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Food and drink of the Nubian people
Food and drink of the Nubian people of Batn al-Hajar and Sokkot
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Food and drink of the people of Batn al-Hajar
Food
People in this area eat wheat and corn but mostly the latter, grown along a narrow strip near the River Nile. Previously, British colonial authorities allowed local people to grow a tobacco called gamsha, which they sold to the north and south making it part of their economy. In addition dates, the people of Batn al-Hajar’s food includes the following:
• Kabid is a famous gorasa, type of Sudanese flatbread, made out of corn dough baked on a traditional hotplate stove. A kabid loaf is flipped constantaly until both sides are equally cooked and then a cross is marked onto its surface as a form of blessing. It is flavoured with idam, or sauce, made of ittir, the two types of cowpea plant leaves, or fish broth, or milk or ghee with sugar, or purslane or any other stew.
•Shiddi is the equivalent of Sudanese kisra (flatbread sheets) and is only made out of corn and eaten with whatever idam is available.
• Sallabiyya is made of wheat which is spread out very thinly on the traditional hotplate stove and is often eaten with milk or any other sauce.
• Turmus or lupin is washed and placed in a sack that is left in the Nile for three days to remove its bitter taste. It is an allround favourite and is considered good for the bones.
• Dates. Each family has its own palm tree grove. The female palm is pollinated by male ambi. Dates are stored in a gussi, a large clay barrel, of which the family may have more than one. It is sealed at the top to prevent any air entering with a hole at the bottom, covered with a cloth, through which the dates can be extracted. Dates stored this way do not get pest infestations.1
• Fish is caught by net or hook whenever required. Fish meat and idam sauce are very good because they are Nile fish.
• Fenti shorba is a date porridge usually made for pregnant women.
In terms of meat, the people of Batn al-Hajar have their distinctive Nubian sheep and Nubian camels.
People here use their camels to travel to the north and south to sell their gamsha tobacco. Everyone has their own camels, sheep and goats which they slaughter occasionaly. Nubian camels have a high tolerance threshold for hunger and thirst, and have good quality meat, and even though they are smaller than other camels, they are able to carry heavier laods and walk faster. When a camel is old, it is killed and its meat is shared out. Camel milk is left for it to feed its young while the people drink sheep and goat milk.
Food for people in this area includes Nile fish, crocodiles, turtles and other reptiles and they hunt rabbits using their own secret methods. The job of youngsters is to catch birds like doves and migrating birds that arrive in the winter.
• Turkin, known by most Sudanese as maloha (or cured fish), is when small fish are layered across the bottom of a large dish and covered with a layer of salt. This is repeated until the dish is filled with layers of fish and salt. The dish is then placed on a fire until the fish disintegrates including any breeding worms that may have been in the fisth, but this is okay. After it is boiled, the fish mixture is constantly stirred over about three days. When preparing an idam sauce, some of the fish is cooked with oil, onions and spices. It is a favourite food eaten with wheat gorasa.2
Beverages
• Dakkai is an alchohol they make and can be used as a marker of a woman’s status for example a young man may refuse to marry a young woman who is not good at making it. To make dakkai, dates are placed in a large clay pot and left to ferment. After about three days, the beverage reaches perfection and a man might ask his friends to come and share it and it is even better if this drinking session coincides with a feast when an animal has been slaughtered!
• Nebit is derived from carefully selected dates that are placed in a large clay pot which is cooked over a very hot fire and then buried in the ground for at least nine days. Nebit is made and consumed during the very cold desert winters and men drink it in the morning to be able to enter the water by the waterwheel as the drink gives off plenty of heat to warm up the body. A man may also invite his friends to come and merrily consume it with him.
Other fermented drinks include aragi (the most common Sudanese alchoholic drink). This is imported from eastern Dongola, where it is professionally made by women in the that region.
Food and drink of the people of Al-Sakkot
Foods
• Turkin, which we saw ealier, is a type of maloha eaten with wheat gorasa flatbreads.
• Koddad is what most Sudanese people know as mulah al-warag made from the leaves of safflower, watercress or the different types of cowpea leaves. One variety of these leaves are placed cooked for a long time over a coal fire with spices, onions and garlic, and it is eaten with kisra.
• Koshen kulub is made from safflower beans which are roasted, ground, sieved, and then cooked over a fire.
• Futti is millet. The grains are ground and used as idam stew, after being cooked over a fire.
• Corn gorasa with fermented milk.
• Belilah is made of wheat, corn, or cowpeas and is cooked with salt and eaten by hand.
• A mixture of seseme and wheat gorasa eaten with any stew.
