Travel Log 9– Northern Ethiopia, Sheidi, Gonder, Debark, Simien Mountains, Bahir Dar and Lalibella

Sheidi
3/3/08
The taste of success was warm, flat and satisfying. We drank beer while we waited for our visas to be checked on the border between Sudan and Ethiopia. The passport office was surrounded by a complex of wooden shacks and alleyways.

At the bus station the reservation we saw on the faces of Sudanese was put into stark contrast as we were harangued by children hell bent on acting as our porters. On the bus it was a bawdy affair with people laughing raucously and the women wearing the antipathy of burkahs making none too subtle eyes. We were definitely a commodity. A woman on the bus had the tattooed face of an Orthodox Ethiopian Christian – a cross where a bhindi would go and cog-like marking encircling her neck.

The bus took us from the border town of Metama to Shihedi where we would overnight before getting the bus further to Gonder the next morning. It was made up of shacks playing Ethiopian pop (which was heavily keyboard based with a strange 2/2 rhythm which sounded like a strange impersonation of the 80’s), table football and bar after bar after bar.

Walking along the dirt high street dodging the horse drawn carts we were followed by a group of young boys who claimed to be our guides to the town. As we drank coffee they scuffled outside over ownership of us.

In our hotel a woman from the bus recognized us and invited us into her room. Inside were her adopted son and younger sister. We chewed ch’at (see later) with her – a mild amphetamine popular in the Arab world and across much of east Africa. The leaves were stuffed into the mouth and chewed slowly, allowing the acrid juices to trickle down the throat, accompanied by cola and peanuts. After the dehydration of the bus journey (on which the man in front insisted on closing the window, and remained infuriatingly un-sweaty for the journey as we felt our skin crack under the pressure) the effect of the ch’at was hard to distinguish but there was a general mood of chatty giddiness. There is of course a strong possibility that the presence of an unveiled, powerful woman who was willing to put us in our place on a variety of subjects we were completely unable to comprehend may have been the vital ingredient in the heady mix. Her adopted son who she called Baggio (after the Italian footballer) and who had the same eccentric haircut as him insisted on calling Toby ‘Papa’.

We finally managed to establish that the bus to Gonder, seven hours south, was going to be leaving at 5.00am. The confusion arose from the fact that in Ethiopia the day begins when the sun comes up at 6.00am and this is counted as 12.00, the time is therefore always six hours outside what it should be.


Gondar
04/03/08 – 09/03/08
Emmanuel got sap from a tree in his eye when he was a tot and was left with a blind, shiny, milk coloured iris.

Kibrit came from Bahir Dar to make his fortune as a traditional musician, playing animal skin drums and singing as an azmari (freestyle comedy singer approaching politics and often those in the room) and playing a masenqo (one stringed bowed instrument) as part of tejbeit (traditional Ethiopian music, still very popular with locals).

John was an orphan who fell in love with a rich girl.

Rich had dreams of going to university with his girlfriend and getting a good job.

Wonderful was having trouble paying for his night school classes in tourism in order for him to get a pass which would legally allow him to trail us without the threat of a beating from the police.

Hanging round with these lads, learning their ‘stories’ was a mainstay of our time in fairy tale Gondar. After spending four days with this motley crew of hustlers, chancers and lay abouts we had a chance to better understand their respective predicaments although we would not claim to know the truth of them. These street urchins had not been dealt the harshest hands in the town, they just had the language skills to communicate them most successfully.



After buying Emmanuel a second hand dictionary, giving Kibrit an old pair of Toby’s trousers, Wonderful a copy of ‘Waiting for Godot’ and John an Arabic to English dictionary the money hassle abated. They had nothing better to do than try and pick up some English from us so followed us about. Understandably they were also keen to speak the international language without the handicap of an American accent. Through their local knowledge and understanding we were able to see and understand many sides of life in Gondar that would otherwise have passed us by.

Nestled in high mountains, Gondar was the ancient capital of Ethiopia and seat of the powerful Abyssinian Empire, the castle of which still stood at the top of the town. The town and surrounding area’s main industry is tourism as well as agriculture and the Dashen (beer) and huge Pepsi plants. The other main industry of the town, often disturbingly connected to tourism, is prostitution.

The street urchins took us to a series of nightclubs where the women’s vocabulary was limited to a few phrases that would make Jim Davidson blush. If we were to make eye contact with one a catfight would ensue. The street urchins pointed out an Israeli man in one of the clubs, who had just finished national service. He came out of a bedroom at the back of the club near the stinking toilet with a blank-faced girl. They explained that their friend had made 70Birr ($7) commission from the transaction and they were very pleased for him. They seemed genuinely surprised that we were not interested in the same. We had to be adamant about it because the initial sensation of coming from two months of sharia law to a room of women gyrating their backsides independently of the rest of their bodies was pretty overpowering.

