Display of colonial Sudan in Durham, UK

http://www.soas.ac.uk/gallery/disappearingheritage/full75420.jpg

British and Egyptian flags flying in front 

0f a motor carriage used during the visit 

to Khartoum of Khedive Abbas Hilmi II. 

Photograph by R. Von Slatin, 1901

A series of photographs that capture the disappearing elements of Sudanese development in the 20th Century will be on display at Oriental Museum of the University of Durham, from January 1 - March 1, 2013.

Many culturally important buildings built during the rule of the British are slowly deteriorating due to neglect of maintenance.  They have been reused for other purposes. Some of the railway buildings have been abandoned to the desert. Frederique Cuventas captured many photos during a six year period up to 2010.

The exhibit is called: Disappearing Heritage of Sudan, 1820–1956: Photographic and Filmic Exploration in Sudan. It documents the remnants of the colonial experience in Sudan from the Ottoman, Egyptian and British periods.

This exhibition has previously been shown at the Brunei  Gallery at the University of |London, UK. For a few months, starting in September 2013, it will be shown at the University of Khartoum.

2012 - Looking back, last six months

July 1 marks Canada Day [previously Dominion Day]. Canadians celebrate the independence of our country, in 1867, from England.

Thanks for visiting this blog, and supporting adroub.blogspot.com. The blog is assembled from Canada.
Just thought I'd share some statistics with you.

Now, over 400 posts online.

Total posts on this blog in the past six months [January - June]  2011 - 65 posts


Most posts in a month:  February, 2011 - 17 posts

Most popular posts in the first six months of 2012
#1   Short news- mid January
#2   Beja Cultural Day Report
#3   Disillusion and poverty in Sudan's east
#4   Four Free research papers about the Beja

#5   Beja activists arrested

Best post this year. [in my humble opinion] Enjoy!

Over 8400 views since uploading. About 140 per week.

Daily page views run between 40-70/day.

Location of readers in the last month [June 2011]
#1 United States
#2 Canada
#3 Germany
#4 Sudan
#5 Russia (?)

I hope you'll continue to read adroub.blogspot.com  for the rest of the year. Come along on the journey as we learn more about current events and the Beja people. Make sure you've bookmarked this page, or added it to your RSS feed.

We posted some statistics about 2011 in January, 2012.

How many Beja are there?

 Beja crowd in Sinkat, at visit by a politician.

The vast majority of Beja live in Sudan. Some live in southern Egypt, while others live in Eritrea. We've found three sources of information that give a breakdown of the numbers of people who are part of the Beja confederation.

A census of Sudan was completed in 1956.

ALL BEJA [Sudan only] 645,703

Arnarar 97,651
Bisharin 68,588
Hadendowa 259,594
Bani Amer 100,654
Other Beja 34,175
Beja-Group Unknown  73,233

http://ir.minpaku.ac.jp/dspace/bitstream/10502/699/1/SES35_005.pdf


Researcher Orville Jenkins compiled numbers based on information from 1996.

107,000 in Eritrea,
99,000 in Eritrea [who speak Tigre]
60,000 in Egypt 
2,134,000 in Sudan.
2,540,315 Total Beja

The Beja People of Sudan, Eritrea and Egypt


Modern statistics from Christian researchers in the USA offer the following

All Beja            2,295,000

Beja in Egypt         81,000

All Beja in Sudan    1,995,000

       Beja Bisharin  Sudan      31,000

       Beja Hadendowa Sudan  63,000

 Beja Hedareb in Eritrea 219,000

Joshua project statistics.

Have you come across any other population lists?

The Hadrami people and the Beja people

The Hadrami people live in South Yemen, but thousands of them have moved to sites along the coast of the Indian Ocean and the Red Sea. Professor Leif Manger explored the Hadrami Diaspora, a $60 book published in September 2010. We offer some excerpts from the book.

Quick look at Turkish rule in the 1800's

Britain had watched the growth of Egyptian control of north east Africa under Mohamad Ali in the 1820's and 30's with concern. The regional developments played a role in its decision to occupy Aden in 1837. From Aden [in Yemen] the British could also keep an eye on Ethiopia, especially the important trading town of Massawa. But Egypt was the regional centre of power.

