Sudan For Dummies

Not much is going on. Anna's son Francis has gone back to the UK after his two week holiday... and now there is a void of hot tea at the flat without his constant supply of the stuff. Before he left he bought me a little shisha of my own, it's lovely, I smoke rose, apple, mint and peach flavoured tobacco. For Francis' birthday I made him a blog site and put up a pile of pictures of his visit (I still have a few more to go up) it's http://www.franinsudan.blogspot.com/ .

Anna's husband will be arriving in a couple of weeks. Anna really is getting a lot of visitors for someone living in the third world. Popular lass.

So I've been here for a while so I thought it was about time to tell you about Sudan. Partly my impressions, partly what I have read from guidebooks and partly the opinions of others that I shall present as my own to make myself look more worldly.

Ancient Sudanese history seems to be dominated by the Nubia who predate the Egyptian Pharaohs. Things got intertwined a lot and sovereignty bounced around a bit over the centuries between the Kush and independent christian kingdoms. Some people build some pyramids. I never said that I was going to give you a accurate or detailed account did I.

In the 14th Century the Turkish rulers came down from Egypt and established Islam.

In the 19th Century the Brits got their foot in the door and re-introduced Christianity. This annoyed the locals who by this time were quite happy with the Turkish ways and with Islam. In 1881 the Mahdists expressed this annoyance by leading a revolution and killing the British appointed Governor General Gordon. Lord Kitchener then defeated the Mahdists and made Sudan a British colony (1898) Throughout all this was the Slave trade, one of Sudan's most formative industries.

I think was during this time of British rule that the lines were drawn that define the boundaries of Sudan. These lines were not drawn by changes in cultures, people, religion nor geography. They are decisions made by non-Africans that determined where one country ends and another begins.

By the time the British left in 1956 the civil war between the North and South had already started. Western media (and christian aid groups) love to over simplify this as being Arab Muslims vs Black Christians. Complexities of economic, social, political, tribal, ethnic and religious forces all play their part.

Sudan is about 70% Sunni Muslim, 5% Christian and 25% traditional religions. It's only about 40% Arab and has 19 ethnic groups. I have met people with black skin, flat noses and curly hair who call themselves Arab. I have met people with pointy noses fair skin and wavy hair who call themselves black African. I have also met families that have a huge, mixed up variety of features in the same family. Sudan is incredibly diverse and totally mixed. It is known as the Africa inside of Africa.

Sudan is Huge, really massive, almost the size of western Europe. I have been told it is the largest county in Africa, though looking at a map, Algeria and Congo can't be that far off. The top bit is a great big sandpit and the bottom bit is tropical. It's flat as a pancake and broken by the Nile that joins in Khartoum. Sudan has 9 neighbours, and seems to have had (or is having) disputes with all of them.

The civil war ended, and Sudan was pretty relaxed and liberal. Then it started again in 1983 when the government introduced Sharia law. That's Muslim law. Two years ago the civil war ended again, and things have been pretty Ok. Of course the whole Darfur thing has kicked off. but that's another story... when I can get my head around it a bit more.

The best thing about Sudan is the people. And I know I really sound like a patronising imperialist wanker when I say that, but it's true. The people have a resilience, genuineness, openness and generosity that I have never before encountered. It's not to say that the slowness, disorganisation and lower standards of expectation isn't frustrating sometimes. It's just that the people out weigh it.

So them's the basics.