We stayed in the faded glory of the Ethiopia Hotel in the heart of the town. The café below was popular with Gondar’s dapper old timers who greeted each other with a theatrical series of embraces such as handshakes cupped at the forearm representing a transference of power / strength in some kind of business transaction. They would then sit down to the complex flavours of the freshly ground coffee and pat each other on the knee with the kind of tenderness that would get them funny looks in England. However, here it is the norm: Banksy’s artwork would be stripped of its shock value in Ethiopia as policemen and soldiers genuinely do hold hands on the street.

From the vaulted ceiling hung replacement chandeliers but the stained glass above the grand double doors was original, as was the Italian coffee machine and the booth from which the dour old owner watched over proceedings, slowly counting out money with arthritic fingers for the beautiful waitresses to hand out. One slow turn of his bald head in its starched collar housing would send street children who came in to sell packs of tissues and tooth brush sticks clattering out of the door. As was the case with the town’s many crazies who, no matter how far gone they were, still seemed to know not to try his patience. The packets of tissues business seemed to be booming. It was quite a status symbol for someone in a café or a bar to be able to mop their brow in such a disposable fashion. Also, none of the toilets had toilet paper. From the perspective of the street children, they could buy a pack of twelve from the shop, which worked out as 65cents a packet, then sell them on a 1Birr each.

In comparison to most of the places we had travelled through (Khartoum included) it was better paved, cleaned and even pedestrianised. The path leading up to Gondar’s castle was clear for a good stream of tourists. This brought pastoral people from the surrounding areas who believed the streets to be paved with dollars. Despite the almost European feel of the central town there was still a large volume of donkey and sheep traffic to temper its aspirations. The huge numbers of Ogre buzzards that patrolled the sky over the town at all hours was an impressive sight giving it the true feel of a medieval mountain castle town.



We got to know quite a few of the town’s wide boys in their shady alleys, by putting the word out that we were after a second hand tent. After many wild promises and let downs we came across a reasonable and non-Chinese manufactured tent that was suitable enough to use for the remainder of our trip.

Most of the time we ate injera – a large, slightly sour pancake made from tef (a native grain) which was topped with a variety of different dishes. Parts of the pancakes were ripped off by all those round the table at the time and used to pick up the various dishes. We had heard that Ethiopians were not willing to eat alone and this seemed to be true, everyone seemed happy to share. Because of the Orthodoxy’s strict adherence to a fifty five day fast for Lent there was little meat available but the wide variety of vegetable dishes were delicious. It was a welcome break from the fu’ul of Sudan.

On our last day the street urchins invited us to an Arabia –something like an opium den but designed for the consumption of t’chat. A small series of rooms containing squat tables, beds and cushions divided by curtains. As we watched a rural woman with tattooed face performed the coffee ceremony for us, making the surrounding bizarre environment drift away. She laid grass from the river bed on the ground and arranged a series of strange wood and mud vessels and implements. She roasted the coffee beans and as they smoked wafted the scent about the room then ground them with a clumsy wooden mortar and pestle. The pot from which she poured was lifted high in an act of high drama and accuracy, like a knife thrower, aerating it and producing the mandatory three cups each of the best coffee either of us had ever tasted. Our taste buds were thankful for the relief from the acrid t’chat. After a few hours the t’chat and coffee had taken effect and there was no chance that we would be able to sleep so we went out for a few final beers with the street urchins. We got back to our hotel at five in the morning and left on the bus for Debark at six.


Debark
10/03/08
Without sleep and with a heavy box of food for a planned ten day trek through the Simien Mountains to the summit of Ras Dejen (the highest mountain in Ethiopia) we completed the three hour endurance bus ride from Gondar to Debark. We made our way to the Simien Mountains National Park office to organise our hike. Gurning with concentration, straining to comprehend the prices quoted to us, using all our mental will power we arranged our English speaking guide, compulsory armed scout, two mules and a mule man (which mysteriously became two mule men), cooking equipment and sleeping bag hire and park entrance fee. The first impression we made on Deejain, can’t have been great as we were dazed and confused, falling asleep into our lunches. We slept early to wake early the next day and begin the trek.


Simien Mountains
11/03/08 – 18/03/08
We rose before the sun, the air thick with thyme and stars following the same mountain pass as the priests and pastoralists in medieval dress, across a sheer meadowland of frozen streams and bleeding hearts baboons to Ras Dejen – Ethiopia’s highest peak at around 4550m. This was our fifth day of an eight day trek and our slightly weary legs revelled in the cool start to the day. At the summit a couple of hours after dawn our achievement was put into perspective as we were followed up by shepherd boys in broken wellies who played a washint, (a wooden flute) its dissonant, lyrical, syncopated sound caught in the bluster suited the forbidding repetitions in the volcanic ranges spread out before for miles like a ruffled cape.



