“Of course sir”, they insisted “thank you for coming to Sudan and thank you for your interest in our faith”. Amazing country, amazing people.
So I hopped in a rickshaw and off I went to Omdurman, in the north west of the city. It apparently started around 3pm but when I got there I was told it didn’t get going until around 6 or 7 but, being Sudan, it’s impossible to be bored. So I choose one of the 10 offers of food and tea and sat down with a group of people.
When the time came I wondered into the Mosque with a local English teacher (who incidentally offered me a job teaching in his school!). There were about 2000 people who had come here to worship and, aside from 2 Italian pilots who lived there and worked for the World Food Program, there were no other tourists.
Everyone was hugely interested in my presence; one guy specifically approached me to discuss the benefits of international travel, the merits of Christianity (note: he assumed I was Christian) working alongside Islam – his monologue finished with a big smile, a hearty handshake and a huge bearhug!
Anyway, the ceremony got underway and the crowd formed a circle outside the mosque, where a couple of men were dancing and shaking instruments in the middle. The crowd began to chant slowly and quietly. A few more people joined the men in the middle and the crowd picked up the pace a little bit. Before I knew it, about 15 men where in the centre circle (turns out they were the Chiefs) and the crowd began chanting and swaying rhythmically with more vigour.