Buurri al Lamaab: A Suburban Village in the Sudan 9781501741159

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CORNELL STUDIES IN ANTHROPOLOGY

BUURRI AL LAMAAB A

Suburban Village

in the

Sudan

Cornell Studies in Anthropology This

series of publications

is

an outgrowth

of the program of instruction, training, and

research in theoretical and applied anthro-

pology originally established

at Cornell

Uni-

versity in 1948 with the aid of the Carnegie

Corporation of

New

York.

The program

seeks particularly to provide in tions

descriptive

its

publica-

accounts and interpreta-

tions of cultural process

and dynamics,

in-

cluding those involved in projects of planned cultural change,

among

diverse aboriginal

and peasant cultures of the world.

^M^^BH The qubba of

Sharif Yuussif al Hindi

BUURRI AL LAMAAB A Suburban

L

-rn

Village in the

*T-^wrnrr9

HAROLD

Sudan

BY

B.

University of

BARCLAY Oregon

Cornell University Press ITHACA,

NEW YORK

This work has been brought to publication with the assistance of a grant

©

1964

by

from the Ford Foundation.

Cornell University

CORNELL UNIVERSITY PRESS

First published 1964

Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 64-11 188

PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

BY VAIL-BALLOU

PRESS, INC.

Foreword

ONE this

few studies describing the northern Sudanese Arabs, welcome addition to anthropological literature. By

of the

work

is

a

encouraging and financing Professor Harold Barclay's investigation of Buurri of

its

Lamaab, the Social Research Center was

al

most important functions

in providing accurate

fulfilling

and

one

scientific

data on the Middle East and in stimulating and facilitating the re-

search of scholars, both Middle Eastern and foreign, in the area.

The

value of the basic descriptive material

presents

is,

am

I

sure,

obvious to

research within the region.

all

which

this

monograph

social scientists interested in

Only when such

data exist can more-

specialized research problems, with either theoretical or practical

implications, be formulated with confidence or depth. In the absence

of basic studies, research scholars with particular interests have fre-

quently neglected such culture areas, preferring those with an

abundance of background material. In attempts to evaluate rural resettlement projects in the United

Arab Republic,

in studies

concerned with the

social implications of

urbanization and industrialization, and in the investigation of the effects

Dam,

on Nubian it

has

of building the monumental

become evident

search Center stitutions

life

is

Aswan High

that the initial task of the Social Re-

to obtain information

on the

existing traditional in-

and patterns of behavior. Such information not only serves

Foreword

vi as

background for immediate formulation of

lems but also provides base

special research prob-

lines for future studies, particularly in

the field of cultural change. Harold Barclay's study of Buurri

Lamaab provides Sudan and

al

data on these traditional institutions in the northern

in addition suggests

how

they are being modified by the

forces of change that are especially apparent in suburban areas.

Already the traditional ways of

life

now

in the process of docu-

mentation are being touched by modernizing influences and planned

programs of

social

and economic change. For there

country in the Middle East that has not chosen progress

is

not one

as its goal,

progress being defined as modernization of technology, industrialization,

and urbanization.

Buurri

al

Lamaab:

in a series of

A

Suburban Village

in the

Sudan

is

the

first

monographs, based upon research sponsored by the

Social Research Center, describing the lifeways of peoples along

the valley of the Nile. Other

been undertaken in the three

community

studies

and surveys have

linguistic regions of

Egyptian Nubia,

Upper Egypt, the area south of Aswan, and the Delta Lower Egypt. It is hoped that this group of ethnographic studies,

as well as in

of

may

some of the continuity and variation in the pattern of culture from Khartoum to the Egyptian Delta. Professor Barclay has provided a worthy southern anchor for the with others to come,

reveal

ethnological study of the Nile Valley.

Laila Shukry El

Hamamsy

Director, Social Research Center

American University Cairo

May

18,

1963

at

Cairo

Preface

THE

Republic of the Sudan obtained

the Anglo-Egyptian

condominium

independence from

its full

rule in 1956. It

is

a highly heter-

ogeneous nation composed of several widely divergent cultures, and at least five east,

on the

major cultural areas extend into the country. In the coast,

and in the Red Sea

Hills, are the Beja; in the far

west, centered in Darfur Province, are various peoples tural affiliation

with the Negroid

is

cattle herders

ward along the southern edge of the Sahara are Nilotic tribes

who

whose

cul-

range west-

Desert; in the south

and Nilo-Hamitic peoples; and

in isolated

mountain

Kordofan Province are the Nuba Hill peoples. them live the Fung. Nubians reside along the Nile from Aswan in Egypt to Dongola in the Sudan, and the remaining areas the north and central Sudan are inhabited by Arabs, areas of southern

Just to the east of

—

—

who

comprise about half the population of the country. All these

groups, except for the pagan southerners and the

Fung

peoples,

are

Muslims by

cent of the population

is

religion.

Nuba

Hill and

(Thus, possibly 70 per

Muslim.) All of them, whether Arab or

Nilotic or Darfur, belong to tribal groups, subdivisions of their over-

Arab influence is observable and Arabs themnumbers almost everywhere in northern Sudan. The greatest contrast is then between the north (comprising the provinces of Kassala, Northern, Khartoum, Kordofan, Darfur,

all

cultural groups.

selves reside in scattered

vtt

Preface

viii

and Blue Nile) and the south (comprising the provinces of Upper Bahr El Ghazal, and Equatoria) the home of numerous Negro

—

Nile,

pagan

tribes.

Within the Arab Sudan

itself

there are definite subareas with

major differences relating to ecological and economic

patterns.

Thus, there are the essentially nomadic groups divided between the

camel herders in the northern desert regions and the in the southern central areas,

where there

is

more

are essentially sedentary groups comprising those

by means

the Nile, cultivate primarily

who

middle of the Sudan, where

sufficient to

is

who

live

There along

of irrigation, and maintain

livestock as a subsidiary and also those rainfall

cattle herders

rainfall.

live in a belt across the

permit depend-

ence upon rain cultivation. In addition, there are seminomadic peoples

who, although they maintain permanent

villages,

spend more

than half the year some distance from their homes pasturing their livestock.

About 20 per cent of

the people in the Sudan are

villagers living along the

Arab sedentary

banks of the Nile or in irrigation areas

watered by the Nile through a system such

as the

Gezira Scheme.

Almost an equal number are rain cultivators, so that the total number of Arab nomads is hardly 10 per cent of the population. Most of these are Baggaara, or cattle herders. 1

Map

1

shows the general distribution of the Arab subcultural

areas in the Sudan.

Most of those who claim Nubians tion,

—

who

to be Arabs are in fact Arabized

descendants of the indigenous Nubian riverain popula-

in the course of the last four

hundred years have adopted

the Arabic language, Islamic faith, and other important elements

of Arab culture. Racially they are a highly mixed group, exhibiting x In the Sudan the term Baggaara is reserved for those seminomadic or nomadic Juhayna tribes "lying south of the thirteenth parallel of latitude and stretching from the White Nile to Lake Chad" (Harold A. MacMichael, A History of the Arabs in the Sudan [London: Cambridge University Press, 1922], I, 171). Murdock errs in using the term to include camel nomads and Nile cultivators as well as cattle nomads (George P. Murdock, Africa: Its Peoples and Their Culture History [New York: McGraw-Hill, 1959], p. 410). For an explanation of the transliteration of Arabic in this text see Appendix A, "A Note on the Transliteration of Arabic."

Preface

ix

both Negroid and Caucasoid features. Their skin pigmentation varies

from

majority tending toward the

wavy

brown, with the great

a yellowish coloration to a chocolate

Many

to kinky.

truding

Their hair

is

black, varying

Negroid features

as

from

thick pro-

it was the more charac-

broad noses, and prognathism, but

flat

lips,

latter.

exhibit such

writer's impression that Caucasoid facial features are teristic, at least in

the vicinity of

Khartoum and northward. The

Baggaara, however, are extremely Negroid.

It is

not

uncommon

to

Arab Sudanese with pronounced Caucasoid facial features narrow, pointed nose and thin lips and extremely dark skin

find an

—

—

pigmentation.

This work

a revision of the writer's doctoral thesis of 1961 for

is

Cornell University.

Sudan

It

does not pretend to deal with the entire Arab

but, rather, has as a

more modest aim

scription of one example of this culture

Khartoum

lage in the village will is

suburbs.

A

the ethnographic de-

—Buurri

al

Lamaab,

a vil-

"complete" description of the

not be found in these pages, but

hoped

it is

that

what

presented will be sufficient to give the reader a substantial picture

and

of,

a feeling for,

Arab Sudanese culture

manifested in this

as

community.

The

selection of items for description

the extent to

which they

siderations. First,

logically

and the determination of

are described are based

units

of

description, is

by pends upon

his

all

by

is

is

indicated in the

the length of time

capable of describing,

personal interests. Finally,

much

ultimately de-

the kinds of information that informants and the gen-

circumstances permit the anthropologist to gather.

eral cultural

Although

own

as

limited

devoted to the study, by what the writer also

several con-

an attempt has been made to cover the anthropo-

significant

Contents. Second, such coverage

and

on

this

study attempts to present relevant data concerning

the various institutional complexes in the village,

on family and kinship organization and

religion,

it

focuses chiefly

with the underlying

purpose of seeking to demonstrate the kinds of changes which village at the

The

edge of a major urban center

is

this

undergoing.

material has been presented according to the traditional pat-

tern of ethnographies, that

is,

including economics, political organi-

x

Preface

for this format.

functional

It

often tends to be arbitrary;

interrelationships

established procedure,

less

particular brief

made

is

tends to de-emphasize

it

and the numerous themes that cut

across institutional lines. Nevertheless,

more or

No

and kinship, and so on.

zation, family

it

has the advantage of being

which therefore more

permits comparison of one ethnography with another

—

approximately similar categories. In addition, though

it

easily

using

all

may

be argued that certain other ways of presenting anthropological data

may

be

as

good, none are really superior, for

difficulties

all

are

hampered with

of categorization.

Methodological Techniques

The bulk

of the data was gathered from key informants.

author spent

much

time with two

men

aged, lifelong residents, descended

Many

in particular,

The

both middle-

from founders of the

village.

hours were spent also with each of the twenty-seven other

informants.

The

writer's wife interviewed six

women of the village, woman may gather.

obtaining materials which in this culture only a

Additional information was secured through observation, through "passing the time of day" with different clubs or with village

with

men

gathered

ceremonies and meetings, or by

villagers.

An

men

at a street corner,

sitting

at

one of the local

by

attending various

around drinking tea

attempt was made to review materials in the

Sudan archives relevant to Buurri al Lamaab. This effort, however, was begun late in the study and because of various complications did not bring results.

The It is

was begun

at the

and continued through the end of March,

i960. 2

eleven months of research in the village

end of April,

1959,

one of the shortcomings of

this

study that the writer was not

up residence in the village but was required by the Sudan government to reside in the nearby city of Khartoum. This restriction by the Sudanese authorities apparently was largely a reable to take

sult

of the political situation in the country at the time research was

begun. In November, 1958, there was a military coup all 2

of

d'etat,

and

during the following spring, while permission to conduct the However, a total of fifteen months was spent two and one-half years in Egypt.

in the

Sudan following

a stay

—

Preface research was pending, the

xi

new regime was

extremely unstable, with

rumors of revolt and one attempted coup. This

situation

was further

complicated by the fact that the writer was an independent researcher unaffiliated with any Sudanese or international organization

and was the

American anthropologist to seek to undertake

first

research in this region.

The from

was

village

visited

from

five to

seven days of the

three to seven hours a day, and occasionally the night

there.

The

week

for

was spent

disadvantages of this kind of arrangement should be ob-

may

vious, but the extent to

which

tion. Visiting the village

each day, sitting around talking to people,

a disadvantage

it is

be a ques-

attending their funeral mournings, weddings, and other activities, joining one of the clubs and teaching in

—

all

these activities are in themselves

it,

3

and

visiting their

more than the

homes

villagers expect

of a Westerner and are sufficient to obtain for him some measure of

rapport with the people.

mainly the British a

The

villagers'

experience with Westerners

—has been such that they do not expect or require

Westerner to become Sudanese when among them. As

are usually pleased

homes or

when

the Westerner

to eat with them.

Those

a result

they

accepts invitations to their

villagers

who

have been most ex-

posed to the British colonial's aloof character are often responsive to

The Arab Sudanese

a friendly Westerner.

are a suspicious people,

but they are extroverts; they like to gossip about others, and once a stranger

is

with someone respected and familiar they tend

identified

on the whole to become

friendly.

living outside the village

here as after

it

might have

working

that he

in

may

some other

in Buurri al

Lamaab

was frequently asked

Lamaab. In addition,

These are some of the reasons

not have raised

many

why

difficulties

cultural situation. Nevertheless, a

why

his residence in

as

few months, the writer found he did not

live in

Khartoum made

it

Buurri

more

al

difficult

to reciprocate the hospitality of the villagers.

months of the study the writer engaged an interpreter from Khartoum who was acquainted with some of the inhabitants of the village; this mitigated the problem of entering For the

3

first

The Buurri

al

three

Lamaab

Cultural Club sponsored an elementary English class

which the writer volunteered the Sudan.

to

conduct during the

latter half

of his stay in

Preface

xii

Buurri

al

Lamaab and gaining

For the remainder of the reown knowledge of Arabic and

rapport.

search the writer depended on his

from

occasional assistance

No

villagers

informant was ever paid for

to be paid. Gifts

were made

who

understand English. 4

his services

and none ever asked

to informants, especially in the

form of

household items, food, and photographs. Needless to say, the ethnographer's debt has not been fully repaid. In this description as possible

I

have tried to be

factional differences in the village. If

group

as objective

and have sought to avoid partisanism

unfairly,

it

and dispassionate

in dealing

with the

have dealt with anyone or any

I

has not been intentional, and

I

ask to be forgiven.

Selection of the Village for Study

The

was to investigate a riverain Arab village in somewhat more removed from the major but owing to the restrictions of the Sudanese gov-

original intention

the north central Sudan

urban centers,

ernment on the research project and the

difficulties

of transportation

was necessary to select a village in the immediate vicinity of Khartoum. Buurri al Lamaab was chosen because it was easily accessible to Khartoum though outside the Khartoum municiin the

country

pality

and because

it

it

was the center for

a religious brotherhood.

This study cannot pretend to deal with a "typical" riverain Sudanese

Arab

village, if

such

exists;

even a typical suburban village in

Buurri

al

Lamaab

is

probably not

this area, since it is the

main head-

quarters of the Hindiiya Religious Brotherhood. Nevertheless, major patterns characteristic of the riverain Arabs of the

found

in Buurri al

political

*

and religious organization.

be observed in

lation

all

are to be

in the rites of passage, the

mar-

and residence patterns, the overall family structure, and the

riage

may

Lamaab, especially

Sudan

its

Its

economy and

most pronounced atypicality

the heterogeneity of

and in other consequences of being close to

a

its

popu-

major urban

Sixty years of British administration and the compulsory English courses in

schools from the fifth year

up have

resulted in a rather high proportion

who

speak English, particularly in the Khartoum area. In Buurri al Lamaab at least twenty men could converse in varying degrees in this language; an equal number understood a considerable amount of English but did not speak it. The writer's two main informants understood many English words although they were unable to speak the language. Interviews with twenty-five

of Sudanese

informants were carried on in Arabic and with the remaining four in English.

Preface center.

These points

will be

expanded

xiii

in the course of the description

of the village.

The

who

writer wishes to express his thanks and appreciation to those

have been of assistance to him.

He

is

al Lamaab who extended him and his wife and who

especially grateful to

all

those in Buurri

their typical Sudanese

hospitality to

patiently tolerated his

blundering attempts to express himself in their language. Financial

support was obtained from the Social Research Center at the Ameri-

can University

at

Cairo in the United Arab Republic, and special

thanks are due the director of the Center, Dr. Laila Shukry El

Hamamsy,

for her part in securing the necessary funds and for en-

couraging the author.

The

writer

is

also obligated to Dr.

Andreas

Kronenberg of the Sudan Antiquities Service and to the University of Khartoum, especially to the late Professor Saad ad Din Fawzy, to Mr. Farnham Rehfisch, and to Mr. Muhammad Umar Bashir, for their assistance while he was in Khartoum. Mr. Ahmad Osman Ishaq, acting director of the

Sudan Census, Khartoum, very gra-

ciously provided unpublished census data fessors

Robert

J.

Smith,

Gordon

on Buurri

F. Streib,

al

Lamaab. Pro-

and Olaf F. Larson of

Cornell University offered numerous helpful suggestions concerning

And finally the writer is who collected the bulk of

the preparation of this work.

particularly

obligated to his wife, Jane,

the data on

the Sudanese

women

and was of invaluable assistance in writing

this

book.

H.B. June 1963

Contents

I

The

Village and

Its

People

i

Physical Layout of the Village

Dress of the People Historical II

The

Village

7

Background of the Village

Economy

9 13

Division of Labor

13

Women's Occupations

15

Men's Occupations

15

Most Favored Occupations

18

Work

Routine in Nonagricultural Occupations

Income and Living Standards Agriculture in Buurri

al

Lamaab

19

20 22

Cultivation of Crops

22

Livestock

28

Land Acquisition

28

Lands Not Privately

Owned

Land Ownership and Use Agricultural Labor and III

i

Political

Farm Operation

Organization

Political Officers of the

34 35

37

40

'Umudiiya

The Omda (Mayor)

43 43

xv

Contents

xvi

Appointment of the Mayor

to Office

45

The Shaykhs

46

System

47

Judicial

l

Local Urf Court

48

Police Protection

50

Other Group Sanctions Political Factions

IV

and the Balance of Power

Formal and Informal Friendship and Recreation Groups Social Clubs

V

50

54

60

60

Informal Friendship Groups

63

Men's Informal Groups

63

Women's Informal Groups

66

Family and Kinship Groupings

68

The Family

68

Organization of the Family

73

Extended Families

75

Household Ownership and Partition

78

Lineage

80

Other Kinship Groupings

89

The Tribe

91

Arabs

91

Nubians

94

Other Groups

95

Tribal Significance and Intertribal Relations

Arab-Sudanese Kinship System Behavioral Patterns in Major Kinship Roles Sister

and Daughter Roles

97 10

107 107

Son and Brother Roles

109

Grandparent-Grandchild Relations

in

Collateral Relatives

112

Affinal Relationships

113

Sexual Relations

116

Illicit

Prostitution

Abnormal Sexual

116

Practices

Marriage and Divorce

Marriage Preferences

117

118

118

xvn

Contents

VI

VII

Polygynous Marriages

121

Divorce

123

Social Stratification

126

Ascribed Status

126

Achieved Status

133

Religion

136

Muslim Orthodoxy

137

Beliefs

137

Muslim Practice

140

Tolerance of Religious Deviance

i59

Organization of the Local Muslim

Community

168

Religious Brotherhoods

169

The Hindiiya Tariqa Rituals and Ceremonies of the

171

Hin diiya Tariqa

The Sammaniiya Tariqa The Dervishes Membership

in the Tariqas

Functions of the Brotherhoods

The

Cult of Saints

Cults of Curing and Divination

The The

VIII

162

Koran School and Koran Schoolteacher

Evil

Eye

172

173

176 177

180 182

188

194

7.aar Cult

196

Islam and Protestantism

209

Life Cycle

211

Pregnancy

212

Childbirth

214

Naming Ceremony

218

Early Child Care

222

Formal Education

229

Teachers and Curriculum

229

Education beyond the Elementary School

232

Formal Education of Girls

Formal Education of Adults Bodily Mutilations Facial Scars

232 2

33

236 236

Contents

xviii

Circumcision

Marriage

237

Festivities

Selection of

243

Mate

243

Preparations for the

Al Lay lit

al

Wedding

247

Hinna

249

Al Yauom ad Dukhla and Al Lay lit ad Dukhla Al

Yawm

al Jirtig

and Al Lay lit

Death Rites

IX

261

Conclusion

Appendix

A A

251

256

al Jirtig

267

Note on the

Transliteration of Arabic

Appendix B Kinship Terminology

in

Buurri

al

Lamaab

277

279

Glossary

285

Bibliography

289

Index

293

Illustrations

The qubba I

II

Omda

of Sharif Yuussif

'Abd

ar

al

Hindi

frontispiece

Rahmaan

facing page 202

Khaliifa 'Abbaas Bashiir, a khaliifa of the Hindiiya tariqa in

Buurri

al

Lamaab

III

Two

IV

Girl playing a

203

brothers being prepared for their circumcision

drum

at a

wedding

234 235

MAPS 1

Types

2

Al Barraari 'umudiiya and

of

Arab and Nubian culture vicinity,

in the

Sudan

Republic of the Sudan

page

3

41

DIAGRAMS 1

Alternative kinship usage

2

Father

as ego's

page 106

khaal

118

xix

Tables

i

Estimate of major occupations, 1959

17

2

Estimates of wages for selected occupations

20

3

Composition of households

71

4

Estimate of tribal composition of Buurri

5

Terms

al

Lamaab, 1959

of reference for consanguineal kinsmen in the

commonly

used abbreviated forms

104

6

Consanguineal kinship terms of direct address

7

Types of

Number al

9

104

practices relating to pregnancy, childbirth, and post-

natal confinement 8

and their observance

in Buurri al

Lamaab

221

of students and teachers and age of students at Buurri

Lamaab

boys' elementary school, 1959

Extent of schooling in Buurri

al

Lamaab

as

229

an index of literacy, 234

1955 10

96

Comparison of schooling of

residents in Buurri

those in selected provinces, 1955

xx

al

Lamaab with 2

34

BUURRI AL LAMAAB A

Suburban Village

in the

Sudan

Chapter

The

Village

THE village

of Buurri

al

and

Lamaab

is

I

Its

People

located on the banks of the Blue

Nile about five miles from the central market of Khartoum, capital of the Republic of the Sudan.

north and the comprises a

Lamaab

is

east,

flat

The

river borders the village

on the

while to the south and the west the land surface

and arid

plain.

Immediately to the south of Buurri

al

the village complex called Jirayf Gharb, a line of seven

settlements bordering the Blue Nile, the nearest one to Buurri

al

Lamaab being about two miles distant. On its western side Buurri al Lamaab adjoins the Khartoum municipality; the settled part of Khartoum a section called Buurri Abu Hashiish 1 is less than a mile from the nearest house in Buurri al Lamaab.

—

—

PHYSICAL LAYOUT OF THE VILLAGE Lamaab from Khartoum he passes Buurri Abu Hashiish, where the paved

As one approaches Buurri along the road in front of

al

surface ends, and then rides across about one-half mile of open gravel

becomes green with grass as well as muddy mire. Before him lies a sprawling mass of

plain that in the rainy season

on occasion 1

a

and around eastern Khartoum. Three of these Mahas, Buurri ad Daraaysa, and Buurri Abu Hashiish adjoin one another and are today all part of Khartoum municipality. Formerly they were separate villages. Buurri al Lamaab, the fourth "Buurri," is outside the Khartoum municipality and is in fact headquarters for Al Barraari 'uniudiiya (see Chapter III, "Political Organization").

There

—Buurri

are four "Buurris" in

—

al

/

Buurri

2

brownish-gray,

single-storied,

ward

these houses

river's edge.

To

merge

Lamaab

al

rectangular

mud

North-

the south they disappear into the dry plains; in the

distance one sees the buildings of the Jirayf Boys'

two or

houses.

into irrigated orchard lands that skirt the

Reformatory and

three small villas under construction, as well as the perpetual

green of riverside gardens.

What domed

one

strikes

on coming upon the village is the large which towers above everything and

first

edifice at the north end,

stands as the unique physical feature in a mass of sameness. This

tomb (qubba) of Sharif Yuussif al Hindi (after some people in Khartoum know the village, incorrectly, as

structure

whom

is

the

Buurri as Shariif). Sharif Yuussif, an important figure in both the political

from

and religious

191

3

modern Sudan, resided in the village 1942. The tomb is architecturally unlike

of the

life

until his death in

on an Egyptian model. wide roadway on either side of residents. To the north as one

the usual Sudanese qubba, having been built

The which enters

New

track one follows leads into a are the houses of the village is

the

Old Quarter (Al

Quarter (Al

Hillit al

Gadiima); to the south

Hillit al Jadiida). Passing

down

the

is

the

roadway

be-

tween the two sections one comes upon the house of the mayor (omda) of the

village.

in the vicinity.) distinctive as a

This

(He is

is

also

mayor of

several other settlements

an unassuming house and not in any

mayor's residence. Across the road

Lamaab Sports Club. Beyond

the house of the

mayor

is

a

school for boys and, immediately beyond that in what

is

the main square (midaan) of the village,

and

is

a flour mill

court building. Another building east of the court

Various small shops are located in

this square,

way

the Buurri

is

is

al

primary

considered a district

the mosque.

but shops

may

be

found scattered over the whole village, usually occupying a room in the merchant's house. The center of the midaan is marked by the walls of an old well that has been abandoned and filled

A

marked

difference

is

noted

at

once between the

in.

New

Quarter

Old Quarter to the north and development begun in 1948 because of over-

to the south of the square and the east.

The

former, a

Old Quarter, has been laid out in neat blocks with between buildings. The latter is composed of houses whose doors open into narrow, winding streets. At its edge is the tomb of Sharif Yuussif and the compound that is the crowding

in the

relatively

wide

straight roads

The United

Arab

Village

and People

Republic

Nubian sedentaries

Arab Nile sedentaries Arab

rain-cultivating sedentaries

Gezira

Scheme

(incl.

Non-Arab and non-Nubian

Map

i.

Types

of

Managil Ext.)_

ethnic groups:

lSZSSSIaI

names underlined

e.g.

Beja

Arab and Nubian culture in the Sudan (based on maps of the Sudan prepared by the Survey Department, Khartoum)

Buurri

4

al

Lamaab

residence of his successor, his son, Sharif

l

Abd

ar

Rahmaan, along

with the buildings of the religious brotherhood founded by Sharif Yuussif.

The

Sharif's residence

is

a large brick building adjacent to

from the residence

the tomb. Directly across

building, the guesthouse of the Sharif.

is

another large brick

North of this compound are beyond these is the

the gardens of the religious brotherhood, and river.

While wandering about the village one notes that, though most made of a combination of mud and manure, several are of fired red brick. Indeed, some houses of mud are being torn down to be replaced by red brick. The "house" usually consists of a compound (haivsh) containing a number of small, usually one- or tworoom, buildings, surrounded by a wall from five to seven feet high. Each compound has at least two doors onto the street one considered the men's entry, which any stranger may approach, and the other considered the women's entry, which only persons close to the family may use. The men's entrance is always the more elaborate doorway. Some doors are made of iron with grillwork on the upper houses are

—

part and are painted, bright green being the favorite color. Others,

unpainted iron or wood.

less pretentious, are either

The

compound varies depending on the wealth of the number of inhabitants, and the family composition

interior of a

inhabitants, the

—whether

it is

compounds,

a "nuclear" family or a

however,

share

certain

mixed family group. All the characteristics.

entry leads into an open court, to one side of which

men's building. This rectangular shape and

The

floors of

is

by

a guest's or

usually a separate structure with the typical

flat

roof. It has a

porch and one or two rooms.

most residences are made of beaten

eight or ten wealthiest inhabitants have

structed

is

The men's

tile floors.

earth; only the

Roofs are con-

wooden beams and mud and manure over the fronds. The room are usually left as they were made,

laying palm fronds over a series of

putting a combination of interior walls of the guest

although the more wealthy or Europeanized villagers

may

white-

wash them. Small placards containing a verse from the Koran or the Allah or

Muhammad may

name

decorate the walls, along with an occa-

sional snapshot or picture cut out of an old calendar or advertise-

ment.

The

writer was once surprised at seeing a picture of

Ludwig

The

Village

German

Erhard, the prominent

and People

statesman,

j

on the wall of one

vil-

Referring to the picture, the villager said he was a

lager's house.

notables also are

Winston Churchill. Pictures of other political found on the walls of Buurri al Lamaab houses.

Most frequent

that of Ismail al Azhari, a former prime minister

great admirer of

is

and leader of the National Union Party. The picture of the present

Abboud, however, was not much more Gamal Abdel Nasser.

military ruler, Ibrahim

evidence than that of

Every house in the angareb. These have

village possesses its special a

a direct descendant of

in

Sudanese beds, the

wooden frame with rope webbing and are the ancient Egyptian bed. In the guest room

these are usually covered with a cloth

and pillows, and sometimes

they have a cotton mattress. In addition, most houses today have

some

chairs,

usually both straight-back

chairs that are covered

more well-to-do

wooden

with brightly colored

villagers also

have divans, and

chairs

and easy

Some

cloth.

many

of the

people have

metal cots with mattresses that are used for sitting as well as sleeping.

There may

be an assortment of small tables in addition to a large

also

table.

Today

almost every dwelling house has true

windows

instead of

The windows of some houses but most have only wooden shutters and, if

the older Sudanese holes in the wall.

contain glass panes,

they are on the

street,

iron bars.

In 1958 electricity was introduced into the village, and today

about two-thirds of the houses make some use of electric lighting.

Where

electricity

form of

light,

is

not used, the kerosene lamp

although an older type very

is

the most popular

common

in the village

prior to the advent of the kerosene lamp (about forty years ago) is

used on occasion

merely

a

—

especially

naked wick

in a tin

Gasoline lamps imported from

by women

in the kitchen. This

can or similar object containing

Germany

is

oil.

are also increasing in im-

portance.

In the open court adjoining the guesthouse there are usually large

earthenware also

jars in

which water

is

stored and cooled.

There may

be a water pipe and spigot nearby. Running water from the

Khartoum municipal supply in the village,

and

is,

like electricity, a recent

a far higher percentage of the

innovation

populace takes

advantage of the water than of the electricity. Nevertheless, some

Buurri

6 of the poorer people

al

Lamaab

use wells adjoining their houses and a far

still

—even some of those who have running water piped —make use of the river for washing the family's

number

greater

to their houses clothes.

The

stranger or casual male visitor will never get to see

a villager's this area

male guests are entertained,

adolescent and life is

a

more of

house than has already been described. In the confines of

carried

young

on

fed,

and allowed to

sleep.

Here

adult single males sleep. But most of the family

in an adjoining quarter

connected with

this area

by

door or opening through the wall that separates the two major

parts of the

compound. Here

quarters there

what can be called the women's may be one or more buildings, which are always

much less elaborate than The kitchen (tuukil 2 least impressive part

room

in

that for receiving male guests.

or matbukh)

of the house;

it

is

in this section

and

is

the

usually consists of a small, one-

building with holes in the walls rather than windows. There

numerous large pots and similar cooking on the floor are charcoal cookers made from kerosene tins, usually a large one for cooking a main hot meal and one or more small ones to brew tea or coffee and for other small cooking operations. Most kitchens also have a sort of crude fireplace on the floor; over this the kisra is baked. This bread, the mainstay of the diet, is made from sorghum flour and beer yeast and cooked as a large round wafer or pancake. In one section of the kitchen there is usually a hole in the floor which women use for taking smoke baths. 3 Because all cooking operations are done in a sitting or squatting position, kitchens are furnished with one or more angarebs, or perhaps some bambars (low, square stools made in the

is

a place for storing the

paraphernalia. In one part

same fashion

as the

The remaining

angareb).

buildings are bedrooms for the husbands and

2

Tuukil refers specifically to a cylindrical hut with cone-shaped thatched few years ago such huts were the kitchen buildings in the village and in earlier times, probably before 1880, the dwelling places as well. Such dwellings (singular, guttiiya), are still the prevailing form of house in

roof. Until a very

much

of the Arab Sudan south of Khartoum.

smoke bath a woman sits over the hole and covers herself with a heavy wool blanket. Aromatic woods are burned in the hole and the smoke permeates the woman's body. Women enjoy taking smoke baths, and fre8

In the

quently several take turns sitting over the smoke hole so that a party atmos-

phere

is

created.

