The Sudan Handbook

a shoRt histoRy of sudanEsE PoPulaR musiC 243

Beja in the east, the Fur in the west and the Nuba in central Sudan have

been added, successively, the influence of migrants from the Middle East,

from North (and later West) Africa, and from the societies of southern

Sudan. Uniting them all, one way or another, is the long history of slavery

and the slave trade.

For several centuries, the Arabic-speaking northern Sudanese

obtained slaves from non-Arab, non-Muslim communities in southern

Sudan and adjacent territories. Slavery and the slave trade reached a peak

under Turco-Egyptian rule in the nineteenth century, and the institu-

tion of slavery continued to thrive under the Mahdist state (1885–1898).

Although the majority of Sudanese slaves were exported to Mediterra-

nean and Middle Eastern markets, many remained in the northern part

of the Sudan. Here they became domestic servants, soldiers, labourers, or

concubines. Following the Anglo-Egyptian conquest of the Mahdist state,

slavery, though not the slave trade, persisted until the late 1930s. Finally a

combination of international pressure, the logic of the colonial economy

and the actions of the slaves themselves led to the demise of slavery as

a legal institution. But the ideology of slavery did not disappear: former

slaves and their descendants remained socially and culturally marginal-

ized in Sudanese society and have done to this day.

Like their counterparts in other parts of the world, Sudanese slaves

brought with them cultural traditions from their home regions in

southern Sudan and the borderlands. Their cultural practices had a

profound impact on social life in the northern Sudan and on all forms of

artistic expressions. One of the most important groups in the dissemina-

tion of these traditions were the slave soldiers who formed the backbone

of the Turco-Egyptian, Mahdist, and the Anglo-Egyptian armies.

Music and Religion

From the sixteenth century onwards, as a result of the growing dominance

of Islam and the Arabic language, distinct musical styles began to emerge.

The most prominent of those was called madeih, a religious chanting that

The Sudan Handbook, edited by John Ryle, Justin Willis, Suliman Baldo and Jok Madut Jok. © 2011 Rift Valley Institute and contributors praised the Prophet Muhammad and local holy men. With the spread

(www.riftvalley.net).