Wad an-Nail
ʿAwad Karim Tijani, a helpful younger colleague from the University of Sennar, Abu Na’ama, and I try to contact Mbororo in Wad an-Nail. Women who are selling milk from house to house are easily recognisable as Mbororo by their naked shoulders, their bead ornaments, their brass bracelets, their tresses, and the milk containers on their heads; but they know little Arabic and are very shy. We meet these Mbororo women in a Southern Sudanese neighbourhood where their evasive reactions to the researchers or to a 'helpful' mediator they encounter in the street evoke condescending laughter among the local women.
Mbororo men are also conspicuous from afar by their shape and colour. While Arabs and those who have adopted Arab ways wear wide, white garments, the Mbororo have a preference for close-fitting vests and for the colour blue. (There is a beautiful example of the silhouette as a cultural marker in Klumpp and Kratz [1993: 204], which shows the Maasai female silhouette.)
Through a medical practitioner, we finally make contact with two Mbororo men, one of whom has come to town for treatment. The other one has heard about me from Sheikh Baabo ʿUmar, who is his mother’s brother. An appointment is made for the next day, the 21st of August.
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