Sudanese social life.

Sudanese social life under siege by government-imposed restrictions

August 30, 2013 - (KHARTOUM) - The Sudanese people are trying to break the wall of isolation imposed upon them by the government through the Public Order Law (POL) which prohibits women from wearing tight pants, or sometimes any pants, and bans public and private parties after midnight amid calls by liberals to repeal it.

Sudanese models are seen backstage late June 24, 2010 during the first mixed-gender fashion show in Khartoum (Getty)

The Sudanese, who are suffering from a deep and far reaching economic crisis, fear that the POL could turn into a tool for harassing girls and college students who wear new fashions designed specifically to fit the hot weather in Africa and the Middle East.

“We have become accustomed to rush to our homes early in the evening because Khartoum yawns early due to the government decision to stop private parties at 11:00 pm, an hour before midnight”, says Rasha Abdeen.

Abdeen, who lives in the prestigious Al-Riyadh neighborhood, added that she joined a private dancing club in order to work around "boredom" in the evening, but says that most of those clubs also close before midnight to avoid police harassment.

Last Sunday, police in Khartoum’s southern suburb of Jabal Al-Awliaa reportedly forced a girl named Suhair Ali to write a pledge not to appear in public places without wearing headdress.

She posted a picture in her facebook page of herself without a headscarf to protest the measure and wrote “I was abused by a policeman who dragged me to the police station to write a pledge not to uncover my head”.

In spite of the government’s ban on wearing tight pants, clothing market is full of readymade garments including expensive women pants which attract large numbers buyers.

Liberal activists say that the Islamic government in Sudan is deliberately harassing and abusing girls who hold opposing political views.

A liberal activist named Abd-Alqayoum said that women are facing daily harassment and insults beginning with the fee collector in the public transportation and ending with the college gatekeepers who rebukes her for wearing transparent headscarf and may send her back home thus missing a full school day.

The Sudanese authorities imposed the POL claiming that it will prevent the negative behaviors in the society but the law was denounced by politicians and activists who say that it violates citizen’s fundamental rights.

These government measures enjoy the support of the Islamists particularly the Salafi groups who usually hold religious lectures in the public squares which were frequented by youths and college students.

The controversial MP, Dafa-alla Hassab Al-Rasool, continued to issue statements mocking working women and criticizing groups which call for combating female circumcision.

Last June, he made a controversial statement demanding that Sudanese men practice polygamy in order to produce more children to join the army in the future and criticized the pro-government Islamic cleric, Abde-Galeel Al-Karuri, for joining an anti-female circumcision campaign, saying that he was being deceived by the secular groups.

Journalist and columnist, Faisal Mohamed Saleh, who is a recent winner of the Peter Mackler award for courageous and ethical Journalism has described the POL as “the worst law on earth”.

“The regime is insisting on enforcing the POL in order to harass ordinary people unduly”, said Salih.

In recent years, several Sudanese and foreign investors opened massage and slimming centers in prestigious neighborhoods in downtown Khartoum. However, the police continued to raid those centers claiming that they are used for lewd practices.

Aliaa, who is a client of one of those centers, said that the center was shut down by the police who claimed that it is being used for lewd acts, denying that such practices were taking place in the center.

An activist in cultural centers in downtown Khartoum said that the city was full of bars and beverage shops but they were shut down after the former president Jaafar Numeiri declared Sharia laws in the early 80’s.

A Sudanese citizen, who preferred to stay anonymous in order to avoid social stigma, said that they used to drink alcohol in the bars and return to their homes in the early hours of the morning but nowadays they have to go back before 10:00 pm.

He added that Khartoum has become a "big primitive village", saying that private parties and weddings stop before midnight.

Sudan is currently working on a new constitution following the secession of the mostly Christian and animist south in July 2011.

President Omer Hassan al-Bashir said that since Sudan is overwhelmingly Muslim, the new constitution will be 100% Islamic.

Opposition parties claim that the constitution will be used to crush social and political dissidence.

(ST)

work!!!

