Shepherds and farmers sit all day in wait for rain, while camel drovers move freely…humps will lead their way.
-Poem, recited by camel trader Muhammad Hussein Dhu’ al-Nur, in the film Camel Culture, at Sudanmemory.org
Hump is an apt synecdoche for Camel, especially at the start of the drive when it is fat and full and stands tall over the Ra’s, Head. But after days without water, it shrinks and sinks. Ra’s Māliyya, Capitalism, literally Head of Wealth, was thus the first thing Hajj Bashir counted when his camels arrived in Cairo, their Hump, Sanām, almost too Saghīr, Small, to see.