Ancient Cities and Pyramids

On Saturday, we rented a car and paid a driver to drive us up to Meroe and Musawwarat es Sufra, ancient Meroitic sites dating back to about 500 BC to 500 AD when Meroe became the capital of the Kushite Kingdom. Meroe, which is approximately 4 hours north of Khartoum, is the site of the Royal City and Royal cemetery, or pyramids.

We went first to the pyramids. We rode camels up to the base of the pyramids and spent an hour walking around and exploring. Originally, there were 57 pyramids in the cemetery, but hundreds of years of sand and wind and robbers seeking treasures have decapitated and destroyed most of ruins. Most of the gold found in these pyramids eventually found it’s way to Egyptian museums in Berlin and Munich.

From the pyramids, we drove over to the Royal City where the park attendant took us on a tour of the remains of the royal palace, Amun Temple, and baths. The baths, which clearly have a Roman influence, are the best preserved of the ruins here, though you can still make out the columns and alter of the temple fairly well.

After visiting Meroe, we headed back south and then drove straight east across the desert to Musawwarat es Sufra, site of the largest Merotic remains in the Sudan, and in my opinion, the most impressive. These sites can only be reached if you have an experienced driver or GPS, as we drove approximately 45 km across the desert to reach these ruins. The large complex of remains at Musawwarat is called the “Great Enclosure.” At the center of the sprawling compound is a large temple. All of the walls and columns are covered in elephants, Egyptian carvings and hieroglyphics. It is unclear how this site was used; some hypothesize that it was a training ground for war and a place where prisoners were housed, while others surmise that it was a pilgrimage site dedicated to the God Apedemak.

To the east of the Great Enclosure stands the Lion temple, which is clearly dedicated to Apedemak. The temple was built around 230 BC, and reconstructed in 1969 by German archaeologists. The carvings and columns inside the temple were particularly impressive.

Nuba Wrestling

I’ve quite enjoyed this week; nothing especially new or exciting to write about in terms of my work and research, as both are progressing quite well.

I’m reading Emma’s War again. For those of you who are interested in learning more about the history of the war between the north and the south in the Sudan, this is an excellent read. Emma McCune was a British aid worker who married Riek Machar, one of the SPLA commanders in the Blue Nile region of the Sudan. Riek Machar was one of three commanders who launched a coup against John Garang, the leader of the SPLA, in 1991 and split the southern rebel movement for several years. John Garang often referred to this attempted coup and war amongst the SPLA factions as Emma’s War, and thought Emma was a spy sent to break apart the SPLA. I love the way the author, Deborah Scroggins, paints the history and circumstances of the conflict through both Emma’s story and her own experience as a journalist in the south. Now that I am more familiar with the wars, tribes, and geography of Sudan, I’m finding the book even more informative the second time around.

On Friday afternoon, a contingent of Harvard-Fletcher folks ventured to North Khartoum to watch a Nuba wrestling match. For the tribes who live in the Nuba Mountains in the south, these wrestling matches are held to uphold the honor of the village. Nuba wrestlers spend two weeks before a match preparing – eating, exercising, and greasing their bodies with oil, as they wrestle half-naked or wearing a few animal skins. If a wrestler loses a match on more than one occasion he risks being thrown out of the tribe, so the stakes are high. Here in Khartoum, the teams are organized by municipality and the wrestlers wear soccer uniforms in accordance with the local Islamic custom.

The match was a fascinating combination of wrestling and negotiation. A wrestler from one team came to the middle of the circle and the opposing team sent a group of three wrestlers to negotiate which wrestler from their team would participate. After negotiating, the three wrestlers return to their team to select a teammate to fight. This teammate then walks to the middle of the circle to meet his opponent; if he does not want to fight the man, he can return to his team and demand that another wrestler be chosen. We saw this same pattern of negotiation occur three times with one of the wrestlers the red team put forward to wrestle. As it turns out, this particular wrestler had a reputation for being a “killer”, meaning that he seriously injured or killed another wrestler in a previous match by breaking his neck or back. No wonder no one wanted to wrestle him! After the wrestlers have agreed to wrestle, the two lock arms and begin the process of trying to lift the opponent’s feet off the ground or knock him to the ground completely.

Haboubs and brown rain

The coming of the rainy season here in the Sudan is a mixed blessing. For us khawajas, the 5-10 degree drop in the temperature is a welcome reprieve from the oppressive heat. However, for the majority of Sudanese people, the downpours and haboubs (dust clouds) that precede them bring flooding and difficult times. Interestingly, even the rain here is brown with dust and sand.

In Khartoum the sand and dust, leaking roofs, and huge puddles in the streets are mostly just a nuisance. The sewer system in my apartment began overflowing with the rains; definitely not a pleasant predicament in which to find oneself. Luckily, my one month of rent was about finished and my friend Michelle’s roommates were taking off for 4 weeks of R&R in Europe, so a room was available in her apartment. So, I packed up my things and switched apartments … and what a difference in quality of life the move is already making.

My new apartment is on the ninth floor of a large apartment building overlooking a mosque on one side and the city of Khartoum on the other. The picture below is of a haboub moving in over the city right before a rain storm. As you can see, we have a great view off our deck. Additionally, we have comfy furniture, a fully equipped kitchen, and a satellite TV, and a wonderful, young woman named Rose comes a couple times a week to clean and do laundry. It could not be more opposite from the open-air Sudanese apartment in which I was previously living.

