Gedaref Tayeb Salih

2013-08-29 18:57:00
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Tayeb Salih Tayeb Salih





While I was in Washington, I and Dr. Muhammad Khayr , one of my friends talked about the politics of Educational revolution in Sudan. I criticized my country men for opening a number of universities under the pretence of providing higher education. Even in Gedaref, there is a university! I wrote. I realized from him that Gedaref deserves such an institution . Gedaref is a town in the East of Sudan. It is the home-town of our friend, Dr. Muhammad Khayr. It is renowned for growing sesame seed and –ya sim sim El-Gedaref-sesame of Gedaref is a popular song there. I didn't know Gedaref so I implored him to describe it for me , which he did. I circulated his nice complement of the town in brief with an apology to people of Gedaref as there had been no space to tell every thing.

Originally,Gedaref'S name is derived from a series of sharp and meandering hills that lie to the East side of it's boundary. The other meaning of Gedaref is Gedaroof Saad . This was presumably a Coptic man , who first cultivated guava and other exotic citrus fruits that were imported from the Mediterranean countries to keep with the demand of Sudanese affluent and notables of capital –cities. Gedaref to most Sudanese is , once recognizable as Souk Abu-sin –Abu-sin bazaar. Abu-sin of Shukriya tribe ,our kinship, who resided in East of Sudan but there is an extension of that dynastic stock at Rufaa.

The native people of Gedaref encompassed those who remained from the posterity of soldiers and officers at the garrison established by Muhammad Ali , the viceroy of Egypt to secure Eastern Sudan frontier. Their progenies came out of a contingent of Kurds, Turks, Caucasus, Circasions and Albanians. Gedaref also had genial and peaceful communities from Greece, Cypriot , the grand Maghreb, Abyssinia, Somalia and specimen to countless groups of West Africa.

From this unique mosaic creation in Gedaref crucible, had a risen minarets, crescents, banners and crucifixes hugging each other passionately in a race to the heaven. That sums up the meaning of Gedaref. Gedaref was the cement that held them together.

Deep into the rainy Gedaref night , I hear the sound of thunder interrupted by the rising voice of my father as he recited sura of Quran " Thunder repeats his praises , and so do the angels, with awe" . I also hear the whisper of my mother ' keel ya Michael , bi El-mad El-kabir " in her simple and honest invocation to God and the angel of rain to splash a copious quantity of rain.

The ancient city of Gedaref was a bizarre blend of races. There were Rubatab ,Shayegya , Arab tribes of North Sudan, Danagla, Nubian folk of mixed Arab and African ancestry. One of the most important family branches of ,Shayegya is the dynasty of El-khalifa Taha Awad . He was a fool man , our grandfather but his grandfather's pedigree descended from Jaalin tribe of Northern Sudan . one of his follies is that: his folk of Jaalin at a place called El-fadlab Om El-tiyoor supported his blood brother in a case of an inherited land. As he lost after fussing over the plot of land , " I live among,Shayegya but not among you " he said to his Jaalin relatives.

From this unique mosaic creation in Gedaref crucible, had a risen minarets, crescents, banners and crucifixes hugging each other passionately in a race to the heaven. That sums up the meaning of Gedaref. Gedaref was the cement that held them together.

Deep into the rainy Gedaref night , I hear the sound of thunder interrupted by the rising voice of my father as he recited sura of Quran " Thunder repeats his praises , and so do the angels, with awe" . I also hear the whisper of my mother ' keel ya Michael , bi El-mad El-kabir " in her simple and honest invocation to God and the angel of rain to splash a copious quantity of rain.

Geadref in it's golden era of post war- and until more recently- was the bride of Sudanese Economy if you like . The mechanized farming started in Gedaref to be deployed and flourished there . The enlightenment increased and the population grew. In Sudan , Gedaref became the destination of the country's investors. They found a place to live within the pleasant and hospitable city. s In that era in the wake of first –rate public educational services , the population growth along with the economic prosperity and public awareness provided the essential elements for a genuine Educational Revolution.

The board of education reminded me not only of huge corporate boards but also of the most prestigious universities senates. It included Aw lad Al-bilad or the sons of the soil, khawajat ,white persons or European and the Sudanese represented farmers, the city's richest merchants and think-tanks. Education was based on decentralized system which I had never known except in Britain, America and Switzerland .

In fact ,government-subsidized education sprouted as small grass in an oasis . Gedaref championed the first public intermediate , secondary school and even University is native by all criteria.

Gedaref was Ukazz- the poet fair of Easten Sudan where somewhere were raised and stood out in the arena several l cerebral geniuses such as journalists El-reifi, Abdullah Rajab and El-salambi, , Ebrahim Awad Bashir, an obscured poet, . Gedaref is where sung Abdel Karim El-kablim the fine and cultured Singer.

With love to you from Gedaref

Muhammad Khayr Osman.

Translated by Abdulaziz Ali Omer from Gedaref

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