• Gurub is made of dates with wheat or corn. Date kernels are removed and the dates are cut up into small pieces and added to a mixture of corn or wheat dough and spread on a hotplate to cook. It is eaten by itself.
• Boje is made when a pumpkin is peeled and its soft, sweetish pulp, the boje, is removed. It is then boiled over a fire and eaten with kisra, or gurasa flatbreads made of wheat or corn.
• Green Egyptian favabean balila which is boiled over a fire with salt and eaten by hand.
• Lupine flour gorasa is boiled with with salt and spices, and eaten with molokhia.
• Date syrup is made out of good quality dates such as the gondela and barakawi varieties. These are placed in a large container and boiled for a long period of time. Once cooled, the pulp is strained and boiled for a second time and then strained again to remove any residue from the first straining. It can be eaten with gorasa or any other flatbread.
• Madida is a porridge made of millet or dates and is given to sick people or pregnant women.
• Dates are readily available similarly like they are for the people of Batn al-Hajar, Al-Mahas and Dongola and are eaten whenever they feel like having some.
Beverages
People here make alcohol out of their local crops which they drink when they are not working, especially at night. Different types of alcohol are made each season; nabit in winter, and dakkai in the summer. Both have been described in the beverages of Batn al-Hajar.
Young men sometimes make the alcohol aragi on the banks of the Nile taking advantage of the cool climate along the waterfront. The dates, which will have been fermenting for about three days, are put in a container with a draining tube and placed over a fire. When the mixture reaches boiling point, heat is reduced to bring it down. A special pipe is wrapped around container’s draining tube. Ice or cold water is passed through the pipe to control the density and flow of the liquid which is drained into waiting bottles. Young men get their aragi making equipment made at local ironmongers.
Cover picture: Grinding stone © Darfur museum, Niyala
[1] Most of the information about Batn al-Hajar is from the researcher's knowledge, as he is one of them. Others participated in narrating this information:
Mrs. Ali Muhammad Musa - Housewife - Wadi Halfa - Second District - 71 years old, meeting with her on 24_8_2024 - 26_8_2024.
Hassan Taha Musa Diab - Retired - 74 years old, meeting with him in his home in Wadi Halfa. Second District - on 28_8_2024 .
[2] The information about the Sokkot was taken from the book of Sayyid Muhammad Abdullah: (Folklore in the Sokkot Region) - Institute of African and Asian Studies - University of Khartoum - 1974 - pp. 111_112_126_127.
Food and drink of the people of Batn al-Hajar
Food
People in this area eat wheat and corn but mostly the latter, grown along a narrow strip near the River Nile. Previously, British colonial authorities allowed local people to grow a tobacco called gamsha, which they sold to the north and south making it part of their economy. In addition dates, the people of Batn al-Hajar’s food includes the following:
• Kabid is a famous gorasa, type of Sudanese flatbread, made out of corn dough baked on a traditional hotplate stove. A kabid loaf is flipped constantaly until both sides are equally cooked and then a cross is marked onto its surface as a form of blessing. It is flavoured with idam, or sauce, made of ittir, the two types of cowpea plant leaves, or fish broth, or milk or ghee with sugar, or purslane or any other stew.
•Shiddi is the equivalent of Sudanese kisra (flatbread sheets) and is only made out of corn and eaten with whatever idam is available.
• Sallabiyya is made of wheat which is spread out very thinly on the traditional hotplate stove and is often eaten with milk or any other sauce.
• Turmus or lupin is washed and placed in a sack that is left in the Nile for three days to remove its bitter taste. It is an allround favourite and is considered good for the bones.
• Dates. Each family has its own palm tree grove. The female palm is pollinated by male ambi. Dates are stored in a gussi, a large clay barrel, of which the family may have more than one. It is sealed at the top to prevent any air entering with a hole at the bottom, covered with a cloth, through which the dates can be extracted. Dates stored this way do not get pest infestations.1
• Fish is caught by net or hook whenever required. Fish meat and idam sauce are very good because they are Nile fish.
• Fenti shorba is a date porridge usually made for pregnant women.
In terms of meat, the people of Batn al-Hajar have their distinctive Nubian sheep and Nubian camels.
People here use their camels to travel to the north and south to sell their gamsha tobacco. Everyone has their own camels, sheep and goats which they slaughter occasionaly. Nubian camels have a high tolerance threshold for hunger and thirst, and have good quality meat, and even though they are smaller than other camels, they are able to carry heavier laods and walk faster. When a camel is old, it is killed and its meat is shared out. Camel milk is left for it to feed its young while the people drink sheep and goat milk.
Food for people in this area includes Nile fish, crocodiles, turtles and other reptiles and they hunt rabbits using their own secret methods. The job of youngsters is to catch birds like doves and migrating birds that arrive in the winter.
