Letter from Sudan # 1

Letter from Sudan # 1 : Going to a wedding

I went to a party last weekend in the city of Wad Medani with some teacher friends of mine. It was a very grand affair with music and dancing and lots of food and a little drink. It went on into the small hours and we all came away very happy indeed.

Similarly, last night, I went to another party with my friends, Adrian and Mary from Hasaheisa, which is about thirty minutes from Messelemiya by car on dirt tracks through the fields of cotton and round and over the irrigation canals.

This party though was a different kind of party, it was a Sudanese party for a couple who had just become engaged to be married. I was lucky enough to be in just the right place at just the right time, turning up unannounced in the afternoon as I sometimes do from time to time.

My friends are always very welcoming and we enjoy one another’s company very much. Anyway, some of their neighbours called to invite them in the evening, and as I also knew the family from my frequent visits to Hasaheisa, I was invited too.

The Sudanese say, ‘faddel’ which means welcome and are always saying it to me in Messelemiya. We were among the first to arrive and were cordially welcomed and sat down in the most comfortable chairs in the place. All this was out of doors, you understand, in the courtyard or ‘hosh‘ as the Sudanese call it. After a short time, all the other guests started to arrive and each one of them came over to shake hands and greet us.

Then the most important people – the happy couple, arrived and things got underway. The couple sat in the place reserved for them, where they could be seen by everyone. Next, a large tray was placed on a stand in front of the couple and the proceedings began. This tray contained all the things needed to put ‘henna’ on the hands of both as a sign to others that they were betrothed. Henna is some sort of wood dust and oil, I think.

A bowl of the brown stuff was placed where they could reach it and then some of the young women took the couple’s hands and dipped their fingers and thumbs into it. I can only say that it looked like some kind of khaki coloured jelly. At the back of the tray there were tall, silver stands burning incense and sandalwood – it smelt lovely.

After the couple had had their hands anointed with the henna, others came up and did the same. I politely declined, but Mary and Adrian went up to have their fingers dipped into the henna. Thry sat there with it on their hands for two hours and then washed it off their hands to reveal an orange covered stain covering the parts that had been dipped. Mary and Adrian were then told that if they wanted the henna to turn a darker shade, they would have to expose their hands to the smoke from the incense some time later.

When all this rather grand thing had been completed, all accompanied by singing by some of the young girls, the party began, or at any rate, the more conventional, recognizable part of the party. There was music and dancing, although at first not many people got up to dance.

As the evening wore on, more and more of the guests got up to dance. All of this time, I found myself continually being stared at by young girls sitting nearby, and I stared back at them and smiled a lot. Sudanese women are very beautiful, elegantly though simply dressed, and for that reason are utterly charming to look at.

I had unconsciously taken a shine to one in particular; a very beautiful woman of about twenty years of age and when some Western style music was played, I was invited to dance. At this time there was nobody else on the dance floor so I declined the offer, saying that I might dance when a few others were dancing.

A short time later almost everyone got up to myself, and Adrian did likewise, to great cheering from the people surrounding us, showing us how to dance to Sudanese music, which is quite strange to Western ears. Luckily for me, I was able to dance with the young woman who I had previously been admiring, so I went home very happy that I had plucked up the courage to get up and dance. The whole evening was absolutely wonderful and something I will remember for a long time to come.
Robert L. Fielding