Mosquito-net: the night trench by Abdul-Aziz Ali Omer

Rain is good, but in Khartoum with poor sanitaion and the absence of sewage sysem turns into a curse.
Gordon…Kitchener… Salatin and many of other lovers on the Nile from the colonial era in Sudan remind me of the words of Wilbur Smith, an author from South Africa “ They were all gone for only in Africa triumph eternally the sun”. Africa here is Sudan and the sun is the sun of Sudan. In this country, the English troops in front of the cold steel and mosquitoes infested Khartoum fell as the dry sticks of sugar-cane or fell as salad in our Sudanese idiom. In the dictionary of British experience, Malaria is called the miasma of the swamp and mosquito is nicknamed the “nightingale of the Nile”.
Before a week, cantankerous Sudanese journalists met in Nairobi to sign a declaration for press freedom and human rights respect. Sudanese travel with mosquitoes sleeping in their bags nibbling at the pen-nibs and smelling the perfume of well-ironed and neatly-folded clothes. So far, nowhere in the world Sudanese have met to talk of mosquitoes and come up with a deterrent action. Khartoum receives subserviently mosquitoes as if they were U.N inspectors. These insects hover around our ######### like U.S planes over the Air-space of the Persian Gulf. Nobody in the opposition and government heed their domestic lurking danger.
In Khartoum, beggars constituted a public nuisance and formal calls rose for expelling them from the city of the elephant trunk as its meaning suggests in Arabic. Sudanese always say health is nice. So as long as mosquitoes are known as harmful to the well-being of citizen, aren’t they which deserve ostracizing but not the beggars. Mosquitoes show a sign of poor sanitation in Sudan while the beggars exhibit the lack of social equity. Beggars need a fair and decent survival and mosquitoes entail an ever-lasting fight.
Sudanese are sensitive of their public appearances and scratching ######### because of lice is irritating .Sudanese in the past spent long hours hunting lice and crushing them between their finger-nails. At last, WHO declared Sudan as a country free of lice. However, it is still indelible from the list of states harboring mosquitoes!
A great deal of Sudanese houses have “Nim tree” whose bitter leaves repel mosquitoes and even other home-insects. The smoke of burned “Nim” leaves and pieces of chopped fire-wood trickle from the roof-tops as the sun sets. Mosquito-nets are trench where families hide from the virulent attacks of mosquitoes. Some mosquitoes are impenetrable while others can be infiltrated and leave sleeping bodies vulnerable to prowling insects. Sudanese refer to mosquito pesticide as “dawa” which means medicine. In their daily jokes and banter: a Sudanese mosquito-tormented man complained to a tinker of his medicine inefficacy. He ordered him to open the mouth of mosquito and then gives it the killing dose. .
Abdul-Aziz Ali Omer.


Visitors impressions of Sudan

This is Sudan as the sun rises. Ilove you my country.
The Sudanese ministry of Information once invited an official delegation from Jordan to visit Sudan and what is of interest to me is not the occasion or the time of visit but their positive reactions towards Sudan. Currently, Sudan faces an offensive media propaganda that is distorting it is image. In solidarity with it, Let me share you these fine sentiments that gives a taste of Sudanese life.
Hamada Pharena, a Newspaper editor in Paris wrote of Sudan’s importance and hopes placed upon it: “The future of the Sudan is so bright that it will restore the smile to the peoples of the Horn of Africa and The Nile Valley. He added “Sudan is an immense country with ample human and material resources and that qualifies it to occupy a prominent status in the Arab arena”.
Suleiman Orar served as the former Member of Parliament, as the chairman of the House of Representatives and president of the Council of Ministers in Jordan. Referring to the allegation made by the western News media that depicted Sudan as a country of famine, discrimination and persecution, in refuting that he said” It was absolutely false”. “Sudanese among the Arab peoples are the most humble and loving to strangers” he said.
Sana Atiya, the representative of the Jordanian News time once wrote after her departure to Khartoum:” The week that I spent in Sudan had shown me warm, generous, elegant people, incredibly educated with progressive minds. In my judgment, she concluded Sudan is a model that should be copied by other Arab states.
. Abdul-Aziz Ali Omer.