Category: Sudan

Thirteen months of Sunrise by Rania Mamoun

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Thirteen months of sunrise by Rania Manoun

Sudanese fiction

Original title – ثلاثة عشر شهرًا من شروق الشمس

Translator – Elisabeth Jaquette

Source – Personal copy

Rania Mamoun is a very well-known figure in Sudanese literature she started out as a journalist contributing to the cultural pages of a Sudanese paper. She has also written for a quarterly magazine.. She has also worked in television. Her works have been translated into various languages. She has written a few novels. A couple of short story collections. She was given a grant by the arab fund for Art and Culture. That has led to workshops, and she also did a list of the ten best books from Sudan. Her last book was on  BRITTLE PAPERS, 100 best AFRICAN BOOKS, two years ago.I think it is an excellent choice for this year’s Women in Translation. Comma Press has been bringing lots of excellent translations out in several city collections, and some books like this, a collection of short stories from a single writer. They have championed many Arabic and writers from smaller countries less well known.

THIRTEEN IS NOT A SUPERSTITIOUS or unlucky number, it’s the number of months in a year in Ethiopia.

But that’s another story.

I was very frustrated by the time he arrived. The computer in front of me had frozen and a customer needed help. It was morning and I was still half-asleep.

I assumed he was Sudanese when I saw him, or, more accurately, I didn’t assume anything. It wouldn’t have been unusual to meet a Sudanese man in my country.

Isn’t it normal for Sudanese people to live in Sudan? I don’t know why I didn’t ask myself where he was from when he spoke to me in English. Maybe my mind was elsewhere.

I fixed the problem with the computer and was in a better mood. I overheard him grumbling about a floppy disk.

The opening of Thirteen months of sunrise the title short story of the collection

Thirteen months of Sunrise is the very first collection from Sudan to be published.. The collection explores the Ethiopian calendar, an Ethiopian man in Sudan who is a student collecting data for his master’s thesis, which sees the two cultures together, as he studies around the Nile, which is about being Ethiopian in Sudan and getting by. I will focus on two other stories of the ten Pssing, which I think is the strongest story in the collection it is about a daughter thinking back on her dead father and the memories she has of her past, and when her homeland and homelife were a lot smoother. I finish with the shortest story in the book about one week of a love. I laughed, I read the title, and I thought this is an Arabic take on how Craig David would be but this is from the point of view of the female being met by a man who, after a week, is gone? (he wrote a song about a one-week love). The stories capture the modern female voice in Sudan.

Day One

WE MET UP AS PEOPLE DO. He didn’t make an impression.

Day Two

We sat side by side, he edged closer. I felt his gaze engulf me. I smiled to myself. He had beautiful eyes.

Day Three

He asked me whether I was seeing anyone.

I responded with silence. Maybe silence was malice

on my part.

Day Four

He told me: I love you, I’ve never had feelings like this before? And I felt myself falling for him; in my heart I accepted his love.

Half of the week of love you’ll need to read the rest to find out what happened !

 

I love that the Comma Press is trying to shine a light on countries where the writers aren’t so well known to us in English and where maybe the country is considered dangerous. I like this collection. I have read several books translated from Arabic, but not many of them have had female voices at their heart. The collection covers a wealth of subjects, really, student living in Sudan, loss of a family member, love, and then getting ghosted! How to afford your health care. It shows how similar even our lives are to those in Sudan. From loss to falling in love, I said the story about the week’s love reminds me of the song about a week in love, but this is from the female side of a similar story. All subjects on how to get by in Sudan!  I hope to read her novels at some point. This is a collection that can easily be read in an evening. The ten stories are less than 70 pages. Have you read any books from Comma Press or any great female voice translated from English to Arabic?

Beneath the Darkening sky by Majok Tulba

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beneath the darkening sky

Beneath the darkening sky by Majok

Australian / Sudanese fiction

Source Review Copy

Beneath the darkening sky was shortlisted for the Commonwealth Book prize .Majok Tulba grew up in Southern Sudan as he says on his website his village was by the waters of the White Nile .When he was nine soldiers from the Sudanese Armed Forces came to his village looking for recruits ,Majok was as it happens an Inch shorter than an AK-47 stood up which was the mark they used to measure up child solders ,he finally fled Sudan aged 16 got a Visa and settled in Australia .He is married with children now and writes and runs a charity and likes to highlight the plight of people in his homeland .I would say have a look at his personnel website which is rather good for a writers site

I think about my last sight of home .Mama and the younger ones clinging to her skirts .Her teeth were chattering .She wasn’t whimpering or crying,she was just trembling with her mouth half-opened and her eyes staring into emptiness of space ,and then she turned and stared into my eyes

Obinna last sight of his home and Mama

 

Now what would happened if the Nine year old Majok was actually a couple of inches taller when the solders came to his town .Well that is the basis of Beneath the darkening sky ,Obinna is a happy nine-year old when the book opens dreaming of entering primary 6 at school .When his village is over run by soldiers ,They cause damage in the village ,also kill a number of people , then start looking for who to take and its Obinna and his older brother Akot ,This leads the two boys into a dark world were one goes one way and another another Obinna ends up being called Baboons arse  .The story follows the brothers as they struggle to cope with the violent life of the solders ,rank and respect is gained by how many people they killed ,how many women they’ve raped this is a brutal world .How will it turn out ?

From the first ,we had to learn revolution songs , but our morning runs included a different kind of song – not about the revolution and the glorious new world .

A farmer’s daughter tried to run from me 

So I shot her once ,right in the knee

I dragged her into the long grass 

And then I F****d her pretty ass

The violent nature of the solders and their world even makes it into their songs .

Well short and sweet description ,I want you to read this one .As many of you that read the blog will know I usually wait a few weeks before reviewing a book to let it settle  in my mind ,but this book is one , that just needed me to jump ,up and shout about it to you all .But be aware this is a book about a violent world and thankfully Majok has chosen not to sugar coat the pill here ,no a couple of times I almost throw the book away out of sheer horror at what I was reading ,  but then Majok  is a wonderful compelling storytelling writing didn’t make me .I hate the term Page turner because it is such a cliché ,but I  did finish  this book in two sittings . This book does more than news pictures can do ,it brings you down on the ground as we see this horrific world through the eyes of a sacred nine-year old .Majok Tulba is a writer to watch .A heartbreaking insight into the dark side of the Sudan conflict .