A Desert Dies

by Michael Asher

  Near the well, we spied an immense block of granite that had split in half. The fissure was easily large enough to take us and all our luggage. As we sat down in the shade, both of us said, ‘Praise be to God!’ and were silent for a moment. Jibrin exclaimed, ‘By Almighty God! This is where we were, all that time ago! There were Awlad Huwal and Hamdab here then. I wonder what happened to them all!’

  I walked down to the well head. There was a basin of dried clay, and the well was covered with five flat stones. I crouched down and removed them carefully. Then I dropped a pebble into the gaping hole. The ‘plunk!, and the rippling of water was a holy sound in this appalling dryness. Abu Tabara was a holy shrine devoted to this end. Jibrin brought the well bucket and hoisted up some of the liquid. It was clean and clear, and its taste as untainted as the desert wind. It seemed like a miracle. Here, in the middle of the most dangerous desert on earth, there was water. Here, there was life.

  Epilogue

  IN SUMMER 1985, I MADE a brief visit to Hamrat ash Sheikh.

  The first person I saw in the marketplace was Juma’ Wad Siniin. It was almost as if he had been waiting for me. We embraced warmly, but the pleasure of seeing him again was marred by the shock of his appearance. When we had ridden to Nukheila only a year before, he had been a nomad in his prime: tough, proud, and aggressive. Now he looked like an old beggar. His flesh was drawn and bloodless, his hair bleached white, his body frail, his clothes dirty and ragged. He leaned heavily on a stick as we talked. ‘I knew you would come, Omar,’ he said. ‘I saw it in the khatt!’

  We went up to the lonely courthouse on the hill, where the deputy nazir, At Tom Wad al Murr, greeted me. With him were his half brother Ali Sheikh and about fifteen other Kababish. Amongst them, I was amazed to see the sheikhs of the Haworab and the ’Atawiyya. They looked half starved, their eyes sunken with malnutrition, their teeth rotten, and their gums pink with anaemia. At Tom told me that three-quarters ofthe Kababish livestock had been lost in the drought. The Arabs had nothing but the American grain that was being shipped from Omdurman. Little of it got through to the dar; the lorry drivers who brought it refused to cross the Wadi al Milik without extra cash from the people.

  ‘You remember those few sheep I had?’ Juma’ asked me. Those went months ago. I caught an old man slaughtering one of them in the wadi, by Almighty God! He almost cried when I caught him. “I must have it!” he told me. “My children are dying!” What could I do? The beast was dead. If I had taken him before the nazir, he would have had no money to pay me! I just left him to it.’

  News of old friends was equally dismal. At Tom Wad Hassan was in El Fasher seeking blood money on behalf of two ’Atawiyya who had been shot dead by police. Salim Wad Hassan was in Darfur with what was left of the sheep. Salim Wad Musa had lost two of his wives in the famine, and a third had recently given birth to a stillborn child. Mohammid Wad Ali had died of a mysterious illness, and Adam Wad ash Shaham was at death’s door. The nuggara herds had been attacked badly by the new strain of mange.

  ‘You have not heard about Mohammid Wad Fadlal Mula?’ Juma’ asked me. ‘He is in prison. He attacked a store in Umm ’Ajayja with his cousin. They cleaned it out. But they were stupid enough to return for more, and the police got them. What a fight Mohammid put up, by God! It took three men to take his shotgun off him. When I saw the gun, I could hardly believe it. I said, “That is Omar’s shotgun, and no doubt. The one he bought from Dagalol!”’

  Later, I walked up to where a mud-walled dome covered the grave of Sir Ali Wad at Tom. Below me, to the north, a group of Arab boys were driving a single she-camel towards the thorn groves; even from where I stood, the black patches of mange were clearly visible on the camel’s skin.

  I remembered how, three years before, I had come trudging out of those thorn groves on my way back from El ’Atrun, weak with exhaustion, Wad at Tafashan galled and limping. I remembered how I had despaired of ever being accepted by the Kababish. I had learned the lessons of this harsh land and learned them well, but I had only half succeeded. I had become a man of two cultures and an outcast of both.

  My eyes followed the boys until they were black commas on the landscape. A gust of wind rattled the branches in a nearby sarh tree. A grey falcon swooped down and took shelter amongst them. On the distant horizon, far beyond the dwarf-dots of the nomads, some daubs of mist fused and formed into steel-blue clouds of rain.

  About the Author

  MICHAEL ASHER WAS BORN IN Stamford, Lincolnshire, in 1953. After leaving school, he served in the Parachute Regiment in Malaysia, northern Europe, and Northern Ireland. He later served in the Special Air Service Regiment. He attended the University of Leeds from 1974 to 1977 and took a degree in English. From there, he went on to train as a teacher at Carnegie College, Leeds, where he specialised in physical education with a particular interest in outdoor pursuits.

