Whirling Dervishes in a howling haboob

Haboob means sandstorm in Arabic.  Having said goodbye to new friends and lush green hills in Rwanda, I found myself head down and eyes squinting to avoid the sand whipping through the air as I made my way across a dusty graveyard in Khartoum.

Khartoum was built up around the confluence of the Blue and White Nile, and so the rivers naturally break the city into 3 sub-cities: Khartoum (the seat of the Sudanese Government), Omdurman (Middle Eastern in atmosphere) and Bahri (largely industrial and residential).

Each Friday evening, Dervish people (Sufi Muslims) gather in front of the Hamed an-Nil mosque in Omdurman for a spiritual festival that lasts until the sun goes down.

 

With the scent of incense in the air, and the sound of drumming, men gathered around a circle move in rhythmic unison, bowing, clapping and chanting.  Meanwhile, in the centre of the circle, people perform acts that highlight their spiritual strength, including the characteristic spinning which lead to their name Whirling Dervishes.

 

For a few, it seemed the outfit was more focal than the movement, but the spiritual strength of one man in particular was unreal;  he was already spinning when I arrived, and was in that same trance-like state when I walked away an hour or so later.

Although sad not to see the festivities close and find out what happened when he finally stopped turning, I was rather eager to pass back through the graveyard before dark!