• Turkin, known by most Sudanese as maloha (or cured fish), is when small fish are layered across the bottom of a large dish and covered with a layer of salt. This is repeated until the dish is filled with layers of fish and salt. The dish is then placed on a fire until the fish disintegrates including any breeding worms that may have been in the fisth, but this is okay. After it is boiled, the fish mixture is constantly stirred over about three days. When preparing an idam sauce, some of the fish is cooked with oil, onions and spices. It is a favourite food eaten with wheat gorasa.2
Beverages
• Dakkai is an alchohol they make and can be used as a marker of a woman’s status for example a young man may refuse to marry a young woman who is not good at making it. To make dakkai, dates are placed in a large clay pot and left to ferment. After about three days, the beverage reaches perfection and a man might ask his friends to come and share it and it is even better if this drinking session coincides with a feast when an animal has been slaughtered!
• Nebit is derived from carefully selected dates that are placed in a large clay pot which is cooked over a very hot fire and then buried in the ground for at least nine days. Nebit is made and consumed during the very cold desert winters and men drink it in the morning to be able to enter the water by the waterwheel as the drink gives off plenty of heat to warm up the body. A man may also invite his friends to come and merrily consume it with him.
Other fermented drinks include aragi (the most common Sudanese alchoholic drink). This is imported from eastern Dongola, where it is professionally made by women in the that region.
Food and drink of the people of Al-Sakkot
Foods
• Turkin, which we saw ealier, is a type of maloha eaten with wheat gorasa flatbreads.
• Koddad is what most Sudanese people know as mulah al-warag made from the leaves of safflower, watercress or the different types of cowpea leaves. One variety of these leaves are placed cooked for a long time over a coal fire with spices, onions and garlic, and it is eaten with kisra.
• Koshen kulub is made from safflower beans which are roasted, ground, sieved, and then cooked over a fire.
• Futti is millet. The grains are ground and used as idam stew, after being cooked over a fire.
• Corn gorasa with fermented milk.
• Belilah is made of wheat, corn, or cowpeas and is cooked with salt and eaten by hand.
• A mixture of seseme and wheat gorasa eaten with any stew.
• Gurub is made of dates with wheat or corn. Date kernels are removed and the dates are cut up into small pieces and added to a mixture of corn or wheat dough and spread on a hotplate to cook. It is eaten by itself.
• Boje is made when a pumpkin is peeled and its soft, sweetish pulp, the boje, is removed. It is then boiled over a fire and eaten with kisra, or gurasa flatbreads made of wheat or corn.
• Green Egyptian favabean balila which is boiled over a fire with salt and eaten by hand.
• Lupine flour gorasa is boiled with with salt and spices, and eaten with molokhia.
• Date syrup is made out of good quality dates such as the gondela and barakawi varieties. These are placed in a large container and boiled for a long period of time. Once cooled, the pulp is strained and boiled for a second time and then strained again to remove any residue from the first straining. It can be eaten with gorasa or any other flatbread.
• Madida is a porridge made of millet or dates and is given to sick people or pregnant women.
• Dates are readily available similarly like they are for the people of Batn al-Hajar, Al-Mahas and Dongola and are eaten whenever they feel like having some.
Beverages
People here make alcohol out of their local crops which they drink when they are not working, especially at night. Different types of alcohol are made each season; nabit in winter, and dakkai in the summer. Both have been described in the beverages of Batn al-Hajar.
Young men sometimes make the alcohol aragi on the banks of the Nile taking advantage of the cool climate along the waterfront. The dates, which will have been fermenting for about three days, are put in a container with a draining tube and placed over a fire. When the mixture reaches boiling point, heat is reduced to bring it down. A special pipe is wrapped around container’s draining tube. Ice or cold water is passed through the pipe to control the density and flow of the liquid which is drained into waiting bottles. Young men get their aragi making equipment made at local ironmongers.
Cover picture: Grinding stone © Darfur museum, Niyala
[1] Most of the information about Batn al-Hajar is from the researcher's knowledge, as he is one of them. Others participated in narrating this information:
Mrs. Ali Muhammad Musa - Housewife - Wadi Halfa - Second District - 71 years old, meeting with her on 24_8_2024 - 26_8_2024.
Hassan Taha Musa Diab - Retired - 74 years old, meeting with him in his home in Wadi Halfa. Second District - on 28_8_2024 .
[2] The information about the Sokkot was taken from the book of Sayyid Muhammad Abdullah: (Folklore in the Sokkot Region) - Institute of African and Asian Studies - University of Khartoum - 1974 - pp. 111_112_126_127.