During the five days we had previously walked we had seen some of the most dramatic volcanic landscapes on Earth with sheer abysses, and towering rock formations and its rare animals and otherworldly flora (in particular the giant lobelia, up to six feet in height with a thin trunk topped by a spiky prong of succulent leaves – especially useful as something to grab hold of when having races down the grassy mountain slopes). We had walked through a squat forest of ancient olive and Ecicaboria trees, bent double with lichens, through a grassy clearing smelling of wild roses, where about thirty Gelada baboons dug for roots. Our presence did not bother them as the locals, as Orthodox Christians, were forbidden from eating primates so had not predated them for centuries. Also, as white folk we did not pose the threat of throwing rocks at the monkeys to scare them off our crops, because like everyone else in Africa knows, white men do not do hard work.

The opportunity to sit amongst the Gelada as they beat the ground rhythmically, glancing at us occasionally, their faces full of personifiable expression with their eyebrows raised and their eyes wide as if to say ‘what on Earth do you think you are doing?’ was astonishing. The alpha males were clearly defined, festooned with poodle rock hair styles and hugely impressive mutton chops. They continued with what sounded like a complex and irresolvable debate of lilting whines after they were fairly sure we were not a threat.



The Gelada, like most of the park’s flora and fauna are now protected and the penalties for discrepancy are severe for the locals. Laws have been created which mean locals are now unable to use any wood from the park other than specially planted Eucalyptus because the trees are protected. In order to avoid confusion this also includes dead wood. Quite what the fast-growing, soil-degrading Eucalyptus plantations impact is going to be in the long term had not been answered, but joint projects with the Austrian government were developing the use of fuel efficient stoves to use significantly less wood as well as reducing indoor air pollution and its associated maladies. Now, many of the locals, rather than walk the often huge distance involved, prefer to scour the landscape for animal waste. As there were no bandits, our mandatory armed guard seemed to have the task of policing these laws with his 1964 hammer and sickle stamped rifle.

The Walia ibex were more secretive than their baboon counterparts because during the fifteen years of civil war which plagued the region the soldiers resorted to eating them. Watching the adolescent males practise knocking horns together was an impressive sight but there are only 400-500 individuals remaining. As they fought they were surrounded by the Gelada who act as lookouts for them. We were also lucky enough to see klipspringers (diminutive deer), many Verreaux’s eagles, vultures, lammergeyer, kestrels, falcons and ravens (the spine-chilling sound of the thick-billed raven ever present where we slept) and most luckily of all, the Ethiopian wolf: sub-Sahara’s only wolf. Only 550 individuals remain making it the world’s rarest canid.



One viewpoint we had stopped at, near to the track that ran through the park, looked over a sheer drop where down below we were able to spot ibex. The outstanding beauty of the area was contrasted sharply though when its recent history was revealed. During the Derg era (the Communist regime led by Mengistu who overthrew Haile Selassie in 1974 and ruled until 1991) dissidents were thrown from the viewpoint down the sheer cliff without any semblance of a fair hearing in a time when human life was cheap, it gave the place a disturbing edge.

For the 60,000 people living in the park it was a hard life of chasing cattle up and down the steep paths. The best many could hope for was to become like our scout, Mmbabo, who we were paying 40Birr a day ($4) the official rate as dictated by the national park office who keep a list of scouts, called upon when a group from the park’s 10,000 a year visitors required their services. To put things into perspective, to hire the kerosene stove and a few cooking utensils cost the same per day, and the mule men cost the same as the mules.



On one particular day we were allowed an insight into the lives of the people in the park having been invited to a coffee ceremony at Geech village near to a campsite we stayed at. The fifteen year old girl who had invited us took us into a large circular hut with a high ceiling and enough room for the family’s animals to stay inside at night. It was dark and stained black with soot from the open wood fire that was being used for cooking. In the home was the young girl along with her father, who was keen on the idea of her going to Sudan to make her fortune. There was real beauty in the movement of her hands as she prepared the coffee in the way she had seen her mother do and had repeated some many times that she no longer needed to consider her physical actions, rather she was able to focus upon the ceremonial significance of the act, her hands performing a soft, smooth waltz. In this environment as in much of our time spent in the park, a sense of disruption in time was palpable. Days seemed minutes long and hours lasted for hours and all in what could have been anywhere between the middle ages and the present.



Another interesting aspect of the people in this area was revealed to us as we walked with our guide who told us how the area was once a homeland of a Jewish race, most of whom now reside in Israel. The Beta Israel as they are known claim to be from the tribes of Judah and Levi and to be direct descendants of Moses. During the eighties it was established using DNA testing the Beta Israel’s claim to Judaism was legitimate and were welcomed to reside in Israel. Most of the population took up the offer due to their religious isolation and prejudices they faced in Ethiopia. Israel set up Project Solomon and Moses which brought them to Israel where the majority now work menial jobs and live as second class citizens.

After eight days of trekking we were glad to get back to Debark and a decent wash but we were left with a lasting impression and memories of a fascinating and dramatic environment. Comprehending the ways in which the people eke out a simple existence in such a harsh environment is not easy but their physical and mental adaptation was clear to see in more ways than the sight of them striding past us at 4000m or higher as if they had an important appointment to keep.




