CULTURE
In Sudan, architecture is varied, reflecting regional differences in climate and culture. Visit ask4beauty for Sudan the destination of a true adventurer. In the northern desert regions, dwellings are structures with thick mud walls, with flat roofs and richly decorated doors, which denote Arab influence. In much of the country, houses are made of baked bricks and are surrounded by courtyards. To the south, the typical houses are round thatched huts with conical roofs, called ghotiya. Nomadic populations sleep in tents, which can vary in shape and materials depending on the tribe: the rashiaida, for example, use goat hair, while the hadendowa weave palm fibers. Nutrition is generally very poor and essential: the day begins with a cup of tea, while breakfast is eaten in the late morning and usually consists of beans, salad, liver and bread. Millet is the main base: it is prepared as a porridge (asida) or as a flat bread (kisra). Vegetables are prepared in salads or stewed; other preparations are ful, made with broad beans cooked in oil, cassava and sweet potatoes. The nomads who inhabit the northern regions for food have a diet based on dairy products and camel meat, which however is expensive and rarely consumed. Sheep are slaughtered only for feasts and ceremonies; the intestines, lungs and livers of animals are prepared with very hot pepper creating a special dish (marara). The meat is cooked in the courtyards in front of the houses on an aluminum grill (kanoon). § In 2003, Jabal Barkal and the region of Napata, capital of the ancient kingdom of Kūsh, were inscribed by UNESCO in the World Heritage Sites; these five archaeological sites, which wind along the Nile valley for over 60 km, testify to the cultures of the kingdoms of Napata (from 900 to 270 BC) and of Mëroe (from 270 BC to 350 AD). There are tombs, with and without pyramids, temples, housing structures and palaces. Since ancient times, Jabal Barkal Hill has been closely associated with religious rites and traditions.
LITERATURE
Sudanese literature can be divided into two groups. The first, which makes use of vernacular languages, presents an oral production, mainly poetic, with texts created according to song and dance, of religious, funeral, love or war subjects, proverbs, fables and tales, handed down without substantial changes from the earliest times. The second, prevalent, makes use of classical Arabic, with a written production that stood out for its own characteristics only starting from the century. XIX and, in the Mahdist period, expressed a lively national sentiment. Poetry, largely over prose, was largely represented by the ancient qasidah, simplified and renewed also in the themes (social and political). In the literature of the century. XIX dominated the traditionalist, neoclassical current. Ḥusayn az-Zahra (1833-1895), Moḥammad Aḥmad Hasim (1825-1910), Moḥammad Ṭāhir al-Mağdhūb (1842-1929) and Moḥammad ʽOmar al-Binna (1848 1919) imitated the Turkish models, while the poetesses Umm Husaymas and Bint al-Makkawī referred to folk poetry using Sudanese Arabic. Others were inspired by the classical poets of the Umayyad and Abbasid periods, but attempting a formal and content renewal, such as the university professors ʽAbdallāh al-Binna (1891-?), In favor of a modernization of the vocabulary, and ʽAbdallāh ʽAbd ar-Raḥmān (1892- ?), advocate of pan-Arabism. However, despite these ferments, the century. XX still sees many writers, such as ʽAbdallāh at-Tayyib (b.1921), remain faithful to the elaborate forms of traditional poetry. With Youssūf Muṣṭafā al-Tinni (b.1909) the romantic movement was announced, which found a theoretical foundation in theanimistic pantheism of the critic Ḥamza al-Malik Tunbul and was influenced by the heated nationalism of ephemeral but important literary magazines, which appeared in the 1930s, such as The mirror of Sudan, La Rinascita, L’Alba. The best romantic poets, who profoundly renewed sensitivity and taste, style and content, were: Moḥammad Aḥmad Maḥğūb, Muhyī d-Dīn Ṣābir and above all Youssūf Bachir (1912-1937), who nevertheless made a turn towards realism. This movement established itself after the Second World War, with politically committed poems, new in form and themes, which exalt solidarity in the struggle and Pan-Africanism (Muhyī d-Dīn Fāris and Mubarak Hassan Khalifa) and advance anti-racist claims with the great black poet Moḥammad Miftāh al-Fitūrī (b. 1930), whose initiatory poetry announces the successful reconciliation between the two roots, Arab and black, of Sudanese culture and the identification with a mythical Africa. But alongside the revolutionary poets there are also the classic Jaafar Hamid al-Bachir (b.1927), the mystic Taj al-Sir Hassan (b.1930) and the light poetry of Jili ʽAbd ar-Raḥmān (b.1931). In the first half of the century, the novel was established with Abū Bakr Hālid and aṭ-Ṭayyib Zarrūk, influenced by Egyptian literature, and Khōgli Shukrallāh. But the best known, in Europe, he is the novelist aṭ-Ṭayyib Ṣāliḥ (b. 1929), whose works have been translated into many languages. A masterpiece of contemporary Arabic fiction is his novel The migration season to the North (1966) which has become a true classic in which the traditional cultures of an African country meet and compare with Western culture. For the poorly developed dramatic production, we cite Abd al-ra’uf al-Khani. In the English literary production, which is also scarce, we recall the short stories by Sir Hassan el-Fadl, which appeared in the 1970s. For the following decade we highlight the novels by Viviane Amina and Bakhita Amin Ismail, as well as the provocative novel Seeds of Redemption (1986) by F. Mading Deng. Socio-political and racial problems prevail in non-fiction and Beshir Mohammed Said Omer, MA Abdel Rahim and FM Deng stand out. The most popular writer, however, was Tayeb Salih (1929-2009), author of two novels that were translated from Arabic into English in 1969, The Wedding of Zein and Season of Migration to the North. Contemporary Sudanese poetry mixes Arab and African influences; the best known exponent is Muhammad al-Madhī al-Majdhūb.