The wives and small children

Village

who

and People

7

compound.

live in the

A

married

man

may

not always sleep in this quarter; especially if there are no single young men around, he may choose to sleep in the guesthouse away from the possible irritations caused by small children. A compound often has a pit latrine next to the guesthouse and another for

women

village.

Many

in their quarters.

families,

chamber pot and to the open

access only to a

however, have

plain outside the

Livestock are usually kept in a special section of the inner

quarter.

These usually

consist of half a

dozen chickens and two or

three goats.

In addition to

its

more than

three hundred households and ap-

proximately 2,400 inhabitants, the confines of Buurri

al

Lamaab

in-

clude about three hundred acres of agricultural land adjacent to the river, about half of

which

are cultivated.

Approximately

hundred additional acres form an open plain used

rainy season for pasturing goats. Another section

To

five

in part during the is

used for foot-

al Lamaab and Gharb is the cemetery containing the graves of the dead Jirayf of Buurri al Lamaab and of nearby Buurri Abu Hashiish and the tomb of a local holy man. This qubba, done in the traditional

ball fields.

the south of the village between Buurri

Sudanese style and situated in the midst of a small stand of acacia trees, is

without doubt the most picturesque place in the entire

countryside.

DRESS OF

THE PEOPLE

The most common type of men's dress amma. The jalibiiya is a long cotton

the

f

ankles and

The

is

sewn up the front

sleeves are full

so that

full

garment

although in the Sudan

cut

is

It

is

worn over

is

worn

by Egyptian men, The turban is a cotton cloth that is wrapped also

slightly different.

about thirteen feet of thin

around the head.

at the sides. It is

underdrawers that extend below the

knees. This kind of outer its

shirt that extends to the

must be put on over the head.

and there are pockets

an undershirt and large

strip of

it

includes the jalibiiya and

worn over

a taagiiya, a skullcap,

usually

crocheted, but sometimes sewn of cotton cloth. There are a limited

which the turban is worn, each man adhering to the style he likes best. Sometimes the turban is not worn on the head but is wrapped around the neck like a scarf, the taagiiya alone

number of ways

in

Buurri

8

Lamaab

al

being kept on the head. Followers of the Mahdist movement wear the turban in a particular style bership in that organization.

4

which has become

a

mem-

badge of

Sandals or slippers are worn; shoes or

common. While

was

in the village, im-

ported Japanese sandals became very popular.

Some men carry

sneakers are

less

prayer beads (sibha), and the beads. For

many

this

when

is

the writer

their hands are idle they

a matter of habit

and has

toy with

little

religious

significance.

The

jalibiiya is

not the traditional dress of the Arab Sudanese.

was introduced from Egypt

after 1820.

Some men,

It

for the most

part old men, prefer the traditional Sudanese dress. This consists, in

addition to the turban and slippers, of a shirt (gamiis or jibba),

which

extends to the knees, and underpants, the bottoms of which

show

below the shirt. A tobe, a piece of cotton cloth about six feet wide and fifteen feet long, is worn over the shirt so that it passes around

body with one end resting over each shoulder. dress is becoming increasingly popular, especially among the young men, large numbers of whom own shirts and khaki shorts or long pants. Sudanese Arabs appear to be much more conthe

European

servative than Egyptians about their dress.

course,

may

cotton dress

Women

One

this,

of

be that in such a hot climate the loose and flowing light is

much more

comfortable than European

have adopted a type of European

cotton or rayon print. 5

however, or

reason for

is

Whenever

in the presence of

dress,

woman

a

attire.

mostly of bright

goes out in public,

male guests, she wears a tobe over

her dress. This has the same dimensions as a man's tobe but quite differently.

The woman's

tobe

is

is

worn

placed over the shoulder and

around the waist and then over the head, the

woman

having to hold

one arm close to her body to keep the garment in place.

It is

sidered proper for her to arrange the tobe so as to cover her

con-

mouth

and for only the eyes and upper bridge of the nose to be exposed. are lax about this, although they con-

Today some younger women tinue to cover their

mouths with

*The Mahdist movement, or Ansaar,

a part of the tobe

is

siderable importance in the Sudan. See P.

when they

movement of conThe Mahdist State in the

a religio-political

M.

Holt,

Sudan (London: Oxford University Press, 1958). 6 Prior to adopting European dress, women wore a skirt; the upper part of their bodies was uncovered except when they were in public, at which time they wore a tobe. Some elderly women in the village still dress in this fashion.

The The

laugh.

and People

Village

p

traditional underclothing seems to

be similar to the

men's loose trousers, though women's are often made in colors and prints

the

and usually worn tight

men wear them

loose.

at the ends, just

Among

the

below the knees, while

women

Women

being replaced by garments of European type.

most of the time, but prefer

these are gradually

Some women

for going out of the house.

(antimony) to their eyes, but others use

keep a small jewel in one

countless

little pigtails

sandals

it

regularly apply kuhl

only for festive events.

An important item of women's wearing apparel women wear gold rings, bracelets, necklaces, and still

wear

slipperlike shoes for special occasions or

Women

nostril.

also

is

Most A few

jewelry.

earrings.

wear

their hair in

and often attach to the hair on the back of

their heads long tresses of false hair that extend

down

to the small

of their backs. Men, incidentally, have their heads shaved or at least

men grow a mustache. individuals grow some type of

keep the hair cut very short; nine out of ten

Older

men and

extremely religious

beard.

Children's dress follows the pattern of that of their elders. Little

boys wear they

may

a jalibiiya, or

sometimes

when

there

is

a special occasion

be dressed in a shirt and pants. Boys under four are often

allowed to go about naked in the vicinity of their homes. Girls are clothed in cotton print dresses and at about age nine begin to wear

head scarfs when they go out in public. puberty they wear

The

White

dresses

colors.

women

white

tobes for mature

is

most popular for wearing

women

are considered "proper."

under the tobe are typically in

Men's

the time they reach

a tobe.

For both men and apparel.

By

jalibiiyas, tobes,

brilliant if

not gaudy

and turbans are predominantly white.

This predominance of white clothing against a background of dull-

brown mud houses in a dull-brown landscape, and the searing shine combine to make a Sudanese village rather unphotogenic.

sun-

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND OF THE VILLAGE Historical data will be presented throughout the text. Nevertheless, it is

appropriate to devote some special attention to the origins

and founding of the

village

and take

a

more

specifically historical

view of the community. Practically

all

the history of Buurri

al

Lamaab must be gleaned

w

Buurri

al

Lamaab

from native informants. In casual conversation many claim that their village is from two to three hundred years old, 6 yet evidence they provide indicates that it is at most about 140 years old and more likely not more than 130, having been founded not many years after the Turko-Egyptian occupation of the Sudan in 8 2 1

Villagers have varying stories about the

Lamaab. From the information obtained

1

first settlers in

we may

Buurri

conclude that until

the Turko-Egyptian occupation in 1821 the vicinity of Buurri

Lamaab was frequented by seminomadic herders of Rubataab

al

al

the Rufaa'a and

were settlements of the Jamuu'ia tribe at Jirayf Gharb and several Mahas villages. It is quite possible that members of the Rufaa'a and Rubataab first frequented the vicinity of Buurri al Lamaab, but they apparently made no permanent settlement here until after a Mahas named Shukayry estabtribes. In addition to these there

lished a hamlet (fariiq),

naming

it

Fariiq

wad Burra

after his mother,

named Farh, who came to the settlement to live with his bride. Along with Farh came his relatives and clients. Shukayry now moved from the hamlet which he founded and established a new one nearby which became Burra. Later Shukayry's sister married a Rubataab

known as Fariiq as Shukayry. The old Fariiq wad Burra now became known Lamaab, gether.

is

derived from

The

aab

as Fariiq al

Lamaab.

lam, the past tense of yilim, to collect to-

suffix is a

common

one in the northern Sudan,

probably of Beja derivation, meaning "descendants of." Thus La-

maab, or to give

its

descendants of those

plural

who

form Lamaabiyiin, means,

have been collected together. Those

were from

tling in the fariiq

in effect, the

number of

a

tribes,

but

all

were

set-

either

the protected clients or immediate kinsmen of the well-to-do shepherd, Farh.

Thus

the

name emphasizes

population of Arabs and Nubians

the unity of the heterogeneous

residing in this

community. In

the course of time both Fariiq as Shukayry and Fariiq

became known

Lamaab 6

as

Buurri

disappeared, but

Some informants

cause one of the

al

some

said the village

first settlers

al

Lamaab

Lamaab. The reference to Fariiq of the old people, especially

al

women,

must be over two hundred years old beman," and his son

in the village died an "old

died at the age of seventy or more and the son's eldest son died in the 1940's over eighty years of age. Then these informants estimated that this amounted to a total of over two hundred years and meant that the village must be that old.

at

The still

Village

n

and People

refer to that section in the northwestern part of the village as

Fariiq as Shukayry, although

it

has today lost the character of a

true fariiq.

Through

the years

more people from

Many came from

Lamaab.

al

the outside settled in Buurri

Jirayf Gharb, and today there are

numerous kinship bonds between the two communities. Others have come from Buurri al Mahas and Jirayf Gumr, which is across the Blue Nile from Buurri

al

Lamaab, and

still

others

Gezira region of the Blue Nile Province.

Lamaab was

from the northern

The name

Buurri

al

adopted by the village in 1906. Buurri means words the village is a suburb of Khartoum. During the Turko-Egyptian rule the Fariiq al Lamaab and the Fariiq as Shukayry were administered jointly by a shaykh who belonged to the Rufaa'a tribe and lived in Fariiq al Lamaab. He was responsible to a nazir who resided in Khartoum and acted as chief of the district covering the vicinity of Khartoum. Under the Mahdiiya ( 880-1 898) the system of shaykhs and nazirs was abolished and Buurri al Lamaab along with other villages was ruled by a military governor appointed by the Khalifa. When Abdallahi came to power officially

outlying; in other

1

in 1885, the people of Buurri al

Lamaab were removed

to

Omdurman

along with thousands of other Sudanese and lived in tents there.

About

time

this

also, several

to the Gezira to a village near

Mahas in Buurri al Lamaab migrated Wad Medani where their descendants

live today.

With series

the start of the British occupation the village underwent a

of rapid changes. First, the British establishment of a large

army camp about the

life

subsistence based tables

three miles

of the people.

and

It

away made an

army.

Many men

and became servants and laborers

many

Lamaab but for several of the villages Thus the withdrawal of the British army in

deserted the agri-

in the

over forty years the British army served in one the chief source of income for not only al

on

on livestock and sorghum to production of vege-

fruits for sale to the

cultural life

indelible impression

changed the agricultural economy from

army camps. For

way

or another as

of the people of Buurri

in the surrounding area.

1956 was rather traumatic

for these people.

The

British introduced various administrative changes.

ished the Mahdist political system and established one

They

abol-

modeled more

Buurri

12

along Egyptian (districts

lines.

al

Lamaab

The Arab Sudan was

r

divided into umudiiyas

headed by an omda, or mayor). Buurri

al

Lamaab was

in-

f

cluded in an umudiiya which comprised several villages in the vicinity of

Khartoum. At

omda from and the

f

the

first

umudiiya was administered by an

Jirayf Gharb, but he resigned after

British district

commissioner appointed

of Farh as the omda. This

man

two or

three years

a paternal

grandson

ruled for over forty years and ob-

tained a wide and respected reputation as a severe and fearless, yet just,

man.

In 19 1 3 the Sharif Yuussif

Lamaab, and the

al

village then

Hindi made

his residence in

became the center for the

Buurri

al

religious

brotherhood founded by him. This event further altered the character of the village. It then

became

a center for religious activity,

and numerous followers of the Sharif visited him continually and some took up residence. In 1945, when the omda became too old and ill to continue his duties, one of his sons succeeded him. Under this omda, Buurri al Lamaab has witnessed numerous changes. From 1940 to 1948 private bus service was occasionally available to the villagers in the form of trucks with seats in the back. In 948 the Khartoum municipal bus service was extended to the village. In the same year construction was begun on the new section of the village. In 1956 the British withdrew from the Sudan leaving many a Buurri al Lamaab man to find a new job and mostly at reduced wages. Running water was piped into most homes and in 1958 electricity was introduced in the village. In i960 a blacktop road was extended to Buurri al 1

Lamaab. All these events have tended to encourage workers to migrate and settle there.

Thus Buurri

al

Lamaab

is

increasingly be-

coming a kind of lower-class bedroom for some of those employed in

Khartoum and it

so increasingly

a village character.

is

losing those features that have given

Chapter

The

IN Buurri

al

Village

Lamaab

there

is

II

Economy

theoretically

one basic principle for the

sexual division of labor; namely, everything that

house

is

is

done outside the

the province of the male and everything that

the house

is

the province of the female.

It is

is

done inside

of course the man's

which means he has the "occupasome women supplement the family

responsibility to support the family, tion," but as

we

will see later,

income by undertaking certain occupations within the house.

DIVISION OF LABOR Exceptions to the rule above are worthy of note. will not usually be

women who have passed into a women may be found collecting brush older

First,

women

Those who do are grandmother status. Second,

found working in the

fields.

and firewood. The majority

women. Only the poorer young married women would ever be seen collecting wood. Again, some women wash clothes at the Nile bank, but they are likewise young girls and old women from poorer families. Thus, exceptions are made for preadolescent girls and women who of these, however, are unmarried preadolescent girls and old

have reached the menopause, no doubt because neither can bear children,

and in cases of economic need

—the poorer the family the

more often its female members, regardless of marital side the compound. With the increase in wealth and '3

status,

work outmodern

access to

Buurri

14

al

Lamaab

more women may be expected to remain within the compound, whereas the greater the poverty the less the seclusion of facilities,

women. 1

They

All these variations, however, are not true exceptions.

are rather expressions of the difference

between the

stated ideal in be-

havior and the actual practice, since even those whose wives go

out in the

villagers

example, will

fields to collect brush, for

should remain within the

mean

to say in this connection

women outside. What

insist that

compound and never work

that given the proper

is

namely adequate wealth, they would seek to enforce

conditions, this ideal.

Another principle concerning the

division of labor

oldest persons are regarded as senior in status; they

work and

exercise the greatest

stated ideal,

over

however, but

amount of

that the

do the

supervision. This

is

implicit in observed behavior.

is

this principle has a limited application;

household economy and among the plants

is

and the shops of Khartoum.

it is

women It

is

least

not a

More-

used more in the

than in the industrial

relevant to such family

is

its comemployed by someone

—

obviously impossible.

occupations as farming and the local family-run shops, but

where one

plete application to situations else

—the

To what

status of

most of the

villagers

is

was not determined. In any case, in the operation of the household we have a good example of this principle. Girls ranging in age from six or seven up to eleven stand at the bottom of the "pecking" order. They are assigned the duties of keeping the house clean, taking care of younger extent

it is

the rule in such situations

children, going to the shop or to other houses slightly older

may

over younger

siblings.

be assigned cooking duties and

They may

also

on

errands. Girls

a supervisory role

be expected to take care of the

goats and chickens in the house. Senior females seem to function as

general supervisors. Indeed

compound

would not be

while the younger

girls

who may

very important

women

a

recline

caricature of the

on

their angarebs

busy themselves with the household work,

being given occasional orders the house

it

to say that the older

by

their elders

and any young men of

be present. Factors of age and

sex, then, are

in an understanding of the division of labor in Buurri

Lamaab.

al

1

This

is

evidenced also by the fact that the poorest families do not have compounds and thus their women are more to be seen.

walls around their

Village

Economy

/j

Womerfs Occupations woman's occupation is maintaining the home. The "good woman" is that she stay in the house and take proper care of everything in it. Thus technically women do not have occupations for wages in the same sense as men. Many women Ideally, the

first

criterion of the

are employed, however.

these having

Two women work

as

some formal training and being the

in the village.

The

other

woman

performs the

practiced Pharaonic circumcision of

girls.

There

midwives, one of

midwife

"official" illegal

yet widely

are at least fifteen

women who work as part-time tailors of women's clothing, including at least one who can make men's apparel. Each of these women has a sewing machine

or not.

They work

—

a "Singer,"

it is

in their houses

called,

whether of that make

and prepare clothes for

friends,

neighbors, and relatives, usually for a price. All are under fortyfive years of age;

know how

does not

needle and thread

and

one informant explained, "Anyone over that age

at least a third

population

2

to operate a machine, but can only use the

by hand." The majority are unmarried.

of the village and

origin there are

some who

are

facture native beer and liquor,

are

Among

among women

women

under thirty

the so-called "slave" of southern Sudanese

employed as servants. Others manuand one or two have a reputation for

being prostitutes. Whether they are in fact such was not verified.

One must keep formants not in

There

in

mind

that this information

in-

this class.

are other

women who

occasionally

by men,

similar small items of clothing,

part the

men do

cial

was given by

not consider these

census data report only seven

make

the skullcap

worn

and brush mats. For the most

activities occupations.

women

as "gainfully

The

offi-

employed."

Men's Occupations Most people of Buurri al Lamaab are today no longer farmers, but for wages in nearby Khartoum. Business activity in the village itself includes about twenty small shops, each operated by one man,

work 2

Slavery in fact disappeared in Buurri

al

Lamaab about

thirty years ago,

was officially abolished before that time by the British. However, former slaves and descendants of former slaves are still called slaves {'abiid) and treated in certain respects as a separate group. See Chapter VI, "Social although

it

Stratification."

6

Buurri

1

al

Lamaab

The majority of these room in the merchant's house or an extension house. The typical store sells such goods as onions,

usually with the assistance of his son or sons.

shops are either a

onto his

built

sorghum (whole and

grain), spices, tea, coffee beans, sugar, cigarettes

snuff, salt, soft drinks, syrups for

making sweet

charcoal, flashlight batteries, and cooking

drinks, kerosene,

Some have

oil.

a limited

supply of tinned goods, an occasional pair of shoes, and the

May)

season (April through

a

clover, for goat feed. Perhaps

few shops

sell

like.

In

berseem, a type of

twenty such small shops

compact

in a

village of almost 2,400 people located close to the city

seems an

number of commercial establishments. However, shop is considered by many as a desirable occupational

inordinately large

owning

one's

role. Stores are established

market, and as a result

many

without consideration of the potential shopkeepers appear to be no better off

economically than those in positions of far shops occasionally close Sellers of vegetables

down

and

less

prestige. In fact

as business failures.

fruits

may

use the front porch of a store

to display their wares. Additional shops are maintained

who makes

a baker

bread from white

by

a butcher,

flour, five tailors, three car-

maker of metal stoves from kerosene tins, and a shoe repairer. There are three laundries and two flour mills. The mills are driven by gasoline engines and are used for grinding sorghum; it is believed that in order for the kisra to be good the whole grains must be ground fresh before baking. There are then at least thirty-seven commercial establishments in Buurri al Lamaab. As one informant said, enough is supplied in the village so that one would not have to penters, a

go to Khartoum oftener than once in three months. Of course, with Khartoum so close most people visit it much more often, even if they do not

There

On kiln

work

there.

are certain other nonagricultural pursuits

the riverbank at

the eastern end of the

and another on the borderline between Buurri

Jirayf

Gharb

—

also at the river's edge.

These are

can use the waters of the Nile and the for brickmaking.

the

silt.

Buurri are

The

Practically

al

all

silt

kiln operator pays the

worth noting.

village there al

is

a brick

Lamaab and

so placed that they

at the

edge of the river

landowner for the use of

come from outside from Chad. The bricks

the workers in these kilns

Lamaab; most of them are bachelors first combining silt, manure, water, and straw to the

made by

Economy

Village consistency of mud.

form

out to dry in the sun. kiln

—

a large square

When

tom.

A

The mixture

that stands at waist height,

the kiln

When

is

ij

brought to a brickmaking

and the bricks are shaped and

frame made of brick with fireplaces is full,

at the bot-

the bricks are fired. 3

ferry boat crosses the river between Buurri

Jirayf

set

they are dried, they are placed in the

Gumr. An open rowboat

al

Lamaab and

typical of this part of the Nile,

it is

used for carrying passengers, charcoal, and various items. Buurri

Lamaab lectors,

also has

men employed

as horse-cart operators,

al

waste col-

and bedmakers. Some barbers, builders, and traveling mer-

chants of various kinds operate both in and outside the village.

Table

/.

Estimate of major occupations, 1959

Occupation

No.

Farming

105

(approx.) 15

Farm labor

25

3-5

Merchandising

66

9

50

7

Clerical

work

Building trades

55

Metal work, woodworking, textile trades Other crafts Transportation Semiskilled and unskilled services Unskilled labor

Semiprof essional work f Total *

%

*

The

by asking

63

54 93 105

24 703

estimate of occupation

tained primarily

was made by the

7-5

9 9 7-5

13

15 3-5

100

writer, the data being ob-

several informants the occupations of their relatives

and neighbors. t Includes nurses and attendants in hospitals, elementary, intermediate,

and

religious school teachers.

Approximately seven hundred males over puberty have an occupaOf this number between 10 and 12 per cent are engaged in

tion.

nonagricultural pursuits within the confines of the village, and 3

Across the Nile

of fire

palm

Gumr

is a considerable number of such they create a spectacular appearance and black smoke dancing over the river amid the dark shadows of

brick factories, and trees.

at Jirayf

when burning

there

at night

Buurri

1

slightly

more than

1

Lamaab

al

per cent are engaged in agricultural pursuits in

5

the general vicinity of Buurri

al

Lamaab. Thus about three-quarters

of the postpubescent males with an occupation find employment out-

Fewer than 4 per cent

side the village.

are

engaged in agriculture

outside the vicinity of the village, particularly in the Gezira area.

The

others are

employed

in

one of the three urban centers (Khar-

toum, Khartoum North, and

Omdurman)

some nonagricultural occupation; one out of four of these is employed by the government either the central government, the Khartoum municipality, or Khartoum Province. About three-fifths of the working populain

—

tion

are

manual laborers and another

nonagricultural

shown in Table 1. Many people in Buurri al Lamaab have two are certainly only a minority. At least ten men regular work are part-time farmers.

fifth

are

"white-collar" workers, as

jobs,

although they

in addition to their

Another recent and increasingly lucrative source of income to house owners in the village strangers

who work

of cheaper rents.

pounds

to five

a

in

It is

is

letting out a part of the

Khartoum and come

house to

to the village in search

income of from two what amounts to two rooms.

possible to have a gross

month from

a rental of

Most Favored Occupations The

writer discussed the relative merits of occupations with about

fifteen informants.

Several occupations were mentioned as being

"the best": teacher, merchant, 4 doctor, engineer, contractor, religious scholar or teacher, government clerk, and blacksmith. 5 All these positions except the last carry prestige, giving the holder a place of

authority over others; in the view of informants he

desk and does no manual

labor.

financially rewarding.

Three informants

they judged a job by

how much money

difficult to obtain a definite

insisted that

Some 4

By

5

behind a

emphasized that

specifically it

brought

in.

In fact

it

in a great deal of

money

is

mean

—for

the owner of a small shop as in with several employees. selection of blacksmith was made by the oldest informant of the a man over 60 who is himself a blacksmith. This selection is most

"merchant," informants did not

—

was

good.

of the positions listed above are in "service" professions

The

are

choice from one informant because he

any job which brings

the village but the

group

sits

For the most part these positions

atypical.

owner of

—

a big shop,

Economy

Village

example, teaching and medicine cates a level of awareness

—and their presence no doubt

indi-

and education which recognizes the crucial

modern Sudan

significance to the

19

of both doctors and teachers.

should not be forgotten, too, that preference for such professions,

It

along with that of merchant, also reflects values associated with Islam. All three have traditionally been- prestigious pursuits in Islamic

countries.

One may

in these professions as the possession

question the extent to which the service element is

a basis for choice,

however. Other values such

of authority, knowledge, and prestige

may

be more

important. Surprisingly enough the majority of informants felt that the

second-best occupation was that of a farmer. Others favored the

merchant, contractor, and lawyer. operator of a

pump "scheme"

gated by gasoline-driven

—

By

farmer was meant the owner-

a relatively large tract of land irri-

pumps and worked by

hired labor. In other

words, the farmer in question tends to be a "gentleman-farmer" rather than a "dirt farmer," the owner-supervisor of a rather sub-

and a business, by the way, that is based on a secure With one exception, all the occupations suggested by have two qualities in common: they provide their holder

stantial business,

investment.

informants

with authority, an authority obtained through money, knowledge,

power (government

or legitimized

which, in the minds of informants labor.

As one

stated:

"You

clerks); or they are positions

do not involve manual

at least,

will never find

anybody here who

work with

say that any occupation which requires one to

except farming,

is

any good, whether mechanic,

is

a tailor.)

6

Work

Routine

in Nonagricultural

(He

More than

half the

or carpenter."

Occupations

employed persons

daily routine of a city worker.

tailor,

will

his hands,

They

in the village follow the

leave

home between

6 and

Khartoum or the neighboring cities of Khartoum North or Omdurman by bus, bicycle, or donkey. They begin work 7 a.m., going to

6

ers,

Informants included unskilled laborers, mechanics, builders, clerical work-

and a blacksmith. Their ages two were literate. They and one is a recent immigrant to

a carpenter, a tailor, a student, a farmer,

ranged from twenty-two to about

sixty.

represent several lineages in the village,

Buurri

al

Lamaab (within

All but

the last ten years).

20

Buurri

Lamaab

al

between 6:30 and 7:30 a.m. and take a break for breakfast about nine. Breakfast usually includes tea and beans and bread, a type of breakfast adopted from the Egyptians. Work is resumed after about hour and continues

half an

when is

the workers return

a holiday, although

two or

until

home

some

three in the afternoon,

for the main meal of the day. Friday

private companies and self-employed

day as well. The private companies which are open on Friday are usually closed on Sunday. During Ramadan, the Muslim month of fasting, hours of work are frequently shortened, particularly for government workers. Exceptions to this working schedule are made in the larger shops and offices in Khartoum, which are generally open from about 8:30 or 9:00 in the morning and close at about 1:30, then open again at night between five and seven. Self-employed merchants and do business on

individuals

vegetable sellers

work

this

practically the entire day.

INCOME AND LIVING STANDARDS Incomes are somewhat self-employed persons,

much they make, tastically

low or

or

if

will either say they have

among

no idea

how

pressed for an estimate often give a fan-

The sums given on some known wages.

fantastically high figure.

are only general estimates based

Table

determine especially

difficult to

who

in

Table

2

Estimates of wages for selected occupations

2.

Sudanese

Occupation

£

per mo.

Unskilled laborers, servants, guards, messengers, gardeners

5~*5

($15-135)

10-25

($20-$ 73 )

Lower-grade clerical workers, elementary and intermediate school teachers

14-20

($ 4 o-$ 5 8)

Truck

15-35

($ 43 -$ioo)

Semiskilled and skilled laborers in

working,

It

textiles,

wood-

metal trades

drivers, bus drivers, taxi drivers

seems

fair to

say that the vast majority of both agricultural and

nonagricultural workers earn

month.

A

less

than twenty Sudanese pounds a

nonagricultural worker, with earnings of between fifteen

and twenty pounds a month, in and 50 per cent of

his

all

likelihood spends

income for food.

between 40

Village

A rough

Economy

21

idea of living standards can be given

by

certain indices

the villagers themselves sometimes use in attempting to weigh the

and by other related indices

relative prosperity of their neighbors,

that reflect local values as well.

portant signs of prosperity

One

of the

first

outward

To

a villager

owning

is

one of the most im-

house made of fired brick.

a

signs of a man's graduation into a relatively

secure and comfortable economic status

is

the tearing

down

of the

houses in

made of mud and manure and the construction of a house. This is usually followed by transforming the other the compound to brick as well. In Buurri al Lamaab a

man who

has such a house also has

old guesthouse

red brick

some easy

chairs of

type, electric lights, a water pipe running into his

European

compound, and

very likely a battery-operated radio. About one out of ten householders resides in a dwelling constructed at least in part of fired brick.

Four or five individuals own automobiles, and out of more than three hundred households eight have electric refrigerators. Associated with such items are tile floors in the guesthouse. These possessions may be viewed as signs of the highest degree of economic attainment in Buurri

Lamaab.

al

Other indicators of living standards such chairs,

and

electric lights are useful for

members of the community.

A

as

running water, easy

marking

off the poorer

household that lacks these items

considered an extremely poor one, as

is

Although no count was made

water but lacks chairs and

electricity.

of such households

estimated that about one-fifth

these

is

fall

into

Such houses are inhabited by the unskilled many members of former slave families, and all the very

two

laborers,

it

is

one which possesses running

categories.

recent southern Sudanese immigrants to the village.

A slightly more well off in Buurri

prosperous group, yet one which al

Lamaab

terms,

is

represented

is still

by

not very

those

who

have no electric lighting but do have running water, one or two easy chairs,

and often quite well-made

mud

houses and compounds.

Probably half the households, however, have tricity,

The

mud

dwellings, elec-

easy chairs, and running water.

what extent one can compare Buurri al Lamaab with other Sudanese villages, or even with Buurri al Lamaab question arises to

as it existed

example

is

forty years ago, in terms of these indices. Electricity for just

not available to most Sudanese villages and

it

was

22

Buurri

Lamaab

al

al Lamaab until 1958. Furthermore, values Land or livestock are not as important in Buurri al Lamaab they once were or as they are in more rural areas. Let us set aside

not available to Buurri change. as

for a tors

moment these obvious limitations and assume that our indicashow relative well-being to some extent. Buurri al Lamaab,

then, stands out as a rather prosperous village in the

and

life in

physically It

Arab Sudan,

the village today, compared to forty years ago,

more comfortable

is

at least

for the great majority. 7

should be noted in passing that these indices of material well-

being used by villagers are primarily products of European tech-

nology and

it is

primarily the wealthier villagers

this respect at least the

more wealthy

are

more

who

with so-called modernization than are the poorer

would be

a

use them. In

closely identified villagers.

it

mistake to conclude that the wealthier or the "upper

classes" therefore favor these innovations

and are

as a result forces

them and

for change while the poor or the "lower classes" oppose are thus a conservative force.

The

piped water, radios, and the like

Whatever

But

else it

may

poor, too,

if

would have

electricity,

they had the money.

have caused,

life

under

British rule provided

employment at wages that were high for the Sudan, and British Army camps served as a veritable gold mine of supplies easily pilfered by employees. The presence of the British thus served to raise living standards. It is no wonder that a strong positive attitude toward the British is found in the village and that some dissatisfaction exists with the present independent government for having removed this source and replaced it by less rewarding jobs. villagers steady

AGRICULTURE IN BUURRI AL LAMAAB Cultivation of Crops

Although agriculture today employs only a minority of the popuit remains the largest and most important single occupation

lation,

and furthermore has been

until recently the traditional occupation

7 One important index of the living standard in rural Sudan would be the amount of arable land or number of livestock owned. Because of the alterations in the economic base of Buurri al Lamaab, this is not applicable. Wealth in

land

is

reflected,

however, through other indices. The biggest landowners

all

possess brick houses, and at the other extreme sharecroppers and renters tend

not to have electricity or running water.

Village

Economy

of the village. Agriculture in Buurri

al

23

Lamaab

is

based on the culti-

Khartoum market. and on somewhat dis-

vation of vegetables and fruits for sale in the

These are raised through the use of

irrigation

persed farmlands, almost half of which are outside the territory of the village.

make

Riverain farmers in this vicinity

use of three agricultural

systems: rain cultivation, riverbank farming, and artificial irrigation.