Sudan: risultati del mercato del lavoro Khartoum - Il Ministero del Lavoro ha annunciato i risultati del progetto internazionale per il sondaggio di mercato del lavoro in Sudan. Ministro del Lavoro e delle Risorse Umane, la sig.ra Ishraqa Sayid Ahmed ha detto che il Sudan ha realizzato il progetto in un breve lasso di tempo attraverso numerosi esperti e gruppi e ha lodato il ruolo del l'Ufficio centrale di statistica che hanno fornito una grande quantità di informazioni. Ha detto che il progetto prevede che il governo, con tutti i tipi di informazioni sul mercato e che vi assisterà nella progettazione, elaborazione di strategie e la conduzione di studi. Ha aggiunto che la percentuale della forza di lavoro in Sudan è aumentato a 9,3 milioni di euro rispetto a 3,1 milioni nel 2009, l'indicazione di un aumento della economia del Sudan. Parlando alla conferenza stampa, ha detto che la percentuale di maschi nel mercato del lavoro si attesta al 51% e le femmine il 17%, ma la relazione non include le casalinghe. La percentuale di lavoro minorile nel mercato del lavoro in Sudan non è allarmante rispetto ad altri paesi, ha detto. Il ministro ha sottolineato lo sviluppo del lavoro industriale, affermando che il calo nel settore agricolo non ha dato un impulso al settore industriale. La percentuale di lavoratori del commercio e dei servizi è aumentato e questo ha inciso negativamente sul settore economico. Ha invitato lo Stato a esercitare sforzi durante la prossima fase per affrontare la situazione. Il ministro ha detto che la percentuale di disoccupazione tra i giovani ha raggiunto il 18,8 rispetto all'ultimo sondaggio che è stato del 16,4%. Con Najat Ahmed, 12 ore 13 minuti fa

FLOOD IN SUDAN. WE THANK YOU ALL.......simple sudanese.

European Organizations Donate Relief Assistance to Sudan

Khartoum - The Foreign Ministry Official Spokesman, Abu Bakr Al-Siddig has announced that the total donations extended by Germany to the rains and flood-affected people in Sudan via relief organizations operating in Sudan, reached700, 000 Euros.
Al-Siddig told SUNA that Italy provided 350,000 Euros while the Spanish Red Cross pledged to raise funds to support 7000 affected families in the country besides the provision of non-food assistances.

By SUNA, 1 day 13 hours ago 

News of The Sudan.

SSWA to Support Flood-affected Areas

Khartoum - The Secretariat of Sudanese Working Abroad (SSWA) will launch today assistance aid convoy to Eastern Nile Locality of Khartoum state sponsored by expatriates' wives.

SSWA Deputy of Secretary-General Dr Karamallah called on the expatriates’ wives to visit Alkeriab and Alshareef areas to see on the ground what happened there in order to reflect that to the Sudanese Working Abroad for more support.
Representatives of Sudanese Working Abroad wives, Dr. Maha Bakheet pointed out that they will stand with the affected residents in different areas of Sudan by providing clothes and food.
She added that the convoy includes foodstuff, shelters, medicine and other necessary commodities.

By Ibrahim Al-Jack, 13 hours 38 minutes ago 

Funj of Sudan-

Sennar (sultanate)

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The Blue Sultanate / Funj Sultanateالسلطنة الزرقاء (Arabic) As-Saltana az-Zarqa
Confederation of sultanates and dependent tribal chieftaincies under Sennar's suzerainty[1]
← 1504–1821 →
Sultanate of Sennar (in pink) and surrounding states in 1750
Capital		Sennar
Languages		Arabic[2]
Religion		Islam[3]
Government		Monarchy
Mek (sultan)
-	1504–1533/4	Amara Dunqas (first)
-	1805–1821	Badi VII (last)
Legislature		Great Council[4]
Historical era		Early modern period
-	Established	1504
-	Conquered by Muhammad Ali's army	14 June 1821
-	Annexed to Egypt[a]	13 February 1841
Population
-	1820 est.	5,156,000[b]
Currency		None (barter)[c]
^ a. Muhammad Ali was granted the non-hereditary governorship of Sudan by an 1841 Ottoman firman.[5] ^ b. Estimate for entire area covered by modern Sudan.[6] ^ c. The Funj Sultanate did not mint coins and the markets did not use coinage as a form of exchange.[7] French surgeon J. C. Poncet, who visited Sennar in 1699, mentions the use of foreign coins such as Spanish reals.[8]

The Funj Sultanate of Sennar (sometimes spelled Sinnar), known in Sudanese traditions as the Blue Sultanate (Arabic: السلطنة الزرقاء; As-Saltana az-Zarqa‎),^[9] was a sultanate in the north of Sudan, named Funj after the ethnic group of its dynasty or Sinnar (or Sennar) after its capital, which ruled a substantial area of northeast Africa between 1504 and 1821.

