Khartoum is Where the Party is At!

by Drima (Sudan)

Sudan has become synonymous with the word genocide. Mention Sudan to anyone now and most people will only picture ugly images of dead people, hungry orphans with flies buzzing around their heads and Janjaweed charging across the lands to murder innocent villagers. I don’t deny such things exist. Sadly they do and what’s worse is that it’s all you get to hear about. The following New York Times article puts things into perspective. It comes together with this revealing video that shatters typical stereotypes (be sure to enlarge and click “high” for better quality). Make sure you watch it. (hat tip: Sudan Watch). Those two items caused different people to react differently. Some were impressed with the economic reforms and others were left with a bitter taste in their mouths.

The video left me with mixed feelings too and it brought back many memories. In a way I was happy that many people will now be able to see a different side of Sudan they rarely hear about. I’ve always hated it when people ask me stupid questions about Sudan. They think it’s nothing but an empty desert and that when I go back for holidays, I live in a tent with no proper sanitation or electricity. Sudan isn’t all like that. Khartoum is a different world from the rest of the country. If you know the right people, you can go to places where you would swear you weren’t even in Sudan. A few years ago I was shocked at some of the things that happen behind “closed doors” in the upper class places in the capital.

When parents are away friends host big private parties in their mansions which are built on farms along the Nile. In those parties you can expect the unexpected. Some mansions were built by their owners with the sole purpose of making them easily convertable into clubs. The mansions are designed with in-built sound systems wired to speakers and subwoofers in all rooms including the bathroom! Wherever you go, the DJ’s choice of hip-hop and house music goes with you. All kinds of alcoholic drinks flow until nothing is left. Sometimes cocaine, weed, heroin and ecstacy flow along too! “Well behaved” hijaby girls come to the parties dressed in revealing clothes they would never dare to wear in most public places. Foreigners including many Europeans also get invited. Furniture gets moved and space is made for a huge dancefloor. If there’s a swimming pool, then the party moves outside with the drained swimming pool acting as another dance floor. Some chill, some dance while others play a few games at the very limited available pool and snooker tables. A few miles away at the edges of the farm, private security stands on guard to make sure the religious police doesn’t come onto the private property. If they do show up then the private security just bribes them and tells them to buzz off. This description alone ought to turn your head upside-down a little bit. Even many conservative/innocent Sudanese have no idea about the kind of crazy things that happen behind “closed doors” in Khartoum but some of those crazy incidents have been reported in newspapers.

The slowly returning Sudanese diaspora is bringing along with it tons of money and lifestyles foreign to Sudanese culture. Much of those lifestyles present a huge opportunity for business people. The consumer market is big and investors are pouring money into it while in the process reaping back big profits. People have extra money to spend on leisure and entertainment. They want to be able to live the same lifestyle they had back in America, London, Europe or Dubai. They want to be pampered. The demand is high but the supply is low. Ozone Cafe (featured in the video) is just one of those things that the returning Sudanese diaspora wanted but couldn’t find. It’s one of many expensive hang out places and shisha bars mushrooming everywhere catering to the priveleged Sudanese in the capital and also the increasingly big number of foreigners there. 10 years ago, a Chinese man walking around Khartoum would have been like a giraffe roaming around Antartica. Now there are foreigners everywhere in the capital. This also presents a big potential market for business people. We’ve got our own mini China-town now for God’s sake people and it’s expanding steadily! It’s kinda cool. Khartoum is much more interesting now and there are a lot more fun things to do when I go back to visit. In the past, the only fun you could get was during outdoor BBQ picnics or in wedding celebrations and private house parties of course.

There are many cool projects coming along nicely now. The biggest one underway is currently al-Sunut. For me and people like me back home, al-Sunut is going to be super great. Shopping mall, luxury hotels, spas, office towers, a nice corneche, Sudan’s first golf course (ya I know we have no golf courses!), huge villas with swimming pools along the Nile and much more are going to be available. A few years from now, it will be completed. Few of the buildings are already finished. Below are some pictures (hat tip for pictures: Fluent-Sudani).

All this would have been unimaginable 5-10 years ago especially when the north-south war was still going and political opression was at its peak. Conditions in Khartoum have greatly improved. I have to give Omar al-Bashir’s regime credit for this. Even power cuts are very rare now! That wasn’t the case 5-10 years ago. There would be power cuts daily (except in winter) that lasted for a minimum of 4-6 hours. Thank God we had our own generator in the house. It consumed a lot of expensive fuel but at least it kept the air conditioning going and refrigerators on. I’m lucky that my family back home is doing well. My grandfather God rest his soul, left behind a lot even though much of what he made during his life was lost thanks of course to the NIF thieves who appeared and started doing all kinds of corrupt and vile things in the name of “Islamic economic reform”. The methods used mainly involved imposing newly created taxes with the purpose of burdening existing businesses until they declared bankruptcy. That way after enough businesses went bankrupt, NIF members would modify the old tax laws and start their own more “halal” companies which of course will end up doing super great since there was no real competition facing them anymore. Anyways that’s besides the point.

There are many Sudanese in Khartoum enjoying the party too much, many who are trying to enjoy it while also doing the best they can to help others and many many more who simply can’t enjoy because they’re too worried about making ends meet. That’s where my heavy disgust begins. Surely, Khartoum is where the party is at. Some enjoy and chill away, while others are simply intoxicated and high… too high in the clouds to notice all the other sad crap that goes on way below them. Sadly the losers in the party stay on the edges and watch the cool “high” crowd enjoying to the max. Some in the cool crowd are sympathetic towards the “losers” and try to help them through donations mostly. If they try helping them through other daring means, they risk ending up becoming “losers” too. I don’t blame them. I myself I’m afraid of the risks too but I’m not going to turn my back and pretend the “losers” don’t exist. Still though most of the “cool” ones are unfortunately just not bothered or too immoral and involved in gang bangs and orgies to actually care about carrying out their moral duties towards the “loser crowd”. They’re the minority, they’ve got the power, they like what they’ve got and they won’t give it up. That’s what really makes me sick.

I really hate it sometimes when Sudanese friends of mine start talking crap and start bragging about al-Sunut for example. I tend to get too tensed up in the moment. Sure it’s great and it’s wonderful for Khartoum but NOT Sudan. You see this is the problem I’ve noticed with many Sudanese in Khartoum and outside of Sudan. They’re so happy about al-Sunut and they start saying things like “oh Sudan is developing, oh it’s improving”. No it’s NOT. Khartoum is improving. Khartoum is witnessing development. Khartoum is where the party is at. Khartoum is the one that’s visibly benefiting from the increasing investment. BUT Khartoum is where only about one sixth of Sudan’s population is. Khartoum isn’t Sudan and Sudan isn’t Khartoum. We’re a country of about 30 million people. Only 5 million live in the capital… a capital that is increasingly becoming prosperous but what about the other 25 million Sudanese elsewhere? What about them? We need to pay attention to them. We need to visibly decrease the wealth gap between us in Khartoum and them. We need to help them catch up with us instead of focusing too much on making Khartoum catch up with the rest of the world. We need to at least, at least, at least provide them with basic necessities and help them obtain the dignity they deserve as Sudanese citizens. They’re having no damn party for sure.