  From 1979 to 1982, he worked as a teacher in the Sudan, and during this time became interested in the life of the nomads living on the fringe of the Libyan Desert. In his spare time and vacations, he travelled thousands of miles by camel with these peoples, learning their customs and language. These experiences form the basis of his first book, In Search of the Forty Days Road (Penguin). When the book was completed, he gave up teaching and went to live with one of these tribes, the Kababish. With them, he saw the devastating effects of the drought on their way of life. A Desert Dies, which was shortlisted for the Thomas Cook Travel Book Award for 1986-87, concerns his three years with this tribe. In 1985, he led the first UN ICEF camel expedition into the Red Sea Hills to bring aid to nomads cut off in remote regions.

  Acknowledgements

  I COULD NOT HAVE WRITTEN this book without the help of many friends amongst the ruling house of the Kababish. I should like to thank the late nazir, Hassan Wad at Tom, whose tolerance and understanding enabled me to gain my first foothold amongst his people. I am also indebted to the present nazir, At Tom Wad Hassan, and to his brothers Salim, Mohammid, Ali, and Fadlallah. I owe a special thanks to my friends Salim Wad Musa and Ibrahim Wad Hassan Wad Khalifa. These two will always remain for me the epitome of the noble Arab.

  I should like to thank the following members of the nazir’s people for their hospitality and generosity: Sheikh Musa Wad Ali, Sheikh Ali Wad Salim, Sheikh Jami’ Wad Ali, Mohammid Reyd Wad Fadlallah, Ali Shiekh Wad Mohammid, At Tom Wad Mohammid, Mohammid at Tom Wad Mohammid, Mohammid Dudayn, Ibrahim Wad Hassan Wad al Faki, Ali at Tom Wad Mohammid, Salim Wad Ali, Marghani ‘AI Faki’, Hamid Wad Digerr, Abdallah Abu Kajama.

  I could not have made initial contact with the Nas Wad Haydar without the help of Mansour Abu Safita and Mohyal Din Abu Safita in El Fasher. I am deeply grateful for the trouble they took on my behalf.

  I should also like to express my gratitude to those British teachers who gave me hospitality during my years in the Sudan, especially Indra Roy, Rob Hydon, Peter Midgeley, Jane Ellis, Joanna Christina, Mike Farrell, Julian Mountfield, and Charles Mitchell.

  I am grateful to Indra Roy and Eric Lawrie for warm friendship and valued counsel, and to John Garvey, who was always willing to provide me with a base in London when I was in transit.

  I cannot repay my debt to my parents, who dealt so patiently with my correspondence while I was writing this book in the Sudan. Neither can I fully express appreciation for the patience and understanding of Maria Antonietta Peru, who besides drawing the maps with meticulous attention, has been my sole critic and untiring advisor.

  Finally, I have listed my travelling companions separately. I shall never forget the million acts of friendship, great and small, which they performed. We were men from different worlds, yet there is a bond between us that time cannot erase.

  My Companions

  The Migrations in South Darfur 1982

  Mohamid Wad Dayfallah (‘Dagalol’) Nas Wad Haydar

  Hassan Wad Dayfallah ”

  Musa Wad Dayfallah ”

  Abboud Wad Mohammid ”

  Hassan W
ad Mohammid ”

  Ahmad Wad Ballal ’Atawiyya

  Mohammid Wad Habjur Nas Wad Haydar

  Habjur Wad Kurkur ”

  Ali Wad Hassan ”

  Sayf ad Din Mima

  Hamdan ”

  The Joumey in the Bahr 1982

  Sheikh Hassan Wad at Tom Nurab

  Mohammid Wad Hassan ”

  Mohammid Dudayn Wad Hassan ”

  Ibrahim Wad Hassan Wad al Faki ”

  Sharif Mohammid ”

  Khamis Wad Bambidu ”

  Sa’ad Wad Siniin ”

  The Joumey in Dar Kababish and the Jizzu 1982

  At Tom Wad Hassan Nurab

  Salim Wad Hassan ”

  Juma’ Wad Siniin ”

  Adam Wad ash Shaham ”

  Abdallah Wad az Zayadi ”

  Mahmoud Wad Affandi ”

  Abdallah Wad Fadul ”

  Ja’adallah Wad Hussayn (‘Mura’fib’) ”

  Ibrahim Wad Mohammid ”

  Hamid Wad Markaz ”

  Juma’ Wad Tarabish ”

  The Journey to El ’Atrun 1982

  Fadlal Mula Wad Arba’ini Sarajab

  Mohammid Wad Fadlal Mula ”

  Balla Wad Ahmad Hamdab

  Ballal Ruwahla

  Ali ”

  Sulayman Sarajab

  The Journey to Egypt 1983

  Bakheit Duwayih

  Sannat ’Awajda

  Musa Meidob

  Mohammid Bani Jarrar

  Musa Adam Awlad Rashid

  Bakkour ”

  The Journey to Nukheila 1984

  Juma’ Wad Siniin Nurab

  The Journey to Ed Debba 1984

  Rabi’ Kawahla

  Musa ”

  Ahmad Awlad Rashid

  Mohammid ”

  The Journey to Abu Tabara and Selima 1985

  Jibrin Wad Ali Awlad Huwal

  List of Tribes

  Composing the Kababish

  Tribal names have collective and singular forms. All collective forms are given, with those singular forms used in the text.