Khedive Islamil Pasha of Egypt, inspired by his grandfather, Mohamad Ali (died 1849), dreamed of creating an African empire. The proximity of the three trading centers of Suakin, Massawa, and Jeddah linked Africa to the Hijaz and the Muslim pilgrimage... [From 1863 Ismail Pasha secured control of the Red Sea region for Egypt and began administrative reforms.]

Soon they were developing plans for transport links, telegraph lines, and water works. The region suffered from a lack of health services, schools, mosques, and basic housing, so new systems of taxation and local administration were introduced.... Economic development was also promoted. Increased production of cotton and dura was a priority in areas that could be irrigated. The cultivation of such cash crops were introduced to areas such as the Tokar Delta, Gash and, in the south, Aqiq [beside the modern Sudan/Eritrea border.] Cotton was a priority in order to exploit international market shortages caused by the American Civil War.

Mining was another activity, as was salt, which was shipped to Jeddah to be resold to Indian boats. To better reach markets, improved transport between Sudan and Egypt became another priority. 

Egypt began to borrow from foreign sources. Times were exciting in Egyptian controlled regions. The Suez canal opened in 1869. Railways were built. Palaces were constructed. Coastal towns were improved.  Kassala had been established as an army outpost in 1840. But Egypt's ambition was greater than her capacity and funds.

Egypt had a war with Ethiopia in 1875-76. But Egypt lost the war.

In 1875, to manager her debt, Egypt was forced to sell its shares in the Suez Canal to Britain. Ismail was deposed. In the Soudan, the Mahdi declared his role in 1881, which became independent from Egyptian control after Khartoum was captured from General Gordon in 1885. During this tumultuous time, the British became more deeply involved in Egyptian affairs. Professor Manger writes:

It is during this time of general unrest and foreign occupation that we find the early migration of Hadramis.... The migrants travelled to Aden, the Red Sea ports of Jeddah and Suakin, as well as to Cairo. They went to Ethiopia, Somalia, and Kenya. Shipping was an important activity.

Trade in slaves was common; slaves were also commonly used as crew on the dhows. Trade in coffee to Egypt was important, as was the arms trade to Djibouti.

Less important trade items included millet and sesame from Somalia to the Hadramis home region in Yemen, and hides millet, and camels out of Massawa. Moneylending was also common, in which the Hadramis competed with Indians.

The Beja and Hadramis in Suakin

Suakin has a unique geography. As a very small island in a good harbour a clear difference existed between the inhabitants of the island, and those people living on shore. The island was an Indian Ocean merchant town with houses made of limestone and coral. The island is made of coral. The Hadramis have had a long association with the town.

The development of new buildings was slow until the building boom of the 1860s and 1870s, led by the policies of Khedive Ismail. The town of Suakin included two mosques, some warehouses, and coffee houses. There were few houses on the mainland, as the area was mostly inhabited by the Beja people who traditionally lived in semi-permanent huts or shelters. There was a mosque as early as 1822, according to Burkhart. While mainland culture was dominated by the Beja, the island's inhabitants represented Arabic culture, speaking Arabic and dressing like hijazis. The mainlanders spoke Ti-Bedawyet and wore traditional clothing.

On the island were "Turks" which included people from everywhere in the Ottoman Empire; and "Banyans" a term used for a group of non-Muslim Indians engaged in trade with India and also moneylending. The group included merchant castes from northern and western India (Sind and Gujarat), most of whom were Hindu but who could also be Jain. Finally there were also local elite religious groups like the Beja Hasanab and the Artega.

On the mainland, meanwhile, the inhabitants were Hadariba and Beja (Bishariyyin, Amarar and Hadendowa, collectively known as Sawakini). The Hadariba were related to religious elites among the Beja dating from pre-Islamic times and who claimed ancestry from Hadramaut in Yemen. It is unclear at what time this occurred, indicating a lack of  clear genealogy, and perhaps also that the term Hadariba is more of an ethnic label for people who advanced claims about Hadrami descent in general.  [pp. 69,70]

Goods and Trading in Suakin

In the early nineteenth century most of the trade from Suakin went to Arabia, with sorghum (dura) being the most important export item. The grain came from Kassala-Gedaref (Butana) and the Gash, but some also came from agricultural areas along the Nile.