Rain cultivation or "dry" farming

is

possible only during the rainy

from July to October. Sorghum is the chief crop; it is planted the unplowed damp earth by means of a dibble (saluuka). In areas

season, in

as far

north

as

Khartoum

this is

an extremely risky type of farming,

Sorghum when by this method in Buurri al Lamaab rarely matures properly for making flour; rather, the stalks are used for feeding animals. Rain cultivation of sorghum in the earlier days of the village was of some because there

is

inadequate moisture in most years.

raised

importance, but in the rainy season of 1959 no one used this type of agriculture.

Riverbank

(jirf)

cultivation involves planting the

of the Nile once the river has begun to recede from stage in late October.

banks

As

in rain cultivation, the

muddy its

damp

banks

high flood

earth of the

planted with the dibble without prior preparation.

is

major crop grown on these banks

is

a

bean

known

as

The

luubya,

though some sorghum, tomatoes, and other vegetables are

al-

also

which appear when the river reaches a lower point, are often planted in watermelons. There is usually sufficient moisture in the banks for plant growth until early March, after which any cultivation must be supplemented by artificial irrigation. Most farmers, however, do not use irrigation machinery on the planted.

Sand

bars,

riverbank but try to harvest their crops

bank agriculture

is

abandoned by

by March or

late

April. All river-

June because of the rising

Nile. Artificially irrigated farmlands yield

by

far the largest part of the

Three types of mechanical lift irrigation are Lamaab: the shadoof (called nabaru in the Sudan), the sakieh or Persian water wheel, and the gasoline-driven pump. The shadoof is probably the most ancient form of irrigation machinery. It consists of a wooden frame across which is placed a pole weighted at one end with a large clump of dried clay, while agricultural produce.

employed

in Buurri al

Buurri

24 at the other

end

a

Lamaab

al

water container

is tied.

The

operator draws the

container into the river below and allows the weight to raise the

water up to a channel where

it is dumped and runs by gravity flow onto the cultivated ground. Often two shadoofs are operated side

by

side so that double the

on how

far the

amount of land

is

Depending

irrigated.

water has to be raised from the

river,

one shadoof

can irrigate from one-half to two-thirds of an acre. 8 Until about a hundred years ago the shadoof was the only type of mechanical irrigation used in Buurri al

Lamaab. Apparently sometime between

i860 and 1880, the Persian water wheel, or sakieh, was introduced,

but the shadoof continued to be of some importance for a time thereafter.

Buurri

The

Today only al

nine shadoofs are operated

the farmers of

Lamaab.

more efficient and complex irrigation yoked to a horizontal wheel which wheel attached to which are water buckets. As the

Persian water wheel

machine.

by

One

or

drives a vertical bulls are driven

two

is

a

bulls are

around a circular path the water buckets are lowered

into the river and raised and the water

ing onto the cultivated ground.

A

well rather than at the river's edge

is

deposited in a channel lead-

sakieh operated at the side of a is

known

matara can irrigate between four and

as a matara.

five acres in the

A

sakieh or

high Nile sea-

son and from one to one and a half in the hottest and driest weather. 9

Twelve

sakiehs are operated in Buurri al

Lamaab, ten owned by

vil-

meup in

lage residents. Sakiehs supply water for over 40 per cent of the

chanically irrigated land.

Lamaab about

The

first

gasoline

pump was

Those

set

Buurri

al

are

small ones, the largest having a pipe five inches in diameter.

all

In Buurri

al

thirty years ago.

Lamaab both pumps and

an individual or a family.

One

in use in the village

sakiehs are usually

owned by

does not find here as in the Northern

Province the complicated multiple ownership of pumps. 10 Within 8 W. N. Allen and R. J. Smith in J. D. Tothill, Agriculture in the Sudan (London: Oxford University Press, 1948), p. 631. 9

Ibid., p. 628.

"Following are some examples of pump ownership in the vicinity of Khartoum: In Tuuti Island, between Omdurman and Khartoum, most of the farmers belong to a cooperative society that owns and operates a 24-inch pipe gasoline pump, which supplies most of the irrigation water for the island. In nearby Jirayf Gharb there are about sixty pump schemes, no one of which is owned by more than four individuals. In Jayli, about twenty miles north of Khartoum, most of the pumps are individually owned. In this case there are a considerable number of large schemes worked by tenants and sharecroppers.

Village the confines of the village six

Economy

25

pumps supply water

for over 55 per

cent of the mechanically irrigated land.

Where mechanical irrigation is used, the soil is fertilized and plowed. The large clods are broken up by a short-handled hoe, and the land

divided into plots about six feet square

is

mounds of

dirt.

These operate

as dikes

by

building up

which may be broken

to

allow a plot to be irrigated or closed off so that water will not enter.

The ground

is

irrigated before planting,

and flooding does not occur

again until after the seeds have germinated.

flooded twice a

week

Harvesting of vegetables and

Rather

single effort.

it is

can take to market and

fruits

a load in the evening

and

is

home about

never accomplished in

what the farmer

make

a practice of preparing

usually

by

The farmer

re-

rising at 4:00 a.m. to take it is

sold.

it,

9:00 a.m. for another day's work. al

Lamaab farmers are truck gardeners, there what is planted and to a lesser extent

considerable variation in

when it is how much regular

planted. a

3

the next morning. During the harvesting

donkey, into the Khartoum market, where Because Buurri

a rule vegetables are

regulated according to

sell

period of any crop, farmers usually

turns

As

thereafter until harvesting.

The

is

in

agricultural cycle also varies according to

farmer depends on riverbank farming or on planting in

fields.

Several never bother to plant the riverbanks at

all;

a few are almost exclusively riverbank farmers. Nearly every farmer grows tomatoes, okra, eggplant, squash, and Jew's mallow (mulu-

khiiya).

Most of them

also

grow sweet

potatoes, beans, cucumbers,

melons, peppers, and different varieties of leafy vegetables, including a

type of spinach

tatoes, onions,

(salj).

A

number of farmers

cultivate white po-

berseem (a type of clover), and sorghum. There are

orchards containing lemon, guava, and date trees and a few

also

mangoes.

Although approximately 310 acres of land within Buurri al Lamaab be classed as irrigated farm land, only about one-half of this actually under cultivation. This is largely because farmers do not

may is

have adequate water or lack for

pumping the water

tivated because they are cultivate

money

for the purchase of equipment

Some lands remain unculowned by Khartoum residents who neither

to the

whole

area.

nor rent out the land. All irrigated farm lands, whether

used for vegetable crops or as orchards, are adjacent to the river and

do not extend more than

a quarter of a mile

away from

it.

26

Buurri

In general, land bears tensive

Lamaab

al

two crops

a year. Cultivation

is

most ex-

from November to January and most restricted from April Within the village and its vicinity farmers cultivate about

to July.

200 acres in

November and

less

than 150 in May. These include

approximately forty acres that are permanent fruit orchards; seasonal variations are in vegetable crops.

A brief outline of the agricultural cycle may be helpful: Al

Khariif, the rainy season, begins in mid- July and officially

ends in mid-October, although there

is little

or no rain after mid-

September.

Low-lying lands and riverbanks are abandoned because of Nile flood. After a good rain sorghum may be

July:

planted

by saluuka on

On

nonirrigated lands.

the high

irrigated lands midukhiiya (Jew's mallow), cress, okra,

and squash are harvested, and beans, squash, and okra are planted.

Tomato and eggplant

August:

ing in October and

mangoes

may September:

are sown in beds for transplantNovember. Lemons, guavas, and

are harvested. Mulukhiiya, cress,

and squash

be harvested.

Lemons, guavas, mangoes, and dates are harvested.

Ad Darat, roughly equivalent to autumn, begins about mid-October and ends

in early

October:

December.

Dates are harvested. Limited planting of beans, sor-

ghum,

may November:

millet,

and tomatoes on riverbanks and low land

begin.

Extensive riverbank planting begins. Okra, eggplant, beans, peppers, and squash are picked.

As

Shitta, winter, lasts

December:

from about December to April

Winter crops

are planted

on high

lands:

first.

white pota-

toes, berseem, onions, lettuce, cabbage, tomatoes. Okra,

eggplant, squash, and sugar cane (for eating on stalk,

not for refining) are planted. Watermelons and cu-

cumbers are planted on the riverbanks. Sweet potatoes, okra, eggplant, and peppers, planted before the rainy season in June, are harvested.

Village

Harvesting

January:

and bean

is

Economy

27

continued, including tomatoes and beans,

stalks for stock feed.

Maize and purslane

are planted.

Tomatoes, white potatoes, sweet potatoes, okra, egg-

February:

and bean

plant, peppers, berseem,

March:

Plant mulukhiiya, okra,

'cress,

stalks are harvested.

vest squash, okra, eggplant, peppers, tomatoes, ber, berseem, lettuce, melons,

As

from April

Sayf, summer, extends

Harvesting

April:

is

Harcucum-

purslane, eggplant.

and white potatoes.

first

to mid- July.

continued, including lemons and water-

melons.

More lemons and sweet

May:

corn, mulukhiiya, and purslane

are picked.

Mulukhiiya, okra, eggplant, squash, sugar cane, and

June:

sweet corn are gathered. Sweet potatoes, okra, peppers, cabbage, and lettuce are planted.

Some farmers

in Buurri al

Lamaab

participate in an annual migra-

tion as part of their agricultural cycle. In late

they move their equipment and

many

December or January

of their personal belongings

on the White Nile just south of Khartoum, where they set up temporary straw dwellings and begin to cultivate the low-lying lands. This land is government property and is rented to the farmers for a small fee. It is flooded by the high Nile from July until November. The damp earth is planted in early January, and later, to an area

up to irrigate the crops. In July these families return Lamaab, where they rent lands high off the riverbanks

sakiehs are set to Buurri al

and plant in

a

second crop, irrigating with their sakiehs and harvesting

November and December.

Such "transhumance" is practical because sakieh irrigation direct from the river at Buurri al Lamaab becomes difficult by January, owing to the drop in the river level, which increases the distance the machine must raise the water.

By moving

farmers have land closer to the river easier.

the

In addition, the

soil is

Niles.

number

to the

White Nile

and sakieh irrigation

damp

growing season and hence does not require

the past, a far greater

two

White Nile

level,

for the

first

is

part of

initial irrigation.

In

of farmers migrated between the

28

Buurri

al

Lamaab

Livestock

Whether they are farmers or not, the majority of from two to five goats. A few households also keep

families have

gards as an essential part of his

morning

sheep. Goats and sheep are the primary sources of milk, which the Sudanese rediet, especially in his

tea.

Some sheep are raised to be slaughtered at the time of the Great Feast. About half a dozen farmers own milking cows, and a larger number have bulls to pull sakiehs and plows. There are still two professional shepherds in Buurri al Lamaab, one of whom has approximately seventy-five goats and sheep while the second has slightly

fewer.

The

latter also has nine

cows.

Most farmers own at least one donkey, but among the nonagricultural population the donkey is being rapidly replaced by the bicycle.

Many

families also have

between four and twelve chickens.

Land Acquisition Land may be acquired by purchase, by

inheritance,

and use of unclaimed or abandoned land, and by

by occupation payment

gift or in

of a debt.

Purchase of land. Land

is

not infrequently bought and sold to

nonresidents and residents alike.

The landowner

in Buurri al

does not share the viewpoint of the Egyptian fellahin, to land

is

sacred and the thought of selling

it

a

Lamaab

whom

blasphemy.

the

The im-

mediate heirs of two of the four original landowners in the village sold their entire inheritance.

Some

of the heirs sold out before the

Mahdiiya (1880), the others not until after the British occupation (1898). In the village, some will say that these individuals sold their holdings because they preferred to drink native beer and arak and

wanted the money for this pastime. It is also pointed out that, since they had no sakiehs, the high land they sold was difficult for them to irrigate, and they could manage to get along by cultivating riverbanks. Further, the thought of the money to be had from the sale of these high lands was enticing. Other factors contributed to the sale

of lands in the period immediately following the British occu-

pation.

Attractive

nonagricultural

occupations

became

available,

same time Khartoum residents were interested in purchasing land for purposes of speculation, in the hope that the deand

at the

Economy

Village

29

velopment of the city would move in the direction of the village. (This was a slight miscalculation, since the city has only just begun to develop in the direction of Buurri al Lamaab.)

Two

processes are demonstrated here. First, the Buurri

and examples from other areas

situation

tendency for original small landholders to

more well-to-do or

who

buyers

in

some

al

Lamaab some

in the vicinity indicate sell

their property to

merely more shrewd and thrifty

cases

in turn develop the land.

The

previous owners acquire

nonagricultural jobs or attempt to carry on their agriculture on

land available to them. Soon their income from the sale of property

They

disappears.

the

men

to

often find themselves tenants or sharecroppers of

whom

discover, there

is

they had sold their lands, because,

no

available land

good enough

as

they soon

to cultivate. (River

banks are highly erratic in their formation and composition, changing from year to year; in addition, an

owner of land behind the

banks can claim ownership of the banks themselves.)

The second

process

is

a consequence of being near an expanding

urban center. The demand for land for nonagricultural purposes raises the

is tempted to becoming a kind of

land's value. Further, the rural villager

abandon the farm and seek work

in the city, so

"rurban" proletarian.

The conception

of one's

own

sidered a characteristic peasant

Buurri

al

Lamaab farmers have It

the opportunity to

become

shepherds, to

of supporting

whom it.

is

often con-

The frequency with which their land may show the absence

trait.

sold

could be argued that these villagers never had

of such an attitude.

thirty years ago, like

piece of land as sacred

peasants in this sense.

One hundred and

most of the Arab Sudanese, they were primarily livestock

The

is

villagers,

the chief value and land

is

a

means

however, soon developed a more

economy, but it was the kind of economy that depended on slave labor and a market for sale of crops, with livestock a supplement. In addition there was no great scarcity of land. Such a situation is not conducive to the development of a agriculturally oriented

"peasant" orientation. attitude

On

toward the land

the contrary, as

it

may

an object to be used and manipulated

Even while

this

village, there arose a

new

in the city in nonagricultural occupations.

Al-

for certain ends rather than as an end in

type of agriculture was developing in the impetus to

work

encourage a profane

itself.

$o

Buurri

though

change from farmer-shepherd to urban proletariat

this

be peculiar to Buurri

one suspects that

this

characteristic of the It

Lamaab

al

al

Lamaab and

may

similar villages in the Sudan,

profane or nonpeasant attitude toward land

is

Arab Sudanese.

should be mentioned concerning land purchases that there are

farmers in Buurri

al

Lamaab who could

suburban housing development

class"

sell

their lands for "upper-

they

at ten times the price

would have received thirty years ago, but they are not interested. Possibly they are more concerned about the future security of their families than were other individuals who sold their holdings, leaving their progeny with nothing. Possibly, also, they have developed some of that love of the land supposedly characteristic of the peasant. Inheritance of land. Land is inherited according to the complicated rules of Islamic law, the basis for which is found in the Koran, Sura IV, "Women," verses n, 12, and 177: 11

—Allah

male the equivalent of the portion of two females, and

to the

be

chargeth you concerning (the provision for) your children:

women more

and

than two, then theirs

son and

his parents are his heirs,

and

third;

And

.

.

you belongeth

which they

or debt (they

his

may

if

a half of that

they have

ye have

leave, after

which your wives leave, if then unto you the fourth

any legacy they may have bequeathed,

may

if

which ye

have bequeathed, or debt (ye

And

if

a

man

woman

or a

ye have no

may

have

unto them child,

but

leave, after

any

have contracted,

a distant heir

(having

neither parent nor child), and he (or she) have a brother or

sister

a

(only on the mother's side) then to each of them twain (the

brother and shall

And

have contracted, hath been paid).

a child then the eighth of that

hath been paid). left

mother appertaineth the

a child

belongeth the fourth of that which ye leave

legacy ye

he have no

.

they have no child: but

if

if

then to his mother appertaineth the

any legacy he may have bequeathed, or debt (hath been

—And unto of that

there

to [the parents of the

he have a son: and

he have brethren, then to

if

sixth, after

paid).

if

if

two-thirds of the inheritance,

there be one (only) then the half.

if

deceased] a sixth of the inheritance,

12

is

sister) the sixth,

be sharers,

and

in the third, after

if

they be more than two, then they

any legacy that may have been be-

queathed or debt (contracted) not injuring (the heirs by willing away

more than 11

a third of the heritage)

Muhammad M.

Mentor Books,

Pickthall,

1959), p. 80.

hath been paid.

The Meaning

.

of the Glorious

.

.

n

Koran (New York:

Village 177

—They

for

5/ pronounced

ask thee for a pronouncement. Say: Allah hath

you concerning

a sister, hers

had she died

is

distant kindred. If a

half the heritage,

childless.

thirds of the heritage,

the male

Economy

is

And and

if

and he have

die childless

and he would have inherited from her

there be

if

man

two

sisters,

the equivalent of the share of

two

then theirs are two-

men and women,

they be brethren,

females.

unto

12 .

.

.

These basic principles of inheritance were incorporated into the

Sudan the Maliki form of the law has

shari'a or Islamic law. In the

been traditionally applied, although Hanafi law

is

in the shari'a courts.

These

legal schools (singular,

only in minor

details

from each

differ

inheritance the difference

pation

much

extremely

is

and

other, slight.

in connection

with

Since the British occu-

of the shari'a has been set aside and the laws of inherit-

ance have been modified. For example, Anderson

From

today employed mazhab) actually

the time of the Rightly

Muslims have been agreed that unless the other heirs consent.

Guided Caliphs down no legacy at all can be

[A new law]

to

1946 Sunni

left to

an heir

has completely reversed the

unanimous Sunni practice of centuries and given

make bequests

states:

a testator the right to

to heirs or non-heirs within the "bequeathable third" of

his property. 13

The

bequeathable third refers to the right of a

man

to bequeath

up to one-third of his property without consent of his legatees. Although a part of Muslim law, this has never been the practice until provided for by a law established by the British in 1946. Such bequests of land in Buurri

al

Lamaab

are occasionally found.

Thus

a

recent large landholder bequeathed about one-eighth of his estate to his son,

who was

the farmer of the land. After this bequest the

remainder was divided, and the son received

his share of that ac-

cording to law. In some parts of the Muslim world, Islamic law to the contrary,

women

do not inherit

over Islamic law. This

do inherit

their share,

land. Local is

male relative

»Ibid.,

f

(

urf) takes precedence

not the case in Buurri

and several

al

Lamaab.

in the village are

result. In most cases, although the

close

custom

woman

—usually her husband

has

title

as a

to property, a

or, lacking that,

? 9S. "J. N. D. Anderson, "Recent Developments in Shari'a Sudan Notes and Records, XXXI (1950), 90.

Women

landowners

her brother,

.

Law

in the Sudan,"

Buurri

$2 father, or son

—

what he

to do

al

Lamaab As such he

acts as guardian (wakiil).

with the land. As

pleases

tions a large holding, although formally divided

often held together as a unit in the

is

usually able

is

a matter of fact in

name

among

most

all

situa-

the heirs,

owner

of the original

and under the guardianship of one heir designated by the others. This practice disguises the extent of actual land fractionation and

makes

it

difficult to

a guardian

is

permitted to farm an entire estate while the other heirs

employed

are

specify the inherited holdings. 14 In some cases

in nonagricultural occupations.

of the several heirs, the

sires

come from

the estate with them.

one of their number

who

According to the de-

may or may not Heirs may sell their

njoakiil

divide the in-

inheritance to

farms the land. Such procedures have the

incidental effect of avoiding excessive fractionation

and for

pose would be practical only in areas, such as Buurri

where most

pur-

Lamaab,

inheritors engage in nonagricultural pursuits. 15

has been reported that

It

this

al

their duties honestly.

some guardians have not always executed

Apparently they convince their fellow heirs

that the land should be sold to a certain person, and, as wakiil, they

make

a written

buyer

agreement containing the price to be paid, but the

in secret also orally agrees to give

an additional sum to the

wakiil. It is easier

man.

A

he

usually

is

man

to take advantage of a

woman

property holder than a

has a considerable legal advantage over a

woman, and

more

husband can

sophisticated in such matters.

So

a

take advantage of his wife's illiteracy and general lack of knowledge

of business and legal

affairs. It is also

a

husband

when it deals with any large items of property. may by marriage acquire control, if not actual title,

to his wife's lands and house.

if

He would

inherit part of her property

her death, just as she would inherit a smaller amount from him

he died It is

is

manage

business, especially

all

Thus at

part of the male role to

to 14

first.

sometimes said in the village that the

marry

it.

A

way

to acquire property

husband can, according to Islamic law,

inherit

See A. B. Mishkin, "Land Registration," Sudan Notes and Records,

(1950), for further discussion of this

problem

as it deals

XXXI

with the Sudan in

general.

"Islamic inheritance

regulations

are

sometimes criticized for producing same time one could argue that

excessive land fractionation, although at the

they tend to hinder the accumulation of land by the few.

Village

from

a fourth

up

$$

to a half of his wife's estate. In Buurri al

however, there are not estate

Economy

many

man

examples of a

through marriage to a landed woman.

Lamaab,

inheriting real

It is possible,

although

informants were unaware of the situation, that Shukayry, one of the founders of the village, subtribe and

moved

to

what

who married a woman of the Garaajiij is now Buurri al Lamaab, acquired part

of his landholdings through his marriage.

A

more

certain case

is

the marriage of a landless Ja'afra laborer to the daughter of one of the four original landholders in Buurri

woman

Lamaab. However, the

appointed her eldest son by this marriage as the overseer of

the land, and he later proceeded to this

al

family would today have

the daughter of the

Had

sell it.

a sizable holding.

owner of property

in

he not sold the land,

Another man married both the village and

Jirayf and thus today his heirs have a small piece of land in Jirayf.

On

whole there

the

is little

relationship

between marriage patterns

and landownership. The biggest owners in the acquired their lands through purchase,

through inheritance from quired the land

village today have occupancy and use, or

a father or paternal grandfather

by purchase or occupancy. In the

for inheritance, the plot

who

ac-

division of land

divided in rectangular strips at right angles

is

to the riverbank so that each heir has river frontage.

Occupation and use of unclaimed land. Hiyaaza involves the acquisition of unowned land by occupation and use for a period of years, after

which

it

may

be registered

property of the oc-

as the

cupant. Hiyaaza often raises disputes over islands that appear

and then fertile, is

in the Nile.

now

Because they are easily irrigated and especially

they are prized, and

when one

does appear in the river, there

frequently litigation over ownership, especially between the

lages nearest the island

on

vil-

either side of the river.

Occupation and use of abandoned land. Wad alyaad ("leaving the hand" or abandonment) refers to the acquisition of abandoned land f

by occupancy and use. Before one can make final claim to such land, he must occupy it for ten years. In the meantime the original owner may reclaim it. If this is not done, after ten years it becomes the property of the one

One

who

occupied

it if

he registers

it

as such.

dispute over the application of toad' alyaad concerned an island

actually in Jirayf

Lamaab

Gharb but today owned primarily by Buurri al was occupied and worked by members

farmers. This island

Buurri

34

al

Lamaab

of the Garaajiij subtribe living in Jirayf and Buurri

al

Lamaab. They

allowed members of the Zanaarkha tribe living in one of the hamlets of Jirayf to cultivate the riverbanks on the edges of the island for some years without ever asking for any rent "because the Zanaarkha are very poor." In 1936 the Zanaarkha decided to lay claim to this

land that they had

worked

many years, arguing that it had The Zanaarkha threatened to take

for so

been abandoned by the Garaajiij.

by force, and some informants stated that they up arms but that the conflict was stopped by the police before anyone was injured. Whether or not they went this far is not certain, but in any case the omda settled the dispute by allowing the Garaajiij lands actually took

the Zanaarkha to continue using the riverbanks and the Garaajiij to retain title to the property.

Gift of land or transfer in payment of a debt. In a marriage contract provision can be in the

her.

made

form of money or land

This

is

circumsized. This is

in case the

husband

amount

dies or divorces

called sadaaq. Occasionally land has been given as a pres-

ent to the bridegroom or,

land

for a bride to receive a stated

is

more

known

not large, often

less

rarely, to a

as hadiiya. In

boy who

has just been

such cases the amount of

than an acre. Both practices are today

uncommon. Indeed, it is sometimes said that when a man gives land as a wedding gift he must be very poor and have no money. In former times people had more land than money; today they have more money than land. It almost goes without saying that making pay debts only tends to increase the problems of fractionation and to complicate the whole landownergifts of land

and using

it

to

ship picture.

Lands Not Privately

Owned

Besides belonging to individuals, land

and by waqfs

is

owned by

the government

(trusts in perpetuity for charitable purposes).

government has

laid claim to all lands in the village that are

The

not con-

tained within the boundaries of the irrigation units and are not actual

dwelling

sites.

the village grasslands,

past they

is

In effect this means that almost half the territory of

government property. These

areas are

open unirrigated

today used only for livestock grazing, although in the

were used

in part for rain cultivation of

harvesting wild hay. In Buurri

al

Lamaab

there

sorghum and for is

one piece of

Economy

Village

property established by Sharif Yuussif

al

3$

Hindi

as a

waqf, the pro-

duce from which has been assigned by the donor to help support the guesthouse maintained by the Hindiiya brotherhood and to aid the general welfare of members of the organization. Any waqf exists forever as a kind of corporation and

is

continued under the direction

of a manager.

Land Ownership and Use It is

Buurri

difficult to

Lamaab

al

number of

ascertain the

each heir formally receives his share,

name of

preserved in the

actual landowners in

because, although on the death of a landowner to the land

title

the deceased. In

have some legal claim to agricultural lands. Nearly be considered small holdings

Villagers

own

residents have

of

two

Nile.

are other individuals

most of the

—

is

irrigable lands of

Eleven

Lamaab White

al

Lamaab;

al

lands in

Lamaab

are included within seventeen sakieh divisions.

owned by

residents of

all

of this

—

it

now government property. There

who own farm

Within the confines of Buurri is

it.

Farh lineage once claimed the unirrigated grazing land

amounts to several square miles

area

of these lands

five acres.

farm property in nearby Jirayf Gharb. The members

between Lamaab White Nile and Buurri

Buurri

all

women, who

land both within the village and outside

lineages claim

The

—under

sometimes

likelihood, there are

all

over one hundred individuals, about a quarter of them

may

is

more

itself

distant places.

about 310 acres

Almost

a third of this

Khartoum, Buurri ad Daraaysa, and

The approximately 195 real Lamaab residents. owned by one man; and there

Mahas, mainly businessmen.

al

maining acres are distributed among Buurri

More than 25 per cent of this land is are two joint holdings comprising between twenty and thirty acres. The remaining lands are individual and joint holdings of less than ten acres each. Over 90 per cent of these 195 acres is owned by members of six lineages in the village.

quired

unused Buurri

by

its

Lamaab,

The

descendants of the original landowners in

in contrast, are largely propertyless today.

In addition to those farmers

tween Buurri

of this land has been ac-

present owners through purchase and occupation of

territory. al

Much

al

Lamaab and

who

the

divide their

White

working time bewho,

Nile, there are others

because of insufficient land in the village, farm elsewhere as well.

Buurri

36

al

Lamaab

Indeed close to 20 per cent of those classed the Gezira

Scheme

cultivators

who

farmers operate in

as

which they make occasional visits especially in the cotton-planting and the sorghum- and cottonharvesting seasons (July-September, December, January-February). 16 Most of them act only in a supervisory capacity and depend on hired labor to carry on much of the work. There are also rain area, to

Gezira between July and December,

live in the

raising a crop of

sorghum, after which they move back to Buurri

Lamaab.

al

The remaining

farmers are occupied in Buurri

al Lamaab, Jirayf, and the Khartoum municipality, and therefore they usually live

in the village,

going out to their

by donkey

fields

to

work. About

55 per cent of their farming operations are run entirely

kind of rental

basis.

For the most part land

is

on some

rented for cash, usually

at a rate equivalent to

approximately two dollars an acre a year, the

tenant providing

the implements, seed, fertilizer, water, and

power.

It is said

all

some

that

private

owners

collect

tenants or at most collect only a token fee.

A

no rent from

few

their

landless farmers

have what must be termed sharecropping arrangements with a landlord.

This

is

known

Sudan

in

and means that the landlord

as turbaal

provides the water, implements, half or

the seeds, and the renter

all

provides his labor and possibly the remaining half of the seeds.

crop

is

then divided

agreement; incidentally

it is

the most

19

is

not included in such an

common form in the and

none owns

Most of

is

from Khartoum.

Lamaab cultivates more than about them cultivate less than three acres; of al

a sakieh or a gasoline

The Gezira Scheme

Sudan, being widespread

in the villages farther

of the renters in Buurri

six acres in a season.

these

Fruit

requires a separate arrangement. This type of tenancy

in neighboring Jirayf

None

fifty-fifty.

The

a massive

pump

for irrigation; each

cotton-growing project under the direction

of the Sudan government and located in the Blue Nile Province. For a small

sum

from the owners and divides it into deemed adequate to support one man and his family. Each operator is a tenant of the government project. He may also be an owner of land which is rented to the government. In distributing tenancies preference is given by the government to prior residents and landholders. Thus, merely because a man has one or two tenancies in the Scheme does not technically mean he is a landowner. Some of them do own land; others are tenants only. In any case it is the aim of the government that all tenants should eventually become the government rents the land

tenancies

landowners.

Economy

Village

must

either

a shadoof. six acres,

buy water from

The

the

owner of

57

pump

a sakieh or

or use

from three to

larger rental operations, cultivating

depend either upon sakiehs or purchased water. All the

renters are further characterized

by

the fact that they rarely

if

hire labor; only one such operation employs outside labor.

others either are

worked by one man -with the

of relatives or are family affairs involving a this

his sons. Further,

group tends to make greater use of the riverbanks. 45 per cent of the farm operations

The remaining

in the general

landowning farmers,

though some make use of lands belonging to close

which

case

no rent

is

paid. In this

but one farmer cultivating

from one up more than three

ing over six acres in a season. Gasoline

owned by members in addition

own

in

to fifteen acres, with acres and six cultivat-

pumps

for irrigation are

the orchards in the

all

few

community, and

they depend on hired labor.

Agricultural Labor and

Farming

relatives,

of this group, and in contrast to the renters

use shadoofs. These farmers

al-

group are the cultivators of larger

acreages, ranging in one season all

The

occasional assistance

man and

vicinity of the village represents a class of

ever

still

Farm Operation

remains largely a family enterprise.

his sons or brothers

working with him

time. In the absence of a father,

A man may have

either full time or part of the

mature brothers do not usually work

together on the same operation on a full-time

basis.

A

man may on

occasion receive the assistance of his brothers, with cultivating, for

example, but they generally would not be formally involved in the business.

Two

brothers, both farmers, tend to split

and make separate operations when their father

may

continue to run jointly a gasoline

occasionly. Several cultivators

and

in such cases the father

There

is

dies,

pump and

up

their land

although they

help each other

work with their full-grown sons, the head man and financial overseer.

landowning farmers whose grown sons work in Khartoum and rarely assist their fathers. Three of the largest cultivators in the village rely primarily on hired labor, obtaining little or no aid from their sons. Paid farm labor is usually supplied by recent immigrants to the village and by former slaves.

are several instances in the village of

The

majority are bachelors.

