Zainab's Story: Slavery, Women and Community in Colonial Sudan Author(S): Susan M
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Zainab's Story: Slavery, Women And Community In Colonial Sudan Author(s): Susan M. Kenyon Source: Urban Anthropology and Studies of Cultural Systems and World Economic Development, Vol. 38, No. 1, The Sudan (SPRING, 2009), pp. 33-77 Published by: The Institute, Inc. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/40553637 . Accessed: 05/10/2013 21:12 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp . JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. The Institute, Inc. is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Urban Anthropology and Studies of Cultural Systems and World Economic Development. http://www.jstor.org This content downloaded from 129.128.216.34 on Sat, 5 Oct 2013 21:12:57 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Zainab's Story: Slavery,Women And Community In Colonial Sudan Susan M. Kenyon Departmentof History and Anthropology ButlerUniversity ABSTRACT:This is an ethnohistoricalinquiry into the origins of themodern town of Sennar, Central Sudan, which was foundedin theearly 20th century as a "colonialcolony" for ex-slave soldiers and theirfamilies, the Malakiyya. Drawing on thelife story of one of theoriginal settlers, Grandmother Zainab, as narratedby her descendents,it considers what light this throws on theexperience ofslavery in thelate 19thcentury, and showshow essentialwere women'scontributions tothe establishment and growthof the new colonies,which were set up by the Condominiumgovernment. This chapterin Sudanese urbanhistory, like the experienceof slaverymore generally, is largelyignored in theofficial record, yet has contributedsubstantially to thephysical and culturalshape of contemporarytowns like Sennar, where it continues to be reflected in socialand ritualpractices. 33 ISSN 0894-6019,© 2009The Institute,Inc. This content downloaded from 129.128.216.34 on Sat, 5 Oct 2013 21:12:57 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 34 URBANANTHROPOLOGY VOL. 38(1),2009 Introduction Sometime around 1880,1 a baby girl was bornin Omdurman and was namedZainab. Her father was a soldiernamed Buggi; ofher mother, little is remembered,not even her name. When Zainab was stillvery young, she was takento live in Upper Egypt,where she joined the family of an Ababda2agha (noble- man)3named Osman Murab. There she stayeduntil she was a youngwoman; during this time, she might have married4and shehad a child,a daughter,of whom nothing is recalled.When stillyoung, Zainab returned to Sudan, accompanying a soldier namedMursal in theAnglo-Egyptian invasion of 1896-1897. Afterthe ensuing battle of Karari, Mursal and Zainab spenta fewdifficult years in Khartoumand Omdurman.During this time,Zainab gave birthto twins,Muhammad and Asha,and then,within a fewyears, Mursal was retiredfrom the army. Alongside40 otherex-soldiers5 and theirfamilies, Zainab, Mursaland the twinstraveled 200 milessouth to settlein a new communityknown as Makwar,on thewestern bank of theBlue Nile. There Mursal became a farmer,working the land grantedhim as a pensionby thegovernment, and buildinga familyhome in thecenter of the new community. Unfortunatelythe marriage did notlast. Mursal divorced Zainab, and in due course she remarrieda man knownas Marajanthe Arab. She and thetwins went to live withMara- jan in hisvillage of Jumayza, near Sinja, where he alreadyhad a formidablereputation as leaderof spiritpossession rituals knownas zar nugara.It was duringher stay in Jumayzathat Zainab discoveredher own spiritualpowers, training with a localwoman to become a practitionerof another form of spirit possession,zar burei. As soon as Muhammad,Zainab' s son,was old enoughhe becamea soldierlike his father. He doesnot appear to have seen muchactive service and afterserving his time,he too retired to a pensionin land and became a farmerin Makwar,now This content downloaded from 129.128.216.34 on Sat, 5 Oct 2013 21:12:57 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Kenyon:ZAINAB'S STORY 35 officiallyknown as Sennar.In addition,building on whathe learnedfrom his stepfather, he becamea muchfeared leader of zarnugara. Asha also settledclose by, having married a soldier fromthe nearby village of Kabbosh. Marajandied in theearly 1930s and Zainab thenreturned tolive with Muhammad and hiswife Sittena in Makwar. There she stayedfor the next three decades, collaborating with her son in diagnosingand treatingvarious types of disorders and sickness,and establishingher own reputationas an inspiring leaderin bureizar. Whenshe died around1960, Zainab was widelymourned well