August 1, 2016 Nubian Rest House, Karima, Sudan
To find where we are, look for Karima on the Sudan map I sent. Start at Khartoum and follow a road that goes north west of the city to Abu Dom. Then bear right and left at the next junction. It is very close to that junction. It is set amidst several dotted ruins we will be visiting.
We drove 5 hours through the desert to see the Nubian pyramids in the area and explore Jabel Barkal, the holy mountain of the old Egyptian and Nubian pharaohs adjacent to the Rest House. We have done well with the heat until now as all the buildings and our car have had great AC. Now the heat is oppressive and the AC in our room is almost inactive. Fortunately we have a fan, but that is not very satisfying. Hopefully it will cool off in the evening and we will manage to sleep. I keep reminding myself that we chose to come to Sudan during the hottest part of the year. It is no surprise that we are the only guests in the place. To keep myself from going nuts, I will try to concentrate on my writing. After all it is 4:30, the hottest part of the day and will cool down for dinner at 7:30pm. Inshallah!
The drive here was interesting and monotonous at the same time. Five hours of flat, desert landscape dotted with acacia trees and shrubs and interrupted occasionally by volcanic hills that sprouted from the sand, while we sped along on a very nice and nearly straight tarmac tollroad with almost no traffic, was the monotonous part. The interesting part was the observations we made along the way and the discussion we had with our guide, Abdel.
Mark didn’t pay any attention to the power lines marching along side the highway for the first 1.5 hours until the poles suddenly had no wire stringing them together, which he brought to our attention. After another hour the poles disappeared too and we had a pleasant interval with nothing man made in our sights. Eventually, the poles and power reappeared along with increasing civilization. During the earlier segment we saw numerous privately owned agricultural projects with lush green produce, chicken factories and an egg laying factory. In addition to the farmers, there are many herders with their mud hut dwellings along with their collections of goats, camels, donkeys and dogs. Nomads don’t tend to look prosperous, but compared to the condition of the animals further along the road, these looked pretty good. When we began to get back into civilization around hour 4, Mark commented on the number of dead animals he saw and I noticed how skinny the erect ones looked. We saw no more prosperous farms, just lots of mud hut houses and walled yards, many of which looked abandoned.
Before reaching Karima, we made 2 stops. The first was about 2 hours out. Mortada, our driver, suddenly turned off the road and drove into the desert to a shade tree about a mile from the road and declared a rest stop. We all went for short walks and relieved ourselves. I was surprised at how firm the sand was. Our second stop was for lunch at a gas station/restaurant at hour 4, the first one we saw all day. Abdel set up a picnic in the place complete with tablecloth, silverware, plates and a variety of dishes. Aside from the miserably hot breeze blowing around the place, we enjoyed a safe and pleasant meal. During the last hour, I think Mortada poured on the coals. We seemed to fly over the road. Soon, he drove abruptly off the road onto the sand again and stopped at an ornate doorway, which we learned was the Nubian style entrance to our lodging for the next three nights.
Welcome to the Nubian Rest House. I was really looking forward to a nice air conditioned space, but that did not happen. The lobby is an indoor outdoor affair and the heat was oppressive. We went to our room as soon as we finished our welcome drinks. Thankfully, they were cold. The AC in the room really struggles against the heat outdoors. There is a fan to augment the AC, and it is making the difference between tolerable and miserable. Oops! Remember I chose this experience. 😦 🙂
Slowly, my body is cooling down and, while Mark snores away, I remember the conversation Abdel and I had while on the road. Some facts: The 35 million Sudanese population is composed of hundreds of nomadic tribes. The government says there are 5 million living in Khartoum, but Abdel believes there are many more than that due to immigration from Darfur and other war torn areas. According to the UN estimate, 300,000+ have been killed in the war and up to 3 Million have been displaced. The conflict began in 2003 when a government supported militia recruited from local Arab tribes, called Janjaweed, began killing thousands of civilians under the direction of the government. The violence is considered a genocide because it is racially based. ( A genocide is the deliberate and systematic extermination of a national, racial, political or cultural group.) It is also the motivation for the sanctions the US continues to place on Sudan, even though they hurt the people rather than the government.
It is believed that Bashir started the killing spree by hiring Arab tribes to fight. Gradually the fighting became so fierce that people did not know who was on whose side. Neighbors began to kill their neighbors. The government is believed to have sent some fighters to South Sudan to stir up the people there. Since fighting broke out in December between government and rebel forces, more than 1 million have fled their homes. Am about to tell you way more than I know, so I will stop. Look up more info if you are interested.
Getting off that topic, I learned there are 5 environments in Sudan: Savannah (fertile ground with 10 months rain),
low Savannah (with 4 months rain),
Semi-desert, Desert (there are 3 of these) and the
Red Sea coast. Today we drove through the semi-desert area.
Other bits Abdel shared:
Sudan means “The Black” in Arabic,
Nubia means ‘Land of the Gold” in ancient Egyptian, and
Ethiopian means “People with Black Faces” in Greek.
Now for the history buffs in the crowd. Sudan (Nubia) began about 2500 BC with the Nubian capital of Kerma, north of Dongola that lasted until 1500BC. This culture, which adopted the Egyptian civilization and religions, overlaps the pharaonic period including the pyramids in Giza. The Egyptians occupied Nubia from 1500BC to 1070BC. About 900BC the Cushites, a group of Nubians, drove the Egyptians north and set up their capital in Napata, very near Jabel Barkal, where we are hiking early in the morning. That period lasted until 400BC when the Meiotic Period began and lasted until 400AD. The Christian Period began in 400AD with the conversion of Cushites and Nubians from Egyptian religions to Christianity by missionaries and lasted until the Islamists infiltrated the people and converted them to Muslim in the 1500’s. The Islamist Period came to an abrupt end when the Ottomans occupied Nubia (Sudan) in 1821. In 1877 an Englishman named Chalice Gordon was hired by Egypt to be the governor of the territory. He was very popular and became a hero when he was killed during an attack of the Islamic Mahdists in 1885. Only 6 months later, Mahdi himself died of malaria and the new leader, Abdulaha, continued to spread Islam until 1898. In that year, the Brutish, under Kirchner fought Abdulaha and the Madhists in the last traditional British conflict, the Battle of Karari. Their superior guns and weapons, slaughtered the Islamic Arabs, who had only swords and knives. Kirchner moved the capital from Omdurman, where it had been since Mahdi was in power to Khartoum, where it remains. Sure hope I got this right. I expect those of you in the know to correct me where needed.
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Adventures with Julia 