Contents

 [hide] 

• 1 Origin
• 2 Religion
• 3 Expansion and conflilcts
• 4 Military culture
• 5 Trade
• 6 Decline
• 7 Rulers
• 8 Hamaj regents
• 9 See also
• 10 References
• 11 Bibliography

Origin[edit source | edit]

In the 15th century the part of Nubia formerly controlled by Makuria was home to a number of small states and subject to frequent incursions by desert nomads. The situation in Alodia is less well known, but it also seems as though that state had collapsed. The area was reunified under Abdallah Jamma, the gatherer, who came from the eastern regions that had grown wealthy and powerful from the trade on the Red Sea. To him is ascribed the capture of Soba, which sank into unimportance: according to Reubeni, in the time of ‘Amara Dunqas it was in ruins. ‘Abdallah’s status as Muslim hero is confirmed by traditions representing him marrying the daughter of a Hijazi holy man called Alshikh Hamd Abou Dunana who was burned in Abu Delaig, and as the eponymous ancestor of the ruling clan, the ‘Abdallab. ^[10]

Abdallah's empire was short lived as in the early 16th century the Funj people under Amara Dunqas arrived from the south, having been driven north by the Shilluk. The Funj defeated Abdallah and set up their own kingdom based at Sennar.^[11]

Religion[edit source | edit]

The Funj had originally practiced a religious mix of Animism and Christianity. Islam also had an important influence, and in 1523 the Sennar monarchy officially converted to Islam, though many elements of the previous beliefs continued.

Expansion and conflilcts[edit source | edit]

Sennar expanded rapidly at the expense of neighboring states. Its power was extended over the Gezira, the Butana, the Bayuda, and southern Kordofan. This caused immediate tensions with its neighbours. Ethiopia felt it was much threatened but its internal problems prevented intervention. Newly Ottoman Egypt also saw the new state as a threat and invaded in force, but then failed to conquer the area, so the Ottoman forces fortified the border and consolidated their hold on northern Nubia. This border would hold until 1821.

Relations with Ethiopia were more strained as both states competed over lowlands between their two states. Eventually the Ethiopians moved their capital to nearby Gondar and secured their influence over these areas. Conflicts with the Shilluk to the south continued, but later the two were forced into an uneasy alliance to combat the growing might of the Dinka. Under Sultan Badi II, Sennar defeated the Kingdom of Taqali to the west and made its ruler (styled Woster or Makk) his vassal.

Military culture[edit source | edit]

The armies of Sennar relied most on heavy cavalry: horsemen drawn from the nobility, armed with long broadswords as the toe stirrups they used did not permit the use of lances. These riders were armoured with chain mail while the horses were covered in thick quilts and copper headgear. A greater mass of troops were infantry carrying swords and armoured. This permanent standing army, the largest in East Africa until the 1810s, was garrisoned in castles and forts throughout the sultanate. Reliance on a standing army meant that the professional armies fielded by Sennar were usually smaller, but highly effective against their less organized rivals.

The sultanate was heavily divided along geographic and racial/ethnic lines. The society was divided into six racial groups. There was a sharp division between those who were the heirs of the ancient kingdom of Alodia and the rest of Sennar. The Alodians adopted the mantle of the defeated Abdallah Jamma and came to be known as the Abdallab. In the late 16th century they rose in revolt under Ajib the Great. Ajib alkafuta routed the Kings of Sennar, first making them his vassals and then seizing almost the entire kingdom in 1606 and thy fled until they reached Abyssinia in the eastern region. The Sennar monarchy regrouped under Adlan I, defeating Ajib in a pair of decisive battles. Eventually a compromise was reached whereby Ajib and his successors would rule the Sennar province of Dongola with a great deal of autonomy.one of the abdallab famous leader in 1798 is alamin musmar wad agib who deafetd hamaj in different battles beside his victory against Abyssinia alamin musmar has killed both Badi abuelkilk and his cousin Rajab in different battles,

^[12]

Trade[edit source | edit]

The capital Sennar, prosperous through trade, hosted representatives from all over the Middle East and Africa. The wealth and power of the sultans had long rested on the control of the economy. All caravans were controlled by the monarch, as was the gold supply that functioned as the state's main currency. In time this power was eroded. Foreign currencies became widely used by merchants breaking the power of the monarch to closely control the economy. The thriving trade created a wealthy class of educated and literate merchants, who read widely about Islam and became much concerned about the lack of orthodoxy in the kingdom. The monarchy of Sennar had long been regarded as semi-divine, in keeping with ancient traditions, but this idea ran strongly counter to Islam. Many festivals and rituals also persisted from earlier days, and a number them involved massive consumption of alcohol. These traditions were also abandoned.

