Translator: Ju Li Khing Reviewer: Elisabeth Buffard
The first thing that caught my attention
was the title of this TEDx event: "Who are we?"
Who are we?
And I said to myself the answer is always related to the culture.
What is our culture?
And all nations try to show their culture
when they're asked, "Who are you?"
The Indians, the Chinese, the Egyptians,
always put their culture and history in mind
when they're asked, "Who are you?"
So, I choose a very, very small part of the unique Sudanese tradition
which no one outside Sudan can claim for themselves.
This part which interests anyone who comes to Sudan...
is everyone says, "I want to see a Sudanese wedding".
The Sudanese wedding traditions don't exist in the Arab world
or anywhere else in the world but in the center of Sudan.
The second thing when we're asking, "Who are you?" -
Where shall we begin?
I think I should start and I will start 2000 years ago.
At that time, in a small part of the daily habits of the Sudanese life
that we still practice today 2000 years later,
we did certain things in the same cultural continuity
but if we looked here, we'll see a picture
which describes Al Jirtik, a group of traditions
that takes place in the Sudanese wedding.
It's done for various reasons.
Like protecting the newly married couple from evil spirits or from envy
or to wish this marriage to be prosperous and fertile.
Also wishing the couple healthy children.
This shows what marriages are now.
The bride and the groom wearing these things,
and if we got back to exactly 2000 years ago,
we will find this picture
which is for a marriage, displayed in a treasure
called Amanashekhetho's treasure
and which was found in his pyramid tomb.
It's made of gold and covered in different kinds of crafts.
Kept and displayed in Berlin's museum in Germany,
this big picture shows a very small ring enhanced
and it's one of the rings found in the Amanashekhetho's treasure.
It was this big, and an artist drew this on it 2000 years ago.
Once you lay eyes on this drawing,
especially for someone interested in folklore,
instantly they will know that this is a drawing of Al Jirtik.
Why does the couple need protection?
The evil spirits cause a couple of things to the wedding.
One is called "kabsa" and the other is called "moshahara"
and these things cause them different kinds of illnesses;
whether it's psychological
or causes them to be sterile and not be able to have children
or even if the bride got pregnant
it would cause problems with the pregnancy
maybe even lead to abortion.
That is why the elderly women take this tradition very seriously.
If we notice, there are things concerning the groom like "sabrish"
- which is the thing wrapped around his head like a crown -
which is still used until now.
All I wanted to say by showing you these images
is that this unique Sudanese culture
is still continued and practiced today in Sudanese society
and there are a lot of traditions like Al Jirtik that have been also practiced
since a long time ago.
So we have a very special culture we can show to others
and this is a very small sample of that culture,
a culture with many characteristics like continuity and diversity.
Sudan is a very culturally rich country, for it has massive cultural diversity
which interests many people.
We have many things to show
and when we're asked, "Who are you?" we can say we are Sudanese.
We have old, diversified civilizations, and we have a continued one.
So when we're asked "Who are you?"
we can answer that we are the people with diversity.
We are the people who live peacefully next to each other
though there are huge differences in our cultures.
And our history has obvious continuity.
Thank you and god bless you.
(Applause)