The Darwish Ritual

Or this is what I understood it is called..... please correct me if I'm wrong.....

So, Friday late afternoon, after my tour of downtown Khartoum, the Country Manager - a sweet Croatian man - decided to give me more of the Sudanese Cultural dose and took me to a ritual, performed by a certain group of Muslims every Friday just before sunset, in front of a certain Mosque, which is said to be built in the Sudanese style.

So at about 6.00pm we headed off to Omdurman (sorry for the spelling) a part of Khartoum on the West of Nile (as far as my sense of direction told me).

We got to this beautiful Mosque where loads of people were hanging out, playing music, making tea and coffee and having little picnics....

the beautiful Mosque and the crowd entertaining themselves

My first shock was the location..... the Mosque was built in the middle of a massive cemetery!!! The cemetery was the likes of one I had never seen before...... there were no slabs, not traditional little houses where the Muslims usually bury their families...... the cemetery was full of bumps which you would assume were where the bodies were buried, and at the head/foot of these bumps was a piece of stick, with a piece of metal rectangular sheet maybe 50cms by 25cms and an Arabic script on it which I would assume would be the name of the person and other details.... I did not have the heart to take any pictures of this, as it was pretty heart wrenching........ the worst of all was that the people were actually driving over these buried bodies and having
picnics!!!!!! how??

Anyhow, all of a sudden, at a point in time, the crowd started gathering into a big circle which kept on getting bigger and bigger..... some chanting in Arabic started, first slow then it started building rhythm faster and faster. I couldn't understand the chanting as it was in Arabic, but I know it had the word Allah in it. So the rhythm got faster and the people forming the circle started 'dancing to this rhythm' I don't know how to describe it, but they were basically bending up and down - their back at 90 degrees and at the same time moving their arms in and out. (I have not arrived to the point of learning how to upload videos... cause if I did I would have uploaded a little video I took)

the crowd starting their chanting

one of the leaders

These people were being led by other men, who walked around the inner part of the circle and determined the speed of the rhythm, shouting out the words for the crowd to repeat. It was a great sensation.... the crowd was one - it was amazing to be in the midst of it....

one of the spinner, who seems to be in a trans.... don't ask me why he is wearing the funny clothes, I've got no idea!!

But this is not all... the most amazing of it were the people in the middle of the circle...... In the middle of the circle were a handful of people, who were spinning round and round. Sometimes they were spinning on one foot with their hand in the air, another time on both feet and the spinning got faster, another time they just ran around the circle - WOW!!!!

spinning on one leg

another spinner

It is apparently their belief that the spinning gets you closer to God, you reach a certain Euphoria and oneness with God - If I had to do the amount of spinning they did I'd have fallen flat on the floor with dizziness in a matter of 5mins, but these people went on and on for at least 30mins to an hour!!!!!

another randomer.... I was told that some of them even hit themselves still they bleed while spinning!!

I was in awe, it was pretty impressive - the crowd was chanting and the handful of people spinning and spinning in the middle.

All of a sudden the sun went down, the prayer caller chanted his 7.00pm 'Allah u Akbar, Allah u Akbar....' on the mosque loud speaker, and the crowd.... somehow like zombies headed uniformly to the direction of the mosque for their evening prayer.

This sort of ritual is apparently done in other Muslim countries...... I was told most especially in Turkey, however more organised than this..... but this was great, it was spontaneous and somehow kind of spiritual once you feel the energy in the crowd........

A nice pizza and ice-cream and a lovely chat with the Country Manager ended the day - by the way, Sudan has amazing ice-cream - the best when compared to the rest of the African Countries I've been to - pretty good considering it is a very hot, embargo Country!!!!

Ahh another awesome thing about Sudan are the tuk-tuks - or what the Sudanese call Racksha - the first time I saw these things was in Sri Lanka.... I always thought they were some East Asian thing... so I was pretty surprised to see them here too - they are like mini taxis... however used only within the specific area and cannot move from one area in Khartoum to another - unlike Sri Lanka where they are allowed to move all over Colombo!!!!

Tuk-Tuk

I also got to ride one of them, these are usually run by Ethiopians or Eritreans.... mine was handled by an Eritrean.... so I also got to enjoy an interesting conversation regarding the relations between Eritrea and Ethiopia and Sudan on the ride home.....

As soon as I get the photos sorted.... I'll tell you all about my Saturday trip to the Sudanese Pyramids!!!