Nuba: Pure People
Written and Directed by Tomo Kriznar & Maja Weiss 

The Nuba Mountains are natural granite fortresses in the savannahs of South Kordofan in Sudan, and have throughout history provided shelter for various African peoples running away from slave hunters. The harsh natural conditions are probably the reason why the tribes living in the Nuba Mountains never established any institutions or social hierarchies. Instead of being led by tyrants, they gathered around the village sages who take care of peace, heal the sick and make rain. Rather than developing a material civilisation, the Nuba cherish the fertile life power and the great Secret which, they believe, is responsible for the life of the universe, and therefore nourishes everything that exists: plants, animals and humans.


The Nuba Mountains not only preserved the primordial Africa, but also original human sensitivity and democracy, and are therefore a unique phenomenon. 


When I first visited the Nuba Mountains in 1980, I met the happiest and healthiest people on the planet. I called them pure people.

The Nuba Mountains successfully protected their tribes until 1983, when the northern Arabic government introduced Fundamentalist Sharia law throughout the country. Like other African peoples in the south of Sudan, the Nuba saw the repression of their traditional way of life as a new attempt to enforce the will of the former slave hunters, and they rebelled.

Nineteen years, and two million victims of the Sudanese civil war later, the Nuba Mountains are sealed shut and cut off from the world. The holy Arab army attacks, burns, plunders and kills, and encloses the survivors in so-called 'peace camps'. Young boys in the camps are being trained as janissaries, and sent back to kill their relatives: the Arabs are therefore employing the tactics 'kill a slave with a slave'. Girls and women are being forced to give birth to Arab children.  The people who can't be used disappear. Fifteen years ago they were two million strong, and today there remain only 250,000 who are sill fighting for the right to be Nuba. The Nuba Mountains and the last of the black Indians are victims of the infinitely greedy European-American, and Arab-Asian appetites fighting for control over strategic resources. the Nuba Mountains are the sacrificial altar of the new world order which will leave no corner of the earth unexploited. The genocide is being perpetrated in secrecy: no observer, no reporter, no humanitarian organisation is allowed to enter the area. The world community is allowed to bring relief only to the peace camps, but the food placed there as bait has for fifteen years been the most dangerous trap for the besieged rebellious families. 

Until now the genocide has been ignored by the world public.

In the dry season of 1998, with the help of my bike I managed to sneak through the government lines....

Tomo Kriznar

Nuba: Pure People
Distribution: Bela Film, Beljaska 32, 1000 Ljubljana
Phone: (00 386 1) 515 00 20
Fax: (00 386 1) 515 00 25
E-mail: ida.belafilm@siol.net