Ibrahim-Beja Scholars and The Creativity of Powerlessness

17/11/2014
Beja scholars and the creativity of powerlessness
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Author:
Abdullahi Ali Ibrahim
Title:
Publication Info:
Ann Arbor, Michigan: MPublishing, University of Michigan Library

Passages
1992
Availability:
This work is protected by copyright and may be linked to without seeking

permission. Permission must be received for subsequent distribution in print or
electronically. Please contact mpub-help@umich.edu for more information.
Source:

Abdullahi Ali Ibrahim
Evanston, IL: Program of African Studies, Northwestern University
no. 4, pp. 8-9, 13, 15, 1992
Author Biography:
Abdullahi Ali Ibrahim is a member of the Department of Folklore at the Institute

for African and Asian Studies at the University of Khartoum and was a 1991-92
fellow of the Institute for Advanced Study in the African Humanities at
Northwestern.
URL:
http://hdl.handle.net/2027/spo.4761530.0004.006
Beja Scholars and the Creativity of Powerlessness [1]

ABDULLAHI ALI IBRAHIM
In this paper, I return to study more systematically the political and
cultural resourcefulness of local scholars among the Beja of Sudan, a
theme I have briefly and sporadically written about previously. [2] The
paper highlights the political praxis of these scholars in which they
creatively manipulate cultural and symbolic resources to lobby and
persuade national, transnational and international agencies to support
their reform projects. The paper, based on research which was funded by
the Red Sea Area Project (RESAP), calls upon the project to incorporate
Beja scholars in its research and policy. The incorporation conceived by
the paper is not that of the subject or target of the project. Rather, it is an
incorporation that humbly and seriously considers the myriad and
ingenious ways Beja scholars have always empowered themselves in
negotiating with the outside world and in diligently working on their
environment and with their own people.
RESAP, working in Sudan, is a multi-disciplinary research venture,
funded by the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Afairs, and launched in
1986 by the University of Bergen and the University of Khartoum. The
objective of the project is to research the drought-stricken Red Sea area to
enhance understanding of its ecological and socioeconomic systems. The
research is geared to propose interventions which may secure and
improve the natural resource base of the region. [3]
Beja constitute the great majority of the population of the Red Sea area,
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and among them the Hendendowa groups dominate politically and

numerically. Beja are Muslims and Tebdwe is their mother-tongue, but
Arabic is widely used. They base their livelihood on animal husbandry,
labor migration and some cultivation. Historically speaking, they are the
"big black boundin' beggar[s]", Fuzzy Wuzzy of Rudyard Kipling, who
broke the famous "British square". Led by their elusive Mahdist Emir
Osman Digna, the Beja inflicted a couple of initial defeats on the British
troops who were deployed in the Red Sea region to prevent the Mahdist
State of the Sudan (1881-1898) from taking Suakin, the strategic Red Sea
port.
Dr. Hassan Abdel Ati has rightly questioned the efficacy of the
developmental impact of the activities of NGOs in the Red Sea Region as
long as they hold to their haughty attitude with respect to local
participation. NGOs believe that national and local authorities in the
region do not represent the wishes of the Beja. [4] Moreover, they argue
that no indigenous structure among the Beja could provide a framework
conducive to a participatory relationship with NGOs. [5] As a result, they
despise governmental channels and ignore indigenous voluntary work. As
typical philanthropists, NGOs feel fulfilled when they deal directly with
their target population. [6] Consequently, some urban dwellers and
educated elite have publically expressed their apprehension about the
political and cultural performance of the NGOs. [7]
A research project of the scope and promise of the Red Sea Area
Programme (RESAP) needs to learn from the mistakes of the NGOs by
earnestly inviting and accommodating the participation of local Beja
scholars. From the interviews I have had with some of the scholars I had
the impression that they were left out by RESAP. A local leader
complained that they are put in the dark regarding the objectives and
operations of the project. Ordinary Beja, whom RESAP researchers
interview, turn to their local scholars to ask them about the usefulness of
the RESAP research exercise. Unaided by any privileged or even regular
information about the project, the local scholars feel embarrassed about
their inadequacy in answering questions raised by their people about
RESAP.
The situation that RESAP is finding itself in with respect to Beja scholars
is typical in ethnographic research. By-passing the researchers in the field
(local scholars) to the target "natives" is inherent in fieldwork practice.
Local scholars are basically alien to anthropological discourse because of
a systemic tendency in that discourse which Johannes Fabian calls "denial
of coevalness". This tendency, according to Fabian, places the referents of
anthropology in a time other than the present of the producer of
anthropological discourse. [8] this walling-in of the time of the other [9]
determines the character of anthropological discourse as a "transfer of
information" [10] from the other, the "natives", to the anthropologist. A
local scholar who aspires for an analytical role similar to that of the
anthropologist is bound to be left out.
A local scholar is justified to feel insulted if he is confined to the role of
providing information even though he is interested in the same sources of
information as the anthropologist. Besides protesting the poor liaison of
RESAP, Beja scholars show serious concern about the fate of source
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material made available to RESAP and other researchers. One Beja