 The Beja brought animal products mats, dom fruit, nabaq, camels, and a few cattle. Fishermen provided fish and some pearls. Slaves and gold made up the luxury goods together with ivory, tobacco, incense, gum arabic, ostrich feathers and eggs, horses ebony, and musk. Cloth was also traded.

Indian goods were among the imports, including textiles, spices, perfumes, ornaments, and rice. From Jeddah, traders imported household utensils, dates, onions, sugar, coffee, tobacco, iron, and steel. All imported goods went through customs in Suakin.

In 1822, Burkhart thought that Suakin may have had 3,000 on the island and 5,000 on the mainland. In 1853, Munzinger put the numbers at 6-8,000 and 10,000. But in 1905, after the Mahdi's rule and British/Egyptian recapture had devastated Sudan, only 490 houses were on the island and 300 properties on the mainland. Port Sudan opened in 1905 and Red Sea trade shifted there. Suakin swiftly declined, and the island was essentially a ghost town by the 1920's; without maintenance, many buildings began to collapse.

Roles were different for Hadramis and Beja

In the mid 1800's, the Hadramis had the international contacts, as their community was spread through East Africa, Yemen, Arabia and even India. Their local agents were everywhere.

From Kassala they bought butter, which they carried in a liquid state, and dura... The town also provided waterskins and other leather product. Mats were acquired  from various Beja groups, while the famous racing camels were obtained from the Bishariyyin, one of the groups within the Beja confederation. 

Imports from India, shipped through Jeddah included women's dresses and ornaments, Indian sugar, coffee, dates, and iron. The iron was used to make knives and swords treasured by the Beja. These goods were brought across the Red Sea by small boats run by Arabs. 

Sudanese goods came on the Berber-Suakin caravans, but also from Khartoum via Kassala. As the slave trade diminished, gum Arabic from the Kordofan region of western Sudan rose as an important export crop.

Grain was transported by the Hadendowa and marketed by the Hadariba. The trade in so-called luxury goods was in the hands of Arabs.

So the caravan trade was managed by the Beja, and the selling of goods by the Hadrami. Manger notes that "The Beni Amer have an aristocratic ruling class and claim Arab Hadramouti origin. The beni Amer were Islamized by Funj holy men, but only with the Khatmiyya did they really become Muslims."

Manger's book explores the Hadrami Diaspora on site, with stories from Singapore, Hyderabad, Sudan and Ethiopia. He analyses the difficulties of maintaining an ethnic identity when people are far from their homeland, and he even looks at the role of the west, and it's influence on the muslim world in the middle east.

Did you know? The Ottoman Empire outlawed slavery in 1857.

Port Sudan Research paper

How's life in Port Sudan? Are you trying to understand that city? How do poor people live there? In 2010, researchers explored urban expansion in four cities in Sudan. Their findings were published in January 2011. One of their reports focused on Port Sudan.

The rapid expansion of Sudan’s towns and cities confronts humanitarian and development agencies with new and complex challenges.

Over the past four decades the cities and towns of Sudan have experienced dramatic population growth. Urbanisation has occurred in a context of poor governance, decreasing job opportunities, deepening social and economic insecurity and conflict-induced displacement. Growing numbers of poor and vulnerable urban dwellers live in abject poverty, are vulnerable to a range of daily protection threats and face acute challenges in relation to access to livelihoods, basic services and land.

This latest study by the Humanitarian Policy Group at the Overseas Development Institute explores the phenomenon of urbanisation and its drivers in four cities in Sudan. “City Limits: Urbanisation and Vulnerability in Sudan” contains case study reports on Khartoum, Juba, Nyala and Port Sudan, as well as a Synthesis Report. They analyse the social, environmental and economic consequences of urbanisation, paying particular attention to urban livelihoods, as well as infrastructure and the provision of basic services.

The findings suggest that current international humanitarian and development approaches are not yet geared to respond to urbanisation’s challenges, with the focus predominantly being on assisting rural communities. As a result, the urban poor in Sudan have been effectively left to fend for themselves – largely forgotten by the government and the international community alike.

