Remembering Childhood in the Middle East: Memoirs from a Century of Change

Awad Abdelrahim Abdelgadir (Sudan)

sudan Awad Abdelrahim Abdelgadir is the owner of Nile Valley Herbs, a small, private company, based in Austin, Texas, which imports and distributes products from the Nile Valley. He was born in a village in Dongola province in northern Sudan, was educated in the Sudan, and taught for many years in Yemen. Awad Abdelrahim Abdelgadir The lion is known as the king of the jungle, but the king of the Nile is the crocodile. Since our village is located right on the bank of the Nile, it is not surprising that there are many stories about crocodiles. Some of the stories are legends and some are rumors, but others are true. In my boyhood, I not only saw some scarred survivors of encounters with crocodiles but also witnessed a crocodile attack on two of my friends. Our saintly ancestor, Sheikh Abdullah Tor Kulum-Mesid (God’s Mercy Be Upon Him), is believed to have performed many miracles in his lifetime. One of the greatest miracles he performed was when he turned a crocodile into stone. This miracle cannot be disputed, as the proof still exists today . The stone crocodile lies on the floodplain below the mosque of Kulum-Mesid. The massive flood of October 1988 covered the stone crocodile with silt, but a future flood will surely uncover it again. Sheikh Abdullah Tor Kulum-Mesid (God’s Mercy Be Upon Him) was at that time the imam of the mosque and the teacher of the Quranic school. One day, it is said, he sent one of his students from the mosque down to the Nile with a pitcher (ibrig) to fetch water for washing in preparation for prayers. When the boy didn’t return, the imam and the students went down to the river to search for him. To their dismay , they found only the pitcher lying on the bank and they realized that he had been taken by a crocodile. The imam washed himself and sat and prayed on the bank of the river. He prayed and prayed until all of the crocodiles came out of the Nile and approached him. He asked for the memories of a nubian boyhood: growing up in a sudanese nile village Awad Abdelrahim Abdelgadir with Linda Boxberger ^ crocodile that had eaten his student. The biggest of the crocodiles stepped forward and the imam told the others to return to the water. The big crocodile then vomited up the boy’s body. The sheikh took his pitcher and mounted the crocodile. He sat on the crocodile’s back and washed himself and prayed. After praying, he hit the crocodile on the head with his prayer beads and the crocodile turned into stone. After that, Imam Abdullah had a sword brought from the village and he had some verses from the Quran written on the blade. He placed the sword on the water of the river and it floated, carried north by the current. It floated several miles past the village and then sank. From that time on, it was believed that for a hundred years no crocodile would attack along the stretch of the river where the imam’s sword had floated. But during my childhood, the imam’s protection ran out. A crocodile attacked two of my friends within the stretch where the sword had floated. The attack took place on a Sunday; it was the market day in Suq as-Sair, a town across the Nile from our village. On that morning, along with other villagers, I put my donkey on the wooden sailboat that ferried us across the Nile. I was going to the market to sell some lemons from our lemon tree and buy some meat and vegetables for my family, as I usually did on Sundays during my summer vacation from school. After returning to my village, I went with my friends for a swim in the large pool by the Nile. The pool was like a crater in the riverbank filled with water and connected to the river by a small channel. Although this pool was considered to be a safe place, parents would punish their children anytime they swam. Whenever they punished their children, the parents reminded them that the one hundred years of protection had expired, so that anyone in the water was in danger of being taken by a crocodile. After we swam, we would hide in the bean fields and rub dirt...