Adolescent and prepubescent sons help their fathers

at least

on

a

Buurri

$8

al

Lamaab

part-time basis in picking vegetables, weeding, tending the bulls on the sakieh, and acting as

One hundred

cultivated lands. 17

watchmen on

years ago the residents of Buurri

al

Lamaab were

riverbank cultivators and shepherds. Gradually through the course of the years, and particularly as a result of British occupation of the

economy of the village was transformed. For a while, until about 1930, Buurri al Lamaab was largely a vegetable-growing comSudan, the

munity with an increasing minority of its residents seeking employment outside the village in nonagricultural pursuits. For more than

two decades most

villagers

have been dependent on work in Khar-

toum. x\nalysis of occupational data show that today about threenonagricultural manual laborers, one-fifth are engaged in

fifths are

and the remaining are merchants and "white-collar"

agriculture,

workers. There can be

little

doubt that

this

trend

ture will continue, and within a very short time that agriculture as a is

swallowed up

As

will be

way

of

cations in the

economy

especially those of

it

may

agricul-

be expected

will disappear entirely, as the village

life

Khartoum

in the

brought out

away from

metropolis.

later in the

chapter on kinship, the modifi-

are reflected in alteration in kinship roles,

we might make more

men. Here

explicit

some

of the modifications in general behavior patterns that have resulted

from the change from an

agricultural

posed chiefly of wageworkers. a regular schedule of

community

First, villagers

work, appearing

at

to a village

com-

have had to adapt to

and leaving the place of

business at stated hours, in contrast to the looser schedule of Sudanese agriculture. Second, they as

long

as

work

for wages, getting a secure income

they are employed, in contrast to the somewhat erratic

income they had from

agriculture.

On

the other hand, the greater

long-run security in the ownership of land and livestock It

must be

said,

is

absent.

however, that the problems of the future and of

long-range security are apparently not ones that disturb Sudanese. This of course

may

many

contribute to the ease with which a

Sudanese can be transformed from farmer to wage laborer. Third,

wage

as 17

earners,

working with Westernized Sudanese and non-

Various institutionalized systems of mutual economic aid exist in Buurri Lamaab. The religiously instituted obligation to give alms is discussed in Chapter VII. Gift giving in connection with life crisis rites is dealt with in Chapter VIII. al

Village Sudanese, they are exposed

ways.

One

cultural

There

Economy

more completely

39 to

Western and urban

should not conclude, however, that there

breakdown and surrender of

is

a

complete

traditional Sudanese patterns.

considerable indication of bias and of cultural imperialism

is

in the thesis that,

once exposed to some western European pattern is going to shed on the spot ways and adopt the supposedly superior Western

of behavior, an indigenous population all its

traditional

customs. This certainly has not happened in Buurri

al Lamaab. It some elements of traditional culture are abandoned in favor of what are deemed superior Western habits. It is also true,

is

true that

however, that such exposure only tends to reinforce belief in other aspects of traditional culture. Further, the observer discovers that it is

possible for a villager to develop a highly

one

set of circumstances, for

role

when he

This role at

work

returns to the village and associates with his kinsmen.

symbolized by the wearing of Western garb Khartoum and of Sudanese dress at home in the village.

flexibility is

in

Westernized role for

example, in Khartoum, and another

Chapter

Organization

Political

BUURRI AL LAMAAB 'umudiiya villages

is

III

village

f

part of Al Barraari umudiiya.

is

a political unit within the

and hamlets and

the aid of shaykhs.

The

Sudan which includes

administered

is

An

several

by an omda (mayor), with r

boundaries of Al Barraari umudiiya along

it are indicated on Map 2. Jirayf on the map, has an autonomous status. Lamaab were in the earlier part of the century

with the hamlets located within

Shaykhdom,

also included

Jirayf and Buurri tied together in a

al

common

after the death of that

'umudiiya by having the same omda, but

omda

Al Barraari 'umudiiya

status.

cluded certain areas Buurri

pality:

al

now

in

until

1945 Jirayf obtained

its

present

one or two decades ago

also in-

incorporated into the Khartoum munici-

Mahas, Buurri

Abu

Hashiish, Buurri ad Daraaysa,

and Gawz.

The

1955 census gave the 'umudiiya 12,790 inhabitants, of

2,016 lived in Buurri al in 1959

ments

showed the

in the

Lamaab.

latter

1

An

estimate

had a population of

made by 2,379.

whom

the writer

Other

settle-

'umudiiya were not separately enumerated by the 1955 mayor estimates the population of some of

census, but the present

them

as follows:

1 Republic of Sudan, Notes on Omodia Map: First Population Census of Sudan 1955/56, Interim Reports (Khartoum: Ministry for Social Affairs, Popu-

lation

Census Office, 1958),

p. 45.

40

1

x

Political Organization

V ^'••^vVv ''"

''

Khartoum-.'

'""

:Omdurmon^'V/.: .;\

North".;.*- :

•

:

•

R' ver Blue Nile

/eOv^jTuuti

•

W/P\ * // ((

/ /

£v

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*/ \ .*/ \

]££»

//••

JM

frg£ '.'•'•

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y

/

(f

:j;.*

-

r ®

^--

*»3

/

--"...

Wad'Ajib

:

A

^^-"

/

"—

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.,

_

Al

Barraan

.

"*^^

......

"***>.

Karkawj

\\\

i. :

^ \\ \

V

\

Jirayf \ rkn,.iuw«rA shaykhdomS

:

:.'.: :i

.)V\

Umm

X^jgg Dawm

\

'umudiiya

/

Millit

^

'.

%??

\\

:

KISS

^}:;V.

As Salaam

»$£

\

asShariif

^«^_

\

X *%#\

\

^-^

[

1

I

\^

Gobra

\

Dubaasiyiin Jadiid

:

Gumr

Jirayf

:

MP

j

%

amodOQb

•:,v

1( \

/

Jadiid

•;•;:

'"•

.•>:;•;.

/

"£%

J

^iv-r.^

/

'Ushara

/V:v.-

:-

J

/ / / /I / ^:>

al

Lamaab

'

i

]

%&£ Buurri

'

-

1

$£ Hamadoob

£j

//

//it--

municipality

Shojaro

;/:;•;.'

/

•'•

Kuku

tlillit

•>!

.

/

"

/

1— "?-

\y

/

3

'

\

\

I

/

•

:

:

\ \

1

\\

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,

2

Khartoum

I

>yi||

'

"•;"..

/;..

/A

•

4'

N

\

\ "-•s..

Map

2.

Al Barraari 'umudiiya and

vicinity,

Republic of the Sudan. Settled residential

areas are shaded: i.

Buurri

Abu Hashiish

2.

Buurri ad Daraaysa

3.

Buurri

al

Mahas

4. 5.

Rumayla Lamaab Bahr Abyad, i.e., Lamaab White Nile

Buurri

42

al

Lamaab

Kumayla Lamaab Bahr Abyad

2,000

Shajara

4,000

'Ushara

1,000

500

Gabra

500

As Salaam

Some

as Shariif

300

three thousand people today reside in the other hamlets of

Hamadaab

the 'umudiiya:

Jadiid, Dubaasiyiin Jadiid,

Wad

'Ajib,

and Hamadaab. In the Sudan some 'umudiiyas are grouped together to form larger political units called khatts, or lines, each under a shaykh

Khartoum Province was disconArab Sudan. For the people of Buurri al Lamaab the important political units beyond the 'nmudiiya are the Khartoum North Rural Council and until recently the office of District Commissioner. The Khartoum North Rural Council is composed of representatives from the various khatt. In 1957 the khatt system in

tinued;

it is still

in force in the rest of the

rural areas of the province

under the direction of an executive

appointed by the central government, rural development.

one

is

more

from Buurri

The al

who

representatives

on the Council, of

Lamaab, are technically

to report suggestions

and complaints from

legislators

whom

but tend

their district

explain executive decisions to the people they represent.

the decision

officer,

responsible for local

is

and to

Much

of

making comes from persons holding higher appointive

posts in the central government. All requests of the Rural Council

must be approved by the Governor of the Province before they are

The Council is ernment. The system of enacted.

in the

Sudan

also subject to the

rural councils

is

Ministry of Local Gov-

gradually being introduced

in those areas that are considered "progressive"

where the tribal system is considered no post-World War II development adapted to the Sudan from longer effective.

parable British system.

other hand

is

it

office of District

a position of

British occupation 1 96 1

The

It

a

and is

a

com-

Commissioner on the

law enforcement introduced by the

and found

in all British-controlled

was abolished throughout the Sudan.

Africa. In

Political Organization

POLITICAL OFFICERS OF

43

THE 'UMUDIIYA

The Omda The omda tains the tax

money

gathered by his shaykhs and transmits

He

central government.

maintaining local order

by

before him and

He

is

He

the administrative head of the 'umudiiya.

is

expected to

sit

in addition considered responsible for

is

by

calling

ob-

to the

it

minor disputes that

settling

upon the

on the

police in

local district court

are

emergency and act

brought

situations.

an advisor

as

The omda is immediKhartoum North Rural Council, to which he own and others' requests for actions that are beyond

to the judge (see "Judicial System," below). ately subject to the

may his

refer his

powers. These

but apparently the officeholder,

by

and

it

may

be viewed

as the

formal duties of a mayor,

has been

somewhat

altered in the past

external influences. Traditionally, there has been so

tion of the post that one

who

leaves

most

cal authorities

by the few years

office is to a considerable extent defined

might

fulfill it as a

little

defini-

petty autocrat or as one

responsibilities to the private citizen or to the politi-

over him. In recent years the central government

has tended to acquire

more

control, in part because of the increas-

ingly suburban character of Buurri villages in the 'umiidiiya

and

Lamaab and some of

al

the other

in part because of the establishment

of the Rural Council.

As

a result of this

tendency and

also because

only one

man

held the office since the central government began to extend authority,

remains. sor

may

it is

difficult to

determine

A brief comparison nevertheless be

how

flexible the

of the present

worth while,

if

mayoral

mayor with

only to

has its

office

his predeces-

illustrate the differ-

ence between the two administrations, regardless of what the causes of the difference

may

be.

Furthermore

villagers,

without always

grasping the numerous factors involved, are continually comparing the

two mayors. The Omda Hussayn,

father of the present mayor,

died about fifteen years ago after serving as

He

rural population of the Province, a

and

mayor

for forty years.

obtained, both in British administrative circles and

skillful leader

wide reputation

and judge of men. Countless

among

as a

the

vigorous

stories report that

Buurri

44 time and again the

omda was

Lamaab

al

called

upon

to journey to distant parts

of the Province to judge cases or settle disputes.

Solomonlike decisions, of a

man who

his

a picture

r

Much

of the villagers' ideal conception of the proper

performance of the position of omda true

record his

ruled his umudiiya with an iron yet just and under-

standing hand.

The

They

bravery and boldness, and paint

omda

is

a patriarch.

is

illustrated in these tales.

Although he

not a democrat, he

is

an equalitarian. In Arabic he would be called shadiid, which

means strong, but

in reference to character carries with

bination of qualities

which include

it

is

literally

a

comand

strength, vigor, boldness,

some equivalence to possessing strong character in American English. It may be true that some stories about the Omda Hussayn are partially legendary. We have no reliable way of determining what villagers thought of him when he was alive. Yet the available evidence is consistent. Stories are told by both partisans and enemies of the omda's family, and the remarks of district officers in the Rural Council archives tend to bear them out. justice. It has

The

present

omda

a different personality, attempting to carry

is

out his duties in a different social and political context. Villagers,

who

are not always cognizant of the changes

which have occurred, two administrations

often unfairly explain the contrast between the

The present mayor would not be considered shadiid by the villagers; he is quiet and retiring. He is hampered by the fact that today there are a considerable number of villagers who have more education than he. He often depends on them for writing formal requests to the central governsolely in terms of the personalities of the mayors.

ment.

If

one compares

his

behavior with that of others in equivalent

positions he appears oversubservient. Unlike his father, he

readily refers complaining citizens to the

Khartoum

more

police or the

Rural Council for aid rather than assume the responsibility himself. Because of

New

his role in the distribution of lands for

Quarter of the

village,

segment of the population

he

is

is

a satisfactory

and

by

a large

(see the section, "Political Factions

the Balance of Power," below).

view he

disliked

developing the

distrusted

From

mayor, but he lacks the color and aggressive-

ness of his father.

Many

commendable "The omda is

mayor, namely, aloofness. As one informant

in a

like a

and

the government's point of

villagers credit

him with having

a quality said:

judge and should not become too close with

Political Organization

any

45

proper carrying out of

side in order not to bias the

his duties."

His opponents, of course, accuse him of favoritism.

Appointment of the Mayor Presumably,

when

a

diiya holds a meeting in

mayor retires, each settlement in the Hvmuwhich the adult male population discusses his

A

memorandum is prepared designating a successor and by all who favor him. This is sent to the District Commis-

successor.

signed

to Office

sioner. 2 If there should

happen to be more than one candidate, supporters of each seek to have as many signatures on their candidate's

memorandum

as possible.

When

the District Commissioner's office

memoranda, the names are counted, and usually the person having the most signatures is declared omda. However, the District Commissioner has a veto power, which he may exercise if

receives the

he believes that the majority candidate

is

not properly qualified. In

Al Barraari 'umudiiya no omda has ever been elected when there

were competing candidates for office. The first omda there was appointed by the British, and when he resigned after three years, the British administrators requested a larly

Ahmad

was thus

mended some

in

few of the

selected and approved. his son,

'Abd

village circles,

ar

When

Rahmaan,

his father. It

is

Ahmad's

son,

Hussayn,

the latter retired, he recom-

as his successor. It

is

claimed

however, that popular support was actually

behind Hussayn's eldest son, Ahmad,

under

village notables, particu-

Farh, to nominate a successor.

who had

claimed that because 'Abd ar

acted as shaykh

Rahmaan

desired

was made whereby the latter became omda and Ahmad would become judge of the local court while another brother would take over the latter's position as shaykh. But when Ahmad was nominated to the judgeship, the District Commissioner rejected him because he lacked legal knowledge and was not widely known. Thus Ahmad was left with no political post. The mayor, on the other hand, claims that Ahmad was not nominated for the the post an agreement

judgeship, but merely resigned as shaykh in order to settle in Jayli,

north of Khartoum, where he 3

lives today.

Whatever the

precise

These data were gathered before this office was abolished in 1961. The is not aware of the present arrangements, although the Ministry of Local Government and the rural councils have apparently absorbed the functions

writer

of the District Commissioner.

Buurri

46 facts

may

a

few

Lamaab

something of how omdas are apAppointment depends largely on the opinions of men, often accompanied by some behind-the-scenes

be, this does indicate

pointed to

office.

influential

shuffling.

al

They

made through any demo-

are not, then, in actuality,

cratic process.

The omda

receives

from the government

must not get

which

a small salary

a reputation for being stingy or inhospitable

guests or residents of his 'umudiiya.

The

present

omda

in

An omda

large part goes to providing food and drink to visitors.

is

toward a shop-

keeper and also has an income from house rents.

The Shaykhs The omda

assisted

is

by

five shaykhs,

of five settlements (singular,

each functions

hilla) in

in this

money on

each

lives in

the 'umudiiya. In his locality

omda in settling minor More frequently he assists

manner. Each shaykh makes up the tax

lects the taxes directly

the

whom

as a lesser version of the

putes and preserving local order.

mayor

one of

from those under

to the omda.

For

rolls

his jurisdiction

his services

dis-

the

and col-

and passes

he receives a certain per-

centage of the tax money.

A shaykh is

is

appointed in the same fashion

nominated by the men of the

hilla

as

an omda; that

is,

and approved by the District

Commissioner. In the villages of the 'umudiiya outside Buurri

Lamaab

mayor does not play

the

on occasion

visit

he

as direct a role.

al

Although he may

the other villages, most responsibilities are left to

Rumayla and As Salaam as Shariif, concern themselves only with the village in which they reside, while others have responsibility for more than one vil-

the shaykhs. Certain shaykhs, such as those of

The shaykh of Buurri al Lamaab is also the shaykh of Lamaab Bahr Abyad and resides in the latter place. He is a brother of the omda and is married to a woman lage or settlement, usually one nearby.

in

Lamaab Bahr Abyad. Neither shaykhs nor omdas

older men.

The

was barely

thirty,

omda.

are necessarily

present omda, for example, assumed office

and

his father

when he

was about forty when he became

Political Organization

47

JUDICIAL SYSTEM As

most Muslim countries today, three types of law are recog-

in

r

nized in the Sudan: (1) shari'a or religious law, (2)

The

law, and (3) criminal and civil law or qanuun. istration restricted the religious

customary

urf,

admin-

British

code to matters of personal

ritual,

family relations (especially marriage and divorce), and inheritance

and introduced criminal and

codes drawn after a British model.

civil

This pattern has been continued by the present government. Certain disputes

and

however, have always been settled ac-

injuries,

cording to local custom. At the present time such problems settled in the local court

sometimes

known

"what we know

r

as the

is

which meets

at

Buurri

urf court, because

right," as

it

al

may

Lamaab. This

be is

judges according to

one villager described

f

and does

urf,

not formally apply either the religious or the criminal law of the land. It has the

power

to invoke sentences of

up

two

to

years' im-

prisonment and a fine of one hundred pounds with the right of appeal to a higher court.

the court

who

live

presided over

It is

Khartoum North,

resides in

within

assisted its

by

a magistrate

who

and advised by four members of

jurisdiction.

One

members

of the

is

always the omda; the others, including the magistrate, have been traditionally appointed

or rejects nominations

by the District Commissioner, who approves made by residents of the district, which in-

cludes Al Barraari 'umudiiya and Jirayf Gharb. Shaykhs are fre-

quently court members.

At

least

one of the court members

one or the other party to about

it,

since problems

before a shaykh or the

more

a case

expected to be familiar with

is

and to have some prior knowledge

brought to the court are usually

omda

familiar with a case than the judge

of the court are expected to

know

by

either side in court. r

the finer points of urf

as applied in their village so that the judge's decision

to the special circumstances or variations in plies to the residents

Any and

a

aired

and so can provide him with

information that might not be brought out

Members

first

or both. Thus, they supposedly are

may

be adapted

customary law

as it ap-

of the area.

offences punishable

hundred-pound

fine

by more than two are

years'

imprisonment

brought to the Khartoum Rural

North Court, which operates under the criminal and

civil

law of

Buurri

48

Lamaab

al

the Sudan. Complaints concerning marriage, divorce, guardianship,

and inheritance are presented to the

by

sided over

shari'a court in

Khartoum, pre-

a qadi, or religious judge.

Local 'Urf Court

Twice each week men,

the magistrate, accompanied

arrives in Buurri al

in the center of the

Lamaab and holds court

main

village square. Several

by two

police-

in a small building

dozen individuals

congregate on the covered porch outside the courtroom, waiting to plead their cases.

The courtroom

of the duties of the police

some manage

to

is

has no place for spectators, and one

to prevent their entry. Nevertheless,

peek through the windows or hand

a court

member

window. The judge sits at a raised desk, on either side of which is a bench for the other members of the court. In front of the judge is a wooden rail, behind which the principals through

a petition

in a dispute stand.

and accused

a

The atmosphere

talk freely,

is

highly informal. Complainants

and they frequently argue with each other

and with the magistrate and the assembled members of the court. Often one party

is

be explaining a point to the judge while the opposing

Only when

trying to explain his side to others of the court.

a person is

may

becomes too loud and shows tendencies toward violence

he tapped on the shoulder by one of the police attendants standing

behind him.

Although many

cases are taken to court, a

tually to be settled outside

it

through the

number appear even-

offices of a

shaykh

as

mediator. Following are samples of problems raised before the court

and the settlements involved: 1.

A woman

goats.

The man

charged a denied

man with

this,

killing

and eating two of her

but she produced a witness

who

testified

However, he would not that he had swear to this, and the magistrate recommended the woman return to court when she could produce witnesses who were able to swear seen the accused eat the goats.

they had seen the accused either

As they

left

kill

or eat the goats in question.

the courtroom, the shaykh of the village in

which the

complainant resided took her and the accused aside and discussed the matter until they reached an agreement

whereby

the accused

agreed to pay for one goat. 2.

A boy

and

a girl,

both about thirteen and accompanied by their

Political Organization

49

were ushered into the courtroom. The father of the girl at a well which involved his daughter and that, further, the police had demanded fathers,

complained that the boy had created a disturbance

boy

that he bring the that he

boy

a

companied by

The

brothers.

had beaten

his brothers,

boy explained

father of the

wrongdoing. The judge gave the

his

warning and dismissed the

A man who

3.

The

to court.

had punished him for

case.

,

wife was brought to court ac-

his

while his wife was accompanied by her

brothers of the former pleaded that the

man be shown The judge

leniency since he was poor and he promised to be good. instructed the six

man

to be particularly kind to his wife for the next

months. Poverty

and

is

used

as a

A man

4.

is

a

common

found

a

donkey and could not

contacted the police, but was

judge told him the

affair.

excuse in this part of the Sudan

reason for claiming leniency.

it

still

locate

owner.

its

He

in possession of the animal.

was none of the

court's business

and dismissed

Probably because of both the somewhat ridiculous nature

of the situation and the man's honesty, the case afforded

amusement to

A

5.

had

The

man

all

much

those present.

claimed that he had bought land from another, while

the latter claimed that he had only sold the dates

from the

land.

The judge ordered the complainant to produce three witnesses in court who would swear that the land, and not the dates alone, had been

sold.

These examples indicate something of the nature of the

cases

handled by such a local court. Although in operation the court

from time to time gives the appearance of bedlam, this disorder provides a means for airing different views. Moreover, by such a process evidence is often incidentally revealed which under a more controlled courtroom situation might not be exposed. In addition, it

acts as a

The

mechanism for the

release of aggression

presence and participation of the other

contributes to a

form of

justice that

is

and for exhibition.

members of the court

tempered with understanding

of the local circumstances. Indeed, one gets the impression that

problems are not dealt with in any mechanical and indifferent fashion.

The

court preserves that personal and paternal quality that has

been for centuries characteristic of Arab desert

justice,

shaykh to the palace of the maalik (king).

from the

tent of a

jo

Buurri

al

Lamaab

POLICE PROTECTION

No

police force has ever been permanently assigned to Buurri

When

Lamaab.

al

the

omda may

police assistance

call in

Khartoum managed to

the

cent years the village

through

The

its

own

settle

disputes and difficulties

resources, resorting only rarely to police aid.

It is said

that he refused to permit

any one

Lamaab who was not already related to residents or was not about to establish a bond of kinship through marriage.

to settle in Buurri it

desired, a private citizen or

police. Until comparatively re-

previous mayor, Hussayn, sought to control migration of

strangers into the village.

in

is

al

In a village with such a composition he could exert pressure on

mayor and as a kinsman or relative The present mayor has not followed his father's except once in the spring of i960, when upon the demands

delinquents both in his capacity as

of a kinsman. practice

of residents he ruled that there could be no further settlement of

unmarried southerners in the

village. Since the

Rahmaan

there has been an influx of strangers

tablished marital ties within the village, cult to maintain order a

War Omda *Abd ar who have not es-

end of World

and the beginning of the administration of the

II

heavy increase

and rowdy as

in thefts

parties.

making

it

increasingly

diffi-

through traditional means. Villagers report

and

in disturbances resulting

One might

easily dismiss this

from drunken

kind of statement

an expression of the belief that things were always better in the

old days. That the village for the first time has petitioned the Khartoum North Rural Council for a policeman indicates that there is some basis for the statement, however. Villagers have come to believe that the old ways are no longer sufficient for maintaining order. In this petition for a policeman

we

have one of the most

conclusive pieces of evidence confirming the hypothesis that Buurri al

Lamaab

is

losing

its

folk and village character as

it

becomes more

suburban and townlike.

OTHER GROUP SANCTIONS The

formal political apparatus of government with

force and courts

is

only one means by which power

is

its

police

exercised

and order and conformity effected. Later chapters broadly indicate the role of religion, the family, and socialization processes in en-

Political Organization

forcing conformity, but

also prohibited

by

and fraud. Some including

by

are used

One

proscribed behavior.

covers behavior that

may

be advisable here to describe certain

mechanisms associated with these

specific social control

Three terms

it

5/

villagers to refer to different types of

haraam (forbidden), technically

term,

prohibited

is

by

Islam. Several

the Sudanese criminal code,

haraam

e.g.,

acts are

murder,

theft,

haraam

itself,

acts fall within the special province of

among

institutions.

others eating pork, drinking alcoholic beverages,

and not fasting in Ramadan. Anything which

is

not haraam

is

con-

sidered religiously lawful (halaal).

A

f

second term,

ayb, refers to impolite or ill-mannered acts. If

one makes uncomplimentary remarks about another person or a host

becomes angered

refreshment,

is

r

f

aar

To some

is

the most severe transgression of tradi-

extent haraam

more

urf and, thus, both are far

deals

is

to Islam

what

serious offences than

fadiiha f

women

Such behavior

is

is

to

ayb. Fadiiha

with matters of family and personal honor, such

honorable behavior of one's family.

common

not considered extreme

nevertheless shameful.

Finally, fadiiha or tional custom.

is

if

to serve a guest

f

courtesy and etiquette, a breach of which

wrongdoing but

fail

considered ayb. Ayb, then, deals with r

it is

or should

at a guest

or physical violence to a

as the dis-

member

of

a matter of greatest shame. Although

r

some questions in the urf court fall within the category of fadiiha, most instances are settled privately by the family or individuals involved. Fadiiha affects not only the individual but also his lineage.

Examples of fadiiha

in

which the

her to enter a brothel, to

with the

a

man, or to commit adultery. Such

woman

and the members of her

molested or even approached 3

girl is the transgressor are for

make advances

is

to a

man, 3 to run away

acts are

lineage.

fadiiha in

For

shameful for both

a girl to

which the

be sexually

girl

and her

Advances to a man are here defined in Sudanese terms, not American. The former consider a far greater variety of behavior within the realm of coquetry than would the average American. For example, it is shameful for a girl to initiate conversation with men or to speak to strange men except strictly for business purposes at which time the girl should maintain a sober and highly reserved attitude. In public girls should also be properly covered from head to foot, since exposure of the hair, bare arms or legs is believed to attract the attention of men. In other words each girl should seek to make herself as inconspicuous as possible in any public place; any other behavior would be viewed as either consciously or unconsciously seeking the attention of men.

Buurri

J2

lineage are shamed, but revenge

al

Lamaab

directed against the male offender.

is

For a man to refuse to support his family in a fight or to run away from a fight or to fail to return a blow are all fadiiha. The man is a transgressor and he and his lineage are as a result shamed.

the failure of a

man

to fight

when

expected

is

Nowadays more

treated

as a

matter of personal shame, in which other members of the family do

not share so much. In actual practice today fadiiha encompasses behavior relating to a

The

girl's

honor.

prevention and punishment of acts

fadiiha,

and haraam are implemented

considered

as

r

ayb,

in several ways. Certain acts

of fadiiha and haraam such as murder or rape are punishable through the official law of the land, but

we

that are not. Behavior proscribed

are here concerned with those

by

religion bears divine negative

The transgressor is threatened with punishment on the Judgment or with personal misfortune of divine origin in the present world. Conversely, good behavior bears divine positive sanctions, in that one who lives according to the religious law assanctions.

Day

of

and retribu-

sures himself a place in heaven after death. Prevention

tion are

implemented by group sanctions through the mechanisms

of physical force and shame. In addition, the sanctions of conscience

operate to curtail behavior. Fights between lineages, prompted either

by

a matter of

or for other reasons, are apparently a rarity in Buurri

No

indications of feuding

between

families

although informants reported two conflicts

ago in which the question of honor was In 191

1

some Buurri

al

Lamaab men

cession in nearby Buurri

one of them threw

The Mahas

a

retaliated

al

al

honor

Lamaab.

were ever observed, occurring some years

at least a contributing cause.

participated in a

wedding pro-

Mahas. For a reason that

is

not

clear,

rock which struck one of the Mahas men.

by

throttling

the

offender,

gathered his relatives from the White Nile and his

who in turn own village,

to drink beer in order to fortify themselves before setting out with sticks

and swords to fight the Mahas

villagers.

The omda and

brother interfered and managed to disperse the combatants. reported that the the fracas

Omda Hussayn

his

It is

boldly marched into the middle of

unarmed and began knocking the

adversaries' heads to-

gether.

Another armed

conflict occurred about ten years later within

Political Organization

Buurri

al

Lamaab

and insulted and

itself.

A

his friends attacked several slaves

omda fought with

belonging to Buurri

which was halted by the Khartoum

was apparently considerable

Lamaab people should

al

of the

Afterwards slaves of the Sharif

a slave of Sharif Yuussif.

families in a battle

al

Lamaab

police.

There

feeling in the village that the Buurri

forcibly retaliate against the Sharif and

followers for this insult.

his

woman

slave

j$

This case

demonstrates

not only

a situation involving fadiiha

but further the feeling that existed be-

tween members of the older

families of Buurri al

Lamaab and mem-

bers of the Hindiiya tariqa.

The only major

crisis

involving fadiiha during the writer's stay

girl to a man who, it was was the son of a slave woman, although of a free Arab father. This was considered shameful by members of the girl's lineage, most of whom lived in a nearby village, and some of her relatives

concerned the proposed marriage of a

said,

planned to come to Buurri brations.

were

al Lamaab and disrupt the marriage celewere abandoned, however, when those involved convinced by their Buurri al Lamaab kinsmen that the

The

at last

plans

groom was not

A a

is

fast

A

the son of a slave

woman.

group disapproval and the shame associated with

fear of

more common means of enforcing conformity. in Ramadan and pray in fear of group disapproval

it

A

man might

if

he does not.

host might serve his guests refreshments for fear of being con-

sidered poor or miserly

by

When

woman covers her head and shoulders and men who are not well known to her for

on the

street, a

his acquaintances,

and thus being shamed.

takes care not to address fear of bringing

shame on

physical punishment

by her

and her lineage and for fear of

herself

relatives as well.

A person may behave in this manner because Whether shame or conscience the writer cannot answer. 4 a

minimum

such

No

is

of superego training.

more important

social

in this culture,

system can function without

of superego development; in a highly moralistic religion

as Islam this

development should go beyond that undetermined

minimal degree. Nevertheless, one does get the impression that shame 4

A

made by Ruth Houghton Mifflin, and Dorothea Leighton and Clyde Kluckhohn in Children of

distinction

Benedict,

between "shame" and

The Chrysanthemum and

1946), p. 223, the People (Cambridge:

the

"guilt"

cultures

Sword

(Boston:

Harvard University

Press,

is

1947), pp. 170-171.

Buurri

54

al

Lamaab

a much more vital mechanism for social control in Buurri al Lamaab than it is in the traditional Protestant Puritan culture of is

The

America.

emphasis placed on personal honor and shame in the

is indicative of this. Some European casual obArab culture accuse the Arabs of lacking superego development. They point to how an Arab servant, for example, will have no qualms about stealing from the employer who has treated him well and with kindness. This and other examples overlook the possibility that this servant would never steal from his father, a relative, or a fellow villager. This, it can be argued, he would not

concept of fadiiha

servers of

do because

it is

shameful, and of course

mind

It is also

it is.

suggest that the proscription against stealing

is

proper to

generalized in his

to include certain groups and not others; he might be genuinely

disturbed in his conscience to steal from his in-group and not both-

ered at

all

to steal

from

his out-group,

i.e.,

from

a

comparatively

wealthy, foreign, Christian employer.

The is

reader should not get the impression that improper behavior

always neatly categorized

There

is

sifications

from the

made by

ayb or fadiiha

haraam loosely distinction

by villagers. distinctions made above

ayb, fadiiha, or haraam

writer's analysis of the partially explicit clas-

the villagers. Although numerous acts considered

are also haraam, there in the sense of

haraam anything that

The

r

loose usage of these terms, and the

are derived

r

as

f

is

ayb or

is

a

tendency to use the word

"shame on you" and to consider fadiiha

when

r

between ayb and fadiiha

is

this is

as

not always true.

very clearly understood,

on the other hand. The confusion between religious prohibitions and customary prohibitions may possibly arise from a desire to attach more force to the latter by giving them an Islamic basis. Certainly it is more forceful to reprimand someone by saying haraam than

r

it is

to say ayb.