Neighbourhoods
In Port Sudan, some neighbourhoods have a mixed population, while others are populated by a majority just from one tribe. Many Beja live in Dar Al Salaam along with North Sudanese, and members of the Fallata and Hausa tribes. In Al Qadisya, many Beni Amer live, pursuing wage labour job such as water selling or making handicrafts. Educated Beja and government or corporate employees may live in Diem Madina.

Chapters
The 40 page report includes ten chapters.
Chapter 1   Introduction
Chapter 2   History and drivers of urbanisation in Port Sudan
Chapter 3   The policy context
Chapter 4   Governance and leadership in Red Sea State and Port Sudan
Chapter 5   The urban economy and livelihoods
Chapter 6   Land and urban settlement patterns
Chapter 7   Infrastructure, services and the environment
Chapter 8   The social consequences of urbanisation and urban vulnerability
Chapter 9   External assistance in Red Sea State and Port Sudan
Chapter 10  Conclusions and recommendations

One page [p.37] is devoted to a timeline of major events in Port Sudan.

Hosting site.

Main Synthesis report - summarizes the study for all four towns across Sudan.

Port Sudan portion only.   pdf download available here for free.

Book about Hadendowa women

Just found this one, though the book was published in 2007...
From the publisher's website...

In the Red Sea Hills of eastern Sudan, where poverty, famines, and conflict loom large, women struggle to gain the status of responsible motherhood through bearing and raising healthy children, especially sons. But biological fate can be capricious in impoverished settings. Amidst struggle for survival and expectations of heroic mothering, women face realities that challenge their ability to fulfill their prescribed roles. Even as the effects of modernity and development, global inequities, and exclusionary government policies challenge traditional ways of life in eastern Sudan and throughout many parts of Africa, reproductive traumas–infertility, miscarriage, children's illnesses, and mortality–disrupt women's reproductive health and impede their efforts to achieve the status that comes with fertility and motherhood.

In Embodying Honor Amal Hassan Fadlalla finds that the female body is the locus of anxieties about foreign dangers and diseases, threats perceived to be disruptive to morality, feminine identities, and social well-being. As a "northern Sudanese" viewed as an outsider in this region of her native country, Fadlalla presents an intimate portrait and thorough analysis that offers an intriguing commentary on the very notion of what constitutes the "foreign." Fadlalla shows how Muslim Hadendowa women manage health and reproductive suffering in their quest to become "responsible" mothers and valued members of their communities. Her historically grounded ethnography delves into women's reproductive histories, personal narratives, and ritual logics to reveal the ways in which women challenge cultural understandings of gender, honor, and reproduction.

The author is assistant professor of women's studies and Afro-American and African studies at the University of Michigan, Amal Hassan Fadlalla. This book was published by the University of Wisconsin Press. 

It's possible to read much of the book on google preview. 

Birding in the Hala'ib Triangle

African collared dove

Two years ago, a group of bird watchers went to south-eastern Egypt near the border of Sudan to explore the Jebel Elba region. Here's their birding report and some descriptions of their expedition.

“In the Eastern Desert, the mountains rise gradually from west to east to form a dramatic barrier. Amongst the notable mountains is Gebel Elba which because of its unique attributes it is the most important area for flora and fauna in Egypt. It can also be classed as one of the least explored corners of the world but nevertheless is subject to innumerable threats.”

“Gebel Elba is an igneous mountain complex located approximately 20 kilometres west of the Red Sea and rises to a maximum altitude of 1437 metres. The highest peaks act as a “dew trap”, taking the condensation from the clouds that often cover the mountain. The coast curves slightly to the east giving Gebel Elba an unusually broad front to the sea across a 25 kilometre strip of relatively flat land. This enables moist air from the Red Sea to condense on the peak of the mountain to create a “mist oasis”.”

“The area is restricted for foreign visitors, but after long negotiations, Birding in Egypt with the generous assistance of the Ministry of Defence and Egyptian Environmental Affairs Agency (EEAA), organised and conducted a preliminary survey of the massif between 3 and 10 of April 2010, with an international ornithological team composed by 6 members, based on their own individual request.”

“We fully understand and applaud the government restrictions in the area due to the highly sensitive environment already affected by the prolonged drought, and have no intention of encouraging tourism of any nature in the region at any time.”