Bahir Dar
20/03/08
After a night back in Gondar, we took a minibus to Bahir Dar with one of the street urchins, Kibrit (or Pappi as he like to be called) who lived there, buying his ticket for him to return to his family. We may have been gullible to believe that he could not afford the ticket ($3) but we had built up a bit of a rapport with him and trusted him just about as far as Stuart could throw him.

Bahir Dar, once considered by Haile Selassie as an alternate capital for Ethiopia sits on the banks of Lake Tana, the source of the Blue Nile. The lake is dotted with islands containing holy monasteries but Bahir Dar did have something of the Blackpool about it.



We took a motorboat out to one of the islands where we visited a truly strange church. Circular in design with the pointed roof of a mosque’s minaret, it was adorned with hundreds of small hand-made bells and two large stones hung from a frame that resonated with ominous thick notes. Inside a priest dressed in a complex shawl and hat of racing green showed us his treasures proudly. Sat on the stone floor he held a book up to us. He claimed it was nine hundred years old, written in Ge’ez, the precursor to Amharic, now only spoken by the clergy. Inside its dark animal hide covering were colourful, naïve paintings of Saint George, the Angel Gabriel and others we did not recognize. Their anatomies were highly stylized and vivid making up scenes of such fire and brimstone they were very effective at putting the fear of God into one. As we had eaten breakfast, and had hence broken our fast, we were not permitted to enter the church’s inner sanctum as the priest was concerned that its powers would make us ill. He would not say what was in there. He was the consummate ring master.



In the evening we sat in our hotel bar with a beer pondering the past few days. A priest with a huge, intricate silver cross that a rapper would be proud of, had been staring at us silently for the past forty minutes, while nursing his beer, as if we might spontaneously combust. He ordered one of the waitresses to bring us a plate of warmed, slated grains and grinned indulgently. Everything here is different enough to make one question one’s mental state.

22/03/08
We visited an arabia of a different class: small rooms covered in cushions, shoes off at the door, each room with its own sound system and a buzzer to alert the staff if your every whim was not being catered for. We made our way through t’chat, peanuts, freshly roasted coffee and apple flavoured shishas. They were all brought to us by Heywot, an Oromo woman. The Oromos, who occupy the south of the country, make up the majority of the Ethiopian population and we have heard many conflicting stories about them mostly unflattering from Northerners. Heywot sat on her haunches and deftly prepared the coffee and shishas as if it were an art form. Her certainty and grace left the room with an overriding sense of peacefulness that was very powerful.

About forty minutes bus ride outside Bahir Dar, we entered a small village by the Blue Nile Falls, or Tis Issat ‘waters that smokes’. It was market day and an endless stream of people travelled along the track towards us in quiet concentration, carrying grains, drinks and earthenware pots, vegetables and babies in papooses. Seeing a family unit trek along barefoot it was easy to romanticise about the kind of wordless conversation that they were carrying with them from their thatched hut to the market and back again. We passed them as we crossed the Portuguese Bridge with a procession of donkeys, sheep and goats clacking their hooves on the cobbles. In the image now seared on our memories there was nothing from the modern day, as the bridge’s low wall hid their plastic shoes, they could have walked straight out of the past. The falls themselves were impressive, although these days a large part of the water is diverted to a hydroelectric power station. The use of the Nile, although peaceful on the surface, seems to have underlying tension to it for some Ethiopians, particularly when referring to Egyptians.




Bahir Dar – Lalibela
25/03/08
At 5.00am (Western time) we found a government land cruiser that could take us to Lalibela in half the time rather than the whole day required for the bus ride. As the price was negotiated we heard Kibrit’s name repeated and we were finally given a very reasonable price, he was there in spirit clearly. The vehicle was driven by a playboy working for a man installing drinking water distribution facilities in Lalibela. Water is a real issue and was in fact only available for one day a week. It seemed strange at first to hear this Ethiopian driver talking so intently about the importance of water conservation but it was certainly refreshing to hear. The water problem was of course exacerbated by the influx of tourists who consume much more water than local people, with flushing toilets and showers, a guilt we could of course not separate ourselves from.

The man and two women we shared the vehicle with were full of life, sharing their grains with us and gabbing away. After driving for a few hours we came to a steep sided valley and the road heaved with people in white robes. As the car came to a standstill the women became hysterical as it was clear what they had feared had already happened. The driver instructed us to shut the car doors as they left and drove off rapidly. Apparently the man’s father had died the previous night and they had just returned to find out. It was an unsettling scene as the women shrieked and beat the ground, the valley echoing with the word ‘Xavier’ or ‘God willing’.

Upon arrival in Lalibela nine hours to the south-east of Bahir Dar we updated ourselves on world affairs with Aljazeera TV watching the news of Somalia, Kenya and Zimbabwe with trepidation.

26/03/08
Lalibela was originally constructed as a New Jerusalem when the Muslims conquered the old. At the time of building they did not have the technology to build upwards as high as they wanted so they dug down, creating churches hewn from a single rock in the ground.