POLITICAL FACTIONS

AND THE BALANCE OF POWER

Prior to the military dictatorship

which was

several political parties existed in the Sudan.

supporters in Buurri

al

Lamaab, and to

this

established in 1958

Most of

these had

day people occasionally

identify themselves with a political party although the parties have all

been technically abolished. Because they no longer legally

exist, it is difficult

to assess their

Political Organization role in village affairs

which

exist in

ciated as a

Buurri

al

political factions

Lamaab. The Baggaara were formally

asso-

group with the People's Party, and the followers of Sharif

Rahmaan were expected to switch their allegiance from National Union Party to the People's-Popular Democrat coali-

*Abd the

jj

and their relation to the other

ar

But opponents of the Hindiiya

tion.

Farh

lineage,

village split

have

also

been associated with

between the

some from the

tariqa, including

partisans of the

this coalition. In the

omda and

most of the anti-omda group, and particularly

his

its

opponents

leaders,

have

been traditionally National Unionists, while the pro-omda group is

probably more in the People's-Popular Democratic camp. 5 Lines

drawn between arise from local

national political party affiliations do not always factional differences.

traction to national leaders. villagers, is

The

not represented by

secularism so leader, Ismail

much

as it

its

arise

from personal

at-

pro-Egyptian character or

embodied

is

They

National Union Party, to most

its

former

similarly

viewed

in the person of

Al Azhari. The People's Party

is

its

in the persons of Abdallah Khalil

and Abdel Rahman Al Mahdi,

while the Popular Democrat Party

is

seen in the person of Sayyid

Ali Al Mirghani. Discussions concerning the relative merits of a political

bilities

party are ultimately phrased in terms of the assets and

Lamaab there have been two main centers of power: Farh lineage, to which the mayor belongs, and the Hindiiya

In Buurri the

lia-

of the personalities of these men.

tariqa

al

and the person of the

Sharif.

The

factional divisions

do not

organize themselves along a simple line of Farh versus Sharif. Rather there are essentially overlap.

There

two types of

are those

who

division

which

are critical of the

to

some extent

mayor and

his

who are favorably inclined toward them. Second, who oppose the Hindiiya tariqa and the Sharif,

lineage and those

there are those

while others are his supporters or sympathizers. Since the Farh lineage and the Sharif are the is

to be expected that

are anti-Hindiiya. 5

many

Members

two

of those

foci of

who

power

are, for

in the village,

it

example, pro-Farh

of the Farh lineage have long viewed

was commonly held that the National Unionists aimed to break the power omdas and the other local leaders in the Sudan while the other two parties were alleged to favor a status quo. The National Unionists had a reputation for being more secular, pro-Egyptian, and anti-British. It

of the

Buurri

$6 with suspicion

al

Lamaab power presented by

this threat to their traditional

the settlement of Sharif Yuussif in "their" village. Nevertheless,

most

all

those

from the older

village families

who

Hindiiya tariqa are supporters of the mayor and his lineage. division

and antimayor, has taken on least in the

is

promayor

opposing group. Differences of opinion concerning the

not involved in village

in the

are

The

a rather distinct factional character at

Sharif are today of far less import. This

he

who

between Farh and anti-Farh, or those

al-

belong to the

affairs

to be expected, since

is

while the mayor obviously stands

middle of them.

After the Farh lineage was established in the village through the marriage of Farh to a

sister

of the original

settler,

Farh became an

important figure in the community, and a high reputation was in-

dependently obtained by

his son,

termine.

It

known

is

that they

riverside agricultural tracts,

They

Ahmad. The

and power

their acquisition of influence

is

actual mechanics of

now

impossible to de-

were not owners of the

did apparently possess slaves and herds,

which

were the most important form of wealth, and had families associated all

largest

nor were they ever village shaykhs.

with them

as servants.

They

at that

time

several client

also laid claim to

unirrigable grazing land in the vicinity. Beginning prior to the

Mahdiiya, newcomers to the village established

with the

villagers

other old lineages.

Lamaabiyiin group. dated

when

Ahmad

initial

kinship ties

through marriage with the Farhs rather than with

The Farh lineage constituted the core of the The central position of the Farhs was consoli-

shortly after the beginning of the century

Farh became omda, and

later his elder

Hussayn

son became a shaykh.

Hussayn likewise bought up irrigable land and, as we have seen, obtained renown as both judge and omda. The evidence suggests that the Farh lineage rose to power through the possession of wealth and through the personal ability or charisma of two or three of its members. It may not be unfair to say that the present members of that lineage are today resting on the laurels of these men. Until the beginning of the administration of the present omda most feeling against the Farh family was apparently confined to some of the Ja'afra and Kanuuz of the village who felt discriminated against

by

the Farhs.

When

the present

for the construction of the

omda undertook

New

Quarter of the

to distribute lands village,

however,

Political Organization factional differences took a

more

$j

form;

definite

who

those

all

con-

sidered that they had been cheated in the distribution, including

most of the

Ja'afra,

formed an amorphous anti-Farh or anti-omda some of this group have come to define

party. In the course of time

the situation as the "progressives" versus the "conservatives" or Farh supporters. selves in

The

latter,

any sense

on the other, hand, do not consider them-

much

a party,

less a

conservative one.

New

Because the development of the

Quarter

of hard feeling and resentment in the village, to present the

two

points of

a

is

major source

may be

it

claims that he, along with others, recognized that Buurri

was overcrowded and village

He

al

Lamaab

so he suggested that the land south of the

belonging to the Farh lineage be

set aside for

new

housing.

then secured permission from the District Commissioner to In order to avoid full responsibility for distributing

allot the land. it

advisable

view of the events involved. The mayor

himself, he appointed a

committee of seven members, of

whom

were from his own lineage. None of the committee members were from the Ja'afra, Kanuuz, or Garaajiij tribes, all large segments

three

of the population.

The committee

advertised throughout the village

were receiving applications for land for purposes of house construction. Each application was discussed by the committee, and land distribution was based on the number of children that they

in a household

and the

size

of the house in the Old Quarter. Thus,

according to the mayor, a family with

house was given a larger piece of land. build and,

on

if

his allotment

within

six

If,

children and a small

however, one did not

was forfeited, piece was forfeited. These lands

months, half of

not within a year, the entire

were not

many

eligible for redistribution,

it

although a movement

is

now

being initiated to provide for distributing them to their original claimants.

By

1

95

1

the

New Quarter was completed,

ment discontinued the land

distribution, since

it

and the governinterfered with

proposed plans for extension for Khartoum. This, then,

is

the mayor's

argument.

Those who oppose the mayor claim, first, that although the land was once Farh property it had been acquired by the government.

They

claim that the committee appointed

by

the

culty in agreeing about proper distribution, that its

mayor had diffiit was biased in

composition in favor of certain lineages, especially the Farhs,

Buurri

5$ that

it

a

Lamaab

more favorably

distributed lands

finally the

al

committee resigned because

bad name. The omda,

it is said,

to those lineages, and that

members

did not

want

ignored the committee on

many omda

occasions and assigned land himself

(it

its

was necessary for the

when the committee resigned, omda appointed another committee of his "friends." They point to the fact that the omda with his wife and two children acquired four or five times as much land as others with much larger families. They argue that many of the

to sign

all

grants of land). Finally,

the anti-Farh group claim, the

omda's relatives were similarly favored.

Evidence in the archives of the Khartoum North Rural Council concerning Buurri

al

Lamaab

number of complaints about sympathize with the mayor

indicates that there

the distribution. in undertaking

were an enormous

One must a task

of course

which could

hardly be resolved to everyone's satisfaction. Yet the position of the mayor's critics real state of affairs

is

may

nite opposition to the

have

also

had to

fight

not completely unfounded. Whatever the

have been, the circumstances produced

defi-

mayor. The mayor's

they

him and

critics state that

his supporters to secure various village

improvements. Because of the lack of funds in the Khartoum North Rural Council, which administers rural development, Buurri

al

Lamaab has considerable difficulty in providing for improvements which some villagers believe are necessary. Incorporation within the Khartoum municipality, however, would ensure the desired improvements; it would also strip the omda of most of his power. Thus the antimayor forces argue that the mayor, not wishing to lose his

want community betterment. Needless to say, some of the mayor's opponents see in the campaign for widespread village betterment the downfall of the mayor and the end of the power of the Farh lineage. The mayor has obtained promises of village improvement from the Rural Council, however. When the writer left the village, one of these promises was already being carried out, namely, the paving of a road from Buurri Abu Hashiish to Buurri al Lamaab. Few people in Buurri al Lamaab deny that the position, does not

independence from Khartoum municipality are numbered.

days of

its

This

not because of any petitions for annexation from residents

is

but because of the expansion of Khartoum and the increasingly

heterogeneous and urban character of the

village.

With

the disap-

Political Organization

may

pearance of the village one

59

expect an accompanying decline

power of the Farh lineage. The promayor and antimayor factions

in the

The

lineage lines.

lineages associated with the Ja'afra,

lineages are, however,

mayor

faction tends to comprise those

local

power.

drawn somewhat along

Kanuuz, and Dubaasiyiin

Many and

are

opposition, for example, consists in part of the

They

more divided

who

in this matter.

tribes.

The

anti-

are poorer in both wealth

are usually not relatives of his, or at

most

distant relatives.

Today

the conflict between the followers of Sharif Yuussif al

Hindi and members of the older lineages of Buurri

al

Lamaab,

i.e.,

the Lamaabiyiin, has declined considerably. Particularly in the

first

two decades

was

some

strain

after Sharif Yuussif settled in the village there

between the Farhs and

his followers.

We

was violence between

and the Sharif and

their friends

have already seen

how on

slaves of the Sharif

one occasion there

and those of older families

in the village.

There now

exist

mixed

Sharif and his adherents.

feelings in the village concerning the

The Farhs and

recognize and accept the presence of the a situation in theirs

which

a

was permanently

power more in their midst.

their friends have

new

influential

The

had to

faction and adjust to

and greater than

potential difficulties in-

volved have also been eased by the present Sharif *Abd ar Rahmaan his family, who take no part in village affairs except which may affect the members of the tariqa. Nevertheless, it soon becomes obvious to the casual observer that there are two main focal points of power and influence in Buurri al Lamaab, symbolized in the house and grounds of Sharif *Abd ar Rahmaan on

and others of

those

the one hand, representing the Sharif and his religious organization,

and the

village

mosque and the mayor's house on the

ing the Farh lineage.

other, represent-

Chapter IV

Formal and Informal Friendship and Recreation

Groups

MEN'S life

today

social clubs are

and are to be found,

on larger towns and they have

also

a

common

as well, in

feature of Sudanese city

some of the

in the villages of the Gezira

been recently introduced into

villages

bordering

Scheme. Apparently

villages in other areas

of the Middle East. Gulick reports a sports club in Al-Munsif,

Lebanon. 1 But no such organizations existed in any Egyptian with which the writer

villages

familiar.

is

SOCIAL CLUBS In Buurri

al

Lamaab

two male

there are

club and a "cultural" club.

The former

is

social clubs:

older, having

about twenty years ago to provide a village football

a sports

been founded (i.e.,

soccer)

team, which plays against other teams similarly organized in the

surrounding

area.

Soccer was introduced by the British and in the

past three decades has 1

become

a

popular sport in the country for

John Gulick, Social Structure and Culture Change

(New York: Wenner Gren

Foundation, 1955), 60

p. 99.

in a

Lebanese Village

Friendship and Recreation

61

both elementary school boys and young men. Today the Buurri al

Lamaab soccer team is not supported exclusively by the Sports a more autonomous existence, deriving assistance from

Club but has

others in the village rents a house and

who

compound

to play cards, dominoes, to the radio.

moting

The

in

by

members. The club

which members gather

and ping-pong, drink

in the evening

tea, chat,

and

listen

which were

in fact originally

the central government.

Cultural Club

was founded

in 1955 at the instigation of the

Ministry of Education to encourage adult education.

Arabic and occasionally other courses

classes in

now

Ministry of Education takes an interest in pro-

intervillage sports contests,

initiated

The

are not club

It still

as well.

conducts (See the

become a club which members gather in the evening to talk and play games. Both clubs are patronized primarily by young men, fourteen to discussion of education in Chapter VIII.) It also has

in

twenty-five years old, although in each there

men. The Cultural Club to

by two middle-aged

is

a handful of older

a considerable extent has

villagers

who

are the

been kept

alive

backbone and mainstay

of the organization. Financial support for the clubs

is

derived from

dues (ten piasters a month) and from occasional parties and entertainments.

The

number of than the Cultural Club. The latter suffers from serious in both membership and participation. Whereas the

Sports Club has a far greater membership and

participants fluctuations

Sports Club has each night between twenty and sixty within

its

compound, the Cultural Club rarely has more than twenty, and which only two or three attended it. During the writer's stay three attempts were made to revive interest in the Cultural Club. Each time they were followed by a short-lived surge of activity and participation. Some of the lack of interest in this organization results from its technical position as an educational society rather than as a purely social fraternity, for the young men are often indifferent to education. The Sports Club has a larger compound and a far greater number of facilities, which attract there have been periods in

more

supporters. In addition, the Cultural Club has acquired a repu-

tation as the

Farh club and, for some

Popular Democrat Party association.

hand has

a nonpartisan status.

villagers, a reputation as a

The

Sports Club on the other

Buurri

62

Lamaab

al

Until 1958 there was a third organization, the Honesty Club, whose

were from the antimayor faction and supported the National Party. It had its support from the Ja'afra, Kanuuz, and

leaders

Union

Dubaasiyiin and from some of the Garaajiij and Rufaa'a of the

Like the Cultural Club

lage.

it

carried

and provided for recreation, but in addition ganized opposition to the

much

Club, which found It

its

constituted the or-

the Cultural

support in the Farhs and their friends.

cannot be said that the Cultural Club was purposely a promayor

association but vis-a-vis the

eyes of its

it

mayor and competed with

of

vil-

on an educational program

many

villagers.

Honesty Club

it

The Honesty Club was

became such

in the

finally discontinued,

leaders charging that the Farhs put pressure

on members to

withdraw. Friends of the Farhs claim that "people resolved their differences,"

came

in the village,

since been

to realize that the club contributed to divisiveness

and so discontinued

made

to revive

it.

it.

An

unsuccessful attempt has

Most of the younger members have

joined the Sports Club rather than the Cultural Club; this influx partially accounts for the larger

membership of the former.

Present-day members of the Cultural Club heartily deny that it

has any partisan character, and in this they are no doubt correct.

Yet

its

reputation as such lingers on

among

certain villagers.

Some

attempt has been made in the past year to unite the Sports Club

and Cultural Club, but to no club,

who would

avail.

Leaders and officers of the smaller

stand to lose their positions

many

ticularly have too

by such

a union, par-

vested interests in their organization will-

away through unification. For a short period the moving pictures sponsored by the United States Information Service in Khartoum were a main source of free entertainment at the clubs. About once a month the USIS offered

ingly to gamble them

motion pictures tronized

by

at

background. The direct

its

They were

one club or the other.

small boys and a handful of adults, to

whom

the

women

and

largely pagirls in the

USIS apparently

desired to

propaganda, were a small minority. As a result of poor

attendance these showings were discontinued within

six

months

after

the writer entered the village. Informants stated that villagers were

not interested in the type of cinema shown.

They complained

that

were newsreels of the Middle East and Africa and an occasional anticommunist cartoon. Those programs seen by

the only Arabic films

Friendship and Recreation

There were

the writer bear out this description. in English

the

news

without Arabic

63

and with

subtitles

in the African world. It should

a

a

number

of films

heavy emphasis on

be recognized that Sudanese

Arabs, like Egyptians, do not identify themselves with sub-Sahara

Africa and often resent the implication that they are a part of

"Why," they

ask,

"do they [the USIS] expose us to

all

it.

these pictures

Uganda or of Nkrumah of Ghana?" want to see are Egyptian dramatic films, and until the border dispute between Sudan and Egypt in 1958 the Egyptian Embassy periodically showed such films in the village. These drew large crowds and they are fondly remembered, even though the majority profess no love for Egyptians. Numerous cliques are found within both clubs. There are friendship groups formed within a club and existing primarily in it for the purpose of playing cards. There are groups of friends which have been formed outside the clubs and participate as a group within as well. Usually such a friendship group patronizes one club as a unit rather than divide its allegiance. As elsewhere in the village, of the doings of the king of

What

villagers really

the informal friendship groups in the clubs are divided according to age: adolescents,

young

adults,

teresting feature of the clubs

is

and the middle-aged. Yet one

their

in-

tendency to bring together on

men from widely different age groups. men play dominoes with adolescents as well as with One important reason for this is that these organizations

an equal social footing

Middle-aged their peers.

are essentially

young men's

associations.

These groups further afford

one of the few opportunities whereby the recent tablish ties of friendship

and find recreation in the

settler

can

es-

village.

INFORMAL FRIENDSHIP GROUPS Men's Informal Groups

As

any community, Buurri

in

cliques.

They

kinship,

are organized

women's both

Lamaab

residents have various

basis of sex, age,

neighborhood,

ethnic origin, place of employment, special interest, or

combinations of these. ception,

al

on the

is its

characteristic of

any

clique,

without ex-

—never friendship groups which have members

cliques

sexes.

A

monosexual membership. There are men's cliques and of

Bnurri

64 Men's cliques

may

al

Lamaab

constitute neighborhood groups, often meeting

where toward evening neighbors gather to chat. They may sit in small circles on reed mats or old angarebs or squat on the ground, resting on their walking sticks. In some cases

in front of a local shop,

these persons constitute groups that say the evening prayer together.

Many neighborhood

groups form the nuclei for futuur or breakfast

gatherings that are characteristic of Ramadan. Neighborhood groups usually consist largely of side a

men

young men between

fifteen

the radio in the shop.

On

and

thirty, possibly attracted there

by

the other hand, in another neighborhood,

adjacent to another shop,

who

of one age group. Thus, one located be-

shop opposite the omda's house consists almost exclusively of

is

a

group of older men

all

over

fifty,

frequently pray together and otherwise spend their evenings

To some

two clubs are centers for neighbornumber of members come from the area nearby than from more distant places. Neighborhood groups, thus, are characterized by having a regular, informally established, in gossip.

hood

extent the

cliques in that a larger

public meeting place.

Another type of informal group

is

composed of

closely related

kinsmen; the key members are generally neighbors, but others live in different parts

Ja'afra lineage

to a shop

owned by one

groups

is

it

married

men

members of

of the village. Thus,

and some of their Rufaa'a

relatives

may

the main

tend to gravitate

of their kinsmen. Unlike some friendship

rather mixed in terms of age, ranging to elderly patriarchs;

it

is

the

latter,

from younger however,

who

more permanent participants. Similar to this type of clique composed exclusively of persons of common ethnic background. Most of the Baggaara in the village frequently socialize, as do the Nuer, and some of the newcomers from the Nuba Hills. Likewise one discovers that groups of migrants from other Arab are the

are those

villages, initially, at least, constitute small cliques.

Cliques arise involving

men employed

proximately equal status at the this

was not determined. Such

in other

suburban

of activity

may be

villages or in

in a

same

result

occupations of ap-

cliques include

members who

Khartoum, and, hence,

live

their center

village. Among young boys from school attendance. Boys who

house outside the

and adolescents cliques

in

business, but the extent of

Friendship and Recreation attend higher schools in

Khartoum often

fellow students residing outside of Buurri ticipation in

any clique of

6j

establish friendships al

Lamaab, but

with

their par-

this character is largely restricted to the

school hours. Still

another focus of informal groups

is

in certain special interests.

Active membership in the Hindiiya tariqa has given than one clique composed exclusively of members of tion.

Every evening

at the

Buurri

al

Lamaab mosque

group attends the prayers and remains to of the evening. This group

is

made up of

sit

rise to

more

this organiza-

a fairly regular

and gossip through part

elderly men. Entertainment

home goes on behind the ubiquitous mud walls. Cliques young men often indulge in card games, occasionally playing for money. Sometimes they spend an evening drinking native beer or arak. Aside from playing cards or listening to the radio, the main of friends at of

activity of such gatherings

is

to the age of the participants.

conversation. Topics vary according

Younger men devote

their discussion

to football (soccer) matches, politics, such questions as the best radio

and in more secluded circumstances sex and sexual experi-

singer,

ences.

Older

men

ment, national

about the

discuss village politics, particularly local

politics, local gossip,

speech.

ing

is

prices,

improve-

and they reminisce

past.

Men's discussions follow what pattern,

and

characterized

An American

is

probably a circum-Mediterranean

by much loud and apparently

aggressive

or British observer might conclude that noth-

a simple matter for these people.

The

various aspects of a

question are dealt with and the observer might conclude that the subject has been exhausted, but such slight lull in conversation;

is

not the case. There

previously, and the discussion recommences. feel that the

is

a

then someone resurrects a point made

An

American might

Sudanese waste a considerable amount of time, in both

friendly conversations and formal meetings, discussing the pros and

cons of a question at such length that they tend to repeat themselves

over and over and inflate the significance of the question. But the American may forget that, although to him such discussions are frequently of instrumental value only, to the Arab Sudanese they are usually valued for themselves as well.

66

Buurri

Women's The in

Groups

Infor?7ial

women's world

limitation of the

which they may

Lamaab

al

groups

restricts the types of

Women's

participate.

cliques are based

neighborhood, and kinship, with young school

on

age,

girls participating in

friendship groups established in the schools. Unlike those of men,

friendly gatherings of

women

stricted to the privacy of a

Women

in a

must be

are never in public but

re-

house compound.

neighborhood

as

well as kinswomen associate for

informal purposes and in so doing they divide according to age and marital status.

There

of unmarried

girls

are groups of prepubescent girls

primarily between thirteen and eighteen,

though older unmarried

who

are over

and groups

girls are to

al-

be found in such cliques. Those

twenty and have not yet married

are in the

awkward

position of being too old for adolescent groups and not fully ac-

cepted into a clique of young married

A

status.

women

because of their

forty.

The youngest members and

a subordinate

with unmarried

transitional stage.

who

who

are under

from fourteen to

have no children form this

married women's

twenty

retain their asso-

their peers,

it

and

that of the unmarried

and may be viewed as in a women who have not yet become

girl friends

Older married

mothers discover that

among

those

and peripheral subclique within

group. Particularly those ciations

women who

third type of female clique includes married

are not as yet grandmothers. Here, ages range

is

difficult to attain full

their position

woman

status

somewhat comparable

to

of twenty-five in that both statuses

are in this culture highly atypical.

periphery of group

is

and equal

ordinate group consisting of those

women

Such

there

activities. Finally,

who

is

tend to

move

in the

and super-

a senior

have become grandmothers

and are therefore thirty-five or more in age.

they

It is

the tyrants of the household. Again, younger

who

members of

are often

this

group

participate to a considerable extent in the junior clique, but older

women

usually remain apart.

Discussions

among married women

revolve around

themes: raising children and pleasing the gossip

is

a third

important topic.

about satisfying their

Women

men and may

qualities of various perfumes,

smoke

men

(sex).

two major

Local village

are particularly concerned

discuss the sexually attractive baths,

and

oils,

among

other

Friendship and Recreation things.

Among

their peers in the privacy of the

67 house

women

not the quiet and retiring individuals one observes in public. are often loud

and boisterous. Their expression

personal friends, but

it

may

is

freest

among

are

They their

be only slightly restrained in the pres-

ence of close male relatives and of younger kin.

Chapter

V

Family and Kinship

Groupings

THE

important kinship groupings in Buurri

family, either in

others, the subtribe

no longer

al

Lamaab

are the

nuclear or joint form, and the lineage.

its

and the

tribe,

formerly

Two

also a political unit, are

significant.

THE FAMILY The family is referred to by one of several terms. One may use word bayt, literally meaning house and referring to all persons living within the confines of a house owned by one person. This term may occasionally include persons unrelated to the owner who are only his house tenants, but this is an unusual usage. Bayt may the

refer either to a family that is

joint or extended.

Hawsh,

nuclear in character or to one that

is

literally

meaning the courtyard,

in a sense similar to that of bayt. It seems,

is

extended households rather than nuclear ones. Some informants it is

awkward, for example, to

man

lives

with

refer to a separate house in

his wife and two children as a havosh. Bayt

stead, although, as

we

have

family situation as well.

said,

When

bayt

is

is

feel

which

used in

a

its

freely used for the extended

one wishes to refer 68

used

however, to apply to large

specifically to a

Family and Kinship man,

his

"sons."

69

wife or wives, and their children, he uses aivlaad,

A

common

your sons?"

greeting, Izzay wwlaadak?

—in fact means,

and your daughters?" Anjolaad

"How is

are you,

—

literally,

literally

"How

your wife, your

a fair equivalence to the sociological

awlaad

may

sons,

used to refer to that nuclear segment

of an extended household belonging to one man. In this usage

theless,

are

it

bears

term "nuclear family." Never-

be used in a broader sense to refer to the de-

scendants of one man, and in this case the meaning

is

equivalent to

our term "lineage."

Although

fraternal or sororal joint families

families are present in Buurri al

and extended

Lamaab, the most

common

joint

type

is

the nuclear family, consisting of a man, his wife, and their unmarried children. Table

3

shows the distribution of households

in terms

Many of the joint and mixed families reported in were originally nuclear families to which were later added a spouse's mother or a collateral relative. Others represent households which were once truly extended joint families but have since been of composition.

1

this table

modified through the death or divorce of members of the older generations. In addition, clear character

some have been reduced to

through the removal of

the removal of

members of the

senior generation.

joint sororal or fraternal families are the lies

resulting

a basically nu-

siblings as well as

through

Whereas some

remnants of extended fami-

from the death of both elder members, others have

1 Determination of the boundaries between households is often difficult and cannot be accomplished by the application of any simple, hard and fast rules. To a considerable extent one may safely follow the principle that those who

But there are numerous exceptions. These include one meal a day together, those who do not eat together but share the same kitchen, those who do not eat together but whose houses adjoin and open on each other and are considered as one by the residents, those who eat together but consider they have separate houses, and so on. In general the principle followed in this study for determining a household was an impressionistic one which tried to take all these factors into consideration. It was felt that in numerous cases where residents do not eat together there were enough other characteristics of a household to consider it a single unit. The writer depended upon informants as well, and they in their determination of boundaries between households rely on similar considerations. Households also have a fluid character in which composition may alter for one reason or another. Thus a man in an extended household unit may become angered with his kinsmen and seal up the door from his house to the others in the compound and so estabeat together live together.

those

who

lish a

separate residence.

eat only

Buurri

70

al

been established by brothers or

when

sisters

or both together. Generally

parents die, the married siblings in the extended family split

up the household

into separate nuclear units,

practice has been for each

own

Lamaab

new

and traditionally the

unit to begin the formation of

extended family. Thus a sort of budding process

preventing extremely large families.

The

facts

shown

is

its

involved,

in the table

support informants' claims that such families are usually organized

around the married daughters of the household rather than around the married sons.

That

is,

ideal practice

recommends

matrilocal rather

than patrilocal residence, at least temporarily. In this context matrilocal residence in father.

Of

most cases means

living in the house of the wife's

the eighty-seven joint extended families, fifty-eight, or

66 per cent, comprise married daughters and their husbands and un-

married children, but no married sons. Another thirteen, or 15 per cent, include married daughters as well as married sons.

Although eighty-seven households are families,

it

classed as joint extended

should be pointed out that sixty of these are technically

familles-soucheSy or stem families, in each of

which there

is

only one

married offspring with spouse and children residing with a spouse's parents or parent. In the remaining twenty-seven joint extended families, there are

two or more married

offspring with spouses and

children living with the parent or parents of one of the spouses. It is likely

sisting of a

number of

that the

ordinarily expect for a Sudanese is

part families and households con-

husband and wife only

a reflection of Buurri al

is

much

Arab

higher than one would

village. If this is the case, it

Lamaab's suburban character. Fifteen of

the forty-two part families are the bachelor households of recent

immigrants to the posed of

Some

may

man and

village. Similarly

about half the households com-

wife only are those of recent

settlers.

indication of the effects of occupation on family structure

be provided by an analysis of those households in which there

are farmers. In fifty of the 346 households the family head or one

of the family heads

is

a

man whose main

occupation

is

either farming

or shepherding. (Farm laborers are excluded.) Households headed

farmers or shepherds tend more

do

others. One-half of

all

joint

to the joint

by

and extended type than

extended families in which there are

married sons include an agriculturalist

as

family head. Stated dif-

Family and Kinship

Table

5.

7/

Composition of households

Essentially nuclear families:

Nuclear (man, wife, unmarried children) Man and wife only

unmarried wife,

collateral relatives of either spouse

15

14

4

87

25

42

12

346

7o^

17

21

wife, unmarried children with one or

two 3

wife, unmarried children with

unmarried

Man,

51

unmarried children with mother of

grandparents of either spouse

Man,

44

21

either spouse

Man,

152 131

Mixed families: Man, wife, unmarried children with one or more Man,

%

No.

Composition

collateral relatives of

man

wife, unmarried children with

unmarried collateral Other mixed families

mother and

relatives of

5

mother and

wife

3

2

Joint families:

Fraternal joint families

3

Sororal joint and those with one married sister and divorced or widowed sister with unmarried chil-

dren

6

Joint families of brothers and sisters

5

Joint extended families:

Married daughter (s) with one parent and with or without unmarried siblings Married son(s) with one parent and with or without unmarried siblings Married son(s) and daughter (s) with one parent and with or without unmarried siblings Married daughter(s) with both parents Married son(s) with both parents Married son(s) and daughter (s) with both parents

25

4

3

33 12

10

Part families: Bachelors, widows, widowers, and divorcees without offspring residing with them

29

Widowers, widows, and divorcees with unmarried children

Total

x

^

Buurri

72

al

Lamaab headed by farmers or

ferently, almost a quarter of the households

shepherds are extended to include a married son or sons, whereas

only 4 per cent of those not headed by farmers are of this type. Further, 24 per cent of the households headed by farmers include a married daughter or daughters and no married son or sons, whereas 7

per cent of those not headed

by farmers

are of this type. It

might

appear surprising that such a high percentage of families under a patrilineal tern. It

system of inheritance should persist in the matrilocal pat-

should not be forgotten, however, that one incentive for residence

matrilocal

that

is

the

husband contributes labor and

wealth to the wife's father's household. In addition, because village

endogamy

is

the rule,

whether or not

Of

the 10 1

a

does not

it

make

farmer resides with

households which

a great deal of difference

family or his own.

his wife's

are essentially of a joint and/or ex-

tended nature, thirty-four, or one-third, are headed by farmers,

whereas only

or 14 per cent of the total of all households, have farmers as heads. Only seventeen of the joint extended families

in Buurri al

fifty,

Lamaab include both

with their spouses and children. eight, or almost half,

parents and

Among

whose heads

two or more

such large families

are farmers.

Of

nuclear households (including those composed of

only) fourteen, or

less

in Buurri al

encourages larger joint or extended families.

when

we

find

the essentially

man and

than 10 per cent, are headed

These figures allow us to say that

offspring,

Lamaab

One might

by

wife

farmers.

agriculture

hypothesize

Lamaab was more dependent upon agricultural family was a more common phenomenon. Anextended the pursuits other economic factor affecting change in family structure which is the obverse of the above is the increase in reliance by mature males on a separate income through wages earned in the city. Today men

that

Buurri

al

no longer as dependent as formerly on cooperative economic pursuits or on the whims of their fathers to distribute money. They earn it for themselves and may, if finances permit, establish indeare

pendent households away from the domination of

a parent or parent-

in-law.

