Sudan

Ellen, a medical anthropologist who has worked extensively in Sudan, is part of my local branch of the American Association of University Women. She gathered some friends, I brought Anne Barit, and we put together a meal to represent Sudan. Ellen made a stew and picked up basbousa and other pastries from the Mideastern Bakery on Tennessee Street in Redlands. I prepared the recipes at https://www.internationalcuisine.com/about-food-and-culture-of-sudan-and-south-sudan/. Fortunately Ellen knew that the spicy sauce should be poured on a plate to allow bread to be dipped in it and that the arugula should be chopped before being used as a topping along with the tomatoes, feta, and boiled eggs on the fava bean soup. We enjoyed all these things along with the wonderful eggplant dip and Sudanese tea. Then Ellen showed us her art and artifacts from Sudan and we chatted about her experiences supporting a Sudanese colleague in creating positive social motivation for eliminating female circumcision. If you want to know more about Ellen’s work, she starts speaking at the 17 minute mark of this video after a woman from Sierra Leon discusses her experience: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hkBwyHSGCDo

The Sudanese restaurant Z Zoul Café in San Francisco is another great place to experience this delicious food. It is near a police station, so park beyond the spaces reserved for police cars. The mixed vegetables were peas, corn, sweet peas, artichokes, and squash in a lovely spicy sauce. The salad was also spicy. The chicken was falling-off-the-bone tender and the rice was so good. They also serve a breakfast I want to try.

The pyramids at Meroe demonstrate Sudan’s deep history as part of the ancient Nile valley. The PBS series on Africa's Great Civilizations highlights them and more Sudanese history in their first two episodes:

· Episode 1: https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x74926x

· Episode 2: https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x749270

For a more recent story, The Heart of Nuba is a powerful video about an American physician who made his home in the Nuba Mountains of Sudan, doing surgery to save people who were being bombed by their own government (fortunately, that regime has ended): https://tubitv.com/movies/581175/the-heart-of-nuba

There are plenty of books about or from Sudan available online or through the library:

· The River War: An Account of the Reconquest of the Sudan by Winston Churchill is an adventure story by someone who was there and who knew how to write: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/4943

· Ellen recommends Season of Migration to the North by Tayeb Salih. It can be found in many libraries and here: https://archive.org/details/seasonofmigratio00sali/page/n5/mode/2up

· The Wedding of Zein by Tayeb Salih is on Overdrive from the San Bernardino County Library and also has a PDF online here: https://www.pdfdrive.com/the-wedding-of-zein-and-other-stories-e188896100.html

· Hoopla has Mansi: A Rare Man in His Own Way by Tayeb Salih.

· Three Sudanese short stories are here: https://wordswithoutborders.org/read/collection/sudanese-stories-of-estrangement/

Sudan has meaningful art with some being found here: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-48126363. In this video, the artist Ibrahim El-Salahi discusses his work: https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/art-1010/global-vanguards/sudan/v/el-salahi

I’m really enjoying the music of Sudan including:

· One of the most well know musicians from Sudan, Abdel Gadir Salim: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mCgVw7JzGWE

· An older musician, Abdel Karim El Kabli: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qGjkmlvChBA

· Jazz from Sharhabel Ahmed: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=59Yfm-Oy4Lk

· I love Tiny Desk Concerts and I’m thrilled to find that Alsarah and the Nubatones did one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=daXGLo4aeFQ

Some of the best places to visit in Sudan are here: https://www.thecrazytourist.com/15-best-places-visit-sudan/ and yes, I would love to go! I look forward to that time when we can travel broadly again. In the meantime, I’m hoping we all survive, thrive, recognize our mutual humanity, learn to deal with our conflicts, and allow peace, health, and safety to flourish in Sudan and throughout the world.

Photo credit: Valerian Guillot https://www.flickr.com/photos/valerian1985/24543475390/