The churches were made up of mazes of tunnels leading to dark churches from which came the sound of the strange Ge’ez chants. Their history seems pretty hazy but most sources agree that they were completed in the fourteenth century, how many hundreds of years before this they were started who knows. The priests, trainee priests and monks ranging from early teenagers to blind old men sat together with the bibles reading inside and around the churches of Betes Amauel, Medhane Alem, Maryam and Golgotha. Although there were a few Ethiopians there receiving blessings, the majority of the traffic was foreign tourists. They took pictures of the remains of pilgrims left in a hole in the wall, their legs covered in dried flesh and their brittle toenails exposed. However, in the face of the flash photography the priests retained a stalwart, unblinking sense of dignity that was inspirational.



Outside we met Gareth and Helen, Londoners from New Zealand who were travelling all over the place on motorbikes. We last saw them on the way back from Ras Dejen. We sat in a café and discussed issues of revelation over macchiattos (very milky, sweet coffees) and agreed that although awe-inspiring and atmospheric the place was not conducive to religious experience. Although the place reverberated with the sound of the priests and their pupils chanting ancient chants, it was cut through by the nasal twang of an American asking where the ‘goddamn’ toilet was.


Lalibela – Addis Ababa
27/03/08 – 28/03/08
We paid a bit extra to reserve the better seats on the bus requiring a young man to hold them for us when the bus opened before four in the morning, they are still quite a way away from a computerised ticketing system. We left at six on a Mercedes bus considerably older than either of us, adorned with so much Christian tat the unsaid message was that God’s help would be required for the journey, scheduled to be two days.

Four hours down the road the bus would not enter second gear. With the use of a huge metal spike and a great deal of jiggling the problem was solved, until another two further hours down the road and in deepest darkest Hicksville when the problem seemed more severe. A crowd amassed around us as we read by the roadside giving us the same distance one might to a slow moving but potentially dangerous creature. They whispered gently to one another, a murmur of ‘what is name’ came across them like a cloud as they looked towards us with stony glares. Finally a small boy could not contain himself and was the point of release for the whole gathering. ‘What is name’ he said. Those children who giggled in the silence were brought quickly into line, this was a clearly an important moment. They were flabbergasted at our respective responses but seemed to be reassured that we actually had names and the children invited us to play football with them on the road with a ball of tied together rags.

Next on the agenda was a puncture which was quickly fixed and we arrived in a small town where we ate strange food and slept in the second hotel we came to. The first was one we were taken to on the recommendation of one of our fellow passengers who was well dressed, well-spoken and accompanied by his wife so we assumed we might be taken somewhere beyond our budget. The place though turned out to be a brothel with only double beds, covered in pink silk effect sheets harbouring God knows what.

The next morning at slightly before 5.00am after a Biblical entry into the bus station, with the crowd in white robes parting before us like the Red Sea, we parked our bruised selves on the same seats. At 5:00am the sea poured into the bus station to find their own seats on buses. As the sun rose over the mountains, down the sheer drop the bus veered towards every so often the cockerels onboard crowed above the tinny Ethiopian pop and the thunder of the engine.

The road seemed to be tarmaced in random straights, much of it under construction by groups of Ethiopians led by mysterious Chinese men in dark glasses and using Chinese machinery. A theme which we have seen running throughout Africa so far and is perhaps still of dubious benefit to Africans. After twenty seven hours on the bus and a couple more minor problems we arrived in an overcast Addis Ababa – ‘New Flower’ in Amharic. The bus driver and his mechanics / conductors shook our hands heartily as we left, having shared a successful ordeal with them.

Taking Practical Action in Sudan

In the western world 'energy efficiency' is a buzz term. Companies and environmentalists use it to refer to practices which will, in the long-term, help to prevent dangerous climate change and make good economic sense. In Darfur energy efficiency is a matter of survival.

Practical Action (PA) is a charity based in the UK, founded by E.F.Schumacher author of 'Small is Beautiful'. The approach PA takes is one of long term sustainability, which is often lacking in other NGO’s. It is particularly focused on technology's role in the alleviation of poverty, rather than its consequences. We spoke with the Country Director, Mohamed Majzoub Fidiel in Khartoum and with the staff at the Eastern Sudan office in Kassala, in order to better understand the work PA does and the environmental challenges Sudan faces.

PA has been working for twenty years in North Darfur where wood is the only viable source of fuel for cooking. With the ongoing conflicts women who collect wood are extremely vulnerable to attacks by militias which can result in beatings, rape, mutilation and murder. It is important therefore to minimise the amount of time they are required to collect wood. Energy efficiency is therefore crucial for Darfurian women. With specialist local knowledge PA have developed a cooking stove made with local clay which is extremely energy efficient and can be moulded into individual pots. PA have then trained local people to teach others the relatively simple process of creating these stoves. Through their village networks this knowledge has spread through the region.