The development to an

of the

New Quarter in

1948 has also contributed

by encouraging quarters were more

alteration in the composition of households

nuclear family groupings. In the old village,

cramped, and a

man

or a

woman was

often compelled to remain in

Family and Kinship the father's household after marriage.

new may

bears her

with

as possible.

man

a

family at least until she

his wife's

he often desires to establish a separate

first child,

soon thereafter

live

building of houses in this

up and expand. Although

area allowed families to break

be expected to

The

73

home

Informants believed that to do so

Not

sign of independence and wealth.

to do so

is

is

as

a

an indication of

who

poverty or possibly weakness in the face of the wife's family,

apparently are expected to oppose a separation and to seek to pre-

vent

Permanent matrilocal residence

it.

well-to-do village

men who

from

outside,

born in the

village

are

employed

in

is

most

girls

al

eventually establish a neolocal residence in Buurri the whole, residence

The number

is

less

Lamaab girls. Men within it more commonly

and have married Buurri

and married to

common among

Khartoum, have come to the

al

Lamaab.

On

primarily neolocal.

members in Buurri al Lamaab households extends thirty. Only one household has thirty members, but

from one to

of

The

seven others have between twenty and twenty-five.

nineteen

households with more than fifteen members and most of those with

between eleven and

fifteen

members

are joint extended families.

Forty-two per cent of the families have fewer than

six

and 16 per cent have over ten members. The average al Lamaab household is Khartoum Province as a whole

Buurri

5.7,

The

6.9 persons. is

and for the Blue Nile Province

5.9, $.}.

members,

size

of the

average size for

for the Northern Province 2

Organization of the Family

Family organization and domestic economy vary according to the type of family, whether nuclear, fraternal

The

family.

nuclear household

functionally separate

is

from other

spatially

joint,

or extended joint

and to a great degree

families. It

comprises a

man and

wife and their unmarried children with, on occasion, some unmarried collateral relative or a divorced son or daughter with

dren. In

family

its

the extended and fraternal joint families are borne out.

Most important

a

chil-

operation certain general principles characteristic also of

life in

senior male

no

is

are those relating to male

and age

seniority.

The

the head of the household and theoretically the final

H. E. Wachter, in Philosophical Society of the Sudan, The Population of Sudan: Report on the Sixth Annual Conference (Khartoum, 1958), p. 62.

Buurri

74 judge in

all

matters pertaining to

hold expenses. case other

al

The

finances

members of

may

He

it.

also

allowance to his wife.

a certain

for her as well as small sums

who demand

are reported to be wives

husband's pay, or the bulk of

at the

it,

expenditure, but their

supervise

its

The male

head, particularly

number

certainly not great.

is

he works in Khartoum, does most of

if

unless she can

of the village shops. In

many

make

On

make do with

additional purchases at one

households the husband likewise pur-

chases the clothing for the family.

toum which his wife a dress or which he

their

end of each month and

the marketing for the family, and the wife often must

what he brings home

for house-

Or they may be managed more

money

provide spending

There

money

the family must appeal to the master of the

with the master doling out

for his children.

the

allots

be rigorously controlled, in which

house for every piaster required. leniently,

He may

Lamaab

He may

select cloth in

takes to a seamstress in the village to takes to a tailor to

make

Khar-

make

into

jalibiiyas for himself

many men allow their women to shop in Khartoum for their own clothing and kitchen needs. The head of the household usually buys livestock and furniture. The or his sons.

wife

is

the other hand,

expected to provide meals for her husband and family and

to plan and prepare them, although there

planning involved.

must be

fed,

and

this

actually

is

husband unexpectedly brings

little

or no

guests,

they

frequently means that the wife and older

girls

If the

The women

sacrifice part of their meal.

are responsible for keeping

the house clean, washing the clothes, collecting brush and

wood

for

cooking purposes, taking care of the animals in the compound, keeping the earthen

jars full

Nuclear households have eat

by themselves

—

first

of clean water, and waiting on the men.

their separate kitchens,

the older males, then the

children, although occasionally the last are fed

and

their

women

first

may

and smaller

and put to bed.

A few nuclear families are not functionally distinct units. of kisra and the preparation of various items

members

The baking

be accomplished

not in the family kitchen but in that of another house, usually that of the wife's mother.

her small children

Thus

may

than in her own. She

the

woman

of a nuclear household with

spend more of her day in her mother's house

visits

the day while her husband

with her is

relatives

and prepares food for

away at work; she then when he is expected

with the main part of his meal

returns

home

back. Such a

—

Family and Kinship

75

practice permits most of the food for several families to be prepared

on one stove and encourages social intercourse among the women. Even if a woman does not do her cooking with her mother or sisters, she and her children are frequent visitors. As a result of close continuing contact, meals are frequently taken together, and the hus-

band may be drawn into the

circle as well.

Such

larly characteristic of those nuclear families

activities are particu-

who

live beside

or close

woman's mother or sister. A woman is not so intimate with her husband's mother or sisters. In a nuclear household in which there are only preadolescent children, the mother is next in command after the husband. Her official to the house of the

authority

is

confined to supervising the smaller children and assign-

ing tasks for her daughters. She

her kitchen. Often she selects

a

always technically the queen in

is

daughter

who

is

approaching puberty

make the daily kisra; other daughters are given other assignments. As a boy reaches puberty, he is encouraged by his father to assume

to

a

dominant role over

family

may

his sisters

by

the former, so that

and younger brothers, particularly

the time he reaches seventeen his rank in the

equal his mother's; that

is,

his

mother

will have

no au-

thority over him.

Extended Families

Of the Lamaab

three types of extended families that exist in Buurri

—those that are extended through married daughters,

al

those

extended through married sons, and those extended through both the most

common

status of

husband and wife will vary considerably depending on

whether residence

type

is

is

the

first.

It is

obvious that the role and

with the husband's family or with the wife's

family. In a nuclear household the wife has a tenuous position, since

she has no one in the house to support her against her husband

should a difference relatives

As

a

in a

is

woman

influence

is

arise.

But the wife

who

lives

with her husband's

doubly disadvantageous position in terms of power.

she has a subordinate position to begin with, and her

even

less

by being placed

in the

company

of her mother-

in-law and sisters-in-law along with her husband and his brothers

and

father.

numerous wife in

The

classical

Egyptian

stories are told of the

this role.

Because she

is

a

fellah

household

is

this type,

ignominious position of the

newcomer, she

is

treated

and

new

somewhat

—

Buurri

j6 as a

Lamaab

al

younger daughter, being given much of the work. She

subordinate position ing to the day house.

When

—

when

rarely, if ever, in a superordinate

she

may

is

in a

—look-

be the powerful mother-in-law in some

the wife resides with her husband in her mother's

household, the situation

mother and

one

different.

is

at least,

sisters,

She has the support of her

against her husband.

On

the whole,

such an arrangement in a patrilineally organized society tends to equalize the position of the husband and wife.

In Sudanese

Arab society the

wife's mother, particularly in the

extended household, has had a reputation similar to that of the husband's mother in Egyptian society.

Wherever

possible she attempts

and influence. There

to assert her authority

Informants indicated by name certain elderly past

were notorious

holds.

some

is

however, that the power of the wife's mother

is

indication,

breaking down.

women who

in the

in the village as tyrannical rulers of their house-

They could name no one who today has such a reputation. many a senior woman of an

Observation revealed that although

extended household (she

is

called

habawba, "grandmother") sought

to assume a superordinate position, giving frequent orders to others, especially other

women,

naturedly ignored, particularly in age.

The habawba

married

girls,

and

is still

all

able

show deference

particularly strict with her

daughters-in-law and can

own

for his wife, her daughter.

the

is

is

to her.

Although she may be

daughters, she

become

in-law should she feel that he

in-law

would frequently be goodby women who were close to her to wield some authority over newly

these orders

a

is

more

so with her

dangerous opponent of her son-

not providing certain expected things

The

influential position of the

mother-

acquired through seniority and grows with an increase in

number of women

ordinates. In addition,

often on her

in the haivsh it

who

technically

become her sub-

should not be forgotten that the habawba

home ground;

the house

may

father before her, whereas her husband has

have belonged to her

come from elsewhere

either another house or another village. In fact, the house

her personal property.

It is

is

may

be

then largely through the perpetuation

of the system of matrilocal residence and extended families that the wife's

mother

is

able to obtain her authoritative role.

As

has been

pointed out, various factors have contributed to an increase in the

number

of nuclear families. If the role of the habanjoba in the family

Family and Kinship is

declining,

it

must certainly be due

77

in part to the increase in nuclear

family organization.

Extended families

families are often a series of closely interrelated nuclear

with each nuclear unit going about

However, such

business

is

separate business.

its

always more public than that of a nuclear

family unaffiliated with others. In addition, each nuclear unit sacrifices

some independence for the cooperation,

and security

sociability,

provided by the joint family situation.

One

of the largest extended families in Buurri

al

Lamaab

is

that

of a deceased khaliifa of Sharif Yuussif's tariqa. This family consists of twenty-one persons: the his

wife and

widow

unmarried

child, three

of the khaliifa, her eldest son, sons,

and three daughters each

compound with their husbands and children. member of the family is the son of a sister of one of None of the daughters' husbands are related to each come from outside Buurri al Lamaab. The hazvsh is

married and living in the

An

additional

the husbands. other,

and

all

divided into five parts: one for each daughter and her nuclear family,

one for the eldest son and

his family,

and one for the widow and her

unmarried children. Meals are prepared separately by each family unit within the hawsh, but

all

the

men

usually eat together and

them the women and children. Kisra is made in a for the whole group. In some extended families all food after

together for the entire group. Electric and water eral expenses of

equally

by

all

maintaining the houses of the

and the

like.

the family should live

The on

a

professed ideal

more or

less

is

is

own

oven

prepared

and the gen-

compound

working males. The individual

otherwise separate economies, buying their clothing,

bills

single

are shared

families

maintain

food, furniture,

that everyone within

equal standard, and no one

should be allowed to go without necessities. Children are the responsibility of

they

are.

everyone living in the compound regardless of whose

Family problems are

settled

by

the adult males (the hus-

bands of the three daughters and the married son); the unmarried sons are permitted to contribute their opinions but are not full-

fledged decision makers. Technically the married son the house, but since he

is

is

the head of

not more than thirty years old he does not

command the position that an older man might. In such a family widowed mother assumes an important place and may seek to

the

influence her son. In this situation the wives' husbands,

who

are essen-

Buurri

78 tially outsiders,

The

acquire a

al

Lamaab

more important

fraternal joint family has

many

role in the decision making.

characteristics of the joint ex-

tended family: the mutual sharing of certain general household expenses, food preparation

and

no patriarch or matriarch, so to speak.

who

brothers-in-law

like.

power. The fraternal joint family has

in the allocation of

It differs

and the

eating, care of the children,

are peers.

The

Its

heads are brothers or

elder brother or brother-in-law

holds the position of head of the house, but because he

is

a brother

more equivalence in power, especially among those of approximately the same age. There is a tendency in some cases to consider two brothers as dual heads or brother-in-law and not a father, there

if

the age difference

not great and

is

high status in the community. But the greater

is

if

is

the younger brother has a

as duality in

the tendency for the

two

authority increases,

units to split into separate

nuclear families.

Among

the different kinds of joint families (both the fraternal

and extended types) there activity shared tual aid

by

is

a great deal of variation in the

Within some

the subdivisions.

amount of

mu-

joint families

and interaction are hardly greater than that among some

among

families classified as nuclear or

nuclear families and other joint

families.

Except

in

farm

of the household.

families, the joint

the

It is

systems chiefly affect the

women who must work compound while

main throughout the day

in the

ployed outside. Except

meals the

own

at

business and entertain their

Household Ownership and

men are able own friends.

the to

men

agricultural lands have

Partition

been discussed

household histories will

The

as the

in the chapter

especially

on the economy,

property of individual owners.

illustrate the

original household of

number of

from a

emtheir

remains to show the process by which households are partitioned

and the parts acquired

a

are

go about

Although the methods for acquisition of property and

it

women

together and re-

There was

a

important factors involved.

Al Haaj Baabikr Shukayry consisted of

individual houses built

his father.

by Al Haaj on land acquired

house for each of Al Haaj's wives and

guesthouse and one house for his children.

ried the daughter of

Two

When

Al Badraawi mar-

Al Haaj, he moved into the household, and

a

Family and Kinship

79

was taken over by the newly married couple as a residence. After Al Haaj's death the remainder of the house was divided among his two sons and another daughter, and another part was sold to the brother of Al Badraawi. At the present time this original

third of

it

household

is

divided into five separate ones.

Al Badraawi's third became known as hanjosh Badraawi; he in effect acquired it by his marriage to Al Haaj Baabikr's daughter. It is today occupied by Al Badraawi's eldest son and family, a widowed daughter

and her two children, and an unmarried daughter by a

Another section

later wife.

the household of Al Haaj Baabikr's son,

is

Mu-

hammad, and his family. A third section was inherited by Al Haaj's son, Ahmad, now deceased, but occupied by Ahmad's two daughters, one of whom is divorced and the other widowed. A fourth section was inherited by Ahmad's widowed daughter, who resides in this house with her two daughters and the husband and children of one of the latter. The remaining section is the part purchased by the brother of Al Badraawi and inhabited by his extended joint household.

A section of land originally owned by Sa'iid wad Ahmad on which his

house was located has passed through a similar partitioning

process. Sa'iid

Two

on

Baabikr.

Two

a small piece Bilaal

parts of the land

their marriage to

it

other sections were inherited

remained on which one of

Ahmad

law, and

were acquired by two daughters of sons of Ahmad Farh, Bilaal and

two

Farh

built a

house on land

was inherited through

part of the house

is

by

two

Sa'iid's

Bilaal's

set aside

by

and

sons,

Sa'iid's slaves built a

house.

his father-in-

wife by his two sons.

One

today inhabited by one of these sons and

his

family; another part has been sold. Bilaal's other son lives outside

the village and rents his part of the house. Baabikr section today includes several households.

dence of

his brother's son,

Another part

is

who

One his

part

by

a

A

third

Farh's

became the

who

part

by

Baabikr's

Of

and child

live

widow and

with her.

A

also

was inherited on

married daughter whose husband

now

resides

primarily with his other wife in another part of the village. son, his wife,

resi-

(Baabikr's) daughter.

the residence of another brother's son,

married a daughter of Baabikr. Baabikr's death

married

Ahmad

final section

was

Her

inherited

a divorced daughter.

the part of the original household of Sa'iid inherited

by

Sa'iid's

80

two and

Buurri

one section was inherited by

sons,

by him

rented out

is

Lamaab

al

one occupied by

divided into three parts:

daughter and her family, another by children,

and

which was

a third

grandson

Sa'iid's paternal

to another family, while the remainder

sold

this son's

by

second son's

Sa'iid's

widow and unmarried

that son to another family.

This land originally occupied by one extended family divided

among twelve

is

is

today

two

households, including ten nuclear and

extended families.

Although the partitioning apparent,

it

member

property of a

and

in these households

how

interesting to note

is

a

in others

is

household originally the

of one lineage becomes in due course in part

Thus in the two cases above the by men whose daughters later married mem-

the property of another lineage.

houses were established

bers of other lineages and

household.

A

man may

pound, in which case

is

viewed

house he and

is

it

On

it.

(A wife may

her death

his

own

may

household.

Thus

the part of the

be the property of the wife's father

his wife's

property and so gains control

in fact turn the house over to her husband.)

third of the original house lot of

the property of

in this fashion,

settle in build-

Nevertheless any hus-

his father-in-law.

inherited by him and her children and thus passes members of her husband's lineage. For example a

it is

into the hands of

come

com-

dead, of the wife. In this circumstance the husband

becomes the guardian of over

within the

wife inhabit becomes identified with him rather

his

than his wife, although or, if the latter

by

head of

as

live

may

another

his property;

it is

ings already constructed

band

were given places to

build a dwelling in his father-in-law's

Al Haaj Baabikr Shukayry has be-

members of

the lineage of Al Haaj

and approximately half of

into the hands of the Farh lineage.

The

Sa'iid's

latter

house

may

al

Hussayn

lot has passed

retain control

and

ownership of the household through practicing lineage endogamy.

LINEAGE The

r

lineage or aayla

is

the next most important kinship grouping

after the family. It includes

a

common

tions ago.

ancestor,

The

all

persons patrilineally descended from

who may

have lived from four to

date usually correlates with the time the

or founder of the 'aayla settled in Buurri usually goes

by

the

name

of the

first settler

six

genera-

first

member

Lamaab. The aayla r

al

and comprises

a

number

Family and Kinship of minimal lineages, each one of which ing in a

The

man who would now be

who

r

a potential aayla originat-

is

grandfather or a great-grandfather.

a

center of the minimal lineage

of nuclear families

81

is

an extended family or a group

maintain close social

ties

through the house-

hold of the minimal lineage head.

About 30 per cent of the population belong maximal

founded

lineage,

r

to an

in the village, the largest of

or

aayla,

which, the

nized as such in

About a dozen lineages are readily recogBuurri al Lamaab and have some substantial form

as lineage groups.

With

Farh, has 126 members.

represent those

these

may

be subdivided into minimal

Furthermore there are groups of

ants of persons

cupation,

established in the village prior to the

Each of

British occupation. lineages.

the exception of Sharif Yuussif 's lineage they

which were

who

who

relatives, usually

have settled in the village since the British oc-

constitute minimal lineages only, with

any maximal unit within Buurri

al

Lamaab.

no

affiliation to

Insufficient time has f

elapsed for the group to acquire the character of an aayla. others in Buurri

al

descend-

Lamaab who

members of no

are

There

are

distinctive lineage

because their relationship to a larger, stronger, or older lineage in the village, coupled with their

own

small

number and

physical dis-

tance from paternal or lineage brethren elsewhere, effectively pre-

vented the growth of a lineage

as a functioning unit. There are a number of members of the Garaajiij subtribe originating in Jirayf Gharb whose lineage ties are in that village and who in Buurri al Lamaab identify with the Garaajiij as a group rather than being affiliated

Garaajiij

Lamaab.

with any major Garaajiij

who

*aayla.

This

is

exclusive of those

belong to two definite maximal lineages in Buurri

Finally, there are a

number of

individuals

who

al

have settled

whose kinship and other ties they belong to any lineage at all,

in the village within the last generation

are primarily outside, and thus, it is

if

to one in another village.

The dozen major

lineages of Buurri al

directly related to each other, related to one or

population

is

and

Lamaab

are directly or in-

in addition the Garaajiij are all

more of them. Another major segment of the

related either through marriage or consanguinity to one

or another of the Buurri

al

Lamaab

lineages or to the Garaajiij. In

sum, a broad network of kinship encompasses 70 per cent of the population.

Those who

are not included within

it

are chiefly de-

Buurri

82

scendants of slaves, Baggaara,

Lamaab

al

Nuba

Hill people, southern

More

ern Sudanese, and non-Sudanese.

directly related to the Farh than to

have distant consanguineal

ties

families

and west-

and lineages are

any other. While two lineages

with the Farhs,

all

others

The

tionships initially established through marriage.

were

rela-

Farhs have long

held a pivotal position in the village in terms of both kinship and

power. The most tenuous relationship

As one of

lineage and the others. Sa'iid

wad Ahmad

lineage.

Few

his

between the

exists

wives he took a

village

this

by

may

marriage

of the

further marital relations have ever

been established with the village people by the

and thus

Sharif's

woman

be interpreted

the Sharif on settling in

it.

as a

Sharif's descendants,

token gesture to the

Although there

always some

is

intermarriage between lineages, individuals tend to marry lineage mates. For example, in one generation in

between thirty and

which the men

are

now

among Farh

sixty years of age, first marriages

males involved thirteen with other members of the lineage, five with

members of In the

five other village lineages,

Hamaad

women lineages,

and three with

lineage of the same generation seven

of the lineage, three married

women

and four married others. In Al Haaj

married in their

own

still

men

others.

married

of three other village

al

Hussayn's lineage two

group, four married into four other lineages

within the village, and two married others.

An ancestor who

has mar-

ried into another lineage tends to establish a pattern of inter-marriage

with that lineage. This

reflects the

high incidence of marriage to a

mother's brother's daughter and to a mother's

members of

the Dwayhiiya, often ajiij

families,

sister's

daughter. Thus,

the Fiqi Bashiir lineage, although tribally linked with

marry

into the Gilaynj lineage and the Gara-

because Fiqi Bashiir's mother was a Garaajiij and the

mother of Fiqi Gilaynj.

Compared

to the lineage organization of an Egyptian village, that

Lamaab does not appear so firm and distinctive. First, the Buurri al Lamaab lineages have no physical centers such as guesthouses (singular, diwaan). In Egypt a lineage frequently maintains a dinjoaan which serves as a center for various activities connected of Buurri

al

with the lineage (mournings, weddings, and the for guests to stay. Although in Buurri

al

like)

and

as a place

Lamaab members tend

to

concentrate in one section of the village, there are no sections entirely inhabited

by members of

a single lineage. It

is

true that the

Family and Kinship building of the

New

83

Quarter tended to disrupt a somewhat more

lineage-oriented arrangement of households, but

it is

also true that

traditional matrilocal and neolocal residence does not favor such a

division of a village.

Second, although a lineage has a head {kbiir

viewed

same

in the

power

as a real

the kbiir

r

al

or rank and

aayla is

way

as is

in lineage

f

aayla), he

who

an Egyptian lineage head,

and

village affairs. In Buurri al

is

not

figures

Lamaab,

the senior male of the lineage in terms of age

is

thus

al

its

sought and problems

most respected member. His advice may be

may

be brought to him

as a last resort,

but

it

is

not mandatory that one

is

largely an honorary rank rather than an autocratic patriarchal

role. r

No

informant could describe any incidents in which

aayla had performed in

own

within his lineage,

follow his advice; so the kbiir al 'aayla

when

out the oldest

any

judicial or executive capacity, except

family or minimal lineage. Informants from one

asked

man

who was

in the

their kbiir al

r

who

actually

there

merely figured

among

was lineage head. Some claimed

of the village; others believed

Twenty

aayla,

group and reported him. In the case of the

Farhs there was some difference of opinion

about

a kbiir al

it

years ago, however,

was the

when

eldest

it

members was the mayor

member

its

of the group.

Omda Hussayn was

the

alive,

r

would have been no question that he was kbiir al aayla of the was not only its eldest member but also the most

Farh, since he

prestigious of the Farhs and of

all

inhabitants of Buurri al

Lamaab.

Third, one gathers from various informants that villagers are not

extremely "lineage-conscious" loyalties to

it.

patrilineal kin,

Particularly

—that

For many, mothers'

is,

they do not express strong

relatives

are as important as

and the former are frequently of

when

a different lineage.

one's mother's and father's lineages are different,

the individual tends to feel almost equally obligated to those are related to

him through

long to his patrilineage.

either parent

On

who

whether or not they be-

the other hand, this varies with the

Thus nonlineage relatives are not member of a powerful lineage such as the Farh as they might be to a member of a weaker lineage related, for instance, to the Farh through his mother. The motivation for identify-

relative prestige of the groups. as

important to a

ing with one kinship group or another, whether a lineage or a tribe,

depends in part on the power and prestige of the group in the

village.

Buurri

84

al

Lamaab

A

weak lineage is apt to be overwhelmed, so to speak, by a larger and more powerful one with which it has established various marital ties. Particularly in public, members of such groups are quick to identify and associate themselves with the more prestigious lineage. A patrilineage is weakened by the practice of group exogamy and matrilocal residence.

be

Any

lost to the village

male

and to

who

marries outside the village

may

he

his lineage, since

community. In addition the continual

wife's

may

settle in his

influx of strangers

who

marry into existing lineages tends to dilute them as well. It should be remembered that the practice of marrying strangers who settle in Buurri al Lamaab has helped to consolidate the disparate elements of the community. Such exogamous practices can hardly reinforce loyalty to a specific lineage, any more than can dispersion of lineage members by marriage to the women of other villages. Lineage membership provides a status for the individual in the community. It becomes important in situations of conflict with other lineages and in the rites of passage, especially at the death of a

member and to a lesser extent at marriage or circumcision. The open and potentially violent feuds between lineages observed in

Egyptian

villages are

it is difficult

to say to

not characteristic of Buurri

what extent

a lineage

al

Lamaab. Thus

would form

a united

front against another in case of an interlineage quarrel. Ideally each

person

low

is

expected to support by force of arms,

lineage

members even

if

if

necessary, his fel-

he disagrees with the position taken by

them. Informants stated, however, that a person's patrilineage and that to

when

which

a quarrel arises

should not become involved in any fighting or argument.

husband

lives

difficult for

with

him

his wife's parents

it

would

hesitant about supporting their

own

patrilineage in a quarrel with a close relative such as

from

a mother's or a mother's mother's lineage.

sage,

little

comes to the fore

all

members

someone

as a social entity in the rites of pas-

especially those connected with death

mourning,

a

to side with his lineage against that of his wife. In

informants appeared a

lineage

When

likewise be particularly

fact,

The

between

mother belongs, he

his

and marriage. At a

are expected to attend, receiving the Faatiha

from the guests and serving them refreshment and food. After the contributions to the funeral are collected, members of the lineage share the remaining expenses themselves.

They

are also jointly re-

Family and Kinship

85

sponsible for providing the saadaga, or distribution of food,

which

follows the funeral and are not expected to partake of the saadaga

Members

some sense, hosts at a wedding or a circumcision of one of their members. They attend the wedding celebrations and assist in providing hospitality to guests. If the wedding is between two lineages, that of the groom shares in the responsibilities connected with him, and that of the bride with her. Thus if members of the groom's lineage are not related to the bride's household, they go to the latter as honored guests and expect to be treated as such. A lineage may jointly sponsor a rahmataat or memorial feast for the dead during Ramadan. Members of a lineage may enter any house of a fellow member unannounced, either through the men's or women's door, 3 and meal.

of the lineage are

in

all,

should never expect to be treated as a guest but rather in a sense as a

member

of the family. Lineage

of mutual his lineage

their aid, or financial assistance

however, should

aid,

first

are involved in a system

amount of

it,

may

be provided by them.

be solicited from one's

daughters, or parents; and sufficient

members

A farmer, for example, occasionally obtains help from mates. A man who needs to repair his house may secure

aid.

one

if

they are unable to provide

may

appeal to

outside the immediate family. Likewise in a is

Any

such

and

siblings, sons it,

or a

members of the lineage wedding or mourning it

expected that the immediate family will bear a larger share of the

expenses and responsibilities than others of the lineage, but, of course,

if

member may

wealthier

viewed

the immediate family

as the special

in a critical financial position, a

contribute a larger sum. Male

guardians of the honor of the

lineage and hence of the

A

is

honor of the group

members

women

itself.

person has obligations also to his mother's lineage

from

different

funeral or a lineages,

his

own. Thus those

wedding often include

who

who a

are

of the

when

assume responsibilities

number of

it

is

at a

individuals of other

are related to the deceased or the one being married

through their mother. Assistance

is

likewise solicited

from members

of one's mother's lineage, although a mother's male relatives are not 8

In the old days, apparently, one could walk into the house of any fellow

without asking permission. This practice is also reported for the Rubataab (J. W. Crowfoot, "Customs of the Rubataab," Sudan Notes and

villager

Records,

I

[191 8], 120).

86

Buurri

viewed

guardians of the

as

from maternal

assistance

Lamaab

al

girls.

Many

people prefer to seek such

from patrikin because more sympathetic. A per-

relatives rather than

of the belief that a mother's relatives are son's first obligation

brothers and

is

to his

immediate family:

his father

and sons and daughters. Beyond

sisters,

and mother, this there is

some tendency for this bilateral emphasis to persist if, as is the case with a large number in Buurri al Lamaab, the individual is closely

more than one

related to

lineage. Several factors contribute to a

group of

variation in the precedence of one

One

factor has already been mentioned, namely, the strength or

status of one's patrilineage in the village as er's.

relatives over another.

compared to

Personal attachments are also important; the close

villagers

one's

moth-

of

many

ties

with maternal kin often weigh in favor of turning to them

rather than to paternal kin. Finally,

expected that an individual

it is

give precedence to the village and to the Lamaabiyiin within

any other community. Needless to

relatives in

say, this

is

it

over

a precept

which, particularly because of the increasingly suburban character of Buurri

al

Lamaab,

on the assumption village

We

is

not always practiced today.

that one's closest relatives

would

It is a

rule based

reside within the

anyway. have suggested that the lineage in Buurri

amorphous quality both

al

Lamaab

and function. This

in structure

is

has an in part

due to the operation of lineage exogamy and neolocal and matrilocal residence,

come

which tend

weaken the

patrilineage.

Male members be-

dispersed throughout the village and in other villages as well.

They may if

to

reside in or near the

compound

of the father-in-law, who,

the head of an extended family, exerts a special influence similar

to that of the husband's father in the patrilocal situation. In Buurri al

Lamaab

half

as

many

marriages are arranged with mother's

brother's daughter as with father's brother's daughter, the generally

preferred form of marriage this

phenomenon may

matrilocal household. ter's

lie

among

Arabs.

A

partial explanation for

in the role of the wife's father in the

He may seek to

arrange marriages of his daugh-

children to his son's children, just as in patrilocal residence the

head of the house, the husband's father, riages

between the children of

his

two

This influence of the wife's family

husband

is

a stranger in the village.

may

seek to arrange mar-

sons. is

most evident where the

Here the

village-based lineage

Family and Kinship

may

utilize matrilocal residence

8j

and the accompanying

ence of the wife's relatives to reinforce and preserve

have already mentioned that some families in Buurri

special influ-

its interests.

al

We

Lamaab have

never developed a separate 'aayla because of their long and close affiliation

with a stronger one within the

clude those founded

by

individual

village.

These

men who have come

families in-

to Buurri al

Lamaab within the last sixty years. There is some tendency for their offspring to marry into the local lineage, i.e., that of the mother, and also to identify somewhat more closely with it than with the fathe village. Nevertheless the operation of patrilineal

ther's, outside

descent means that the father's lineage cannot be absorbed.

Farh

The

through matrilocal residence and marriage with stran-

lineage,

gers entering the village, sought to preserve a dominant status in village affairs.

on lineage

It,

in effect, contributed to the process of de-emphasis

in favor of the Lamaabiyiin, such practices tending to

neutralize obligations to paternal

among

those

who were

and maternal

relatives, particularly

not Farh. However, at the same time because

of their status, the Farh preserved a

more

distinct identity

than the

other lineages.

Another factor delimiting the role of the patrilineage association of

young children

(until age seven for

of their lives for girls) with their mother,

pany of her

sisters

and mother. Such

who

is

The amalgamation loose kinship

ties

the close

usually in the

a practice,

traditional belief that the mother's relatives are

induces strong emotional

is

boys and for most

com-

coupled with the

more compassionate,

to maternal kin.

of a considerable part of the village into the

group called the Lamaabiyiin

also acts as a

counterforce

to strong lineage identifications. Certain threats to the traditional

power and

cultural values in the village have tended to reinforce the

existence of the Lamaabiyiin as a solidary group. Migrants

from the

south of the Sudan, of a radically different cultural background,

upon

settling in the village

have posed a threat to local cultural values

and, hence, induced a hostile reaction

among

the Lamaabiyiin. (See

the section "Tribal Significance and Intertribal Relations," below.)

