North Darfur, Sudan – Map and Key Information

North Darfur State (Wilayat Shamal Darfur in Arabic) is among the largest and most geographically diverse of Sudan states, which is located in the far West of the country. It is more than 296,420 square kilometres in size, with a population of approximately 2.3 million people, and the population is spread disproportionally across farming villages, urban centres and nomadic routes.

Al-Fashir, the capital of the state, is its cultural, administrative and business centre. It is a place where the past and the present clash-traders are seen with a smell of spices, bleating of goats and the chatter of the traders representing variously. Other significant towns--Kutum, Kebkabiya, Mellit, Tawilah, Umm Keddada--are each symbolic of their own local area, in terms of trade routes, farming or grazing areas.

North Darfur adjoins Libya to the north and west, Chad to the west and a historical trans-Saharan trade route with Egyptian Abyssinia and other entities of the Western African coast to the west, a trans-Saharan route that has had an influence on the economy and culture of the region for centuries. Its geography is divided into three major areas: the arid Libyan Desert in the north, semi-arid plains in the middle and scrub-volcanic highlands in the south, the Marrah Mountains. This geographical diversity has had a striking effect on settlements, means of livelihood and identity.

History

The history of North Darfur cannot be separated from that of the greater Darfur region, whose name in Arabic is Dar Fur or the Land of the Fur, after the Fur people who became prominent in this region. By the early seventeenth century, the Sultanate of Darfur had asserted itself as a strong kingdom that commanded the trade routes to the Sahara. This exchange unified the Sahel and savannah with North Africa as the trade enabled the exchange of gold, ivories, feathers of ostriches, salt, cloths, gum arabic and occasionally slaves.

The sultanate, for most of its history, opposed foreign domination. Even with neighbouring territories being occupied by Ottoman-Egyptian or European interests, Darfur did not lose its independence because of its location far inland and also its well-organised form of governance. The Fur monarchs had their headquarters in Kobbei before Sultan Abd al-Rahman shifted the capital and headquarters to Al-Fashir towards the end of the 18th century- a step that made the city have a significant role.

In 1874, it was invaded by the Egyptian forces supporting the Egyptian ruler Khedive Ismail after years of pressure. This was later replaced by the upheavals of the Mahdist period (18811899) and in which local rule broke up. In 1898, the Anglo-Egyptian forces defeated the Mahdists, and a free reign of Sultan Ali Dinar commenced until he was deposed in 1916.

World War I brought a change of beginning. In fear that Ali Dinar would support the Ottoman Empire, the British invaded. His death in battle terminated a period of more than 250 years of Fur rulership and placed Darfur fully in the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan.

Since the independence of Sudan in 1956, Darfur (including the present North Darfur) had been treated as part of Sudan with little political consideration or development investment. This marginalisation that has existed over the years has preconditioned unrest. In 2003, the rebellion in Darfur was initiated by armed organisations against the government on grounds of discrimination and neglect. The war initiated a humanitarian disaster: villages were destroyed, hundreds of thousands of people were displaced, and many fled to the camps in the environs of Al-Fashir.

Although the magnitude of violence has reduced over the years that have passed, instability persists. Violence between communities, disputes over the control of water and land, and occasional armed assaults have led to a persistent problem of insecurity in the region, in addition to the issues of reconstruction.

Culture

A mixture of centuries of coexistence and exchange is the cultural mosaic of North Darfur. The Fur are a major population group in the south and central highlands, whereas the Zaghawa occupy the north and west. Nomadic and semi-nomadic Arab tribes--such as Abbala (the people who keep camels) and Baggara (cattle-herders)--wander across the plains on a seasonal basis. Smaller communities such as the Daju, Birgid, Midob, and Tunjur add their languages, customs and artisans to the Sudanese Pan-identity.

Living Societies: Farming societies have their permanent shelters built of mud brick, usually painted with a variety of geometric symbols, patterns or motifs. Nomadic people prefer portable tents or shelters with mats that have been woven, according to their transnational movements as the seasons change. Such variations in settlement reflect fundamental cultural differences in dieting, dressing and occupation.

