Scenes from Sudan’s Northern Province

Title photo, newly henna-ed hands dipping into a bowl of flowering hibiscus. Above, setting sail from Kerma, Northern Province. Below,  henna paste for tattooing curing in the sun. See coming posts on Sudanese henna and perfume traditions  

This is a cultural post for Women’s Education Partnership

Learn more about our literacy work in Community Literacy and About

Generous and honorable, dear neighbours in Dongola 

If you are interested in Sudanese art, you might enjoy Birds of the Soul    Forests and Spirits and Inscriptions on Rosewater

If you are interested in Sudanese wedding customs, you might enjoy Anointing in Robes of Red and Gold

Scenes from Sudan’s Northern Province, 1980’s

Nubian doorway seen in one of the Nile villages north of Dongola, and below – 

Nubian doorways, near Dongola 

If you are interested in women’s Nubian vernacular art, see Inscriptions on Rosewater

From the early to late 1980’s I worked as an English Language teacher based in Dongola, Northern Province.  The kindness and generosity of the Sudanese who welcomed me into their homes and lives there were both exceptional and humbling. 

This post attempts to do justice to their dignity and grace. 

Please do not reproduce any photos below of my Sudanese friends without seeking written permission 

Young musician with his rababa or Sudanese lute 

Below, my landlady and village elder, from Irtidi village, near Dongola, bearing traditional tribal facial scars 

Villager who sold baskets and dates door to door while sharing stories and dispensing wisdom with humour and grace to her neighbours

Ramadan Preparations – Everyone Included 

Children, having helped their mothers to make jars of hilu-mur flakes (soaked to make the drink traditionally used to break your ramadan fast at sunset)

Winnowing grain in Dongola market

Below, more friends from the market

Dongola Coffee Shops – early 1980’s 

Below Sudanese snuff seller from Darfur, Dongola Market 

Bread Making 

Proving bread to be baked in traditional clay, wood-fired ovens in Irtidi

Making kisra on a dooka

School Celebrations 

Washing and weaving tripe for school feast, Dongola Secondary School, and below –

Our school caretaker with his pipe 

Traveling Further Afield 

Somewhere between Dongola and Delgo – mid-1980’s

Below, Merowe, mid-1980’s 

Delgo, Northern Province 

Along The Nile 

Below, carrying palm, wood and water pots from Dongola Nile 

Nile scenes, including the Karima ferry sailing past Dongola

Perfume making for Eid celebrations – see coming posts for more on this 

Sesame seed oil making near Burgeig, north of Dongola 

Below, village near Dongola in mid-1980’s

Collecting palm “jareed”, used for roofing and many other purposes, Abri  

Below, seen on the wall of a restaurant wall, Ed-Debba, Northern Provence in the early 1980’s 

This is a cultural post for Women’s Education Partnership

Learn more about our literacy work in Community Literacy and About

If you would like to support our work further, please go to our website Women’s Education Partnership.  We operate on a shoestring and all our UK trustees and staff are unpaid volunteers.