15Glossary
ada (Ar.) custom, tradition or habit
AACC All Africa Council of Churches
Abbala (Ar.) ethnic category: Arabic-speaking camel herders in
northern and western Sudan, derived from ibl, camel
ABCE Abyei Boundaries Commission
ajawid (Ar.) mediators, traditionally elderly people versed in
customary law and communal customs
Almanac Pocket-sized reference book produced for officials of the
Anglo-Egyptian government
amir (emir) (Ar.) tribal leader in northern Sudan, between an omda or
sheikh and a nazir
Ansar (Ar.) supporters of the Mahdi and his descendants
Anyanya (Madi) snake poison; a term used for the southern
guerrillas in the first civil war in the south (Anyanya I);
and for a pro-government militia in the second civil war
(Anyanya II)
Ashiqqa (Ar.) ‘blood brothers’; the name of a political group of
pro-Egyptian nationalists that emerged in the Graduates’
Congress in the 1940s and was assimilated into the NUP in
1952
AU African Union (formerly Organization of African Unity
(OAU))
Baggara Ar.) ethnic category: Arabic-speaking, cattle-keeping
peoples of northern and western Sudan
baraka (Ar.) blessing; religious charisma
Bilad al-Sudan (Ar.) ‘The land of the blacks’, the name given by medieval
Muslim geographers to the lands south of Egypt, from the
Red Sea to the AtlanticThe Sudan Handbook, edited by John Ryle, Justin Willis, Suliman Baldo and Jok Madut Jok. © 2011 Rift Valley Institute and contributors
(www.riftvalley.net).