The benefit of these stoves in Darfur is very specific as due to the war, people may be forced to leave their homes. The ability to create new cooking equipment from local materials is therefore invaluable. Other charities in the area are trying to promote mass produced efficient stoves which are proving successful under other conditions. However, in Darfur they are inappropriate for the situation because they are expensive and significantly less efficient. The local knowledge that PA utilises is vitally important as in these situations a 'one size fits all' approach is not the most effective. In Darfur PA is also helping by encouraging tree planting of native species and fruit trees providing shelter, food, fuel and potential income.

PA’s work is about more than just survival, it is about development. PA is making markets work for people in Darfur by improving their ability to sell their crops on the domestic and international market. Case in point is hibiscus, which is estimated currently at only 19% of its optimum productivity. By providing a very simple technological tool from Thailand: essentially a small metal pipe, the harvesting process is improved. This improvement allows the farmers to increase the quality of their crop and as a result its market value is increased by 30%. Darfurian farmers have modified the tool to make it more efficient in their environment and are now sharing this knowledge with one another with PA's help

Climate change is a reality in Darfur, the question of whether or not the finger can be pointed at man made emissions for its cause is an impossible and slightly irrelevant one, but the necessity for adaptation to a changing climate is unquestionable. PA is helping local people to better utilise the natural resources available to them. In Darfur PA are focusing upon water, the drought being a contributing factor to the ongoing conflict. The ability given to people by PA to manage their resources properly means they can be sustained long-term.

PA stresses the most important part of its work is capacity building inside villages and creating networks of villages, as well as empowering women by training them in management skills which can therefore allow them an income. This in turn reduces their vulnerability and means in many cases they no longer need the direct support of PA who can rarely travel to the area due to recent attacks upon their staff. Evidence of this includes the fact that villages have been fundraising for themselves, raising over $1 million for their schools.

Through discussions of Sudan's general environmental situation it became apparent how vulnerable the population is to the effects of the climate, most evidently in the form of drought or floods. There is anecdotal evidence that deforestation has also had a major effect in Sudan, resulting in changing rainfall patterns. It seems people are far more aware of the changes in their environment because of their immediate reliance upon it. It directly provides them with food, shelter and fuel.

There is a history of poor environmental management in Sudan which has caused significant problems. Just forty years ago the area near the border with Ethiopia was considered extremely agriculturally rich and it is now semi-desert. In the late 80's there was a significant drought in Sudan so the government decided to plant misquite trees to prevent desertification. While it succeeded in achieving this goal the misquite tree is an alien species that grows extremely rapidly and severely impairs the ability of other plants to grow. Because of the very deep nature of the roots it is also extremely hard to remove. Massive clearance programmes are being undertaken and people are having to adapt to use these trees for charcoal even though it is far poorer quality than traditional wood used. The legacy of these decisions taken decades ago with the best of intentions is causing significant hardship for people today.

All over Sudan people are vulnerable, partly due to conflicts affecting the west, east and south of the country but also largely due to poor environmental management and a changing climate. The work PA is doing in all these areas is vitally important and their utilisation of local knowledge and long-term thinking means their programmes are achieving great success.

For more information on Practical Actions work in Sudan please go to: http://www.practicalaction.org/?id=region_sudan

The Trouble with Sudan

Our purpose

The land where Arabic Africa ends and Black Africa begins, where the Sahara ends and the Blue and White Niles converge has a long history of conflict, continuing into the present.

In the north, Sudan bickers with Egypt over borders. In the west the France-sized region of Darfur is in a state of collapse, exacerbating tensions with neighbouring Chad. The southern region continues to bid for independence after signing a peace agreement dampening the fires of two civil wars lasting a total of thirty nine years. Rebel groups are gaining strength in the east. In the deep south the Ugandan Lord’s Resistance Army continue to pose a real threat.

After spending a month travelling the length of a country the size of Europe by public transport we are in a position to better understand the political state of the country with the luxury of objectivity. Before arriving our knowledge of Sudan was of the conflict in Darfur and the U.S.’s catergorisation of the country as a rogue state. Speaking to people and seeing how they live painted a far more complex picture, although the constant threat of police intervention precluded free dialogue in many instances. Therefore this has been pieced together from half-finished, half-heard half-truths.

Because the different perspectives on Sudan’s strife are so disparate and complex we can only recount what we saw, heard and read as generalisations. However, we will endeavour to relay them as impartially as possible.


Two hundred and forty three peoples and many perspectives

The Northern perspective is one of Sudan as a Muslim country under sharia law plagued by infidel insurgents in the east, south and west.



The Southern and Nuba Mountains’ perspective is that it is a very different country with very different ideals, rich in resources which the North plunders without the due recompense of improving the infrastructure required to allow them to live within the parameters of their basic human rights.

The Darfurian perspective is that the North is not providing them with what they require to survive, let alone progress.