scholar was apprehensive about the habit of RESAP researchers of taking
files from local government departments to read them at RESAP
residences in Sinkat. This scholar wanted to know if researchers would
care to return them when they were through with them. Another scholar
asked about the possibility of retrieving the minutes of the meetings of the
Beja Conference he made available to a Khartoum University researcher
studying the ethnic dimension of Sudanese politics. Similarly, a Beja
activist wondered if he could retrieve a Hedendowa genealogy he lent to a
university professor. Moreover, Adroub A. Adroub, an authority on Beja
language and culture, lamented the loss of his manuscript on Beja
language which an Egyptian scholar borrowed but failed to return.
In this paper, an argument is made for establishing new liaisons between
RESAP and Beja scholars, activists and reformers. The liaisons suggested
here have more to them than procedure. For RESAP to be a research
praxis (in which received roles of those researching and those being
researched are radically reconsidered), it has to appreciate the creative
and analytical functions of local scholars. To help bring about this
appreciation the paper will highlight the creativity of Beja scholars in
manipulating their symbolic and cultural resources to promote Beja
political and developmental interests.
Beja scholars are acutely conscious of their people's political
predicaments. As early as before the independence of Sudan in 1956
Muhammed Dean al-Bijawi attributed the deprivation of the Beja to their
lack of access to national political opportunities. He held the colonial
administration, [11] sectarianism, [12] and the non-Beja affendiyya
(graduates of government schools) class, [13] responsible for preventing
the Beja from participating adequately in national politics and getting
their rightful share from such participation. He laid a special emphasis on
promoting education among the Beja to give Beja some leverage in
national politics and administration. [14] Importantly, he suggested that
government should give the Beja quotas in cadet, police and public
administration academies to make up for long lost opportunities. [15] For
the Beja voice to be heard nationally he called for Beja workers to
organize trade unions [16] and the Beja at large to form a pan-Beja
union. [17]
The awareness of Beja scholars of the marginality of their people made
them develop a unique skill in manipulating their cultural resources to
effect their reform projects. The historical and contemporary connections
Beja had and have with institutions of power or powerful individuals are
adeptly used to convince these institutions and individuals to do
something to lift the plight of the Beja. Apparently, the powerless Beja
are utilizing their cultural symbols and connections as scaffolds to climb
to positions of visibility and power.
The Linguistic Seizure of Khartoum
There is an undeclared linguistic war between several Sudanese ethnic
groups for the ownership of Khartoum, the capital city. Each of these
warring factions claims that "Khartoum" is a name that is derived from its
respective language. In linguistically seizing Khartoum, these groups are
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establishing claims for being indigenous to the singular place of power in

