Formerly camels were hired if a man wanted to travel into Kordofan, and a leisurely and Biblical journey was made across the sands and wild barren country…But the railway has put an end to that. A cinematograph was exhibited in El Obeid and the Kordofan chiefs who attended gaped at the miracle. The cinema and the railroad marked the beginning of a new era…
-My Sudan Year, 1912, Ethel Stevens Drower
When KhairAllah and I took Voice of the Whip for a 300 mile screening tour on Kordofan’s back tracks, it felt less a government-sponsored goodwill mission than a buddy trip for old times’ sake. Thirty years after we’d first saddled up together it was good to be welcomed again in Kababish villages, whether because we were driving a dabouka of native camels or projecting a film about native sons. Not even little children gaped at KhairAllah’s, Bilal’s, and the other drovers’ moving images cast upon mud walls after dark. Smart phones had long ago replaced the cinematograph out there. But for one night at least outdoor cinema on the big screen had come to that wild and barren country.