Dancing and music are found in social functions. Traditional musical instruments include the tambour drum and kissar lyre, with invocations often ratified through hand clapping, ululation and singing call-and-response. Songs may narrate the activities of forefathers, of a bumper harvest, or of a bride and a groom during a marriage.

There are differences in how the dances are done: Fur dances are usually done in circles, with each person entering the circle one at a time, performing stylised steps, whereas Zaghawa dances may be done with much stamping and shoulder action. Most of the costumes use beadwork, leatherwork and henna body art, all of which have their symbolic meaning.

The religion is mainly Sunni Islam with a great attachment to the Sufi. Orders like Tijaniyya and Qadiriyya hold community meetings referred to as zikr, as the participants repeat the names of God, sometimes in motion or pacing in synchrony. Islamic holidays are practised with prayer services, special foods and exchanging gifts.

Hospitality is a cultural norm. People are cordially invited and are given tea, coffee, which is sometimes flavoured with cardamom, ginger and cinnamon, and sometimes they are afforded bread, meat, or milk. Helping is evidenced even during periods of deprivation and seems to be an extension of a moral code, which puts the attachment to the community before individual gain.

Language

The North Darfur linguistic scope reflects its eco-ethnicity. The official language and the language of trade, governance and education is Arabic, but is accompanied by a number of indigenous languages.

The Fur language, speaking family Nilo-Saharan, is the language that the Fur people carry as family heritage. Its use persists all over the highlands and central plains of the country in terms of community life, oral narrative, and local market use. Zaghawa (sometimes referred to as Beria) is a language in the Saharan branch of the Nilo-Saharan family, spoken by populations in the north of the country and west into neighbouring Chad. Most Zaghawa speakers speak Arabic (and in some instances French) because of transnational ties.

Other languages are Midob in the far north, Daju in pockets of the central and western regions, and the Nubian languages that date back to migration along the Nile Valley. Every has its own specific oral literature, proverbs and poetry, and most are still transmitted through family and community narration. Trading and market centres have a tendency to code shift. One conversation could swing between Fur, Arabic and Zaghawa with the participants in mind. Such fluid multilingualism shows the result of centuries of contact at the crossroads of ethnic and political frontiers.

Geography

The physical geography of North Darfur is characterised by one of the driest desert areas on the planet, to cool, fertile volcanic highlands. The northern province is the portion of the Libyan Desert with sand dunes, gravel plains, and plains of rock. Rain is very scanty, even non-existent in the span of years, and only wild shrubs or desert grasses will grow here. There are a few humans in the form of nomadic herders and small settlements around oases.

A few miles southwards, the scenery changes to semi-arid savannah, punctuated by acacia trees and thornbush. These are the grazing lands of herders and, in good years, the location of rain-fed agriculture. It is also in this transitional belt where a major part of resource contests is seen, given that herding passes across the cultivated lands.

The southernmost region is quite different, the Marrah Mountains (Jebel Marra), an inaccessible volcanic mountain range topping 3,000 m. This area has greater precipitation, nutritious soils and is cooler, which makes fruit trees, crops, as well as small-scale tea plantations possible. The summit has a Deriba Caldera with two crater lakes surrounded by some rare plant species and unique wildlife.

Seasonal rivers or wadis bring rainwater down into the plains during the wet season (June to September) to provide irrigation to the crops and refill shallow wells. Nevertheless, due to rising climate volatility, rainfall patterns are becoming less predictable, and this has compounded the problems of the farmers and the herders on the ground.

North Darfur is bordered to the northwest by Libya and to the west by Chad, both of which connect it to trans-Saharan and Sahelian trade routes. Sudan is bordered (clockwise) by Northern State, North Kordofan, South Kordofan, South Darfur and Central Darfur. These borders do not merely exist as lines, separating towns and countries--they are cultural continental streams, through which beings, animals and concepts enter and leave the state.

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