the Sudan.
"Khartoum" has long been taken to be an Arabic word denoting an
elephant trunk. It is said that the national capital is named Khartoum
because it is the place at which the White and Blue Niles meet and their
junction describes an elephant's trunk. The Arab claim to the name of
Khartoum has been challenged by the Dinka and the Nubians. Some
Dinka scholars maintain that "Khartoum" is a corrupted form of the Dinka
word "Kiertoum" which also means the junction of two rivers. [18] In
addition, Dinka trace the names of some suburbs of Khartoum such as
Buri back to Dinka roots.
A Nubian scholar describes the Dinka claim as a "misconception and pure
fantasy". [19] He argues that "Khartoum" is most probably derived from
the Nubian language. [20] This derivation is plausible, according to
Muhammed I. Abu Salim, because Khartoum lies comfortably within the
domain of the historical Upper Nubian Kingdom that had the city of Soba
(a suburb of Khartoum) as its capital. [21] Abu Salim has not suggested
any specific Nubian etymology for "Khartoum". Hasan Shukri, however,
suggests that the name was originally "Agartum" which stands for the
abode of Atum, the Egyptian god of creation. Shukri also argues that the
name of Tuti, the island adjacent to Khartoum, is a corruption of "thutid",
the old Egyptian word which stands for the sacristand of the temple of
Thut, the god of wisdom. [22]
The Beja, however, beg to differ with the above mentioned speculations
regarding the origin of the word "Khartoum". Adroub A. Adroub, referred
to earlier, claims that "Khartoum" is a Beja word. He argues that other
Sudanese groups might succeed in deriving "Khartoum" from their
respective languages but to verify their claims they have to account for
other place names related to Khartoum with reference to their languages.
True to his theory Adroub not only suggests a Beja origin for "Khartoum"
but also maps the names of several suburbs of Khartoum onto Beja roots.
"Khartoum", according to Adroub, is a corruption of "hartooma" which is
the Beja word for "meeting". Obviously the noun "meeting" is close
enough to "junction" of rivers which is basic to the idea of the name of
Khartoum in all the languages we touched upon. To avoid basing his
theory on a single name Adroub is presently involved in a research
project tracing Khartoum- related names to Beja origins. The table printed
on this page shows his findings.
Suburb of
Khartoum
Karari
Beja Derivation
Meaning
Kari + ri
Kari = flowing
the flowing water course
ri = water-course
Shambat
Sham + bat
(a tree) that is slightly bending to

one side
Sham = slightly
bat = bending to
one side
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Tuti
Buri al-Lamab
Bagir
Toe + ti + yi
Amab = type of
tree
Br = a place
Ba Aqir
A wild animal be it a crocodile or a

hippo
An area where Lamab trees grow
A place that does not allow water
to flow back
In the context of Beja powerlessness Adroub's theory on the origin of the

name of Khartoum, irrespective of its veracity, can be fruitfully analyzed
as a bid for power. In giving name to Khartoum and other Khartoumrelated locations the Beja present a strong argument for their authenticity.
If the name of the seat of power is derived from the Beja language Beja
are entitled to a fair share of that power. Just as in magic, you control a
force by controlling its name.
Kin by Association
Beja activists believe that the Beja plight may be largely attributed to
their gross underrepresentation in national positions of planning and
execution. Muhammed Bidri Abu Hadiyya, a veteran Beja activist,
maintains that had the Beja been adequately represented in these
positions, the Khasm al-Girba Agricultural project could not have been
grasped by the Halfa people. The al-Girba project, according to Abu
Hadiyya, was originally intended to accommodate the Beja who were
continuously displaced by repeated droughts. The Halfawi cadre, who
were in a position to know about the project, suggested to the government
of the day that the project should be used for the rehabilitation of the
Halfawis dislocated by the construction of the High Dam.
This realization of being short of kin in centers of decision made Beja
activists extremely creative in co-opting kin from among non-Beja
government officials. Beja would approach an official to help out in
carrying out any of their reform projects with reference to whatever
connection that official has had in Beja territory.
Beja activists cast their net far and wide to fish for these kin by
association. Salah Salim, the Minister for Sudan Affairs in the Egyptian
Cabinet of the July 1952 Revolution, was asked by Beja activists during
his visit to Sinkat in 1955 to open Egyptian schools in the Beja region.
The minister agreed and the Egyptian Education Mission in Sudan opened
three schools in Port Sudan, Wagar and Sinkat. Salah's lavish spending in
pursuing the unity of Sudan and Egypt aside, the Beja activists capitalized
in their address to the minister on the fact that he had spent his childhood
in Sinkat. Salah's father headed the Sinkat Post and Telegraph Office in
the mid-twenties.
Furthermore, the quota for Beja students in Gabiet Technical School was
raised from 10% to 15% in the mid-seventies by Bashir Abadi, the
Minister of Transportation. The fact that Bashir belongs to the Ababada
people, a distant and ancient relative of the Beja, was used by the Beja
reformers to negotiate for that raise. Furthermore, a Beja student was
admitted to the Police Academy through the good offices of Bukhari, the
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Police Chief of the seventies. Bukhari was prompted to support the