Such

frictions tend to

values, to unite

them

between lineages and

The

remind the Lamaabiyiin of as a

their shared cultural

group, and thus to redirect any tensions

families.

question arises as to what extent the nonagricultural char-

88

Buurri

acter of Buurri al

Lamaab were

al

Lamaab

Lamaab promotes

lineage exogamy. If Buurri al community, we might expect

a totally agricultural

to find strong pressures

toward lineage endogamy

serve the lands and cattle within the lineage; but

in order to pre-

when

agriculture

is

no longer important we would expect more indifferent attitudes toward endogamy. There can be little doubt that the absence of agriculture removes

some problems which

It

ties are still

involved.

local

arise in the inheritance

should not be forgotten, however, that house proper-

of property.

More

important, lineage

exogamy and neo-

and matrilocal residence have operated throughout the history

of the village, including the earlier period

dominant.

Today

there

when

agriculture

no perceivable difference

is

was

in the extent to

which exogamous marriage is practiced between Buurri al Lamaab landowning farm families and other families. Finally, we have sug-

when

gested that, local

women,

strangers have settled in the village and married

men

these

have resided in the household of the wife's

marry the

family, and frequently their offspring least there has

wife's kinsmen.

been a preference for marriage within the

At

village.

Thus, although there has been extensive lineage exogamy, there has also

been extensive

to preserve

power

village

in the

Concerning other

ham

endogamy and

a rather concerted effort

hands of the in-group.

villages in the

northern riverain Sudan, Triming-

"Today almost all villages contain members of several different tribes which may be waves of different migrations or remnants of Mahdist armies. Communal organization therefore has writes:

.

.

.

taken the place of tribal organization." these villages

do not approach Buurri

4

al

It is

of course true that

Lamaab

in heterogeneity,

yet they are mixed; they are also intermarried, and there

is

some

occurrence of matrilocal residence. However, because of lack of research in the

Arab Sudan, evidence

is

in the Gezira area of Blue Nile Province

inadequate. In one village

with which the writer

is

now

familiar, the

Arabs are derived from

interrelated.

Lineage identifications have been submerged in identi-

fication

with

a

various tribes and

all

dominant Arab kindred-community much

are

like the

Lamaabiyiin.

To some

extent the intermixture of different groups in the Sudan

*J. Spencer Trimingham, Islam in the Press, 1949), pp. 19-20.

Sudan (London: Oxford University

Family and Kinship is

became Arab and Muslim by the conmovement of small groups of Arabs into the Sudan. Arab men

an old process.

tinual

The

89

area

married indigenous women, and,

descendants in-

as a result, their

Arab culture and

herited the wealth of their mothers and the

Islamic

religion of their fathers.

In sum, given the heterogeneous origin of villagers, the prevalence

of neolocal and matrilocal residence, intermarriage between lineages,

common

residence in a single village, and membership in the larger

group called the Lamaabiyiin, ing

down both

We

tifications.

we

see strong pressures at

and

tially

of equal importance, particularly

status

and

still

more

bilateral tendencies

we

the parents are equal in

so if the mother's kin has

The

more

prestige. Certain

it

because of these bilateral

is

individual belongs not only to a lineage but,

been implied in the foregoing discussion, he

identify with a kindred lated

if

have difficulty in specifying precisely the func-

tions of the lineage. as has

father's lineages are poten-

appear in the attempt to create and maintain an

atmosphere of community. Indeed, tendencies that

—a

through both parents

mining factor of inclusion through

whom

kinsman

a

play-

and intense lineage iden-

serious interlineage conflict see that the mother's

work

bilaterally)

(i.e.,

in the

may

group

is

also tends to

whom

group of kinsmen to

ego

is

re-

and where the deter-

not the specific parent

be related to ego, but rather, the

from ego. On the other hand, power and prestige, it keeps its dis-

distance bilaterally of that kinsman

where the

lineage has attained

tinctive identity

and cohesive quality,

as in the case

of the Farh.

OTHER KINSHIP GROUPINGS Relatives are referred to collectively

by such terms

as ahl, agaarib,

Ahl includes those agnatically related to ego from the paternal great-grandfather downward. There are a few sons of men who migrated to Buurri al Lamaab and married women of welland

asraar.

—

established lineages

—who

apparently use the term in an extremely

who are not agnatically They have then modified

loose sense, including their mothers' kinsmen related to their paternal great-grandfathers.

the meaning of ahl to include these relatives, with

had the

closest social intercourse

and

who

are

whom

they have

more important

in the

eyes of other villagers.

Agaarib,

literally

meaning "near ones," or

relatives,

includes

—

—

po

Bnurri

Lamaab

al

grandparents, father, mother, their siblings and their offspring, one's

own

offspring and siblings, and offspring of siblings. Agaarib, then,

has a bilateral quality, especially since one r

from the

asaba, a relative

father's side

ence to the male sex organ

r

may

speak of gariib

asaba meaning cord, a refer-

—and gariib rahmiiya or

from the

relative

rahmiiya meaning uterus. One's brothers and

mother's side

r

are neither rahmiiya nor

but their offspring

as aba

sisters

to ego, a

are:

r

brother's or sister's children are agaarib asaba since they are related

However,

paternally.

miiya, since he

sisters'

children will view ego as gariib rah-

related through their mother, while ego's brothers'

is

him

children will view

f

as gariib

asaba, since he

is

them

related to

patrilineally.

Asraar

is

a

term which

informants agreed has the same meaning

all

as agaarib, so that instead of saying gariib rahmiiya or gariib

one

may

say

siir

(singular of asraar)

'as aba

or

stir

informant stated that asraar and agaarib are used not

know

f

as aba

rahmiiya. Another

when

a person does

the relationship of one individual to another, but

only that they are related. Thus he refers to the individual

knows

as gariibak

or siirak (your relative) rather than using a specific kinship term.

According to Cunnison, there are two meanings of

Humr,

the Massiriiya

Baggaara

a

fariiq

among

grouping

tribe: a small territorial

whose core membership is of the same patrilineage, and a strictly kinship term synonymous with patrilineage. 5 In Buurri al Lamaab the term aayla is employed for the latter, whereas the villagers' conf

ception of the fariiq fariiq in

Buurri

al

similar to the first usage of the Massiriiya.

is

Lamaab terms

long to a dominant lineage but also those related to that lineage or are

was the Fariiq

there

al

its

who

are either in

clients or slaves.

Thus

a

Today

this

term

is

still

in the past

term 5

is

from

a variety

village.

Certain older

refer to a part of the village as Fariiq as Shukayry, since it

was, in fact, the fariiq of Shukayry, but today this

used primarily

Ian Cunnison,

XXXV

century ago

not in wide usage, because such

form of organization has disappeared from the

women

a

Lamaab, consisting of the dominant Farh

lineage along with relatives, clients, and slaves derived

of different tribes.

The

who besome way

includes not only residents

"The

(1954), 50-68.

as a place

Humr

name. In the history of Buurri

al

and Their Land," Sudan Notes and Records,

Family and Kinship

Lamaab

the fariiq

was the

development of a larger

basis for the

political unit, the village. Fariiq as

grew

pi

Shukayry and Fariiq

Lamaab

al

into one another, consolidating as the village of Buurri al

Lamaab.

The term khashm

al

bayt applies to a greater lineage group includ-

r

ing several aaylas, but the

word

as subtribe.

today, and

smaller than a tribe.

fariiq,

know

not

When khashm

bayt

al

reference to the extended family,

haivsh.

But

this

is

One might

rarely used in Buurri

it is

many younger men do

kinship significance. as a

it is

Like

the

is

word

translate

al

having any

as

used on rare occasions

becomes synonymous with

it

an improper usage, although the khashm

is

evolved out of the hawsh and the

al

bayt of the Jamuu'ia

Lamaab

al

bayt

them has a territorial as well as kinship base. The Garaajiij, composed of several lineages in both Jirayf Gharb and Buurri al Lamaab, constitute a khashm

in Jirayf

Gumr

and members in Buurri

and

al

Lamaab, are

Arab Sudanese

a subdivision of the gabiila

the tribal area. fariiqs,

a

society, the tribe (gabiila)

the Massiriiya

Each khashm

al

and had

its

own territorial

al

bayt

base within

bayt in turn was composed of several

and more elaborate

Humr by

al

comprised

The khashm

and these included several hawshes or extended

slightly different

khashm

tribe.

the inhabitants of a given geographical area.

was

like

Tarraf, comprising lineages

tribe. Similarly the

bayt of the Masallamiiya In traditional

fariiq,

tribal structure

is

families.

A

reported for

Cunnison. 6

THE TRIBE Arabs

The "Arabs"

are those

who

claim to be descended from one of

Arab migrations

into the Sudan although in fact they are predominantly derived from an indigenous Sudanese population several

become Arabized. Most of the Arabs claim affiliation with which presumably entered the Sudan several hundred years e.g., the Ja'aliyiin. Others are more recent immigrants. One

that has tribes

ago,

of the

latter,

the Ja'afra, are not considered Sudanese Arabs but

rather Egyptian Arabs, having settled in the 9

Ibid.

Sudan within the

last

Buurri

$2 century and a

half.

The

two major Arab

of

Lamaab

al

great majority of

stocks or people

Arab

belong to one

tribes

(jins):

(singular,

Ja'aliyiin

and Juhayna.

Ja'ali)

The term

Ja'aliyiin

is

used in two different senses: (i)

"all loosely

connected groups of tribes on the river and inland, Danagla and

who

others

claim 'Abbasid descent"; (2) "the riverain people whose

Duab ibn Ghanim and whose chief habitat was between the mouth of the Atbara and the Shabluka cataract since the ancestor was

beginning of the 16th century looser sense that It is in

we

if

not for longer."

7

the former

It is in

speak of a major collection of tribes as

the narrower sense that

we

speak of a specific

Ja'aliyiin.

Ja'ali tribe,

which comprises one of the tribes of this major group. Villagers distinguish between these two usages by referring to the former as a jins

or "people" and the latter as gabiila or "tribe."

from Abbas, the uncle of the

All Ja'ali tribes claim descent

is no evidence to support this claim, there numerous genealogies which seek to prove it. 8 The Ja'aliyiin of Sudan claim a more immediate descent from Ibraahiim al Hashmi, surnamed Al Ja'al, because he

Prophet, but though there are

was possessed of great power and wealth and in his days a severe famine occurred and folk came to him from every direction and said "O Ibrahim, make us (aga'lnd) your folk," and he consented to their wish and so his people surnamed him Gcfal because he "made" (gcfal) those who came to him and maintained them until God relieved their distress. 9

MacMichael

"A

writes:

note of uncertain authorship Ansari' and

.

.

.

states that

Sa'ad and Ibrahim

were

tively because their

mothers were an Ansaria and a Ga'alia."

called

'el

former explanation of the origin of latter,

but the

latter

is

Ja'al is

interesting in that,

'el

Ga'ali' respec10

The

more common than the whether true or not,

it

could suggest further evidence of a matrilateral pattern in the

Sudanese Arab social organization. 11 7

8

Harold A. MacMichael, History of the Arabs, Ibid., p. 197.

11

One

9

lbid., II, 85.

I,

235. 10

Ibid., p. 124.

name of his mother in Buurri al whose sons founded the 'Araki lineage mother, Al Jaaz. However, some in-

occasionally finds a son bearing the

Lamaab. Thus 'Abd ar Rahiim Al Jaaz, was so named after his formants claim that this woman came from the Lamaabiyiin, or from the vicinity of the village, while 'Abd ar Rahiim's father was an outsider. Thus it

in the village,

Family and Kinship

The

93

claim that the Ja'aliyiin developed out of a collection of ap-

parently unrelated peoples Ja'al, is

similar to another

who became

the followers of one man,

which holds

that the Lamaabiyiin de-

who were the common mode of

veloped out of a collection of unrelated peoples

may

followers of Farh. That this establishing

new

tribes

is

be a rather

further borne out

names bear the Arabic stem j-m-

by

the tribes

which means

,

whose

a gathering or a

meeting. Thus, there are the Jawaama'a of central Kordofan, Jimaa'a

of eastern Kordofan near the

White

Nile,

Jimi'aab of the main Nile just north of states:

...

"The name Gawama'a

'to

collect'

tribes, just as

and

on

(sing.,

signifies a

similar lines

and the Jamuu'ia and

Omdurman. MacMichael

Gama'i)

is

collection of

it

derived from 'gama'a'

members of

various

alleged that the origin of the

is

from 'ga'al' ... 'to make.' " 12 We may assume that the other tribal names have a similar if not identical meaning to that of the Jawaama'a. Each tribe has, however, its eponymous ancestor. The genealogies claim Jama'i as the founder of

word

Ga'aliin (sing., Ga'ali)

is

the Jawaama'a, Jamuu'a of the Jamuu'ia, and Jimi of the Jimi'aab. 13 c

These could be mythological group

individuals, disguising the origin of the

as unions of tribally mixed populations, or more likely they

were nicknames applied

to powerful

and wealthy

men who

gath-

ered around them different people and, in the manner of Ibraahiim al Ja'al,

made them

specific tribes.

Tribes are also formed through the breaking off of sections of older tribes. In the course of time a lineage becomes large and subdivides; the members of the new lineages establish separate fariiqs, which may be held together through the organization of the khashm al bayt. In time this group becomes enlarged, acquires power and prestige, and eventually breaks off from the parent tribe to establish a

new

one.

From

the

little

evidence the writer has available

amples of the Garaajiij and Tarraf

—

it

—the ex-

appears that about seven gen-

would be expected, following local custom, that Abd ar Rahiim might become known by his mother's name, since she was of the in-group, rather than by the name of his father, who was a stranger. Such a circumstance could also account for similar occurrences elsewhere in the Sudan, for example, in the case of Ibraahiim al Ja'al. 12 Harold A. MacMichael, The Tribes of Northern and Central Kordofan (London: Cambridge University Press, 191 2), p. 76. 13 MacMichael, History of the Arabs, II, diagram opposite p. 80.

Buurri

94

al

Lamaab

erations are necessary before the lineage

forms a khashm

it

is

Every lineage

al bayt.

enlarged to the point where

is

a potential tribe,

although

for one reason or another obviously not every one evolves into a tribe, particularly

when such

today,

organization

is

becoming

in-

creasingly less important.

The As

other large Arab group in the Sudan

in the case of the Ga'aliin the

In the latter

it

applies to certain

word

nomads

the Juhayna.

is

has a wider and narrower sense.

the bulk of

whom

inhabit Sennar

Province in the southern Gezira. In the former sense the term "Guhayna" used of the vast group, Rufa'a, Kababish, Dar

is

owning nomads of Kordofan,

of Kordofan, Darfur and the western states,

descended from " Abdulla

The

parallelism

el

Hamid and

as well as of the great

of

all

other camel-

Bakkara fraternity

whom

are said to be

Guhani."

between the use of the terms Ga'ali and Guhani is, is only too glad to imply

however, not complete, for whereas any native a

connection with the Prophet by calling himself

equal enthusiasm for Abdulla

el

a Ga'ali, there

is

not an

Guhani. 14

[The Juhayna] represent the nomad Arab immigrants who kept their system unimpaired from generation to generation, whereas the Ga'aliin absorbed an older and more sedentary and therefore more

tribal

heterogeneous population. 15

There

is

... no reason to doubt

very large number of Guhayna

that

by

the

— "fifty-two

the Blue Nile near Soba, and even

more

Fung period

there

was a on

tribes" say the nisbas

in the

—

west and that the great

majority of the tribes which claim to be or are alleged to be descended

from Abdulla

el

Guhani

are ultimately connected with the

Guhayna

[of Arabia]. 16

In addition to the Ja'aliyiin and the Juhayna there are other

Arab

groups, including the Ja'afra and other Egyptians, the Ashraaf, and the Kawaahla.

Nubians

The second

largest ethnic

group

in Buurri al

Lamaab

is

the

Nubian

whose original homeland is along the banks of the Nile from Aswan Egypt to Dongola in the Sudan. They are today highly Arabized, and all of those living in Buurri al Lamaab are indistinguishable culin

u lbid.,

I,

15

237.

lbid.

"Ibid., p. 238.

Family and Kinship

pj

from the Arab tribes. In addition, none in the village except few of the Danaagla are familiar with any of the Nubian languages. Thus the distinction between Arab and Nubian in this village becomes largely one of origin and tribal affiliation.

turally a

Other Groups There are

a

number of other

Lamaab, constituting about

15

scattered ethnic groups in Buurri al

per cent of the population, slightly

more than half of whom are of slave descent. The Nuba, who come from the Nuba Hills in southeastern Kordofan and should not be confused with the Nubians, form the largest of these groups. The Nuba Hill peoples are divided into a number of tribes in their local habitat and there are numerous cultural differences among them. For our purposes

it is

necessary only to mention that they are, in

homeland, a pagan people and follow a way of life distinct from any Middle Eastern cultural pattern. Formerly, until the intensive Arab migrations beginning about the fifteenth century, these Nuba groups were more widespread, extending into central Kordotheir

fan and central Blue Nile Provinces. Because they were pagans, the

Arabs frequently took them the village

al

Lamaab masters

Nuba immigrants who have

War

II.

and about half the

today are descendants of individuals

served their Buurri are

as slaves,

as

slaves.

who The

Nuba

formerly other half

settled in the village since

Neither group has any kinship

ties

in

World

with either the Arab or

Nubian population of Buurri al Lamaab, except for one or two isolated cases in which an Arab male has taken a former slave for a wife. Those who are descendants of slaves are thoroughly Arabized; they are practicing Muslims and native Arabic speakers, knowing no Nuba tongue. Many of the recent Nuba settlers, however, are still in the process of acculturation and assimilation to the Arab culture. As far as could be determined, all are Muslims, but most still use their Nuba speech at home and keep close kinship ties in Kordofan. Within their homes they also preserve certain eating habits the

and other isolated elements of their indigenous culture. The Dinka,

from Upper Nile Province, are similarly divided in Buurri Lamaab between those descended from slaves of Arab masters

Nilotics al

and

a smaller

group

who

are recent immigrants.

completely assimilated, and the

latter are

still

The former are They

acculturating.

8 7 1

)

Buurri

96

and the Nuer residents of the

al

Lamaab

village are the least

Arabized of any

group. These recent Nilotic migrants often speak only limited

minimum They have come to the

Arabic, wear a

of clothing, and usually are not Muslims.

village only within the past decade and impermanent element of the population, individoften staying for just six months or so. The group consists

constitute a highly uals

mostly of young bachelors, and, of course, they have no

ties

of

Arab or Nubian population. Occasional Arab males, however, have married women of the group of Dinka descended from slaves. Westerners (from Darfur Province) and West Africans have settled in Buurri al Lamaab since World War II. The number of members of the different tribes, according to the writer's estimate kinship with the

in 1959,

Table

4-

is

presented in Table

4.

Estimate of tribal composition of Buurri

al

Lamaab,

Arabs

1,693

Ja'aliyiin

897

Jamuu'ia

363

Rubataab

155

proper

1 1

Jimi'aab

83

Masalimaab

75

Shaaygiiya

72

Bataahiin

Zanaarkha

1

( Ja'aliyiin?

13

'Umaraab Juhayna Rufaa'a

1

469 135

Dwayhiiya Maghaarba

71

Baggaara, various tribes

5

57

Dubaasiyiin

50

'Arakiyiin

44

Masallamiiya

35

'Abdullaab

20

Shukriiya

6

Other Arabs Ja'afra

Ashraaf

959*

No.

Tribe

Ja'aliyiin

i

327 190 6$

Family and Kinship

97 No.

Tribe

Kawaahla

38

Egyptians (either native born or by parental

33

ancestry)

Hawaara

1

290

Nubiyiin

Kanuuz and Harbiaab Khojalaab Mahas Other Mahas

106

90 57

Danaagla Others

37

396

Nilotics (Dinka,

Nuer and Shilluk)

89

Other southerners

38

From Darfur Province Nuba West Africans

98 124 7

Unknown

40

Total *

A

The

2.379

classification of

Arab

tribes follows that of

Harold A. MacMichael,

History of the Arabs in the Sudan (London: Cambridge University Press,

1922).

Tribal Significance and Intertribal Relations

Among

Arabs and Nubians

significance.

This

is

tribal affiliation has little functional

even more noticeable among those of slave

descent, although such groups as the recent immigrant

Nuer

or

Nuba

stand out because of their distinctive cultural features. For the

dominant Arab-Nubian group one's torical associations

and

is

tribal

preserved for

name

much

is

a

reminder of

his-

the same reasons that

a Scot maintains his "clan" affiliation or a first- or second-generation

American may preserve certain sentimental ties with the country of his origin. While cultural differences among the riverain Arab have apparently never been great, there have been variations

tribes

in details. Various tribes have developed their

songs, in

and they have

type of economy

rites

special facial as

states,

each having a

in the past

and

They vary

were political associations or and composed of individ-

territorial base

uals claiming ultimate kinship ties.

Sudan

folktales

well as in minor details pertaining to the

of passage. Traditionally, tribes

petty

own

markings (shillukh).

The

history of the northern

century and a half has been mainly characterized

—

Buurri

98

by

the

breakdown of the

The Mahdist

al

Lamaab

tribes as political

and

territorial entities.

rulers in particular sought to crush their

although there has always been some intermixture

And

power.

among

Arab tribes, it became noticeable under the Turko-Egyptian rule and most pronounced from Mahdiiya times onward. Buurri al Lamaab is an example of a village founded on the principle of tribal heterogeneity. As a result, tribal allegiances or primary the

obligations to a tribal chief could never be tolerated; they

must be

subordinate to village interests and obligations. Similarly, major cultural differences

molded

into a

among tribesmen

common

living in the village

course, and living together in a single

integrated group

Whereas each

had to be

village pattern. Intermarriage, social inter-

which tended

community gave

to take

on

tribal

an

rise to

dimensions

inhabitant retained his tribal affiliation in

itself.

name

—

or whatever he also came to identify himself with Lamaab originally referred to those who resided in the Lamaab but, as it grew in size and became more dominant,

Ja'afra, Rufaa'a,

the Lamaab. Fariiq al

some

residents of the Fariiq as

ignation Lamaab.

Shukayry were included

Today Shukayry's

in the des-

descendants, depending often

are promayor (pro-Farh) or antimayor, identify Lamaab or reject the association. At least it can be implicit ideal in the group entity called Lamaab was

on whether they themselves as said that the

to include everyone in Buurri al

Lamaab, so that everyone residing

in the village, regardless of tribal origin

(exclusive, of course, of

slaves), should become one body of kinsmen, led by the Farhs and

bearing the

name Lamaab. Allegiance

specific tribal allegiance

to the

Lamaab was

and so preserve the

village

tremes of divisiveness. Such an ideal was to some if

only because personal

less

tribal allegiances

to replace

from the

ex-

extent successful

themselves were becoming

important, and, further, cultural differences between those in-

volved were few. However, with the entry of Sharif Yuussif into the village and with the greatly increased immigration that followed, the

Lamaab became more and more only

population.

Many new

ship ties with the

a part of the total village

immigrants never bothered to establish kin-

Lamaab, and

in the last decade there has

been

a

movement into the village of peoples with such widely different cultural backgrounds that they could never be included in the Lamaab anyway. Had

the village been isolated from such contacts,

Family and Kinship

we

could in an earlier day,

have expected the eventual

at least,

appearance of another distinct Arab

99

Lamaab or

tribe, the

(plural)

Lamaabiyiin, but the process was undertaken too late and was obstructed

The

by

nearness to the city of Khartoum.

Arab's or Nubian's personal tribal

any primary significance

in Buurri al

affiliation

Lamaab.

A

has never held

new phenomenon

has appeared

among younger, school-educated men, namely,

identification

with the Sudan rather than with any

within

it.

The

initial

tribal

their

group

response of some of them to a question about

their tribal connections

is

However, no one

that they are Sudanese.

has as yet forgotten his tribal membership. It is

with the newer immigrants from southern and western Sudan

and intercultural conflict

that problems of intertribal

arise.

The

southerners have the greater bridge to cross in assimilating to the

dominant Arab pattern. The

British administration

made

a general

practice of curbing the migration of southerners to northern Sudan;

the present administration as a part of a

more homogeneous nation of Sudanese

plan to

its

make

in contrast to a

the Sudan

combination

of hundreds of different and competing tribal units has reversed this British

policy and encouraged southerners to

northerners to

move

south.

But the southerners

come north and

who

settle in

the

north find themselves a subordinate and inferior group in a completely foreign world. Their status in Arabic, learn to

who

wear the

is

enhanced

jalibiiya or

worn such apparel all customs regarding women, and adopt Islam ease of one

as

they become fluent

tobe with the grace and

has

his life, acquire local as their religion.

But

regardless of these modifications, their origin remains frequently

through their greater height and, for the Nuer, through the

visible

scarification across their foreheads.

In Buurri strained.

al

Lamaab,

Most of them

relations

with southerners have often been

are bachelors

who

groups. Occasionally they hold parties to friends beer.

from Khartoum and drink great

Such

affairs usually

end

women

in a

reside together in large

which they

invite their

quantities of

homemade

brawl or in actions that are

viewed

as insulting to

tivities

and because they are often unemploved, they have

been blamed disturbances

of the village. Because of such ac-

for thefts in the village.

by bathing naked

They have

also

created further

in the river in the presence of

women

Buurri

ioo

who

al

Lamaab

have gone there to wash clothes. During the writer's

lations

reached a climax.

wall of the

women's quarters of

within

(Village

it.

ticularly Nilotics.)

women As

stay, re-

Some drunken Nuer jumped over a

house and greatly upset the

the

women

are deathly afraid of southerners, par-

which occurred which between thirty and forty southerners drunken brawl, a group of young Lamaab men a result of this incident,

shortly after another in

were involved

in a

appointed themselves the task of ordering each landlord to evict southern tenants. Knowledge of

this

all

reached the mayor, and through

from villagers a special meeting was called at It was agreed that the mayor should prohibit any new unmarried southerners from settling in Buurri al Lamaab. There remained those who favored a radical policy of total eviction of all southerners while, on the other hand, some pointed out that no such action, even the one eventually decided upon, was legal, since a Sudanese could live anywhere he wanted. The writer left the Sudan before the matter was entirely settled. The attitude of the natives of the village both men and women toward the additional pressures

the mayor's residence.

—

—

would appear, many close similarities to that of White southerners toward Negroes in the United States; their besoutherners has,

it

havior betrays unconscious and conscious sexual anxieties. Relations with other minority groups have generated conflict.

the

To

be

movement

sure, the

little

or no

National Union partisans were resentful of

of Baggaara into Buurri

al

Lamaab, and some suspicion

them to this day. Other minorities are culturally not so different from Buurri al Lamaab residents as are the southerners. Even the Nuba Hill people recently settled in the village had adopted Arab dress and other Arab ways long before coming to Buurri al Lamaab. All are at least brethren in Islam and were some is

directed toward

distance along the road

toward Arabization when they

settled in

the village.

Nuba, the Fur (from Darfur), the Equatorial Africans (from Chad), and the Baggaara tend to form their own ethnic cliques and minimize social intercourse with older village residents. But when there is intercourse,

Most of the

Nilotics, the recently settled

often proves enlightening for the latter as well as the former. The villager learns of other customs and other ways of doing

it

things.

As long

ways, he

listens

as these are

not diametrically opposed to his

with tolerance and

interest. It

might be

own

said that

Family and Kinship

101

any minority group so long as it minority which respects village customs

villagers will generally tolerate is

not too different.

Any

women

concerning modesty in dress and concerning respect for

would gen-

and for Islam and avoids making disturbances probably erate

no adverse feeling

in Buurri al

Lamaab, but acceptance

may

be contingent upon the minority group's retaining a semi-isolated

subcommunity

status

and leaving control of

village affairs to the

Lamaabiyiin.

Buurri

Lamaab, then,

al

to changes

not merely a village being subjected

is

imposed by European and urban influences;

Arab culture hodgepodge of

a center

it is

for acculturation to Sudanese

as well. Superficially, it

gives the appearance of a

tribes.

This disguises a

unity that has been secured through the tribelike,

community con-

cept of the Lamaab, which has traditionally functioned not only as a

unifying force but as an assimilative one as well.

Today

the hetero-

geneity of the village obstructs the effectiveness of the concept of the Lamaab.

ARAB-SUDANESE KINSHIP SYSTEM The

kinship system in use in Buurri

al

Lamaab

to other Arabic-speaking peoples with certain

terminology though not in structure.

is

that

common

minor variations

The system

is

in

"Sudanese" ac-

cording to Murdock's classification of types of social organization. 17 It is a

most appropriate example of Morgan's descriptive type of

kinship system and of Lowie's bifurcate collateral kinship terminol-

ogy. 18 Separate terms of reference for paternal and maternal uncles

and aunts and for parents are used. The distinction between paternal 17

George

Murdock,

(New York:

Macmillan, 1949), p. 238. term bifurcation refers to the fact that kinsmen are differentiated terminologically on the basis of whether they are related to ego through his father or through his mother. Thus, for example, in the Arabic system my father's brother is 'armni whereas my mother's brother is khaali. Both are male collateral relatives of the same generation but are terminologically differentiated because one ('ammi) is related to ego through his father while the other (khaali) is related to ego through his 18

P.

Ibid., p.

mother.

Social Structure

141. In discussions of kinship the

The

bifurcate principle

The

not applied in English.

is

principle of

collaterality emphasizes terminologically the difference

lineal

mother, grandparents, etc.) and collateral great aunts, etc.). Thus, in Arabic my father (abuui)

(aunts,

(father,

entiated

from

my

father's brother

nologically differentiated is

differentiated

from

my

f

(

ammi) while

mother's

my

sister

from uncle and mother from

between kinsmen

is

uncles,

terminologically differ-

mother (ummi)

(khaalti)

aunt.

kinsmen

.

is

termi-

In English father

Buurri

102

and maternal

and

relatives

al

Lamaab

collateral relatives

in this system so that ideally

it

is

extended further

possible to have separate terms

is

for each relative, although in practice they are frequently referred

by

to

classificatory terms.

Thus,

my

my

FaFa and

FaFaBr,

my MoFa

FaMoBr and my MoMoBr, all may be father, and only when it is necessary one use the formal reference terms: abuui, jiddi abu jiddi khaal is

also

ummi,

a

is

respectively. 19

Thus,

bit khaalti

bit 'ammiti,

may

my

my

cludes not only

MoSiDa

jiddi

f

ammi my FaBrDa, y

sister)

as

who

my MoBrDa,

who is the daughter of The terms bit 'ammiti, bit

his

who

are not his sisters, but

him through but

is

are off-

his father. Bit khaali in-

extended to include female

who

mother, whereas

bit khaalti includes

who

my are first

ammi (my FaBr), 'ammiti (my FaSi), (my MoSi) are also extended in refThus, 'ammi may apply to any male paternal

ascendant generation the terms

(my MoBr), and

r

khaalti

relative of ego's father's generation except

These

rela-

are daughters of males

well as female relatives of ego's generation

erence terminology.

ego

and

daughters of females related to ego through his mother. In the

khaali

and

jiddi khaal abuui

term, bit

his father.

same generation of ego

him through as

'amm

ummi,

be extended in a corresponding fashion.

spring of females related to

related to

abu abuui and

jiddi

FaSiDa, also includes any female relatives of

the same generation as ego

tives of the

would

but any female relative of the same generation

not his sister (ukhti,

and

my my grand-

MoFaBr,

for purposes of clarity

amm

The

my

in reference usage to include not only

male related to ego through

khaali,

f

jiddi

commonly extended

this individual

who

ummi and

and

referred to as jiddi,

classificatory usages

may

my

father {abuui).

be refined by appending the terms

raquuba after the kinship term. Bit ammi lizim means my FaBrDa only; bit 'ammi raquuba refers to any kinswoman who may be called bit amm, except my FaBrDa. Lizim has the meaning of f

lizim or

f

necessity and thus suggests immediacy.

