Here are some anecdotes, as lived or heard of during our time in Sudan
Security encounter
It's 45°C in the shadow, we have cycled some 70km with headwinds and are entering a town when the security officer in his air-conditioned 4X4 drives besides us and without saying a word arrogantly waves us down (that's when you know he is security! NO normal Sudanese would do that!). We stop and he asks us where we come from, where we go, wants to see our passports and then says this sentence, pointing at Chantal, that makes me explode: "What is this?"
Security encounter
It's 45°C in the shadow, we have cycled some 70km with headwinds and are entering a town when the security officer in his air-conditioned 4X4 drives besides us and without saying a word arrogantly waves us down (that's when you know he is security! NO normal Sudanese would do that!). We stop and he asks us where we come from, where we go, wants to see our passports and then says this sentence, pointing at Chantal, that makes me explode: "What is this?"
My answer is harsh: "What do you mean what-is-this?"
"Sister? Wife?"
"Of course she is my wife! What do you think? Why do ALL Sudanese ALWAYS have to ask this ?"
I feel I have gone too far! But apparently he does feel the same for his behavior. He just puts up an apologizing face and only says: "Welcome to Sudan!" And we don't need to show our passports! So we enter the town.
On another occasion we were told that Al Bashir had made a public statement on TV saying he was ready for any critics as soon as by the end of January. So a professor asked in a newspaper where he had his 3 villas from. 2 days later the professor was arrested by security and held for at least 20 days in detention without charge. The newspaper didn't appear for 20 days. The warrant was signed by Al Bashir himself! All this for asking about 3 villas!
Corruption is nearly openly shown. At a police checkpoint we were stopped and questioned on our wherefrom and whereto. While discussing with the police officer on one side of the car, another car stopped (policemen don't get out of their car, you have to go to them!), a man got out and handed something that looked like a booklet to the police officer on the other side of the car. There clearly was a bank note in that booklet which was not there when the booklet came out again...
On another occasion a police officer made sure we left before he served his "next client".
When leaving Sinnar we stopped at a local supermarket and the vendor spoke quite well English. He told us 2 astonishing things:
- "I want to go to Britain. In Sudan there is no innovation!"
- "People here just get up, eat and then go to bed again." meaning they don't have any ambitions to change things.
Are the people responsible for this? or the system? or both? or do they like the way it is...? Does everyone want a change? if yes, which way? how? by which means? (Yann, stop it!)
But things are also changing. In Al Qadarif near the Ethiopian border the governor apparently moved out of his huge governor building into a smaller house and donated the building to the local hospital . When questioned about his move by the central government he apparently said that he didn't need such a big house and was happy to stay in a smaller one. What a brave sign to all those people who think government officials are only scum!
The same city forbid plastic bags on its territory 4 years ago!!! In Al Qadarif there are no plastic bags given to you when you shop. You can buy one (which you will surely not throw away as long as it lasts) or you get a paper bag for free, but not a plastic bag! Not to say that there is no garbage in the street, but it's definitely cleaner!
On the rare occasions we met women privately, we had animated discussions (although limited by language barriers that we tried to bridge with internet translations!) about if the women of sudan want to change things. It was a difficult question, and the discussion hovered around the topic of gender equality. Women are still in a very weak position and emancipation is not very far advanced. But it also showed that these topics are discussed by women. One other topic was birth control and it seems that Sudanese women are interested in contraceptions and they like to have the opportunity of family planning. A lot of the women we met in Sudan, who could to our benefit also speak English, were very well educated and most of them had a college or an university degree. Unfortunately as one elderly Sudanese man made it clear: after the marriage the women are not supposed to work outside home anymore. University degree or not. Does this sound familiar? Yes, it is not that long ago that it was the same in Europe...
Some male behave very arrogant: a man would throw the cigarette cellophane on the ground in his house. Or would throw the cigarette on the ground and leave it there. Women are supposed to clean! When we later discussed this the other family members would complain about it, but never tell him! You don't tell an elder man that he is doing something you don't like, especially if you are a woman!
We also observed that there are lots of gender misunderstandings circulating. As an expample: if you give a woman chocolate she will want to have sex! (says a man)
Another example: if man and woman shake hands, there are hormones transferred from the woman to the man. Therefore some men don't touch women at all, others don't touch them once they have washed before prayer.
Wouldn't it be great to set up a webpage / discussion forum for men/women in arabic cultures so that they can discuss gender issues on an anonymous basis? Who could help set this up?
On the rare occasions we met women privately, we had animated discussions (although limited by language barriers that we tried to bridge with internet translations!) about if the women of sudan want to change things. It was a difficult question, and the discussion hovered around the topic of gender equality. Women are still in a very weak position and emancipation is not very far advanced. But it also showed that these topics are discussed by women. One other topic was birth control and it seems that Sudanese women are interested in contraceptions and they like to have the opportunity of family planning. A lot of the women we met in Sudan, who could to our benefit also speak English, were very well educated and most of them had a college or an university degree. Unfortunately as one elderly Sudanese man made it clear: after the marriage the women are not supposed to work outside home anymore. University degree or not. Does this sound familiar? Yes, it is not that long ago that it was the same in Europe...
Some male behave very arrogant: a man would throw the cigarette cellophane on the ground in his house. Or would throw the cigarette on the ground and leave it there. Women are supposed to clean! When we later discussed this the other family members would complain about it, but never tell him! You don't tell an elder man that he is doing something you don't like, especially if you are a woman!
We also observed that there are lots of gender misunderstandings circulating. As an expample: if you give a woman chocolate she will want to have sex! (says a man)
Another example: if man and woman shake hands, there are hormones transferred from the woman to the man. Therefore some men don't touch women at all, others don't touch them once they have washed before prayer.
Wouldn't it be great to set up a webpage / discussion forum for men/women in arabic cultures so that they can discuss gender issues on an anonymous basis? Who could help set this up?
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