The myth of Africa's 'perfect race': the Nuba and Riefenstahl

Sudan's Nuba: neither a perfect race nor a Riefenstahl photo

Controversy has resurfaced around the Nuba people of southern Sudan, whom some describe as Africa's 'perfect race', linking them to Leni Riefenstahl, the controversial filmmaker of the Third Reich. But the facts debunk several myths at once.

The case of mistaken authorship

To begin with, the iconic image that usually accompanies these claims is not Riefenstahl's work, but that of British photographer George Rodger, who portrayed the Nuba in 1949. Riefenstahl travelled to the region twenty years later and published the book 'The Last of the Nuba', an ethnographic work that, despite its visual quality, has been criticised for its aestheticising gaze and, according to some, for reducing a complex culture to an ideal of physical beauty.

The myth of racial perfection

The idea of an African 'perfect race' sits poorly with the reality of the Nuba: a people who, like many others, lived in precarious conditions throughout the 20th century. A human group being physically athletic does not make it superior, least of all when it is torn from its historical context. The obsession with classifying ethnic groups according to aesthetic canons has more to do with the observer's eye than with the reality of those portrayed.

The noise on social media

Several viral videos, including one made by a YouTuber — the same one behind a controversial report in India — have rekindled the interest. They mix claims with no historical basis, such as suggesting that Riefenstahl had relations with members of the tribe, something that those familiar with traditional Africa consider a fantasy fuelled by prejudice.

In any case, the Nuba do not need anyone to label them a perfect race. Surviving in a region battered by war and poverty is achievement enough.