student because the student was recommended by the late Abdel Gadir
Ukair, a Beja teacher, whom Bukhari had in his intermediate school
years. Moreover, Umar Mahaqar, the Secretary of President Nimeri, was
instrumental in admitting Beja students to the Police and Prison
academies on an affirmative action basis. The Beja reformers approached
Umar to do them this favor since Umar belongs to the Halanga
community who are also identified as Beja.
Associated kin are also recruited from among riverain Sudanese officials
who happened to have lived, studied, or worked in the Beja homeland.
The late Karar Ahmed Karar, the Blue Nile Commissioner in the early
seventies, was approached by Beja activists to support the Beja
community which was rehabilitated in al-Suki Agricultural Project in the
Blue Nile province. Being a former District Commissioner of Aroma, a
Beja town, Karar was found ready to reach out and help. Furthermore,
Major-General (retired) Bakri al-Mak, the Governor of the Eastern
Region in 1989 was approached to help out in executing a Beja reform
scheme with reference to the fact that he studied at Port Sudan Secondary
School and was trained in Gabiet Military Academy, both institutions lie
in the Beja homeland. Moreover, Professor Yusuf Fadl Hasan, the viceChancellor of Khartoum University was asked by Beja activists to secure
the entrance of a Beja woman to the Faculty of Medicine. The fact that
Yusuf had part of his education in Beja schools was cited by Beja
activists as a good reason to obligate him to act as a kin with respect to
Beja interests.
To make up for the lack of real Beja kin in government decision-making
positions, Beja activists have proved to be extremely inventive in
stretching the concept of kin to include any occupant of a position of
power who is even remotely related to Beja space.
The Fort and the Trees
The site that lies to the southeast of Sinkat at Khor (water-course) Sinkat
is unique not only in the historical relics so intricately overlayered across
it but also in the manner Beja scholars have used these relics to signify
their cultural symbols in pursuing their reforms.
The oldest and most basic structure in this site is Sinkat Fort, the remains
of which now form a kind of embankment. The fort was built by Tawfik,
the Governor of Suakin during the Turco-Egyptian period to defend
Sinkat against the Beja Mahdist insurgents led by Osman Digna. Tawfik
came to Sinkat from Suakin on August 2nd 1883 with 100 men to
reinforce the garrison. He improved the fortifications of the town and was
able to defeat the Mahdi's Ansar (followers) when they attacked the fort
on the 5th of August 1883 and killed 60 of them. Digna lost a brother in
the encounter and was himself wounded. [23] Before Sinkat's second
battle, Tawfik again came to the town to fortify it comprehensively. The
Ansar did not attack the fort this time. Instead they besieged the garrison.
The besieged fort ran out of food and had to "eat mules, donkeys, dogs
and cats and to chew up hides and leaves of trees to alleviate the bites of
hunger." [24] Seeing the misery of his men, Tawfik ordered them to leave
the fort so as to not die of starvation. In the same vein, he ordered them to
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fight their way to Suakin and not bring shame to themselves by

