists responsible for iron smelting in Meroe?

The jury is still out.

MJH
27 May 2026

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Al-Tayeb Ahmed Mohi El-Din

“The article is a response to those who describe Nile Valley inhabitants as remnants of Turks.”

Response:

Darfur was not part of the Kingdom of Kush.

How can Darfur activists claim to be the indigenous people of Sudan when Darfur itself was not part of historical ancient Sudan, but only entered Sudan in 1916 — just a little over a hundred years ago? How then can anyone claim to be the “original” inhabitants or owners of the land?

Darfur was not part of Kush nor of Sudan historically. There is no Kushite king, inscription, archaeological remain, or Kushite culture connected to Darfur.

Kush was a Nile Valley civilization whose western frontier ended in Kordofan; it never extended into Darfur. Darfur belongs culturally and historically to the Chadian belt in every respect.

Some try to justify matters by claiming migration from the Nile to Darfur — but where is the scientific evidence for such migration?

The people of Darfur are indigenous only to their own region.

It is well known that migrants carry both their material and spiritual culture with them. For example, Europeans who migrated to the Americas five hundred years ago brought European architecture, firearms, Christianity, dining customs, and their languages.

So what exactly can we identify as having moved from the Nile westward? There is no Kushite architecture, no Kushite language, and no Kushite cultural package found there.