And while I’m sitting on the couch watching Oprah and Alias on TV at night (the people here LOVE Oprah – everyone talks about her show and I feel the need to watch in order to be in the know), thousands of other people’s lives across the Sudan are being devastated by the floods. Everyday there is new story in the newspaper about flooded villages and people who are moving because they have lost their homes and crops. Here in Khartoum, the Nile has overflowed its banks, displacing all the squatters along the river who have small plots of crops. This migration of people also brings increased conflict between tribes as nomads move their livestock across or settle upon agriculturalists’ lands. Cholera season has begun, and the mosquitoes are out with a vengeance. It is a devastating time for many people here in the Sudan, which makes me feel especially guilty about the pleasure and comfort I have found in my new apartment.

Concluding the first workshop

Today, I completed the fourth and final day of training for the SuWEP women in Khartoum on elections, fundraising, and advocacy. I have mixed feelings: relieved to no longer have the stress of preparing and designing the sessions, accomplished in that I can actually point to something that I was able to create and contribute towards the women’s movement here, and humbled by the gratitude I received from the participants in the training.

At the conclusion of the last session, we handed out workshop certificates to all of the participants. Rawda put the certificate content together and Ayman professionally designed them. Logos for Salmmah, SuWEP, and Harvard are at the top of the certificate which acknowledges each woman’s participation in the trainings, and Fahima, Rawda, and I each signed at the bottom. You would not believe how excited the women were to receive their certificates. We even did a rating system where women received a 1 for attending all the sessions, a 2 if they missed one session, and a 3 if they missed two or more sessions. It was made clear to me that we must distinguish between those with perfect attendance and those who missed some sessions.

A reporter for the El Maidan newspaper attended the training and will be writing an article about it. She is interested in writing about women peace builders taking a role in advocacy campaigns and the upcoming elections. I am doing an interview with her on Sunday, and she will be publishing an article (in Arabic, of course) the following week. I’ll be sure to let you know how it turns out after I’m able to have my colleagues translate it for me.

Building Momentum

Before I came to Sudan, many folks warned me that it was a place where “everything is happening, and yet nothing is happening” and to be prepared to do a lot of waiting and reading. I came adequately prepared with 7 books (SaraJ talked me out of bringing 11 – thank goodness the 4 heaviest books didn’t make the final cut) and lots of little projects to fill my time if necessary.

Having been in Sudan for four weeks now, I must say that there is some truth to this statement. With three separate conflicts happening all at once in one country (Darfur to the west, another in the east, and tensions remaining sufficiently high in the south), there is indeed a lot happening, though one would never know it given the monotony of daily life here in Khartoum.

For me, life has only continued to get crazier and more hectic with each new week, and I say this in a very positive sense. Now that I’m nearing the conclusion of my trainings for the women of SuWEP here in Khartoum (only one workshop to go), I’ve been able to focus more of my energies on meeting with people and building my base of contacts here in Khartoum. Those of you who know how I used to pack my daily schedule in DC and run myself ragged need not worry – I’m not making myself quite as crazy as I did then, though admittedly, I’m coming close. Thanks to the help of Evelyn and Jacqui at the Initiative for Inclusive Security and my colleagues here, I’ve been scheduling several meetings a day with women at UNFPA, UNIFEM, UNICEF, UNDP, IRI, NDI, women from the National Assembly, women from the Parliament, Darfuri women, SPLM women from the south, and more. Each of these meetings leads to one or two additional ones, and so forth. People here have been unbelievable helpful and open about their work. I have been especially humbled and amazed by the Darfuri women and women in the National Assembly and Parliament who have sometimes spent over two hours with me sharing their stories, their passions and work, and their hopes and fears for Sudan. It has been an incredible learning experience.

Additionally, I’ve picked up several pieces of research and writing, which have been challenging and interesting as well. One piece is a review of a book Fahima asked me to read entitled “One Foot in Heaven.” The book is essentially the dissertation research of a Dutch anthropologist who spent two years doing research on women who worked in the market in the town of Kebkabiya, North Darfur from 1991-1992 during a period of intense Islamization in Sudan. Through interviews with several market women, the author paints a complicated and rich testimony that sheds an informative light on the current conflict in Darfur and highlights the incredible strength of the Darfuri women. If you’re interested in reading my review, let me know and I’m happy to send it to you when I am finished.

As for the 7 books I brought with me and the numerous projects I thought I might finish, well… looks they will just have to be pushed off until next summer.

Sufism

The cultural highlight of my last week was going to see sufi dancers with my friend Ayman. For those of you who are unfamiliar with sufism, it is a mystical tradition within Islam, and it plays a very important role in the Sudan. Sufism is practiced by many men here and some have even credited it’s prevalence with deterring the spread of radical Islamic movements in the Sudan.

Sufis believe in a mystic path to God that is completely separate from the daily rituals of Islam. Sufis go on retreat to the desert for weeks or months at a time to fast and pray. They believe that by shedding all earthly connections and desires including one’s individual self, one can fill his heart with love for God and purify the heart and soul. At the heart of sufism is a love for everyone and everything.

The sufis are divided into tariqa, or brotherhoods, that are led by a sheikh. Every Friday, several of these tariqa gather to dance and chant and anyone – family, friends, neighbors, even strangers like me - is welcome to come watch and participate.

Ayman took me to two sufi gatherings in Umdurman – one for the poor and one for the rich. Though the dance and songs were entirely the same, the look and feel of the two groups was completely different. At the first gathering for the poor, Sufis could dress in all white or in the traditional green; at the second gathering amongst the rich, every dancer had to be dressed in green. At the first gathering, dust and dirt filled the air and dancers were singing and shouting loudly in order to be heard; at the second gathering they brought in portable fans and mist machines to keep everyone cool and passed a microphone for singing. Both gatherings, however, were completely fascinating.