  Glossary

  ’anafi - hybrid Kababish camel

  ’angareb - rope bed

  ’arabi - heavy breed of camel

  ’aragi - a spirit found all over the East from Morocco to Tibet, usually ‘arak’ in English

  ashab - thoroughbred camel

  ’Atrana - salt diggers

  ’Awwala - ‘slaves’

  dabuuka - export camel herd

  damar - nomads’ semipermanent camp

  damin - tribal guarantor

  dar - terrirory or house

  darat - short season between rains and winter

  dia - blood money

  dikka - camp, especially the nazir’s camp

  dilka - perfume made of sandalwood and spices

  dobbayt - four-line rhyming verse that is sung

  fahal - dominant bull-camel

  fula - seasonal water pool

  gaaris - sour camel’s milk

  gayd - front-leg hobble for camel

  gayla - afternoon rest

  gelti - rock cistern where water collects

  ghaffir - guard, watchman or court baillif

  girbas - waterskin

  gom - raiding party

  gontar - unit of weight equaling 100 pounds

  gorasa - flat breed made of wheat flour

  goz - undulating sand hills

  hajil - bridal tent

  halib - fresh camels’ milk

  hawayya - pack saddle

  hawd - mud drinking basin

  hayil - ripples of loose sand

  hurr - literally ‘free’; also, anything of good quality

  ilbil - collective name for camels

  ’imma - headcloth

  Ingleez - British

  jabal - a mountain or a hill

  jadi - young gazelle

  jallabiyya - long shirt worn by nomads

  jibba - short shirt worn by nomads

  jizzu - ephemeral pastures on edges of the desert

  jumaal - riding and baggage camels

  kabaros - carved wooden milking vessel

  karama - the act of hospitality

  kibjan - monitor lizard

  kisri - polenta of millet or sorghum

  khatt - (al ramil) - divination by making depressions in sand

  khesh - matting of black goat hair

  khun - storage tent

  mashat - braided hairstyle

  muhawwadin - literally ‘those who race to the water basins’

  nahas - tribal kettle drums

  nasrani - Christian

  nuggara - wooden drum

  ’Ol - household slaves

  rahat - leather bridal apron

  sawani - deep wells

  shakima - straw mask worn by camel

  sharif - ‘noble’ man

  shogara - migration to the Sahel

  shugga - length of woven wool used for tents

  simoom - hot wind of summer

  sirwal - cloth breeches

  taya - camp of herdsmen or travellers

  tobe - (1) woollen garment worn by men, (2) colourful robe worn by women

  tukul - cabin of brushwood used as kitchen

  tulba - annual herd tax

  umbasha - corporal

  umm - literally ‘the mother of’

  Umm Duffan - bread made by being buried under hot ashes

  ’uqal - knee-hobble

  ’urf - Arab law

  ’utfa - Kababish litter for women

  zabata - weakness of camels’ shoulder

  zalat - an area of rocky cliffs and gorges in the desert, or just a stony area

  zambara - herdsman’s pipe

  zariba - enclosure

  zikra - repetition of a sound

  List of Botanical Species

  ’agul - Fagonia cretica

  arak - Salvadora persica

  baghayl - Blepharis linariaefolia

  diffir - Brachiaria sp.

  gafal - Commiphora africana

  gau - Aristida adscensionis

  gutub - Cien fuegosia digitata

  hadd - Comulaca momocantha

  hallif - Desmo-stachya cynosuroides

  handal - Colocynthis vulgaris

  harjal - Solenostemma argel

  haskanit - Cenchrus biflorus

  hejlij - Balanites aegyptiaca

  inderab - Cordia rothii

  jibayn - Solanum dubium

  kitir - Acacia mellifera

  la’ol - Acacia nubica

  markh - Leptadenia spartium

  mukhayyit - Boscia senegalensis

  nabak - Zizyphus abyssinica

  nissa - Aristida ciliata

  sa’adan - Neurada procumbens

  sallam - Acacia ehren-bergiana

  sarh - Maerua rigida

  siyaal - Acacia spirocarpa

  tomam - Panicum turgidum

  tundub - Capparis aphylla

  ’ushur - Calotropis procera

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  © 2012 by Michael Asher

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