DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.49271#0191
The KababIsh, a Sudan Arab tribe
129
so important that we repeat it here, “ ... .if a woman meets an uncle’s son in the desert,
he and she standing off from each other at their arm’s length, with a solemn countenance,
they do but touch together the tips of their fingers Further there may be some signifi-
cance in the fact that the father’s brother and the mother’s brother are not included in
the list of persons licensed by the Koran to see women unveiled, so that it is possible that
these relatives may have been actually avoided. Perhaps too the practice of veiling has
obscured relationship avoidances — if indeed such existed — among the Arabs.
Among those sedentary Arabs with whom we came in contact on our journey from
El-Obeid to the Kababish territory rules of avoidance similar to those of the Kababish
were observed, though with varying degrees of strictness.
The Dar Hamid, through whose territory we passed, are a powerful tribe of com-
posite origin, who occupy an area extending westwards from the Khayran and the neigh-
bourhood of Bara. A Dar Hamid man may speak to his mother-in-law and her sisters,
though he may do so only with head averted, and he must not meet these women face to
face out of doors, though when the mahr36 has been fully paid he may eat in the presence
of his mother-in-law and speak to her freely. Between a woman and her mother-in-law,
the custom of daf'a obtains, the gift being worth about £1.
Among the Gawama'a37 and the Shabergo38 of Hellet Nurayn — an outlying village
of Jebel Kaja — a man avoids his mother-in-law and her sisters and will not eat in their
presence. A man will not sit upon the same mat as his father-in-law, nor will he eat from
the same dish, and among the Gawama'a even after the mother-in-law had made a pay-
ment to her daughter-in-law they would not eat from the same dish. At Hellet Nurayn
a woman might talk with her daughter-in-law after she had given the latter a cow, but
even then the two women must not eat together. If the aged mother should come to live
with her married son, as so often happens among the Arabs, the son would build her a
separate tuld outside his own courtyard, but close to it.
Berayis on Jebel Katul is a settlement inhabited by a folk who call themselves Arabs
but who undoubtedly have more Nuba than Arab blood in their veins. It seems clear that
their conversion to Islam took place comparatively recently, almost certainly within the
last century. At Berayis a man calls his mother-in-law 'amma whether she is related
to him or not; he may not speak face to face to her or to her sisters and will not eat in
36 Vide infra, p. 131 sq.
37 The Gawama'a are dark skinned and have much negro blood in their veins. MacMichael (op. cit., p. 76)
writes of them as “flattered to an even greater extent than usual in the Sudan by the denomination of Arab ”. Our
information was obtained at Faragab some 40 miles N. E. of Bara, where is a large settlement of this tribe.
38 The Shabergo are a people whose members form an element in a number of settlements among the northern
hills of Kordofan and are perhaps most numerous on Kaja and Katul. Their ancestors are said to have come from the
river and to be still represented at Wad Medani on the Blue Nile.
129
so important that we repeat it here, “ ... .if a woman meets an uncle’s son in the desert,
he and she standing off from each other at their arm’s length, with a solemn countenance,
they do but touch together the tips of their fingers Further there may be some signifi-
cance in the fact that the father’s brother and the mother’s brother are not included in
the list of persons licensed by the Koran to see women unveiled, so that it is possible that
these relatives may have been actually avoided. Perhaps too the practice of veiling has
obscured relationship avoidances — if indeed such existed — among the Arabs.
Among those sedentary Arabs with whom we came in contact on our journey from
El-Obeid to the Kababish territory rules of avoidance similar to those of the Kababish
were observed, though with varying degrees of strictness.
The Dar Hamid, through whose territory we passed, are a powerful tribe of com-
posite origin, who occupy an area extending westwards from the Khayran and the neigh-
bourhood of Bara. A Dar Hamid man may speak to his mother-in-law and her sisters,
though he may do so only with head averted, and he must not meet these women face to
face out of doors, though when the mahr36 has been fully paid he may eat in the presence
of his mother-in-law and speak to her freely. Between a woman and her mother-in-law,
the custom of daf'a obtains, the gift being worth about £1.
Among the Gawama'a37 and the Shabergo38 of Hellet Nurayn — an outlying village
of Jebel Kaja — a man avoids his mother-in-law and her sisters and will not eat in their
presence. A man will not sit upon the same mat as his father-in-law, nor will he eat from
the same dish, and among the Gawama'a even after the mother-in-law had made a pay-
ment to her daughter-in-law they would not eat from the same dish. At Hellet Nurayn
a woman might talk with her daughter-in-law after she had given the latter a cow, but
even then the two women must not eat together. If the aged mother should come to live
with her married son, as so often happens among the Arabs, the son would build her a
separate tuld outside his own courtyard, but close to it.
Berayis on Jebel Katul is a settlement inhabited by a folk who call themselves Arabs
but who undoubtedly have more Nuba than Arab blood in their veins. It seems clear that
their conversion to Islam took place comparatively recently, almost certainly within the
last century. At Berayis a man calls his mother-in-law 'amma whether she is related
to him or not; he may not speak face to face to her or to her sisters and will not eat in
36 Vide infra, p. 131 sq.
37 The Gawama'a are dark skinned and have much negro blood in their veins. MacMichael (op. cit., p. 76)
writes of them as “flattered to an even greater extent than usual in the Sudan by the denomination of Arab ”. Our
information was obtained at Faragab some 40 miles N. E. of Bara, where is a large settlement of this tribe.
38 The Shabergo are a people whose members form an element in a number of settlements among the northern
hills of Kordofan and are perhaps most numerous on Kaja and Katul. Their ancestors are said to have come from the
river and to be still represented at Wad Medani on the Blue Nile.