Sudanese Communities

In the face of a dwindling budget and uncertain prospects, Mubarak settled on moving from the pricey University district of Al Rashid to a cheaper neighborhood in the fringes of the capital. As he thought of his urgent decision, he recalled what an Iraqi immigrant at the refugee commission once told him “The cost of living is extremely low in Khrebat, and the people there are affable and tolerant of foreigners. In order to get there take the bus to the Wehdat transit center. Then take the Khrebat minibus and tell the chauffeur to drop you off at Hajja Nima bus station. Once there, ask any passerby about the Sudanese men who live at Hajja Nima lodging. Everybody in that neighborhood knows where they live. They will be happy to show you the community and assist you to find an apartment or a house for a discounted rent. They are very good men. Some of them used to be my neighbors back in Baghdad”

Thus, one temperate Friday afternoon, when Khrebat minibus arrived in the neighborhood and stopped at Hajja Nima stop, Mubarak got off and asked a bystander if he knew where the Hajja Nima's residence, which the Sudanese rented, was. “You are precisely at their house,” said the young man amiably, pointing to a dilapidated one floor building atop a flat hill with a red brick fence so low-set that it almost negated the function it was built for. So Mubarak thanked the man and then walked around the fence until he was squarely in front of the dwelling. When he knocked on the half-open improvised wooden gate, a half-asleep and half-naked young man answered. The man welcomed Mubarak graciously and then ushered him into the verandah of their quarters. One thing that attracted Mubarak’s attention instantaneously was the huge number of people insi...

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...have burdened him so much that he contemplates of moving to another country and live where no one knows him. However, like every one of us, he made a vow not to return home until people rise and dumb Omar Al Basher and his pinions into the dustbin of history. We will do our best to make sure that he calls you as soon as possible,” said Ibrahim, bidding Mubarak farewell.

On his way back to the University neighborhood, Mubarak pondered over the appalling conditions which his countrymen have been forced into. Reprehensibly, Sudanese communities even abroad are microcosmic representation of Sudan, economically socially and politically speaking. While, opportunists and loyalists of Basher’s Salvation Regime lived in abundance and afforded access to the best services in the kingdom, victims of its unjust policies lived in squalid conditions and absolute indignity.