Eastern Sudan: Home of the Beja People

Nubian Dates

Preparing my Taamiya

The road back to Khartoum was a long one but I had an odd day to spare before I got back so I decided to take a detour to east Sudan before looping back to the capital. The journey by road to Kassala, a city bordering Eritrea, would be long with a stop over at Atbara but there were no other alternatives with Sudan’s domestic air travel being either non-existent or unsafe.

Taamiya, made of chickpeas, salad, tomatoes and dressing

Fruit vendor at Atbara

Early that morning, I packed my backpack and walked through the date palms one last time as I made my way to the village souq to catch the minibus heading to Dongola. I wanted to buy some dates while I was in northern Sudan since the region was renowned for it but not wanting to carry the extra weight around I just got a handful to get through my journey to Kassala. A couple hours later I was in Dongola and had to wait a couple hours for the next bus to Atbara. The pause was a good time to sample some of Dongola’s taamiya which was similar to the Egyptian falafel.

Arid desert on the way to Kassala

Mud brick houses of the Ja'alin Arabs

Dome shaped tents of the Beja nomads

Back in Atbara, I got myself a ticket on a bus heading to Kassala the next morning at 5am and checked into a lokanda besides the bus station. With Sudan being off the beaten track for backpackers and travelers there were no hostels I cou
ld stay at. Instead lokanda, which are cheap communal sleeping places for itinerant travelers and geared primarily towards the locals were a decent substitute at places where I could not pitch a tent.

A Beja settlement

A Beja man cooking meat on hot stones

Beja woman with the characteristic nose ring

The agent from the ticket office came by my lokanda early in the morning to make sure I was awake and personally made sure I got on the bus…now that’s what I call service but I guess its not for all. I think he was just being nice to a khawaja (foreigner). I suppose these are some of the perks of traveling to places that don’t get many visitors.

Beja camel herder

Jebana, spiced coffee popular in eastern Sudan

Prayer time at the Khatmiyah mosque

The road from Atbara to Kassala was not in the same condition as the roads in the central and northern part of Sudan and its no wonder that the eastern population feels marginalized by the government.

Khatmiyah mosque at the base of the Taka Mountains

Talking about bus ride…now that I look back, I can think of a couple quirky things about bus travel in Sudan.

The open arches of the mosque

First, all of them start the journey with recitals from the Quran on the speaker system and although loud and tedious especially in the wee hours, after a few bus journeys the mind was able to tune it out. Secondly, the Sudanese love their music. Most of the videos on the bus were recordings of live performances of Sudanese singers especially women. Some of the songs were actually pretty hummable.

About halfway though the harsh and arid semi-desert when the bus stopped for a break, women with distinct features embarked the bus. These were the women from the Beja tribe who are semi nomads habituating eastern Sudan and parts of Eritrea. Their costume was colorful but generally dominated by a single bright color and they all had a large nose ring akin to some nomads from the Indian state of Rajasthan.

Scattered around the place where we stopped for a break were the Beja men having a distinct Afro style fuzzy hair, called tiffa, and worn like a crown with a comb stuck in it. Most men carried a small dagger and had a long sword draped across the back. I wanted to take a picture but dared not to even ask looking at their attire and their serious demeanor.

Sunset over Kassala

Throughout history dating back from the times of the Egyptians and Kushites to the Greco-Romans and then the imperial British, the Beja men have been renowned for being fierce warriors and Rudyard Kipling (the guy who wrote the Jungle Book) has a famous poem called “Fuzzy-Wuzzy” dedicated to their warrior spirit.

Spread over the vast expanse of the desert were small Beja settlements dotted with tents covered with palm leaf mats. These tents were strikingly similar to the domes of the Afar and the Issa people from Danakil in Ethiopia and Djibouti respectively. If I could draw a parallel between the Beja of Sudan and the Afar of Ethiopia and the Issa of Djibouti, I would not be too far off.

The best thing about traveling by road is that one gets at least a fleeting introduction to the true rural life of nomads and the land they live in. I say that because upon getting to Kassala, which is a decent sized city and having a sizable population of Beja, I did not see the same things I encountered on the bus ride. There were no camel herds and no men with fuzzy hair carrying a formidable sword. Unfortunately, urbanization has caused them to adopt sedentary lifestyles in the towns and cities of eastern Sudan.

Overlooking at the plains around Kassala from the Taka Mountains

Kassala is dominated by the odd looking Taka Mountains under which’s shadow lies the gorgeous Khatmiyah mosque. The Islam practiced in this region is a form of Sufi and very relaxed compared to other parts of Sudan. I had no problems getting inside and wandering within the mosque with its series of arches stunningly complimenting the Taka Mountains in the background.

On the hike up the mountains I played a game of futbol with kids but not for too long as I had to get to the top before sunset. The view of Kassala and the surrounding plains that stretched to the horizon was magnificent as I reminisced some of my best moments from Egypt and Sudan. My journey through this fascinating region was soon coming to an end as the following morning I was heading back to Khartoum. There was just a day more to go before I depart Sudan to get back to Liberia.