The Sudan Handbook

kEy fiGuREs in sudanEsE histoRy, CultuRE & PolitiCs 339

asleep he set fire to their camp, burning them all alive. Muhammad Ali

sent an army to avenge the death of his son, but Mek Nimr fled to the

borderlands of present-day Ethiopia where he continued to harass the

Turco-Egyptian army.

Mini ARkoy MEnaWi (b.1968). Leader of the Sudan Liberation

Movement/ Army–Mini Menawi faction. Born in North Darfur, a former

teacher, he was a founder and former Secretary-General of the SLM/A. He

split from the group in 2005, forming his own SLA–Mini Menawi faction,

which, under his leadership, was the only major Darfur rebel group to

sign the Darfur Peace Agreement in 2006. He was appointed Senior Presi-

dential Assistant and head of the Darfur Transitional Authority as part

of the agreement but was not reappointed after the April 2010 elections.

He has since formally renounced the DPA and called for the overthrow

of the Khartoum government.

MohammEd El-Amin (b.1943). Musician. Born in Wad Medani in

central Sudan, he learned the oud (a lute) at the age of 11. He became

honorary president of the Sudanese Artists’ and Composers’ Society.

Jailed by Nimeiri in the 1970s, he left for Cairo in 1989 but returned

quietly to Khartoum in 1994.

MohamEd Osman al-MiRGhani. Hereditary leader of the

Khatmiyya order who became the leader of the Democratic Unionist

Party after the death of his father, Ali al-Mirghani, in 1968. He was a

founding member and president of the National Democratic Alliance,

a coalition of Sudanese opposition parties in exile formed in 1989 to

restore national democracy and to oppose the NIF/NCP regime. In

the last decade, however, the DUP has formed closer ties to the ruling

National Congress party.

MohamEd WaRdi (b.1932). Musician, known as ‘The Golden Throat’.

A Nubian, born near old Wadi Halfa, he went to school in Egypt and

The Sudan Handbook, edited by John Ryle, Justin Willis, Suliman Baldo and Jok Madut Jok. © 2011 Rift Valley Institute and contributors returned as an elementary school teacher. He moved to Khartoum in 1957

(www.riftvalley.net).