Raquuba

idea of watching or observing. In the

Sudan

thatched shelter, often located in the

fields,

guard the crops from thieves and 19

a

is

raquuba

and

is

used

related to the is

a

by

temporary those

who

as a resting place. Since it is distant

=

=

father, iMo Abbreviations used in discussing kinship are as follows: Fa son. Thus FaModaughter, and So sister, Da brother, Si

mother, Br

=

BrDa would be

=

=

father's mother's brother's daughter.

=

Family and Kinship and removed, perhaps

103

in this sense that the

it is

plied to distantly related kinsmen.

etymologist nor an Arabist, and this explanation

Some

rect.

villagers also use the

word

However, the writer

word baHid

may

has been apis

neither an

be quite incor-

(distant) in referring

to such relatives.

With terms

Any

of direct address a classiflcatory terminology

is

used.

may be (my grandmother),

consanguineal relative of the grandfather's generation

addressed as jiddi

(my

grandfather) or habanjobti

while the term 'ammi or khaali, and occasionally

may

khaalti,

ammiti and

be used to address more distantly related kin of

Any

generation.

f

man

elderly

in the village

may

this

be addressed as

amm

followed by his given name. 'Amm would be used more frequently if the person were unrelated. Yaaba or, more formally, ya abuuya is used in addressing one's own father. Yaama or, more formally, ya ummi is the form of address for one's mother. For others, 'ammi and 'ammiti are applied to a father's relatives of this generation depending on their sex, and khaali and khaalti are applied to a mother's relatives of this generation depending on sex. For kinsmen of these two generations direct address terminology

jiddi,

r

or

follows

the

Whereas

that for

and

pattern

the

of

abbreviated

members of the

collateral distinctions,

with

reference

terminology.

father's generation retains bifurcate

parallel

and cross cousins the terms

become "Hawaiian" in character, in that all may akhuuya (my brother) or ukhti (my sister). Similarly

of direct address

be addressed

as

members of descending generations may be addressed as voalad (boy) or bit (girl). Given names, however, rather than kinship terms are used primarily in addressing relatives of one's to

some

generation and

extent in addressing those of descending generations. Like-

wise any relative is

own

who

ordinarily addressed

Tables

5

is

younger or of approximately the same age

by

his

given name.

and 6 indicate terms of direct address and reference for commonly used in Buurri al Lamaab.

consanguineal kin as

In direct address the bifurcate principle of distinguishing be-

tween

father's

and mother's

cendant generation. bifurcation

is

With

applied to

relatives appears

only in the

first as-

commonly used reference terminology, members of ego's generation and the dethe

scending generations as well. In the formal reference terminology the principle of bifurcation

is

extended to include second and third

W4

Buurri

al

Lamaab

ascendant generations, and as a result terms for kinsmen in the

The

descending generations are further bifurcated. collaterality

is

similarly recognized, being

principle

of

most limited in direct

address terminology and most expanded in the formal reference

Common

terminology.

usage de-emphasizes both bifurcation and

collaterality; in direct address generational differences are

in descending generations

the grandparents;

nowhere

plication of the sex

and

The

are sex differences overlooked.

and generational principles

is

nature of Arab social structure, emphasizing as tinction

ignored

and in those ascending generations beyond

between the world of men and

women

in it

does a sharp

and between elders

$.

Terms of reference for consanguineal kinsmen commonly used abbreviated forms

in the

Generation

Male

Female

2nd ascendant

jiddi

habawbti

st

dis-

juniors.

Table

i

ap-

accord with the

ummi

abuui

ascendant

'ammi akhuui

Ego's generation

6.

khaalti

ukhti

wad khaali wad 'ammi wad 'ammiti wad khaalti

Table

'ammiti

khaali

bit

'ammi

bit khaali

bit

'ammiti

bit khaalti

Consanguineal kinship terms of direct address

Generation

Male

Female

All generations above

ya jiddi yaaba ya'ammi ya khaali Ego's generation ya akhuui All descendant generations ya waldi or ya walad i

i

st

st

ascendant

ascendant

The

ya habawbti

yaama ya'ammiti ya khaalti ya ukhti ya biti or ya bit

application of bifurcate and collateral distinctions in the

ascendant generation also reflects a definite distinction that in behavior between, for example, is

FaBr and MoBr. But

the determinant of differential kinship terminology,

if

it

is

first

made

behavior

would be

Family and Kinship

ioj

own

expected that the address terms for members of ego's

would

FaBrDa, FaSiDa, MoBrDa, and MoSiDa sister (ukhti),

yet there

Marriage to a

sister is

is

taboo, whereas there

the wall or guardian of his sister and

The

may

all

be addressed as

Si,

my

a difference in behavior regarding them.

marriage with these other collateral or MoSiDa.

generation

something more than the sexual distinction.

reflect this in

is

relatives.

some preference for

A

man

FaBrDa but not

is

considered

MoBrDa

of his

preservation of separate direct address terms for

relatives in the first ascendant generation

may

reflect the

prime im-

portance of both the deference and the authority which characterize

FaBr

the father and

The terminology

roles.

does not take cognizance of certain important

functional differences within a single kinship category, for example, a distinction it

between older and younger brother or

point up the distinctive role of the

Concerning terms for

husband by teknonymy is

FaBrDa

affinal relatives, a

wife

Nor

sister.

does

as a

preferred mate.

may

not address her

his given name, or indeed ever use his name. Instead,

the general practice, the wife addressing her husband

of X, the

as father

name of

Should the wife find

a female.

usually calling

is

Indeed for a

male or

man who

she must resort to an alternative,

7 I ." It is

woman

to use the latter term in direct address

considered impolite. In both

are in

Egypt and Lebanon two reciprocal

common

a

One

use.

or reference used is

a

more common to use 'ammi or father-in-law than the more formal term,

him "son of

khaali in addressing one's

whether

necessary to address a

it

name

bears her husband's given

nisiibi.

their first-born child,

by

of these,

'adiil, is

the husbands of

a

two

term of mutual address or reference

brothers.

These wives

band of the

also use the

other. In Buurri al

term

silfi

affinal kinship

terms

term of mutual address

The other, silfa, used by wives of two

sisters.

in referring to the hus-

Lamaab informants

stated that these

terms were not widely used. In fact one informant stated that

silfa

my

hus-

and

silfi

were never

band's brother,

my

used. Preference

wife's brother,

is

given for hamaay,

my wife's sister's husband, and my wife's sister, my husband's

for hamaati (the female equivalent), brother's wife, and

my

husband's

sister.

In Egypt, the closely similar

term hamiti refers to mother-in-law and the term hami refers to father-in-law.

The

terms

nisiibi (for

males) and

nisiibti (for

females)

w6

Buurri

are used to refer to

and

nisiibti in

my

Buurri

my

brother-in-law or

Lamaab

al

La?naab

al

sister-in-law. Nisiibi

refer to father-in-law

and mother-

in-law, respectively.

When

a person has a choice of kinship

terms with which to refer

to or address another individual as a result of multiple relationship

with him, he would ordinarily use that term which expresses the closest kinship.

When

consanguineal and

there

affinal

term

in address, the

be employed. Occasionally an individual

'amm

there

is

a choice

may

choose to emphasize

more informal

with one's mother.

ammh

son, he khaali.

When

a father

and mother are wad and

may

be referred to

abuui and called 'ammi. Since

may

be referred to

(See Diagram

it

sug-

relationship and further emphasizes one's ties

to each other, the son of FaFaSi r

actually closer.

is

between using the term khaal or khaala and

or 'amma, some individuals prefer the former because

gests a

a

former would generally

one kind of relationship in place of another which

When

between

a choice, for instance,

is

i.)

as khaali

Some

this

person

is

as

r

bit

r

amm

ammi wad

also

MoFaSi

wad ammit ummi and f

called

prefer to use the latter rather than

'ammi.

AtO

Ot^"

©

K6

A

t

"5)tA

A Diagram

1.

i.

ego

2.

mother of ego (ummi)

3.

father of ego (abuui)

4.

ego's mother's father (jiddi

5.

ego's father's father (jiddi

Alternative kinship usage

abu ummi) abu abuui) ego's mother's father's sister (habawbti ammit ummi) or ego's father's father's sister (habawbti ammit abuui) (4, 5, 6 are all siblings) son of 6 ('ammi wad ammit abuui or khaali wad ammit ummi) f

6.

f

r

7.

f

Family and Kinship

ioj

BEHAVIORAL PATTERNS IN MAJOR KINSHIP ROLES 20 and Daughter Roles

Sister

The most

subordinate roles in

of the younger daughter and East boys are desired

On

by

all

kinship relationships are those

As

sister.

in the rest of the

and

their fathers,

girls are less

Middle

welcomed.

the other hand, mothers often are pleased to have girls because

they help in the house. Nevertheless to a

boy over

a girl

a

mother or any

probably realizing that

this is

woman

caters

expected of her

by

the males.

By

the time they are six years old, girls are often given younger

children to look after.

They

gather firewood from the

on errands to the store and At ten or eleven they begin learning

are sent

fields.

to cook, and they take care of the family goats and poultry within

twelve of

all

is

A

compound.

the confines of the house

the object of countless directives

ages,

and

elders, especially if she

girl between eight and from older sisters, brothers

is

the only girl of this age

in the family. After she reaches seven, a girl

in the streets,

behavior

is

nor

may

discouraged.

not allowed to play

is

she play with boys. Indeed

As

all

she approaches puberty, she

to cover her head and shoulders with a shawl or tobe

the house.

Her conduct

these males

may

frivolous

is

expected

on leaving

watched by her observant brothers and father and guarded against shameful acts any one of is

carefully

—

beat her for anything that

may

or indecent. This relationship it is

be eased

is

viewed

as the girl matures,

male kinsmen are always the guardians of her honor. fourteen

may

if

but

her brothers and other close paternal

a standing principle that

beat his sister

as impolite

A

brother

may

he believes she has behaved improperly; a boy of

beat his sister of twenty. Should the father of the

boy

disapprove of the fourteen-year-old's reason for administering the beating, he

may

take the

boy

aside

and lecture him or beat him, but

he would never punish him before nothing

may

sidered

good

for 20

it.

be said to the boy training for both

at

his sister.

all,

him and the

A father may occasionally

As

a

matter of fact

because his act girl,

may

be con-

whatever the reason

delegate his son to beat a daughter.

See also the section "Early Child Care" in Chapter VIII for further material in kinship roles.

on training

Buurri

io8

Among many cence she

is

families

thrashed

it is

Lamaab

appears that once a girl has reached adoles-

it

by her

conduct. Apparently there

hood and

al

is

father only for the severest breach of a feeling that she has

somewhat shameful

r

(

ayb) to beat a

for a misdemeanor. Since brothers have a

more

woman-

reached girl

of that age

severe attitude to-

ward sisters, they do not consider such an act shameful. 21 Even when a girl is married, the vigilance of her paternal especially her brothers,

not relieved.

is

It is

place to punish his wife for infractions easily accessible.

A husband

is

if

the wife's relatives are

expected to report

behavior to her walls or guardians,

who

relatives,

not always the husband's

improper

his wife's

will handle the disciplinary

problem.

A

father or a brother

is

concerned about the daughter's or

sister's

public conduct and her display of proper respect and obedience.

other training or concern

mother.

They may

in the

is

hands of the older

cuff or slap a daughter or

sister,

sisters

Any

and the

but must leave

beatings to the father or brother.

The mother-daughter stances. Vis-a-vis the

to be a daughter's

relationship varies according to

male part of the household a mother

first line

of defense. She pleads for leniency with

her husband and sons in cases where the daughter

breach of conduct. Similarly, a mother

daughter and her father.

The

it

On

may

relationship

is

lend support to the daughter's r

(

ayb) be-

be particularly severe with her

group to which

are one

much

closer

and

less

severe in char-

most pleasant among uterine

to be sure, a distinction

is,

it

The

a

direct her orders with impunity.

Relations between sisters are acter.

may

Within the household, daughters

mother may

go-between for

the other hand within the circle of females, the

mother, as a senior female, daughters.

a

accused of some

avoids the possibility of shameful behavior

fore her father.

a

is

is

channeling of a daughter's desires

through the mother to the father wishes, and

circumexpected

is

sisters.

between older and younger

There

sisters,

but

does not appear to reach the proportions of the distinction be-

tween older and younger brothers.

A younger sister

is

always subor-

dinate to her older sister, and as a result certain tensions 21

may

develop

Informants define a beating as a whipping with a stick or a whip. not include being struck with the hand.

It

does

Family and Kinship between

younger

a

and an

sister

109

who

eldest sister

mediate subordinate of her mother. But

acts as the im-

are

sisters

expected to

support one another, to confide in each other, and to show mutual

On

concern.

the whole the sister-sister relationship

tension-free kinship tie that a

woman

the most

is

has within her nuclear family.

Son and Brother Roles Although

relationships

between brothers and between fathers and

sons are ideally supposed to be harmonious and free

and

hostility,

more than one informant

from

in Buurri al

all

tension

Lamaab

char-

acterized these relations with the statement: "Brothers do not like

brothers and sons do not like their fathers." This description

is

probably more appropriate to the general role relationships involved than the so-called ideal and in fact seems to be a the Middle East. Hostility

is

generated in part

between brothers for the favor of aloof,

who is

pattern in

the competition

who remains who may

severe and

controls the family wealth, and

reject a beloved

petition

a father

common by

mother for another woman. This

especially keen

among

hostility

eventually

and com-

children born of different mothers.

A mother frequently encourages such feelings in her children toward the children of another wife whether the latter a result, solidarity

between uterine children

is

living or dead.

As

strengthened.

is

In part because of the emphasis placed on seniority, tensions de-

velop between older and younger brothers.

expected to treat his older brother in treats his father. Ideally, this

much

A

younger brother

is

the same fashion as he

means that he should not argue with

him; he should avoid joking with him and remain dignified in his presence; he should do

what the

elder orders

and express

his defer-

ence toward him by never smoking in his presence and never

sitting

while the older stands. Similar expectations are most fully realized in the father-son relationship. In the older brother

and younger

brother relationship they are frequently relaxed considerably. Traditionally the extent to

which

this relationship

between brothers

is

maintained has been a function of the relative age differences be-

tween them, so that is

more

a

like a father

brother five or more years the other's senior

and thus

is

treated accordingly. If there are

fewer years between brothers, such observances are largely ignored

i

w

Buurri

al

Lamaab

which there

especially in a family in

are

many

sons.

Among many

been so relaxed that they hardly

families these signs of deference have

apply to any brother relationships.

The

role of the son has

undergone noticeable changes

in recent

years as a result of modifications in the village economy. Preadolescent boys,

if

they are not from farm families, have few

if

any

chores assigned them. In earlier times, as in farm families today, a

son was expected to help with the farm work. At age seven he

might tend the sakieh

bulls or

to herd for the day.

At

be given the family goats and sheep he would

a slightly older age

father in weeding, harvesting, and fertilizing.

family a boy from seven to twelve has

little

Today

to

discontinues

all

fourteen, he

nonfarm

may

attend the

more often than not he

home for a while Khartoum. By the time a boy

formal education and either stays

or becomes an apprentice laborer in is

his

do but attend school.

After finishing the four-year primary school, he intermediate school for a year or two, but

in the

assist

is

employed

usually

Khartoum.

in

Getting a job has a definite effect on the boy's relationship with his

family and especially with his father, since employment provides

him

status relatively

independent of

Although he may

his family.

give his earnings to his father, he does earn the

money

independently.

Usually gainful employment means that the son spends most of the

day away from

his

home,

his father,

and

his other relatives.

Contrary

to traditional ways, this change in status encourages independence

from parents and

less

subservience to their wills. In the past, from

the age of seven until the middle or late teens a disciplined

by

his father,

who

beat

him with

in previous times older brothers, although

boy was constantly

a stick.

they

Both

may

now and

slap or cuff

a preadolescent brother, are expected to leave serious beatings to their fathers.

Informants claim that today such punishments are no longer

imposed on boys

who

have reached their teens except in the most

unusual circumstances. In the chapter on religion

how

in earlier days fathers

were

the appointed times of prayer.

such behavior, but he

is

able to

Today

compel

a father

it

will be noted

their sons to observe

may

seek to enforce

not necessarily obeyed. Elsewhere

reported the case of a young

man who

is

we

have

unconcerned about

his

father's approval of a marriage mate, because he

is

independently

He

is

not dependent

employed and can pay the bride price

himself.

m

Family and Kinship on

his father financially

and thus

need to heed the

feels little

father's

man

wishes. Independent employment eventually enables the young

make contributions to the family more than his father provides.

to support himself and to

sometimes

There

much

as

or

then, reason to believe that these

is,

economic changes are

resulting in significant changes in family structure

tend to alter the balance of power within

ence shown a father by his son and the least partially

father,

reinforced

whom

from

by

Today

factors. It

of the external signs of deference disappear in Buurri

Lamaab

al

urban centers and in the

in

subservience were at

latter's

—

on

this

may

prop

gradually being re-

is

primarily supported

is

be expected that soon

shown

his

and

his livelihood, his bride price,

traditional relationship

and sentimental

religious

and that they

traditional defer-

the son's economic dependence

he obtained

eventually land and house.

moved, and the

The

it.

coffers,

a father

by

his

by

many

son will

which has already begun between older and younger

a process

village

brothers.

A larly

son often develops a close attachment to his mother, particuas is

if,

sisters in

defy his

his

frequently the case, there are half-brothers and half-

the family. But once a son reaches adolescence, he

mother.

mother;

It is

the sentimental

bond

that leads a son to

primarily fear that causes

it is

him

to

obey

may obey

his father.

Grandparent-Grandchild Relations One's grandparents and any other relatives of the grandparent age or generation deserve the deference which should be accorded

father or

A

young man does not sit while his grandgrandmother stands, nor does he smoke in the grandfather's

any senior

individual.

presence, although he might do so in the presence of his grand-

mother.

The

signs of respect that

one directs toward one's father

are also appropriate for either paternal or maternal grandfather.

apply to a

lesser

As with any other relationship

is

grandparent. serious

affected

A

senior relatives, the grandparent-grandchild

by whether

person

is

the senior

father's father or

the mother's father and mother, with

On

is

a paternal or

maternal

expected to behave in a more formal and

manner before the

and relaxed.

They

degree to a grandmother.

whom

mother than before

behavior

is

more

casual

the whole, grandparents take a sympathetic and

Buurri

ii2

al

Lamaab

permissive interest in their grandchildren and,

thoroughly

many

parents

feel,

them.

spoil

Great emphasis and pride

placed on being a grandparent; one

is

of the chief desires of a parent

that he

is

may

live to see his

grand-

children. In the discussion of the life cycle, Chapter VIII, it will be u noted how frequently the happiest woman" present is expected

woman

to preside over a ritual; such a

most often

is

a

grandmother.

Collateral Relatives

The

between behavior toward

distinction

mother's relatives

is

r

asaba, father's relative,

rahmiiya, mother's relative. In Buurri

rahmiiya

home and

is

at ease

al

Lamaab

"better" than the gariib

with him; he

is

more

and sometimes more willing to be of despite the fact that the latter

"Everyone loves

and

recognized by villagers themselves in their oc-

casional use of the terms gariib

a gariib

father's relatives

his khaal

is

'

'as aba.

friendly,

it is

and gariib

believed that

One

feels more at more sympathetic,

assistance than a gariib

r

asaba,

more obligated to help. commonly said, "because

technically

very much,"

it is

his mother most." A Al khaal haniin" suggests "My mother's relatives are kind." Although no kinship relation could be identified as a joking one, those with one's maternal collateral kinsmen, or what might be called khaal relatives, are least associated with formality

he

is

our mother's relative and everyone loves

common

and

folk saying,

u

strict discipline and, short

of the mother-child relationship, are

most associated with compassion and intimacy.

Among

khaal relatives there are degrees of severity or formality

which primarily depend on factors of sex and age. One is always more reserved in conduct with a member of the opposite sex and one

who

is

older. Differences in generation alter the relationship to

the extent that, factors of age and sex being equal, one a slightly

more

formal relationship with

would have

someone of an ascendant

generation than with one of the same generation or a descendant generation.

The

mother's brother (khaal

lizhri)

particularly

other senior male matrilateral kinsmen to a lesser extent role

of the

mother's

elder,

sister

sympathetic,

(khaala lizim)

and understanding

fulfills

fulfill

friend.

and the

The

a role similar to that of the

mother herself. In families where there are children of more than one mother, the social distance between the children is reinforced

Family and Kinship

113

the strong emotional bonds established with the mother's rela-

by

tives.

As

the relations with the mother's kinsmen are colored

by

the

compassionate and sympathetic role of the mother, so the relations

with paternal kinsmen are colored by the father's role Similarly the particular nature

ciplinarian.

modified by age and

Because the father's

sex.

as a

dis-

of the relationship sister is a

is

female she

obviously would be expected to possess motherly qualities, but because she

is

the father's

sister,

the relationship with her

formal than that with the mother's

own

sister.

A

is

more

paternal relative of

would be treated much like an equal, yet such an 'amm relationship would normally be more formal than the equivalent ties on the maternal side. one's

generation, sex, and age

Affinal Relationships

Mother-in-law and

son-in-lanjo

relationships.

the

Traditionally

mother-in-law and son-in-law relationship has been an avoidance one, in

which the extent of avoidance depends on the prior kinship

between the two persons.

who at,

Ideally, a

tie

mother-in-law and son-in-law

are not close consanguineal relatives are not expected to look

or talk

they

able,

one another.

to,

recourse should be

sential,

may

speak

to,

communication between them

If

made

but

may

to a go-between. If

not look

at,

none

each other;

ferred that they remain in separate rooms. Avoidance

continued for

as

long

as three

is

is

es-

avail-

it is

pre-

was once

or four years after the marriage.

To-

few days or months and in some cases not at is relaxed where the two parties are close consanguineal relatives, and especially in those cases where the mother-in-law is MoSi, MoMoSi, or MoBrDa. Here, too, prior conday

all.

lasts

it

only

a

The avoidance

pattern

sanguineal kinship takes precedence over acquired affinal relationships.

Furthermore the nature of one's relationship with one's

mother's kinsmen tends to vitiate the reserve and formality associated with an affinal tie that

is

later established.

Thus one informant

said

he never was expected to avoid his mother-in-law because she

was

his

MoMoSi.

If one's

mother-in-law

is

also a paternal relative,

somewhat relaxed, but since these relations are characterized by some formality anyway they may not always have the same effect. In any case it apparently has been the affinal relationship

is

also

ii4

Bnurri

common

Lamaab

al

newly married man to observe avoidance, at least for a few days, as if to pay tribute to the new and important type of relationship that has been established one which should not be taken lightly. In recent years some young men have ignored the for the

—

practice entirely.

When

avoidance

abandoned, the mother-

finally

is

in-law and son-in-law maintain a reserved and circumspect behavior.

The

somewhat tyrannical

wife's mother, of course, can assume a

role in the household not only

toward her daughters and other young

females but also toward the sons-in-law.

Father-in-law

and daughter-in-law

avoidance relation

is

relationships.

in-law, the respective roles are defined

The

serve.

Although no

involved between father-in-law and daughter-

by circumspection and

re-

daughter-in-law should never appear before her father-

in-law with an uncovered head or shoulders; she should not speak to

him

ness.

unless he addresses her or unless there

The

relationship thus involved

woman and woman

is

is

some pressing busibetween a

similar to that

an unrelated male guest within the house with

whom

As with the mother-in-law and son-in-law relation, this is also relaxed more if the father-in-law is already a close consanguineal relative. There are, in fact, some

the

is

fathers-in-law

slightly acquainted.

who

maintain a relationship with their sons' wives

own

that approximates the relationship to their

father-in-law

woman,

is

usually already

daughters; such a

consanguineal relative

a

of the

particularly a maternal kinsman.

Mother-in-law and daughter-in-law, and father-in-law and sonin-law relations are likewise characterized

by

reserved and cir-

cumspect behavior, particularly on the part of the junior individuals involved. Traditional behavior prescribes that a

daughter-in-law

should not eat with her mother-in-law; she should be quiet and reserved in her presence and always obey her.

The

son-in-law observes

the same proprieties with his father-in-law, maintaining a relationship that

is

similar to that of father

and son. All

affinal relationships

should be maintained with the most careful observance of proper

manners and

discipline.

Informants emphasized the importance of

being mu'addab, particularly in intercourse with spouses'

Husband and wife

relationships.

A

wife

is

relatives.

expected to be circum-

spect in the presence of her husband and especially so in public.

Deferring to him,

as expressed in the practice

of teknonymy, the

Family and Kinship

115

wife further should not argue with or contradict her husband, nor should she

a

few

him on the same angareb,

beside

sit

are present.

When

they walk in the

steps behind her husband.

A

particularly

guests

if

the wife should remain

street,

wife should not eat with her

husband, and any demonstration of affection between a married couple before others

most shameful

a

is

This taboo includes

act.

even touching each other in public. Ideally, then,

husband and

a

wife are expected to act in the most formal manner toward each other except in the privacy of their home.

may

relations

be relaxed

when

It is true,

however, that

in the presence of close relatives of

the same or descending generations, but the public view of

To

wife presents a rigid and formal relationship. this gives a distorted picture,

man and

the casual observer

because as anywhere

world

else in the

the husbands and wives usually share a mutual concern for each other

may

and in some cases Legally

men

see their obligations as

also consider

Women

good provider,

is

tend to view

as the ideal

husband one

will

Husbands and wife

is is

bands

who

is

considerate of their needs and desires, and does

not indulge in frequent argument or "bad talk."

man who

They

husbands largely in these terms.

important to protect their wives from possible shame-

it

ful behavior. a

even be "in love."

required only that a husband support his wife; some

it is

They

also favor a

remain loyal to one wife and avoid polygyny.

believe that the best wife

obedient to every

command

is

who

one

remains

home

at

of her husband. In reality, the

not always the mild, obedient slave that some Sudanese huslike to portray.

Many women

quickly used on negligent husbands.

own way,

have sharp tongues that are

They may not

often have their

but in any case they are not reluctant to inform their

husbands of their opinions in matters of interest to them. Several

husbands in Buurri pecked."

al

Lamaab have

A man who is able

obedience

to subdue his

admired by other

is

a reputation for being "hen-

men

women

as shadiid

and enforce

or "strong."

their

Women

have recourse to certain subtle methods for obtaining their demands.

They may become

possessed

by

a zaar (spirit), or a

negligent in providing food for the day

of kisra,

salt,

and water. In more serious

to her father, father,

who

and the

in turn

latter

with

may

may

conflicts the wife

discuss the matter

his son.

But

husband

this

who

is

be rewarded by a meal

may

appeal

with the husband's

works both ways,

since

u6

Buurri

may

husband

2.

upon

call

discipline his wife. It his wife, especially if

is

Lamaab

al

his father-in-law

or brothers-in-law to

considered improper for a husband to beat

her guardians are available to

any neces-

inflict

sary punishment.

A

large

number of wives never know anything about

band's business affairs and they

may

women inform

A

as gossip.

his

wife he

is

husband

may go

leaving or

know

also

his activities outside the house, except

little

their hus-

or nothing of

what they hear from other

out in the evening and never

where he

is

going. In fact he

would

be somewhat amazed at a suggestion that he should impart such information.

SEXUAL RELATIONS

ILLICIT Prostitution

The

which

extent to

prostitutes

patronized

are

by Buurri

al

Lamaab men could not be determined. It is at least not an uncommon practice for married men and single young adults to patronize them. In the days slaves.

have

a

One

when or

was common

slavery

two of

a

man had

access to his

the descendants of slaves in the village

reputation for being prostitutes, and the daughters of

other former slaves are said to practice this profession in other

still

two cities

some distance from the village. Since Buurri al Lamaab is close to Khartoum and has never been a commercial center, one might hypothesize that prostitution

any

to

which

extent. 22

There

is

was never

established within the village

a section of the

main city of Khartoum

in

prostitutes, largely Ethiopian girls, reside. In addition,

many

The

latter

southern Sudanese

girls living in

are particularly desirable to a sexual relation

the city are prostitutes.

any Arab Sudanese

who

has once had

with one of them, because they have not been

man with

circumcised and thus provide the

a different

and more

satisfying sexual experience than he has with his Pharaonically cir-

The village of Umm Dubbaan, about thirty miles southeast of Khartoum on the Blue Nile, offers a more interesting example of prostitution in the Arab Sudan. This is primarily a religious center that has also become a com22

mercial center for the surrounding area. is

With

a

for the Sudan closer in character to a town.

scendants of slaves

who

are prostitutes.

Thus,

population of about 7,000, it population includes de-

The

like

Mecca,

Umm

Dubbaan

acquired a reputation in the Sudan for both religion and prostitution.

has

uj

Family and Kinship cumcised wife. Such relations do not, however,

own women

their

view that

alter their

should be circumcised.

The nearby Khartoum suburb of Buurri Abu Hashiish has a reputation in Buurri al Lamaab as a kind of "den of iniquity." A relatively large

number of southern immigrants

of the best-known Sudanese

woman

Sudanese eyes a is,

performer

incidentally, a hospital nurse.)

Hashiish

not an

by

is

is

which Buurri Abu

of course questionable.

for the people of one

It is

community

writer was unable to discover any cases in Buurri

few ever have taken up and the

It is

the profession.

girl

with her village and her

It

no doubt

to

the chances of a Sudanese

The supply

Arab

to break off

all

remaining forever in a distant

girl's

of prostitutes

Lamaab

would be considered

would be compelled

relatives,

al

safe to say

place, never daring to face a relative again for fear of her

remote.

(In

there.

lives

to those of a neighboring one.

all evil

fadiiha (shame), ties

and in addition one

definition a prostitute, as

extent to

of Sudanese Arabs becoming prostitutes. that

it,

performers

The

to this reputation

uncommon phenomenon

attribute

The

up

lives

reside in

women

life.

Thus

turning to prostitution are

is still

amply provided by those

of slave descent and southern and Ethiopian immigrants, and Sudanese

men seem

to prefer them. In one kind of situation a Sudanese

Arab woman might be

woman who

led into prostitution: in the case of a divorced

during marriage

vicinity, if for

is

removed from her

village

and

its

one reason or other after being divorced she does

not return home, she might eventually be attracted to the lucrative business, often

through being approached by the agent or operator

of a house of prostitution.

Abnormal Sexual It is a

common

Practices

hypothesis that homosexuality correlates with the

degree to which the sexes are segregated in a society and that, Muslim society, since a relatively

by which such tion

which was

homosexuality

Though

it

tends to maximize sexual segregation, thus has

high rate of homosexual practices. a hypothesis

No

data

could be properly tested.

were collected

The

informa-

collected seems to indicate that a type of temporary is

not

uncommon among young unmarried males. is tolerated. But for a man to persist men or young boys throughout his life, or for

ridiculed, homosexuality

in his interest in other

uS a

man

Buurri

al

Lamaab

to prefer the passive female role in

any homosexual

relations,

is

considered improper. In fact the role of the passive homosexual

is

disgraceful. Lawti, the

term of abuse

Two

name

for such an individual,

is

a strong

in the village.

when there was more livestock in was more "common" for males to seek sexual relations

informants stated that

the village

it

with animals, especially with sheep and donkeys. Both informants implied that intercourse with animals the villagers are

is

not practiced today because

no longer shepherds.

MARRIAGE AND DIVORCE Marriage Preferences

As

in other

terized is

by

Arab

village

areas,

marriage in Buurri

with FaBrDa. Such preference

by

Lamaab

al

and lineage endogamy; the declared

is

charac-

ideal marriage

supported to a limited extent

is

the actual marriage pattern in the village.

One

reason for this

1t O

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