Changing Customs Of The Riverain Sudan (the Circumcision)
06 March, 2013 Khartoum,(Sudanow)-The Social customs that were practiced by the Sudanese who live along the Nile or near it over the past century, rolled up some change due to variables of time and vicissitudes age and variability. some are still practiced even today in some parts of the riverain Sudan ,as brand Professor Abdullah Tayeb said, who collected and wrote many of these habits in Articles in the magazine (Sudan notes and records), a magazine concerned with documenting the life and history of Sudan.
Professor Abdullah Tayeb show in these articles, which he wrote it in 1955 -1956-1964-1998 years, the customs of the people of Sudan in the Nile valley from Woman's pregnancy up to marriage .
The Professor Abdullah Tayeb Institute for the Arabic language, University of Khartoum, recently published this set of articles after being translated by Mohamed Osman Makki.
D. Siddiq Omar Siddiq Director of the Institute, the importance of this articles and its place in the studying of Sudan Folklore motivated us to translate it in to Arabic.
He goes on saying it is One of the venerable knowledge which accounted for, as a multitude of research, was (Sudanese Folktale) which he wrote in Arabic, then he translated it into English with his own pen, not mentioning his other encyclopedic works, such as what he wrote in a research connected to the Sudanese colloquial Arabic Language to the Academy of Arabic Language in Cairo, and the scattering works of interest, in the numerous articles in magazine and lectures.
Abdullah Tayeb said himself ," Even as I now write this paper ,most of us are aware of the rapid change that are daily transforming Sudanese life from that of a medieval community deeply rooted in tradition, to that of an Afro-Arab nation newly born under the impact of western civilization-Many styles and modes of life-as I knew it in my boyhood-have completely disappeared, Many are in the process of fading away, And some, very few indeed, can still be described in the distant villages and among the more conventional homes. It is in the interest of students of sociology, anthropology and history to make a record of all these, before the final break-up of the old patterns takes place and new fashions and ways of living and behavior prevail.
And we will publish them on (SUDANOW) pages in this thread, and we'll start onset also began by Abdullah Tayyib himself, a customs relating to pregnancy and pre-and post-natal and related nifaas. then evolve with it in human life at the stage of early childhood, games, boyhood, education, work and marriage.
On the last issues we spoke about the customs, From Birth to Puberty Birth and Early Infancy, then the child, the child hair, the games, the girls games and education
here we will starts with:
Circumcision
Female circumcision has already been described in the first article in connection with child- birth the custom is slowly disappearing and substituted for it the subject has been studied thoroughly by medical people and sociologists here and abroad.we can hardly add anything new however ,from the historical point of view the origin of the practice has not yet been determined the word paranoiac suggest that it originated in Egypt.
but as mentioned earlier lines of Been thoroughly studied and to scrutinize this is beyond the scope of this paper. However, malecir cumcision was believed by the pre-Islamic Arabs to have something to d0 with the moon. They believed that the moon would partly circumcise an uncircumcised male by causing the foreskin to contract-hence the abusive remarks; “He is uncircumcised but for the portion taken by the moon”. According to the evidence of the Quran, the moon was one of the pre-Islamic Gods.
The ceremony of circumcision used to take place any time between the week of birth and the time of puberty. Cases have known of boys circumcised a few months before their marriage was expected. In the religious communities, the celebration usually took the form of a religious service. Meat, dates and sweets were served on the occasion. Among theJa’alryin and their kinsmen, whose practice was imitated by many of the tribes, whose practice was imitated by many of the tribes, a miniature celebration of the wedding ceremony in all that concerns the bridegroom was performed.
The boy to be circumcised used to ride with a number of his friends, and the best donkeys they could get, and invited the neighbors. Then in the afternoon the actual circumcision took place. This was performed by thebasir who was usually the village barber and blood-letter. On his arrival he was treated with great honor and given drinks and delicacies. He would be wearing his best clothes and could not wear any protective apron as the boy to be circumcised expected to remain standing before him unperturbed and not cause a mess.
A cane segment was.
stripped, and then inserted to indicate the limit of the foreskin. The thebasir cut with his razor. Boys of the same age would be standing around to encourage to be circumcised with shouts of ubshir .
He would snap his fingers in the air as a sign of defiance and manliness. The women who were gathered nearby, mostly aunts and there generation, would then scream the zagharid in glee: the foreskin was later worn by the grandmother as a ring for an hour or so and then cast away.
The basir who did the circumcision applied ashes and garad to the wound. Afterwards the jartig or ritual decoration took place.
The boy was dressed to appear like a girl. His eyes were edged with kohl gold and silver ornaments were placed round his neck and wrists he was also made to wearthe long coral wedding necklace and other necklacescotaining beads of bloodstone which was believed to stop the bleeding ang and to speed up the healing process.
Aband of red silk was tied round his right wrist- this contained beads of magicl value and afish bone. The scarab might be attached to the band or to the gold necklace the boys palms were decorated with henna and os were his feet his hair which had been shaved .clean with a razor or knife was covered with grease and then with the powder of sandalwood. A silk band was then tied round his head. Beads might sometimes, having decorated him thus like a girl, he was symbolically presented with a whip and a sword.
On the jartig occasion a dance might be called. The dalluka and the other small drums were beaten. Then the signers, sometimes slave-girls, sometimes amateur male singers from the village, would sing. The circumcised boy's female relatives started the dancethen others followed. If the boy circumcised was a teenager, then the dance was taken very seriously, and young men challenged each other to be whipped. This ceremony will later be described in a more detailed article about the marriage ceremony.
A among the customs attached to circumcision alone, was circumcised boy was made to appear like a mock-king. His companions stealthily raided the houses of neighbors and stole whatever they could. The neighbors were later expected to pay a ransom for what they had lost. The proceeds would contribute to the expenses of entertainment. This would seem a token of the tribal raids indulged in by the adults of the tribe.
Relatives, friends and companions were all expected to give presents on the occasion of circumcision. Some people would go as far as to call a magrhram part .aMaghram means fine or payment. This occurred only in cases of circumcision which are celebrated in a placed on a table and then people would put their contributions on it. An announcer would announce the amount of the contribution as it was placed, and then the women would shout the zagharid in acknowledgement. Nowadays this custom has been debased even further. A father would announce that he would circumcise his son or sons and distribute cards to he would circumcise his son or sons and distribute cards to people inviting them to a meal. As they come they contribute and the contributions are written down for future reference because the father would be expected to pay the same amount when it is his turn to be invited.
the father thus collected a large sum of money. Cases have been known when people have used this as a trick to collect money and then disappeared. Indeed, at one time it became fashionable among certain classes in the three towns to give a party, even without the pretext of circumcision, in order to collect contribution. The abueof the traditional customs of material help have thus reached the extreme limits of degradation.
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