Full report.

Four Free research papers about the Beja

Suakin, looking NE toward the Red Sea. 1950? 

1. Reviving Suakin - a plan to restore the city

A 12 page paper that describes a possible approach to restoring the city. Includes maps, illustrations and photos. Buildings were built of coral blocks, and after Port Sudan gained regional dominance for shipping, Suakin fell into sharp decline, and the buildings have fallen into ruin, for lack of maintenance. A paper by Rahim Salim, 1997.

2. Conflict prevention, management and resolution mechanisms used by the Beja

A 16 page paper that describes different ways that the Beja have adopted to resolve disputes and conflicts. Details about the Rashaida-Handandawa conflict are offered. Khalid Ali el Amin discusses intra-tribal disputes and various mediation and reconciliation processes. Published in the African Security Review, 2004.

3. Participatory evaluation with pastoralists in Sudan

How do you know if an aid programme is any good? What changes should be made to improve them? This 6 page paper describes the result of efforts to include the Beja people in evaluating programmes offered to help them. Special training was offered by aid agency people to help the local Beja to review the success of development programmes. Has photos. Download from the International Institute for Environment and Development. Published in PLA Notes, August 2003.

4. Beja. Local conflict, marginalisation, and the threat to regional security

The Canadian John Young interviewed some Beja people in September and October 2006 to prepare this 20 page paper. It reviews the recent historic situation of the Beja, and examines the marginalization of their society. This document was published just before the ESPA was signed, so it gives an excellent survey of politics and the negotiating positions of the Beja Congress and the Eastern Front. It is available from DSpace

Classic history book reprinted!

First published in 1956 by Andrew Paul, a British administrator in Sudan, "The History of the Beja People" has been reprinted by Cambridge University Press, and should be available this month.

A very early review of this book was published in the academic journal "American Anthropologist" in 1956. (Volume 58. Issue 2. April 1956 (Pages 385 - 386)) Here is the complete review [or 2 page pdf download].

Mr. Paul is a British colonial administrator who served in the Sudanese Political Service from 1929 until, presumably, its end in 1955. Of natural interest to anthro- pologists because of its subject, his book is organized on a strictly historical framework, leaving the reader to pick up cultural details in transit. Nowhere before Appendix Two is one given a listing of the tribes which form the subject of the book, and information must be assembled piecemeal as to which tribes speak which of the three local languages; To Bedawie (Hamitic), Tigré, and Arabic. The maps fail to show many of the places mentioned. Interlarded with the narrative are provocative glimpses of the environment, material culture, family organization, and tribal structure-- glimpses which are never blown up into whole pictures. It is clear that Mr. Paul is capable of painting such pictures. He knows, understands, and respects his Beja, without glorifying, idealizing, or vilifying them. He writes easily and with a sense of humor. Now that the historians have been fed, let us hope that he will write a companion book of Beja ethnography.

While awaiting this work, we may gather from A History of the Beja Tribes that the Beja are a mixed bag of some 285,000 nomads and ex-nomads, popularly known as Fussy-Wuzzies, who inhabit some 100,000 square miles of territory barren in various degrees and lying between the frontiers of Egypt and Eritrea, and between the Red Sea coast and the hills flanking the Nile and its tributary, the Atbara River. Living off flocks of camels, goats, sheep, and in favorable places cattle, like most nomads they grow a little grain where and when they are able. Supposedly descended from an old Hamitic-speaking Caucasoid stock mixed with Arab, Tigré-speaking Yemenite, and Negro, they have achieved a striking and well-known racial appearance of their own. Like the Swiss, they speak several languages. Officially they are Muslims.

 The book’s theme is the sluggish stream of local history from the time of the shakily postulated appearance of the Bejas’ ancestors in the Sudan, in the guise of Neolithic pastoralists from the North, through Pharaonic, Ptolemaic, Roman, Axumite, Arab, Turkish, Egyptian, and British periods of influence to the paradoxical present. This history has seen the Beja shift religions several times, while certain tribes also changed their speech. It has witnessed the addition of new genes to their chromosomes, without marked physical change at variance with the needs of their special and highly selective environment. It has seen the addition of a new and particularly destructive beast, the camel. It has failed to record any basic change in Beja cultural attitudes. In 1955 they are just as rugged, individualistic, withdrawn, and completely self-centered as ever. Tell us more, Mr. Paul.

