[6] In general, the Nubian identity has been intimately linked to Uganda's West Nile region, to Islam, and to military service.

[11] The Nubians were traditionally regarded by Europeans and many Ugandans as the descendants of Emin Pasha's mostly Muslim slave soldiers who fled to Uganda after being defeated by Mahdist Sudanese forces in the 1880s.

[16] According to expert Mark Leopold, the Nubian identity was an "elective, strategic, and potential alternative ethnicity" for people from the West Nile region before 1979.

They worked petty jobs, becoming manual labourers, house servants, taxi drivers, nightguards, mechanics, or provided other services to the wealthy and middle classes.

Due to their subordinate economic status and Muslim religious identity, they were generally looked down upon by the Bantu Christians in the cities and constituted a bloc of the urban poor.

[18] As a result of their connection with Emin Pasha's slave soldiers, the colonial military, and Amin's government, the Nubians have been associated by other Ugandans as well as Europeans with violence.