Attended
a speech by Sadiq El Mahdi this evening. It was part of a regular
Wednesday evening gathering of the Umma Party faithful at the party
HQ in Omdurman. It was really hot and I hunkered down for two hours
of Arabic. Desert cooling once again put to the test. Crowd
numbered maybe two thousand on the veranda and lawn of the building.
Some guy kept popping up from the side
singing praise. At one point he seemed to get very agitated
and appeared to be pointing to me, the only gringo on the scene. He
may have been singing my praise or calling down the wrath of God or
neither.
Until
Sadiq showed up, Mr. Kalifa sat next to me and we chatted in English.
Kalifa is the grandson of the Kalifa, the follower of The Mahdi who
took over at his death and ruled Sudan until the British defeated
him. Kalifa the Younger is now #3 in the Umma Party.
Sadiq
-- the former Prime Minister overthrown in 1989 -- arrived to
great ovation and sat next to me. He asked me how much of the
speeches I was following. I said "none at all" although I
think I did hear an occasional salaam (peace) and Ameriki. He got
his niece to translate for me during his speech. (He spoke about
Darfur and peace.) When he was done, and after two hours of sweating
steadily but gently and watching little tiny moths land on my white
shirt, I took my leave. Another wonderful night in Sudan.
Note: Previous El Mahdi encounter here.
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