AL-IHTISHAD MADANI

NOTE: Although the following work is from my undergraduate thesis, much of project fell apart towards the end of the semester, due to unforseen family circumstances.

“Sudan - the name derives from the Arabic Bilad as-Sudan “the lands of the Black [people]”. It refers to the land where the two Niles meet and 74 languages are spoken; where the queens of the Nubian civilization dating from around 2,000 BC ruled their matriarchies, beating back the Romans and building around 255 pyramids - double the number of pyramids in today’s Egypt. Thousands of years of trade and Hajj pilgrimage routes diversified the people, their cultures, and traditions. It is the country that fought against Turkish, Egyptian, and British colonizers, a country with impressive churches and mosques alike - a country famous for having had three revolutions in the past 62 years. Malcolm X visited Sudan in 1959, followed by other influential people such as Louis Armstrong, Harry Belafonte, Jimmy Cliff, and Miriam Makeba. Nowadays most people outside the country’s borders are unaware of Sudan’s rich past, multifarious present, and kaleidoscope of people. International media outlets mainly talk about the wars, famines, and political crises there, painting an incomplete picture of the country which was the largest on the continent before it split in half just a few years ago.fill a gap and add pieces to the puzzle of Sudan’s image outside its borders.”

- Khalid Wad Albaih & Larissa-Diana Fuhrmann, Sudan Retold