Helina Girmachew - Addis Ababa

Sudan is the largest country in Africa, stretching from Egypt in the north and to Uganda in the south, sharing boarders with nine countries. The Sudanese society is culturally plural, consisting of about 597 tribes with nearly 115 languages.

Indigenous languages are alive and widely used, but Arabic is the official language of the country.

Greater Khartoum, the capital, lies on the western Bank of the Blue Nile and forms a huge triangle. Khartoum is comprised of three towns.

Omdurman, the oldest part of the town boasts the local spirit of traditional markets and informal social life.

Khartoum north (Bahrie) is the second part of the city where the Blue Nile passes through coming from Lake Tana in Ethiopia.

This part was established to serve as a railway terminal and river port. Besides most of the industries of Khartoum are built in Khartoum North.

The third part of the city is Khartoum; where the Blue Nile and the While Nile meet. The meeting point of the Blue Nile and the White Nile is called Mugran.

Five bridges connect the three parts of the city.

Two of theses bridges are on the Blue Nile, Two on the White Nile and one on the Nile proper.

The Nile is the name that the two rivers assume after they meet in Khartoum. The oldest bridge is the bridge over the junction of the two rivers, which is called Khartoum Bridge.

The British built this bridge more than 100 years ago. The most recently build bridge is called Fitihab Bridge which was built by the Chinese in 2000 on the White Nile South of the old bridge.

Khartoum is a place where we find different people from different ethnic groups, each having their tradition, costume and religion.

The dominant religion in the Sudan in general and Khartoum in particular is Islam.

One of the religious and traditional events in Khartoum is the Dervish Dance. This dance takes place at the tomb of Shake Hamad-Alneen every Friday afternoon at 6:00 PM.

The tomb and adjoining mosques are located on the western side of Omdurman.

The Dervish dancers comprised of respected Muslim elders, the Fellata's of western Sudan Muslims whose lives are dedicated to accomplishing the pilgrimage to Mecca, and the Arabs who are pastoral nomads.

Beyond this, there are societies whose members follow various form of Christianity.

This group of men believe to be in a kind of face-to-face communication with Allah. Some of such groups are followers of the Suni Muslim sect, which is the dominant religious sect in the Sudan.

The other group with them are the Dervish who are related to the old Mahdist religious sect.

The Suni's wear green Jelabias with red strips and hold flags of the same colour when they come to the dancing place.

The Dervish on the other hand wear clothes made of different colours. All the way they chant 'La Ilaha illa Allah' meaning no God but Allah, the remembrance ceremony of Muslim religious fraternities in which praises are drummed and recited to Allah.

They are followed by a number of people who are part of the exercise.

The dance is a kind of spinning ones body around for a long time and sway gently back and forth. The longer they stay doing it they believe that their soul is communicating with Allah and only their physical body is visible to the audience. They keep doing this until they reach the stage of falling down and start toasting and turning.

They consider this as part of the cleansing process and by doing that they believe evil will come out of its possession.

The Dervish's do not believe in owning property or having money.

The only thing they have in the world is some things in they always carry on their back. Some leave their family and what ever they own when they get involved in this religious exercise.

By reason of their sex, women are curtailed from participating in the dance fully. But in some tribes women are allowed to stand behind the men and look the dance.

There is a situation where only women exercise this dance.

This kind of dance is called Zikir.

The congregation at Shake Hamad Alneen usually attracts large crowds every Friday.

According to 'Discover Sudan' a publication by one of Sudan's tourism companies the tomb of Hamad Alneen was establish by Shake Hamad Alneen, a Muslim propagator who introduced the Quadriya religious sect to the Sudan during the Funj Kingdom (1505 - 1820)