surrendering to the Ansar. On leaving the fort the Turkish troops were
attacked by the Ansar who killed them except for some women and the
qadi of Sinkat. [25]
The martyrs' memorial to the right of the fort rubble was built in the midseventies to honor the memory of those Beja Ansar killed in Sinkat's first
battle. Building the memorial was a Beja response to President Nimiri's
call to honor national martyrs whose causes of liberation and religious
zeal his regime (1969-1985) wanted to identify with. The memorial was
erected on the mass grave in which those martyrs were buried. The
placard on the memorial identifies the cause, the number and ethnic and
regional affiliations of these martyrs, who were led into battle, in the
words of the placard, by "the Emir of Emirs, Osman Abu Bakr Digna."
The tree of King George V, which no longer exists on the site for reasons
that will become clear, was planted by the monarch on the fort rubble on
the occasion of his visit to Sinkat on the 17th of January 1912. The
schedule and the report on the visit mention his stop at the fort but are
silent on the planting of the tree. However, the placard that was on the
enclosure of the tree stated that the tree was planted by his Majesty on
that occasion.
The visit of King George V took place 12 years after the signing of the
Condominium Agreement (1899) that laid the basis of the AngloEgyptian administration of the Sudan for 56 years. Importantly, the
Governor-General of the Sudan at his Majesty's visit was Kitchener, the
conqueror of Khartoum. Consequently, the visit was used by the
Kitchener administration to compare and contrast the Dervish misrule to
the opulence and prosperity of the Sudan under his administration. [26]
Hence, Kitchener utilized the visit to pay homage to those persons who
made this just rule possible. In his Majesty's reply to the address that
welcomed him at Port Sudan he paid tribute to "the sacrifices of British
and Egyptian lives which have been necessary to bring about the present
peaceful and prosperous state of the country." [27] Gordon of Khartoum
and Tawfik of Suakin were mentioned by name in his Majesty's speech.
Tawfik was praised by his Majesty for "the stubborn resistance at Sinkat
... against overwhelming odds." [28]
In Sinkat his Majesty reviewed a parade of detachments of the British,
Egyptian and Sudanese armies. The parade was followed by "a very
interesting part of display." [29] 3,000 native Arab horsemen and camel
men representing about twenty tribes of Eastern Sudan galloped past
"giving a weird conclusion to this interesting parade." [30] The last event
of the Royal visit to Sinkat was a trip to the old fort "made illustrious by
the hero of Sinkat, that is, Tawfik". [31]
The neem trees to the right of the site were planted after the October
Revolution of 1964. The people of Sinkat petitioned the Sovereignty
Council members, who were spending their summer vacation in
Erkowitsummer resort, to remove the enclosure surrounding his Majesty's
tree and to take off the placard on it. Stimulated by the patriotic feelings
generated by the revolution, Sinkat inhabitants were affronted by the
preservation of this symbol of colonialism. As a result the local
authorities in Sinkat were instructed by the Sovereignty Council to act in
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accordance of the wishes of the people. The placard as well as the

enclosure were thus removed and the royal tree was left to the uncertain
fate of the species. It survived till 1983 but finally collapsed under the
severe conditions of the drought of that year.
Osman Digna's Elementary School was built on the site in 1987. The
school was originally called "The Northern School" and was housed in a
building in the vicinity of Sinkat Suq (market) to the north of its present
location. The building was old and started to fall apart. The school board,
therefore, decided to initiate a self-help project to build a new school in
this historical site. Some Beja activists did not like the school board's
decision because they wanted the site to be preserved as a historical
symbol. When the school foundation was dug out, people found bayonets
and empty bullets. Again in 1989, when a sewer was dug out right across
the fort debris to drain flood water, people followed the bulldozer hoping
to find some of the gold hidden by fort occupants. The bulldozer driver,
according to my informant, deepened his scoop in the debris to the
satisfaction of the people who were enwrapped in a mini-"gold rush".
The dimming out and lighting up of the symbols of the historical fort
unravel the existential dilemmas of the Beja. These dilemmas are borne
out by the proposal of Muhammed Abu Hadiyya for Khartoum University
to hold a conference to discuss the tragedy of the Beja and their possible
extinction under the severe droughts they have been and will be exposed
to. In other words, Beja existentially feel that they are doomed if left to
hazardous nature unenlightened by culture. This nature-culture opposition
threads through the stage lightening scheme of the historical fort.
The Beja Ansar, the embodiment of Islam as the culture, besieged the fort
of the Turk unbelievers (unbelieving belongs to the realm of nature for
being an uneducated state of existence). In resorting to eat raw roots and
unsanctioned meat to soothe their hunger, the unbelievers were made to
correspond to their state of being as creatures of nature. The victory of the
Ansar over Tawfik caused the fort (culture) of the unbelievers to turn into
a debris, that is, decomposing into its constituent elements of dust and
rocks.
In contrast, the royal visit to the fort in 1912 presented the colonial
administration as culture for being just to the Sudanese whereas Mahdist
rule was viewed as crude nature. Planting the royal tree in the fort rubble
is intended to restore the fort, the bastion against the savage Ansar, to
culture after belonging to nature for more than a quarter of a century.
Furthermore, the Beja warrior traditions were festively "folklorized"
during the Royal visit in relation to the parade in which active British,
Egyptian and Sudanese troops were reviewed by his Majesty. The Beja
warriors, who just twenty-five years ago herocially broke the British
square, as noted earlier, were relegated to a display role described as
"giving a weird conclusion" to an interesting parade.
The light managers of this historical stage during the 1964 revolution
reversed the symbolic process set in motion by the royal visit. Motivated
by noble patriotic feelings (culture), Sinkat people succeeded in driving
the royal tree back into the wilderness, that is, to nature. The removal of
the placard and the enclosure from around the royal tree deprived the tree
of a name (culture) and made it go unidentified. The neem tree planted by
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the local authorities was meant to crown the restoration of national