The Khartoum Press perspective was surprisingly freely voiced. An editorial in one paper described in detail the meddling of China into the Darfur region. A rival paper did however describe how the extent of Sudan’s problems were greatly inflated by the Western media. When we spoke to an individual in the Nuba Mountains about the upcoming referendum where the region will be able to vote for independence, he spoke of the Khartoum based radio propaganda which fills the airwaves. The Sudanese television channels were state controlled and generally featured Arabs in an idyllic country setting discussing how fantastically well Sudan was doing.

The Sudanese People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) in conjunction with the Sudanese People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) have the perspective that after the peace treaty with the Khartoum based government – the National Congress Party (NCP), to end the civil war was signed they failed to fulfill their promises of an improved infrastructure in the area. Although the area is providing the North with most of its resources and therefore capital, it continues to drag its heels with regards to investment. The SPLM describes the problem as follows,

…the Sudanese state is essentially an alien political system with a institutional framework that excludes the vast majority of its citizens. The African Sudanese have been excluded from the centre of state power since 1956 while they constitute 69% of the population! How can there be peace? And after the 1989 NIF coup the system further excluded non-fundamentalist moslems, while women have always been excluded at all times. We call this political dispensation the "Old Sudan" based on religion (Islam) and race (Arabism). Some analysts have described the problem of Sudan as "Double Apartheid" or racial and religious apartheid. http://splmtoday.com/

The NGO perspective is that their help is sorely needed but their efforts are regularly thwarted by the National Congress. The UN peacekeeping force of 2006 deployed in an attempt to calm the situation in Darfur was described by the government as ‘foreign invaders’. When collating figures for the death-toll in Darfur the NGOs estimated between 200,000 and 400,000, the UN estimated 200,000 and the National Congress estimated 9000.

The Western media’s perspective, upon which we based our preconceptions, seems to be one of Darfur as the focus of Sudan’s problems and for it to be one of absolute hopelessness, so far down the road to oblivion it is no longer worth the heart-break.


The cradle of conflict

Strategically Sudan has been dealt a bad hand. It nestles amongst warring and unstable nations on all sides. Its main conflicts are with Uganda and Chad. However conflict between Eritrea and Ethiopia is causing many people of the Beja tribe to cross the border into Sudan in Kassala where there are huge refugee camps.


Below is an approximate map of the conflicting regions in Sudan




A history of violence

Colonial rule by the British orginally administered the countries as two regions, the Arab North and the Black African South in order to slow the progress of Islam southwards and malaria which was threatening British troops, northwards. After pressure from the North to unite the two regions the Britsh agreed, placing them in charge in 1946. This inevitably led to an exploitation of the South – a wound which runs sore today. After colonial rule ended the country remained with the same administrative structure the British had left it with.

The ‘religious apartheid’ the SPLM refers to is a particular problem as much of the south is Christian due to the work of British missionaries during Colonial rule. This causes conflict with the Muslim South which controlled the entire country under sharia law. It is estimated that Sudan is made up of over two hundred tribes with distinct cultural heritages and practices which are severely impinged upon by strict governmental controls. This also causes problems for many of those in the south who follow animist religions. A long history of slavery is something which the Southerners find hard to forget. It is not that long since the Northerners were systematically snatching young men and women from southern villages.

The first Sudanese civil war (1955-1972), the Anyanya rebellion, ended with the signing of a peace agreement in Addis Ababa costing 500,000 lives. After the then president, Nimeiri, broke the Addis agreement war began again in 1983 and did not end until the death of 1,900,000 people and the displacement of 4,000,000 in 2005.


An uncivil war

The peace agreement which ended Sudan’s second civil war was signed in 2005. It dictated that in 2011 the people of Southern Sudan would be afforded the opportunity to vote on whether or not they want to split from the North and become and autonomous region.

Those we spoke to in the South lived in anticipation of the day when they could make this decision but there was a great deal of trepidation. They feared a repeat of Kenya’s recent polling conflicts. They feared that the vote will be rigged, that they would be terrorised, they feared a lack of democracy and they prayed the West will support them by overseeing the proceedings.




Relations remain strained

A contentious point for Southerners is education. As their children are not being educated to a high enough standard there is fear that there will be yet another generation of people unaware of their rights and therefore unwilling to demand them. This lack of education is a concern for the referendum in which the South will be able to make its bid for independence. If people are not educated they will not be able to make a considered decision with an awareness of the North’s techniques to make a united Sudan sound more appealing. Many believe that Arabic is used as a controlling tool. Despite the presence of a few token Southerners in the parliament, the language is Arabic, while the main administrative language is English in the South. This is also the case in the country’s universities. We spoke to a man who was studying theology. One day a government decree dictated that the following day all lectures and writing would be in Arabic, which he did not know.

