The Waterwheel (1)
Nubian civilisation and history have a unique character in everything connected with Nubian heritage and culture. Its vast and open horizons express the beautiful Nubian way of life, a river that has flowed since the beginning of history. Nubians showed great skill in making heritage tools from the environment around them, achieving prosperity and refinement and placing cultural knowledge at the forefront of the civilisations that followed. They drew for us a path of glory and pride, carrying us into the memory of history to unlock the thinking of the ancient Nubian world that created and innovated.
The waterwheel played a role in shaping people’s lives and their environment in those days, teaching them methods of farming and the different kinds of soil. Yet the waterwheel in its inherited old form no longer survives with its former features, and only a few people know it today.
The Nubian waterwheel has its own character. It was even treated like a musical instrument: its performers were the cattle drivers, and it echoed the affection and tenderness of the waterwheel as it lifted water and poured it into the channels. No Nubian village was without decorated waterwheels along the banks of the Nile.
I know how difficult it is to write about the waterwheel, heritage, history, life, and art. Still, I will do my utmost to offer substantial material to my brothers and sons—the present generation and the generations to come, God willing.
I will begin by preparing the things needed to make and assemble the waterwheel:
First: the kinds of wood used in its construction.
Second: the kinds of rope used with the waterwheel.
Third: the homeland of the waterwheel makers and who they were.
Fourth: how it is assembled.
Fifth: how agricultural shares are distributed and their time allocations determined.
Let us begin with the kinds of wood used to make the waterwheel.
1. Acacia (jolea): strong, durable, and resistant to water. It occurs naturally in different shapes and sizes according to need, is inexpensive, and is readily available as a tree of the local environment.
2. Al-Falaq (onboo): a type of wood that is not affected by water. It is durable, easy to cut or hollow into the shape of a basin or channel, light in weight, inexpensive, and native to the environment.
3. Al-Kharaz (alkhorjj): smooth, strong, and light. It is also used to make boats and feluccas, is resistant to water, and is rare in our area.
Second: ropes and their types. Ropes are made from three materials: halfa grass (hambertea), al-Ashamiq, and soft palm fronds, prepared by beating the fronds and leaves and pulling them into fibres.
The ropes are graded from thick to soft to thin:
A. Al-Allass is very thick, made from hambertea and beaten palm fronds. It is twisted with two eyes and arranged along three-sided supports called neekrad. Al-Allass and its neekrad require three or four men because of the rope’s strength. The buckets are mounted on it, and it is one of the waterwheel’s most important structural columns.
B. A rope half the size of al-Allass is called allaiyeen. It is used to prepare and arrange the wheel, or dogotee.
C. The olooss rope is made from al-Ashamiq. It is smaller than allaiyeen but carries a substantial load from the waterwheel.
D. A medium rope, also made from al-Ashamiq, is smaller than olooss. It balances the large ring of the waterwheel and acts as the water-bucket balance. The outer water rope is called shadoun aman allee, while the inner rope is awon aman allee; the load on the inner rope is much greater than on the outer one.
E. The ordinary rope is twisted from halfa and al-Ashamiq and has many uses. It is relatively thin and is used with the waterwheel and in daily life, for weaving bed frames and tying animals. This type has three sides for tying oxen and some unruly donkeys.
F. A very thin halfa rope called sheertaj is used to arrange the wheel, dogotee, and to make the shelter screen, celatea. The screen is built from a rope system made of strong al-Ashamiq, stretched vertically, with palm fronds and leaves attached to each bundle of wheat stalks, hassad, and some lupine sticks, all tied with sheertaj.
Thin al-Ashamiq rope is used to tie sheep and to make a collar for a donkey. Small iron rings are attached to the collar to form a resonant bell called gelingeel, a beautiful sound when the gentle donkey walks. The donkey then appears in all its beauty, wearing a saddle covered with goat hide.
G. Ropes made from palm fronds are difficult to prepare. After the soft fronds are cut from young palms, they are placed in water for three or four days, then beaten on a special stone or hard wooden block with a tool called tengil until they become soft strips. They are moistened again and twisted. Although this kind is very strong and durable, it takes tremendous effort to prepare. A well-known saying describes the work: ‘kitoon molmgoon tingill fee.’ Two kinds of rope are made from it: al-Allass and ordinary rope, used for weaving the bed frame and tying the buckets.
Summary of rope types: al-Allass; allaiyeen; olooss; the medium rope, smaller than olooss; the ordinary rope; sheertaj; and rope made from palm stems, aranteen haroo, which I have not described in detail because it is rarely used, difficult to prepare, and seasonal.
Cowhide strips also have an essential role in making the small and large rings. They are strong, easy to use, and placed in the parts of the waterwheel that do not reach the water. They are, of course, readily available.
Old al-Allass is used by placing it in a straight line in the animal pen, fixing both ends with stakes, and tying the animals to it with small ropes. Smokers among the farmers light a piece of al-Allass and place it beside the waterwheel; it holds the fire for a long time.
The story of the waterwheel is not easy to tell in full. Help me by following along and adding to it, so that together we can make the difficult accessible.