symbols to culture by a token from nature. Similarly, the memorial gave
the mass grave a name and an aura of sanctity, restoring it from ritual
anonymity.
Myth, according to Levi-Strauss, has a mind of its own. He states that
myth thinks through us to counter-argue with those who believe that
people think through myth. I was reminded of Levi-Strauss' view when I
saw the cows' enclosure constructed right on this historical site and
people lining up to buy milk. The existence of this milk suq
(marketplace), I reflected, could not have happened by chance. For milk
is too powerful a Beja metaphor to take its existence in this debris of
symbol lightly. To the Beja, milk is culture as well as nature. Evidently,
milk is natural food to the Beja. But with a view to the Beja taboos on its
milking and drinking, it is also culture. When I got so far in my structural
analysis I started to ask myself if milk, as both nature and culture, is not
introduced in this context to mediate the opposition of culture and nature
that is wrecking this historical site and the life of the Beja too.
At another level of analysis, the uses made by Beja activists of some of
the symbols in this historical stage reflect the Beja strategy of recruiting
real and improvised kinship relations with centers of power to make up
for their own powerlessness. The memory of the Royal tree, for example,
was revived in this context. The plight of the Beja under repeated
droughts inspired Muhammed Bidri Abu Hadiyya to write a letter to the
Queen of England in the mid-1980s, to support a "tree-day" in Beja land
to combat desertification. The letter suggests that this day should coincide
with the visit of her grandfather, King George V. The Royal tree is
perceived by Abu Hadiyya as a symbolic message of the importance of
vegetation for a coherent environment. Unfortunately, the letter goes on
to say, that his Majesty's message "was either not read or the content not
understood." [32] The British Embassy wrote to Abu Hadiyya to express
interest in his suggestion.
In naming the school after Osman Digna and building the martyrs'
memorial, Beja activists were adhering closely to their strategy of
scaffolding their way out from periphery to center. Digna's name for the
Beja has come to stand for a considerable contribution to Mahdism which
is widely believed to be our first exercise in nation-building by the
Sudanese. The national official recognition of Digna took place in the
sixties when his mortal remains were carried to Erkowit in the Beja
territory because the rising High Dam waters would inundate Wadi Halfa
where he had first been buried. Besides this symbolic scaffolding, Beja
activists might have named the school after Digna because of the sense of
power and fulfillment they experienced building the school through selfhelp.
The identification of Beja with Digna is so prevalent that institutions of
national power apparently gloss the Beja as Digna. In 1969, a famine year
in Beja homeland, the government rehabilitated more than 300 Beja
families in the al-Suki scheme, as mentioned earlier. The name given to
the Beja village in the scheme was "Digna".
Conclusions
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RESAP is an ideal research project in view of its regional and ethnic