Decline[edit source | edit]

Sennar was at its peak at the end of the 16th century, but over the seventeenth it began to decline as the power of the monarchy was eroded. The greatest challenge to the authority of the king was the merchant funded ulema who insisted it was rightfully their duty to mete out justice.

In 1762, Badi IV was overthrown in a coup launched by Abu Likayik of the red Hamaj from the northeast of the country. Abu Likayik installed another member of the royal family as his puppet sultan and ruled as regent. This began long conflict between the Funj sultans attempting to reassert their independence and authority and the Hamaj regents attempting to maintain control of the true power of the state.

These internal divisions greatly weakened the state and in the late 18th century Mek Adlan II, son of Mek Taifara, took power during a turbulent time at which a Turkish presence was being established in the Funj kingdom. The Turkish ruler, Al-Tahir Agha, married Khadeeja, daughter of Mek Adlan II. This paved the way for the assimilation of the Funj into the Ottoman Empire.

In 1821, Ismail bin Muhammad Ali the general and son of the nominally Ottoman khedive of Egypt, Muhammad Ali, led an army into Sennar; he encountered no resistance from the last king, whose realm was promptly absorbed into Ottoman Egypt. The region was subsequently absorbed into the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan and the independent Republic of Sudan on that country's independence in 1956.

Rulers[edit source | edit]

A king of Sennar, 1821

The rulers of Sennar held the title of Mek (sultan). Their regnal numbers vary from source to source.^[13][14]

• Amara Dunqas 1503-1533/4 (AH 940)
• Nayil 1533/4 (AH 940)-1550/1 (AH 957)
• Abd al-Qadir I 1550/1 (AH 957)-1557/8 (AH 965)
• Abu Sakikin 1557/8 (AH 965)-1568
• Dakin 1568-1585/6 (AH 994)
• Dawra 1585/6 (AH 994)-1587/8 (AH 996)
• Tayyib 1587/8 (AH 996)-1591
• Unsa I 1591-1603/4 (AH 1012)
• Abd al-Qadir II 1603/4 (AH 1012)-1606
• Adlan I 1606-1611/2 (AH 1020)
• Badi I 1611/2 (AH 1020)-1616/7 (AH 1025)
• Rabat I 1616/7 (AH 1025)-1644/5
• Badi II 1644/5-1681
• Unsa II 1681–1692
• Badi III 1692–1716
• Unsa III 1719–1720
• Nul 1720–1724
• Badi IV 1724–1762
• Nasir 1762–1769
• Isma'il 1768–1776
• Adlan II 1776–1789
• Awkal 1787–1788
• Tayyib II 1788–1790
• Badi V 1790
• Nawwar 1790–1791
• Badi VI 1791–1798
• Ranfi 1798–1804
• Agban 1804–1805
• Badi VII 1805–1821

Hamaj regents[edit source | edit]

• Abu Likayik – 1769-1775/6
• Badi walad Rajab – 1775/6-1780
• Rajab 1780-1786/7
• Nasir 1786/7-1798
• Idris wad Abu Likayik – 1798–1804
• Adlan wad Abu Likayik – 1804–1805

See also[edit source | edit]

• List of Sunni Muslim dynasties

References[edit source | edit]

1.        ^ Ofcansky, Thomas. "The Funj". Sudan: A country study (Helen Chapin Metz, ed.). Library of Congress Federal Research Division (Research completed June 1991).

2.        ^ McHugh, Neil (1994). Holymen of the Blue Nile: The Making of an Arab-Islamic Community in the Nilotic Sudan, 1500–1850. Series in Islam and Society in Africa. Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press. p. 9. ISBN 978-0-8101-1069-4. "The spread of Arabic flowed not only from the dispersion of Arabs but from the unification of the Nile by a government, the Funj sultanate, that utilized Arabic as an official means of communication, and from the use of Arabic as a trade language." 