beyond her immediate family, as a much lovedand respectedhaboba.6 She is stillremembered today as a womanwho made importantcontributions to theemergence ofthe new markettown of Sennar. Whatwe can learnof thesecontributions is the topicof thispaper.7 Thisnarrative of Zainab's life, thin though it is, is significant on severaldifferent levels. Not surprisingly, perhaps, in view of ongoingdiscrimination inSudan, her descendents, who happi- lyshared with me what they knew of her life, never mentioned one importantfact: Zainab was of slave background.This is suggested,however, by various events in herlife: her associa- tionwith the army from birth, her father's name (particularly thelack of a familyname), her sudden move to Egyptwhen stillyoung and hersubsequent stay with a non-relatedfamily whereshe metwith vaguely hinted misfortune. Indeed she is sometimesreferred to as al-Murabiyya,the Murab woman (or possession).8However, it is herreturn to Sudan with the Anglo- Egyptianinvasion force that confirms her status. The soldier she accompaniedserved with the IXth battalion, translated from theTurkish tisaji orta in thenarrative of her daughter-in-law, a womanwho came froma similarbackground and employed severalTurkish terms (including agha) when recalling Zainab's life.The IXthbattalion was made up of BlackSudanese "ex- slave"soldiers, and playedan importantrole in the reconquest This content downloaded from 129.128.216.34 on Sat, 5 Oct 2013 21:12:57 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 36 URBANANTHROPOLOGY VOL. 38(1),2009 ofSudan by the Egyptians and theirallies, the English. Finally theirmove to Makwar in the early 20th century associates both Mursaland Zainab withthe new Condominiumgovernment projectto settlesome of the "detribalized"ex-slave soldiers in "civilian"(Malakiyya) colonies. Indeed Zainab and herde- scendentsare invariablydescribed as Malakiyyaby friends and neighborsalike, a termapplied to bothpeople and their settlements,with overtones of government property (Johnson 1988:80). In addition,the narrativehints at topicsabout whichall too littleis known.Since they left no formalrecords and were indeedgenerally disregarded by those who did leave records, slave women have been almostcompletely silenced in this partof theworld. In an importantthesis that deserves to be betterknown, Sharkey (1992) showsjust how muchwe can stilllearn about them from available written records, including whatis omitted.The narrativesof Zainab's lifeoffer only the skeletonof an individuallife, but fromits contextand from lateraccounts by her descendents and friends,we canbegin to makeeducated guesses about how slave and ex-slavewomen livedduring this time. Over and above this,however, Zainab leftembodied memories in theritual of zar whichcontinues to be widelypracticed in thisregion. As Boddy (1989,2007), Constantinides(1972, 1991) and othershave shown,perfor- manceof this ritual provides colorfully dramatic glimpses of lifeunder slavery in the19th century. It also reflectsthe active spiritualroles assumed by women more generally in early 20th centurySudan. Equally significant,the narrativeoffers evidence of the historicalagency of women in theex-slave colonies of Sudan. Otherwriters (James 2007; Johnson 1989; Sikainga 1996, 2000) have notedthe importance of the Malakiyya colonies in Suda- nese urbanhistory, but therehas been no systematicattempt to investigateeither the settlementsthemselves or the roles assumedby women.Indeed the coloniesno longerprovide This content downloaded from 129.128.216.34 on Sat, 5 Oct 2013 21:12:57 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Kenyon:ZAINAB'S STORY 37 the discretecommunities that they did even as late as the 1970s,when I firstbegan ethnographic research in theSennar region.While the case of Zainab does not provideextensive informationabout women or familylife in thefirst half of the 20thcentury, itis possibleto offersome generalizations about themfrom what we learnof her and herfamily. In particular we can begin to unpack theireconomic and social roles,as theyactively created community in settlementsbased onlyon men's sharedexperience of themilitary. It was womenwho notonly provided stability in theearly colonies, but who built a meaningfulsocial world for their families from a settlement of strangers.Even morespecifically we can understandthe leadershipwomen took in providinghealthcare explanations and curingresources well beforebiomedicai opportunities were available,and in creatingspiritual meaning for those who onlynominally (at best) acceptedand understoodthe messageof Islam. Todaythe moderntown of Sennarsits on thewest bank ofthe Blue Nile,some