The inhabitants of Omdurman are a conglomeration of every race and nationality in Sudan: Fellata, Takruris, Wadai…Niam Niam and Mombuttu cannibals, Bazeh, Dinka, Shilluk…Arabs of every tribe- Baggara, Rizeghat, Taisha, Homr, Howazma, Miserieh, Kababish…Habanieh, Degheim, Kenana, Gowameh, Bederieh, Beni Jerrar…Turks, Mecca Arabs, Syrians, Indians, Europeans…
-Ten Years Captivity in the Mahdi’s Camp, 1882-1892, Joseph Orhwalder
Father Ohrwalder was kept in the Mahdi’s Omdurman camp while General Gordon sweated out the siege in Khartoum. One hundred years later I would take a taxi every day from my hotel near the so-called Gordon staircase to cross the White Nile bridge to the Abu Jaib Building beside the Friday Mosque and climb to the third floor to see Sayyid Bashir. I would look out the window at the crowd and try to imagine how many languages were spoken down there. But when KhairAllah walked in the door we needed only one, which he had learned from me and I had learned from him, and the Tower of Babel went quiet.