كتابى عن البقارة: تصميم وصورة غلاف كتابى بالأنجليزية .. ريكم شنو؟

Quote: 1 PROLOGUE Late in 1963 or early in 1964, the author was born in Sudan to a nomadic Baggara family, near to an area known as Abu Safifa, north east of Kadugli city, the provincial capital of South Kordofan State of Sudan. No one knows the exact timing or exact place of the author's birth date, only almighty God knows! Yet, anonymous birth date and location are the norm for Baggara people rather than exception. Around the year 1963, it could be well argued that only a few Baggara could've birth certificates and even fewer have formal education if any. None was formally educated in the author’s family or in his extended family before him. Education to the Baggara at that time was one of the ways to alienate their kids from Baggara culture and way of life. The Baggara culture and way of life were so dominant to the exclusion of anything else. Education was not part of Baggara culture. Baggara culture and way of life have been simply built around cattle growing and rearing, nomadism and living away from cities modalities and urban culture. With such strong grip of Baggara culture, most of Baggara youth remained uneducated – even at the time of this book writing. However, the author's father, a man of vision, had a different idea about schooling – to him “school teaches literacy and that is the only way that Baggara can get a glimpse of what the Government intention is against them”; the author’s father stressed: “Baggara can guard themselves against Government high taxation only if they are educating their youth to read Government letters and to know how to write complaints”. Getting a nice job in a future was not part of the author’s father vision, nor it was a main stream Baggara culture. Rearing cattle was a natural way to go for Baggara people. With such simplistic view of education, the author was braved into a totally alien system to his ancestors or even to his immediate siblings. Yet the author's mother and grandmother had different views that their sweet heart would not go anywhere. The author’s mother had determined to divorce the author’s father if he dared to take her son to school. The author’s wealthy grandmother had awarded him goats and cattle to dissuade the author’s father from his intention to take him to school. Through early childhood, the author had enjoyed the company of his mother and grandmother; he had to ride a camel alongside his mother when migrating from one place to another, and he had to sleep with her in the drangal - Baggara's deluxe bed style for all family members to sleep in. Once he was separated from his mother he was taken into his grandmother custody, he had to ride on an ox with his grandmother and he had to sleep in her dome house and he had to eat special food she prepared for him. Soon the author was grown to about six years he had been moved to sleep alongside his peer boys under trees in open space within the cow’s quarters. Throughout night they enjoyed the protection from flies and mosquitoes by cows and when cows leave the quarters even in mid moonless night they had to take their sticks and follow them to bring them back to the family quarter. The author had to learn early in his life to walk for hours in dark nights only by himself looking for some stray cow or lost calf. He learnt how to ride a pull or a camel, to tame an ox or a donkey, and to eat trees' barks, leaves and rhizomes during late afternoon when rearing cattle or to medicate himself from Malaria disease by eating some trees leaves and barks and drinking puree of Tamarindus indica (Sudanese vernacular name: arabeib). The author grandfather was a local herbs and ethnobotanical practitioner. He used to cure the author and his peers from multitude of aliments: for Measles he treated them with drinking donkey’s milk; for rabies he used certain tree barks, specifically Xeromphis nilotica (Sudanese vernacular name: shagarat el murfaein.translated as: wolf tree) mixed with sour milk; for other aliments he used to shower them with cattle’s or camel’s urine or boiling trees leaves such as Combretum spp. (locally called: habil) to treat hepatitis. One of the most exceptional qualities of Baggara people is to learn how to feed themselves in wilderness either through hunting wild animals and games, to make lure to catch large birds such guinea fowls, to do spear fishing, to practice exchange trades: to barter milk for food crops or to start fire using Corchorus (Corchorus olitorius, Sudanese vernacular name: malokhia) or Corchorus capsularis (Sudanese vernacular name: karang). Early in Baggara boys life one has to learn to survive in any circumstances: by digging roots and rhizomes for food or uproot some underground stems to drink their juice as water to quench thirsty. On the other hand, Baggara boys learn how not to be an opportunist – who take every possible chance to get a bite from someone else dish or scout around a camp to catch a meal – very abhorring characters. The boys learn what it means to be brave and fight back courageously in order to survive. Wilderness of Baggara country is full of excitements and sometimes unexpected events - a sudden encounter of stray beast or running into someone barbequing a hunted deer is possible. Although seems to be rough and hard, Baggara transhumance life is exceptionally fulfilling to a nomadic Baggara man: moving freely from one place to another without restriction, hunting in the wild, chasing and flattering with Baggara women, galloping horses, wrestling, dancing during lunar days, and many more are the essence of a relaxing Baggara life. Once the author had grown up to reach school age, he had to leave his best Baggara life! for the school and village life. The author’s mother fought her battle courageously with the author’s father to spare him from going to school, but the author’s father had used all his connections, relationship and the author’s mother relative’s relationships to make his case. The author’s mother had to go everywhere to her father, tribal leaders, religious sheikh with no help to avert her son from going to school. For the author’s mother the school was so monstrous that her life was doomed. The author had been snatched by force from his mother during the best time of the year for Baggara nomads - the herding season, to a village far in South Kordofan State, where people are in their worst season - the growing season. There in the village, the author saw as if the world came to an end – the place was totally swallowed in a jungle of dense and tall savannah grasses and vegetation, human and animals waste were everywhere, it was muddy, filthy and unbearably mosquitoes’ infested. The author had every intention to escape from the village, but willingly he had resisted his desire, later on taking honor of his bravery and courage to withstand every adverse conditions at young age of around seven years. The author had to pass three months before his mother and grandmother to come a long with Baggara nomads to the village and settled next to the school. The author had been relieved from a daunting life and night mares. Again before school closing, Baggara nomads migrated northward due to rains, mud and harmful flies to their animals – at that time the author became mindful of obstacles and challenges ahead and started to take control of his own life and destiny at such a young age. The author father was his hero in every sense; he never stopped encouraging him, pushing him to reach his next education goal or easing his situation by bringing in needed resources. The author proved himself to be a successful student progressively beating up his peers in the class to point that he became the best student by the sixth grade. At that early age, the author knew how to be successful in his education. By the year 1984, the author was a freshman in one of the prestigious and best university in Sudan – the honorable Khartoum University. A long the way the author had kept his passion for Baggara life - passing every school term in the nomadic camp away from cities. In 1989 the author was the best student graduating among his peers and less than a year he was awarded a free grant by the Mediterranean Agronomic Institute in Greece to pursue a master degree in Renewable Natural Resources. Once the author completed his master degree he went back again to lead a nomadic Baggara life for a brief period before he was called back in 1994 by the University of Salonika in northern Greece to pursue a PhD in the Department of Genetics and Natural Environment. In June 15, 1997 a new history was made, the author was immigrated to the United States of America. He was and have been ever since thrilled by the richness and diversity of American life and culture. In November 1999, the author’s wife had joined him in the US and soon they formed a family with adoring kids and the author had changed his profession to Software engineering earning a master degree in computer science, in 2003, from the Marymount University in Arlington, Virginia. In July 17, 2012, the author was back to Sudan to visit his Baggara relatives and kinships. He was astounded by the profound difference between his previous Baggara life and his current new found American life. In this book, Baggara Culture and Environment, most of the subjects and materials are cross-checked and weighted against the author own memory dump. This is a genuine narrative of Baggara culture and way of life. Bir Adam – Reston, Virginia USA 09/22/2012

(عدل بواسطة بريمة محمد on 10-06-2012, 07:35 PM)