There is also concern that Khartoum’s focus upon Darfur may be seen by southern and eastern rebels as a point of weakness and may result in a dramatic increase in hostilities. Many Northerners believe too many concessions have been made to the SPLA and many Southerners have never trusted the South to fulfill its promises. There are signs that new fronts in the North / South conflicts are opening up in the Nuba Mountains, Southern Blue Nile and the East. ‘Sudan’s Dual Crisis: refocusing on IGAD’ www.crisisgroup.org

The Sudan we saw

Upon the SPLA controlled Nuba Mountains it felt very much like another country. The area patrolled by a different army, a different flag flew from the governmental buildings and people danced, sang and drank. The soldiers we travelled in a lorry with spoke of their hatred for the war. Many had lost family and livelihood to the conflict yet there was still a strong sense of a want for a united Sudan. ‘We are the same people’ was a repeated theme. Many wanted semi-autonomy in order for the plunder of their natural resources to be abated. They believed their land was rich and they should therefore get a bite of the pie. The north could provide the south with the infrastructure they required, and the south could provide the resources the north required.


Darfur’s dark horizon

The conflict in Darfur began in 2003 but tensions had been increasing long before that. The region is suffering from overpopulation and decades of drought and desertification.

The conflict has arisen mainly between tribal groups with one side being composed of the Sudanese army and the Janjaweed, a militia taken from the Arab Baggara tribes of the Northern Rizeigat. The other side composes various rebel groups including the Sudan Liberation Movement and the justice and equality movement composed of the non-Arab Fur, Zaghawa and Massaleit ethnic groups. The lines are not clearly defined though and there is much infighting among rogue militias out to assert their power without any particular ideology.

The independent advisory body Crisis Group in their 2006 report described the Sudanese government as bearing ‘primary responsibility for the deteriorating situation’ ’To Save Darfur’ www.crisisgroup.org as they unofficially continue a policy of ‘supporting the well-armed Chadian rebels in Western Darfur.’ As the peace keeping troops on the ground are comprised of an ill-equipped African Union force of 7,000 troops there is a desperate need for international involvement. Suggestions as such have been met by Khartoum with threats of Darfur becoming a ‘graveyard’ for multinational forces and that their involvement would be tantamount to an act of colonialism.

A second independent report (2007) describes Khartoum’s purpose in scuppering peace in Darfur as follows:

The NCP [National Congress Party] wants Darfur in chaos to limit the room for an opposition to emerge, while resettling key allies on cleared land and defying Security Council resolutions by integrating its Janjaweed irregulars into official security structures… ’Darfur’s new Security Reality’ www.crisisgroup.org

Tensions have been raised because of the drought forcing the Northern Arab tribes further south to search for water encroaching onto southern land. These tensions escalated into violence that is now being called genocide or ‘acts of genocide’ by members of the international community including George W. Bush.

Calls from the International Criminal Court (ICC) to bring two leading figures in the atrocities in Darfur identified as Janjaweed commander Ali Kushayb and State Minister for Interior, Ahmed Harum are meeting vitriolic defiance. Khartoum responded to the calls with the threat that it would,

cut the throat of any international official…who tries to jail a Sudanese official in order to present him
to the international justice. ’Future of the World Court in Balance’ YaleGlobal

This is of great concern internationally as it is seen as a test case for many more similar cases in the future. Khartoum claims that it can try these war criminals itself, with out international assistance yet it continues to bomb areas where peace talks are planned. There are calls for the international community to back the ICC, forcefully with the use of sanctions if necessary. This is not happening and will result in the ICC becoming an impotent talk shop.

China’s involvement in Sudan is a particular concern. As we saw throughout Sudan there are Chinese constructions and firms everywhere and the influence is extending into Darfur. The Chinese supply the government with arms and then turn a blind eye to Darfur, partially as there are rich uranium resources which they hope to exploit in Darfur.

However, there are signs that China’s approach to the Darfur problem are changing for the better. Chinese President Hu Jintao is said to be pressuring Sudanese President Bashir to accept the UN’s plans for the installation of support in the region.

It is perhaps possible to draw some parallels between the situation in Darfur and that in the south of Sudan. Both are calling out for equality and have been forced into the position of calling up arms and asking for it forcefully. Perhaps the fundamental difference and the reason that the Darfur conflict’s future is so much bleaker is that the region does not have oil. The south’s bargaining chip of black gold has perhaps saved many of its people’s lives. Darfur has come to the table relatively empty handed.


The most generous of peoples

Although Sudan’s lot seems almost hopeless and it seems damned to a future of conflict, its people remain optimistic. It is this optimism and defiance towards Sudan spiralling into the abyss which leaves one with a glimmer of hope. The further troubles associated with a future in which there will be further pressures on the country due to climate change will undoubtedly test the resolve of the Sudanese as well as the international committee to assist them into a state of democracy in which its citizens are able to live in accordance with their human rights. There was consensus amongst the people we met that Sudan’s politics had a rotten core. They were desperate to relay to us that this should not reflect the Sudanese people. They wanted us to know and tell those we knew that despite its problems and as a result of its wonderful people Sudan is both beautiful and life affirming. All the majority of the Sudanese people want is the opportunity to be treated with the dignity and respect they showed us as we passed through their country.