How to buy this book.
This book is printed one copy at a time, as orders come in. It costs about $35. In Canada, try here.

Online - Beja news websites

Keep up with current events among the Beja. Try these sites. Bookmark this page.

Sakanab.co.uk

From the United Kingdom is an Arabic language site that covers Beja events in Sudan with details and photos of events that are quite current. Very basic design. The first Beja newspaper. They've been on the net for a long time.
http://sakanab.co.uk/
In English. 

Sudannile.com

This site offers general Sudanese news, with an emphasis on politics, and a section for sports and articles by bloggers. Links. This site is written in Arabic. You'll have to dig around to find Beja specific items.
www.sudannile.com
Translated by google, into English.

East Democratic Party
The political party offers a plan for introducing change into the way Sudan is governed. A very basic platform is offered, along with an essay by a South African about the difficult situation in East Sudan [English pdf]. News items are available, but the volume of posts ranges from one post per month to fifty per month. In Arabic.
http://edp.jigsy.com/
Translated by google, into English

Beja Congress
The Beja Congress has not managed their web presence very well. An older website was allowed to expire, and the Congress relaunched with a new address in September 2011.

The new website offers a few news items each month, but they are all on a large single page, so translation of the site into English is not possible directly. You have to cut and paste portions of the page to read the news.  Other pages - development projects, about the party, are available [translated into English]. The site is in Arabic.
http://bejacongress.net/

Cut a portion of the news from the Arabic site and paste it here: http://translate.google.com/  Get it translated into English for free.

You can view portions of the old website, bejacongress.com, at the WayBack Machine [2005-2008 only].

Alrakoba.net
Wide selection of information and news about Sudan. Sudanese news updated round the clock Political articles/ music/ video/ Discussion forums. In Arabic.
http://www.alrakoba.net/
Translated by google, in English

SudaneseOnline.com
This is a very active site! Covers both regular news, political party and community associations press releases and hosts a very active community in its forums. The English pages are out of date.
SudaneseOnline.com    in Arabic.
The website as a whole, translated into English.

hedbandbija.wordpress.com/
Inside reports, articles and press releases from various Beja groups calling for dignity and recognition of Beja people. Political. Worth a look. In Arabic.
Translated into English...

www.kassala-asc.com/
A forum with some activity everyday. Created by Kassala expatriates living in Doha, Qatar. (Who knew?) Active Islamic threads, a photo thread, political threads, and many other discussion topics.
In Arabic.
Translated into English.

portsudanonline.com/
A city based blog website with news posted every few days. Nice blog design. Read it in Arabic. 
Or read it in English.

http://www.skyscrapercity.com/
On the forums, there are lots of posts for most countries of the world- this is a huge site!. But you can explore Sudan -  general discussion, politics, culture, South Sudan, women. In addition, there are lots of photos of buildings under construction and the landscapes of Port Sudan, Kassala, Khartoum Suakin, and Arkowit.  In English.
General Sudan page. Or visit the projects and construction, or photography forums.
http://www.skyscrapercity.com/forumdisplay.php?f=2204

alsahafa.sd/
A newcomer on the internet, alsahafa has a few articles exploring the history of the eastern region of Sudan. It also keeps up with news and sports.
In Arabic.

Google offers a free 'alert' service. When it finds your key words or search terms, an email will be sent to you, telling you about the website that has used them. So you might enter "Beja" and "Egypt" or "Port Sudan" as search terms. Build your own email news service here.
http://www.google.com/alerts?hl=en

toomha.com/
A great Beja news website!! Too bad it is no longer being updated. A few items from July and August 2011 are online.
http://toomha.com/
Translated into English.

adroub.blogspot.com
And of course, there's this site here and now.  Thanks for visiting. Why not bookmark us inyour favourites? You are on  adroub.blogspot.com




There are some facebook pages too, but we'll cover them in another post.

Aid agencies in Kassala state

Get this chart [pdf] and discover what agencies are at work in Kassala state.

Quick look at the chart at the bottom of the OCHA document. Click to enlarge.