3.        ^ Trimingham, J. Spencer (1996). "Islam in Sub-Saharan Africa, till the 19th century". The Last Great Muslim Empires. History of the Muslim World, 3. Abbreviated and adapted by F. R. C. Bagley (2nd ed.). Princeton, NJ: Markus Wiener Publishers. p. 167. ISBN 978-1-55876-112-4. "The date when the Funj rulers adopted Islam is not known, but must have been fairly soon after the foundation of Sennār, because they then entered into relations with Muslim groups over a wide area." 

4.        ^ Welch, Galbraith (1949). North African Prelude: The First Seven Thousand Years (snippet view). New York: W. Morrow. p. 463. OCLC 413248. Retrieved 12 August 2010. "The government was semirepublican; when a king died the great council picked a successor from among the royal children. Then—presumably to keep the peace—they killed all the rest." 

5.        ^ "فرمان سلطاني إلى محمد علي بتقليده حكم السودان بغير حق التوارث" [Sultanic Firman to Muhammad Ali Appointing Him Ruler of the Sudan Without Hereditary Rights] (in Arabic). Bibliotheca Alexandrina: Memory of Modern Egypt Digital Archive. Retrieved 12 August 2010. 

6.        ^ Avakov, Alexander V. (2010). Two Thousand Years of Economic Statistics: World Population, GDP, and PPP. New York: Algora Publishing. p. 18. ISBN 978-0-87586-750-2. 

7.        ^ Anderson, Julie R. (2008). "A Mamluk Coin from Kulubnarti, Sudan" (PDF). British Museum Studies in Ancient Egypt and Sudan (10): p. 68. Retrieved 12 August 2010. "Much further to the south, the Funj Sultanate based in Sennar (1504/5–1820), did not mint coins and the markets did not normally use coinage as a form of exchange. Foreign coins themselves were commodities and frequently kept for jewellery. Units of items such as gold, grain, iron, cloth and salt had specific values and were used for trade, particularly on a national level." 

8.        ^ Pinkerton, John (1814). "Poncet's Journey to Abyssinia". A General Collection of the Best and Most Interesting Voyages and Travels in All Parts of the World. Volume 15. London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, and Orme. p. 71. OCLC 1397394. 

9.        ^ Ogot 1999, p. 91

10.     ^ http://catalogue.pearsoned.co.uk/assets/hip/gb/uploads/M02_HOLT4458_06_SE_C02.pdf

11.     ^ Holt 1975, pp. 40–42

12.     ^ http://books.google.com/books?id=nF1hWJQusxIC&pg=PA7&lpg=PA7&dq=alkafuta&source=bl&ots=fG7p-zY11n&sig=cGqMEKHlH_GxDPneQqdMLxAHc7U&hl=en&sa=X&ei=YoBiUc7UBsjwhQfE34Ao&ved=0CDUQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=alkafuta&f=false

13.     ^ MacMichael, H. A. (1922). "Appendix I: The Chronology of the Fung Kings". A History of the Arabs in the Sudan and Some Account of the People Who Preceded Them and of the Tribes Inhabiting Dárfūr. Volume II. Cambridge University Press. p. 431. OCLC 264942362. 

14.     ^ Holt, Peter Malcolm (1999). "Genealogical Tables and King-Lists". The Sudan of the Three Niles: The Funj Chronicle 910–1288 / 1504–1871. Islamic History and Civilization, 26. Leiden: BRILL. pp. 182–186. ISBN 978-90-04-11256-8. 

Bibliography[edit source | edit]

• Holt, Peter Malcolm (1975). "Chapter 1: Egypt, the Funj and Darfur". In Fage, J. D.; Oliver, Roland. The Cambridge History of Africa. Volume 4: from c. 1600 to c. 1790. Cambridge University Press. pp. 14–57. ISBN 978-0-521-20413-2. 
• Ogot, B. A., ed. (1999). "Chapter 7: The Sudan, 1500–1800". General History of Africa. Volume V: Africa from the Sixteenth to the Eighteenth Century. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. pp. 89–103. ISBN 978-0-520-06700-4. 
• R.S. O'Fahey and J.L Spaulding: Kingdoms of the Sudan Studies of African History Vol. 9, Methuen, London 1974, ISBN 0-416-77450-4
• Arthur E. Robinson, "Some Notes on the Regalia of the Fung Sultans of Sennar", Journal of the Royal African Society, 30 (1931), pp. 361–376