Sudan Scouting 2018






A SUFI CEREMONY

by JoMarie Fecci


KHARTOUM, SUDAN (13 April 2018) — Late in the afternoon we joined a large crowd gathered at the cemetery of the Hamed al-Nil Tomb where a Sufi sect meets every Friday for a ceremony of dance and prayer. The “dervishes” arrive from different directions amidst drumbeats and chanting and everyone is welcome to attend, participate or just watch.

The ceremony takes place at the foot of the three-domed mosque dedicated to Sheik Hamad El-Nil which is home to the 19th century religious leader’s tomb. The worshipers who come here each Friday belong to the Quadriya Sufi Order and the ceremony is a combination of a dance and prayer ritual with some theatrical elements, though it is unclear to me how much is ritual worship versus performance or a kind of “communion” of followers.

The dervishes carry the green banner of their tariqa, and instead of the spartan white robes, they wear green and red. Some of the Dervish dancers belong are Fellata of the western Sudan and others are related to the old Mahdist religious sect. During the Mahdiya period in the Sudan, the Dervishes or Drawiesh as they are called in Arabic played an important role in the military movement and some of the “props” carried during the ceremony seem to reference that.

Outsiders, including tourists, are welcome and even encouraged to participate somewhat if they join the circle. The order of the ceremony is hard to understand as a visitor and at first glance it seems like street theatre, with people in colorful attire accompanied by drumming as they act out a scripted choreography. However it soon becomes clear that this is something else. While there seems to be an overall ritual order, the worshipers individually dance or spin as the spirit moves them, and anyone joining the circle can enter and dance or just sway and chant on the edge.

The circle begins as a small ring, but is enlarged as the group of followers grows, opening up to allow more people to join. Food is passed around to share and incense is burned, in waves of smoke that is also shared around the circle while the chanting and swaying continues. It is easy to get caught up in the movement and the sense of coming together as part of the group. There is no barrier between “spectator” and “performer” — everyone who joins the circle becomes part of it, whether a believer or just a tourist.

Different groups of worshipers come to join the circle with their own drummers, and the circle gets even larger. Some carry staffs or are wearing wildly colorful garments. Others are simply dressed in the normal white robes so common here. The ritual called dhikr is said to create a state of “ecstatic abandon that allows their hearts to communicate directly with God.” The rhythmic chant of “La Illaha Illallah” (there is no god but Allah) punctuated by drumbeats can definitely seem hypnotic, and the swaying of bodies in rhythm in the crowd is almost like dancing in place at a concert. From time to time one of the worshipers inside the circle will spin in a colorful blur of outstretched arms, legs and fabric.

It is interesting to see some of the local attendees snapping photos with their phones just like the tourists blurring the lines between us all even more. By the end of the ceremony even I feel like an actual part of it. And my “neighbors” in the circle are smiling and have accepted me into their group in a welcoming way. The ambiance is hard to describe as it is not at all the solemn somber atmosphere of traditional religious ceremonies, but more like that of a concert that brings together a bunch of very different people who all enjoy the same music and who come together to create that electric energy of a crowd with a common purpose. And in fact I later learned that the attendees of the ceremony come from all walks of life here — there are people from high positions in the government and business mixed in with laborers and merchants sharing a moment of mystical togetherness.

As the crowd began to part at some kind of unsignaled “end” to the ritual, I was feeling some of the ecstatic energy myself. I felt very fortunate that I was able to participate in this ceremony on my last evening here, kind of like a cultural punctuation bringing my journey to a close…


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ABOUT THE EXPEDITION


JoMarie Fecci, of USnomads, sets off on an independent scouting trip across Egypt and Sudan in preparation for an up-coming Sahara expedition. Driving locally-sourced Toyotas and working with small local teams in each region, she will traverse a winding route that jumps off from key points along the Nile as far south as Khartoum, where the Blue and White Niles meet. During the journey she will visit a series of UNESCO world heritage sites focused on the ancient civilizations that occupied the region and meet with local communities. The primary goal of this mission is to assess terrain, security, driving conditions, logistical concerns and approximate timeframes for future travel.


WHERE WE ARE


The Sudan in Northeast Africa is bordered by Egypt to the north, the Red Sea, Eritrea and Ethiopia to the east, South Sudan to the south, the Central African Republic to the southwest, Chad to the west and Libya to the northwest. The country has a total area of 1.861.484 square kilometres (718.722 square miles), making it the third largest in Africa. The terrain is generally flat plains, broken by several mountain ranges. In the west the Deriba Caldera (3,042 m or 9,980 ft), located in the Marrah Mountains, is the highest point in Sudan. In the east are the Red Sea Hills. The name Sudan derives from the Arabic “bilād as-sūdān” or “the lands of the Blacks.” The population of roughly 37 million people is made up of 597 different ethnic or tribal groups speaking over 400 different languages and dialects. Sudanese Arabs are by far the largest ethnic group, estimated to account for 70% of the population. They are almost entirely Muslims. The majority speak Sudanese Arabic, with some different Arabic dialects, while many Arabized and indigenous tribes like the Fur, Zaghawa, Borgo, Masalit and some Baggara ethnic groups, speak Chadian Arabic. The nation’s official languages are Arabic and English. Sudanese history goes back to Antiquity, when the Meroitic-speaking Kingdom of Kush controlled northern and central Sudan and, for nearly a century, Egypt.


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