focus, interdisciplinary nature, prestigious international linkages and
generosity of funding that has made research possible for both mature and
young scholars. Sudanese scholarship has not been involved in a project
of such dimensions since the Wadi Halfa project conducted by the Sudan
Research Unit in the late sixties to study the rehabilitation of Nubians in
the al-Girba scheme after their lands were innudated by the High Dam
waters.
To achieve its goals of faithfully depicting Beja realities, RESAP has to
associate meaningfully with local scholars. This association will make
RESAP avoid studying the Beja from a "distance", that is, from a position
which denies coevalness to the object of inquiry. [33] Studying the Beja
from a distance turns RESAP into an authoritarian discourse, adding to
the already existing ones which are responsible for Beja misery. RESAP
has to share time with local scholars for it to become a communicative
praxis qualified to yield new knowledge about Beja culture.
For the purpose of commencing this dialogue, this paper has highlighted
the creative strategies of Beja scholars and activists for gaining power and
overcoming their political predicaments. RESAP is advised to appreciate,
support and enhance these strategies.
1. An earlier version of this paper was presented to the annual Red Sea
Area Research Project held at Sinkat in Eastern Sudan.
2. Abdullahi Ali Ibrahim, "The Chrismal and Community of Ali Bitny",
Uns al-Kutub, (Khartoum, 1984), pp. 95-99; "Culture in Eastern Sudan",
Abir al-Amkinah, (Khartoum, 1988), pp. 31-35.
3. For more details, see Centre for Development Studies, Biennial Report,
(Norway: University of Bergen, 1990-91).
4. Hassan Abdel Ati, "The Developmental Impact of NGOs in the Red
Sea Province, Sudan", paper presented to the Annual Red Sea Area
Program (RESAP) Workshop, Khartoum, March 20-22, 1990, p. 16.
5. Ati, "Developmental Impact", p. 18.
8. Johannes Fabian, Time and the Other, (New York: Columbia
University Press, 1983), p. 31.
9. Fabian, Time, p. 51.
11. Muhammed Dean al-Bijawi, Kifa al-Bija, (Khartoum, 1953), pp. 4445.
12. al-Bijawi, Kifah al-Bija, p. 33.
13. al-Bijawi, Kifah al-Bija, p.42.
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18. Muhammed Ibrahim Abu Salim, Tarikh al-Khartoum, (Khartoum,
1971), p. 6.
19. Abu Salim, Tarikh, p. 7.
20. Abu Salim, Tarikh, p.9.
21. Abu Salim, Tarikh, pp. 7-8.
22. Hasan Shukri, "Khartoum and Tuti 'Shreen Munz Qarnan", Khartoum,
1:11, August 1966, p. 23.
23. Naom Shuqair, Tarikh wa Juqrafiat al-Sudan, (Beirut 1967), p. 748.
24. Shuqair, Tarikh was Juqrafiat, p. 753.
25. Shuqair, Tarikh wa Juqrafiat, p. 754.
26. The Sudan, January 18, 1912.
27. Intelligence 2/14/122.
28. Intelligence 2/14/122.
32. Muhammed Bidri Abu Hadiyya to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II,
undated.
passages | http://quod.lib.umich.edu/p/passages/
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Abdullahi Ali Ibrahim

Beja scholars and the creativity of powerlessness

Ann Arbor, Michigan: MPublishing, University of Michigan Library

This work is protected by copyright and may be linked to without seeking

Beja scholars and the creativity of powerlessness

Abdullahi Ali Ibrahim is a member of the Department of Folklore at the Institute

Beja Scholars and the Creativity of Powerlessness [1]

Beja scholars and the creativity of powerlessness

and among them the Hendendowa groups dominate politically and

Beja scholars and the creativity of powerlessness

material made available to RESAP and other researchers. One Beja

Beja scholars and the creativity of powerlessness

establishing claims for being indigenous to the singular place of power in

the flowing water course

(a tree) that is slightly bending to

Beja scholars and the creativity of powerlessness

A wild animal be it a crocodile or a

In the context of Beja powerlessness Adroub's theory on the origin of the

Beja scholars and the creativity of powerlessness

Police Chief of the seventies. Bukhari was prompted to support the

Beja scholars and the creativity of powerlessness

fight their way to Suakin and not bring shame to themselves by

Beja scholars and the creativity of powerlessness

accordance of the wishes of the people. The placard as well as the

Beja scholars and the creativity of powerlessness

the local authorities was meant to crown the restoration of national

Beja scholars and the creativity of powerlessness

RESAP is an ideal research project in view of its regional and ethnic

Beja scholars and the creativity of powerlessness

14. al-Bijawi, Kifah al-Bija, p. 68.

Hosted by Michigan Publishing, a division of the University of Michigan Library.

Beja scholars and the creativity of powerlessness

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