SUDAN IMPRESSIONS

A Sudanese wedding

 

    Traditional dancing in Portsudan to honour the bride and groom on their wedding day

 



 

Both bride and groom adorn their hands and feet with henna tattoos which are traditionally drawn by an elder female family member. They will last for several days or even weeks and people will know that she is a newly wed woman as her henna tattoos will cover her entire arms and legs with fancy patterns.

 

 

Men and women start the wedding separately. While the men are officially declaring the marriage outside (kind of like setting up the wedding contract), the women are preparing the food for guests and family and are not allowed to join them - not even the bride herself.
 

At night she and her husband take part in an other ritual called "jertik". People are singing happily while a lot of perfume is being sprayed and even more bachur (Arabic incense) is burning. When marriages used to be forced on people who had never met each other before, this ritual was supposed to break the "barrier of shame" that existed between wife and groom and bless the couple.

Visiting a pottery workshop

All day men are working in the sun to produce clay so that they can process it to fascinating pots and jars. This picture shows "zeers" which are used to keep water cold for about two or three days in the traditional way. There are little holes that cool down the air before it gets to the water so no electricity is needed.

Our favourite food

Falafel, fool, white cheese, olives and white bread - just the normal Sudanese breakfast. We love it! Even though eating with our hands is cool, after a few days we are seriously struggling with having white bread with every meal. People in Sudan do not need cutlery, they just use bread instead.

Let us introduce you to "jbanna" ("jabanna"), the one and only real Sudanese coffee! Cooking it is a ritual which includes a lot of singing and talking, while one of the women mixes several spices like ginger (and some other ones that we have never heard and nobody knows the translation of) and burns the coffee beans on a small stove. It is so strong that people usually drink it with three spoons of sugar, but we are fine having about four cups a day because it is so delicious!

Arkawit, The Red Sea Mountains

 

 

Portsudan by the Red Sea

 

Sudanese history

 

Hieroglyphs in an ancient Sudanese temple, similar to the more famous ones in Egypt.

 

 

Khalifa's mosque, an old building which was the residence of Abdallahi Ibn Mohammed. He had the Khalifat of Omdurman from 1885 to 1898 before he lost against the British in the Battle of Omdurman.