The Sudanese Community: Wadang's Story

Wadang and Angela met us at the much-improved offices of Windows for Sudan in Digbeth. This voluntary organisation works with refugees from Sudan; offering a variety of education, training and employment support. We were shown a wonderful spread of traditional dishes from Sudan; surrounded by beautiful decorated ceramics; photographs of a community event and a bowl of perfume that smelt good enough to eat. Finally we sat down with Wadang and Angela over a cup of cinnamon tea to hear their stories. 

“Originally I come from southern Sudan to UK in 1989 for education and for medical treatment. In Sudan we were politically active and suffered some injuries. In 1996 while I tried to go back I was denied the chance of returning back through Kenya, so I became stranded here. I appeared to be of nowhere! Sudanese, yes, but I was fighting against the government so I had no land to land in; so the British Government granted me citizenship.


A very extended family!

I come from maybe one of the very biggest families in the world! My grandfather was the overall chief of the Dinka; one of the largest tribes in the whole of Sudan. In my culture, you can have over 20, 30, 40 wives! My grandfather had over 20 wives, but we have a system of how we put these things in order to avoid conflict, with different wives based in different houses. The last wife will be the one to take the ancestor’s name and will be serving the ancestor’s soul and spirit. So everything is divided accordingly and no-one is to interfere with the others.

But the rest of Sudan do not always have this system. There are so many different groups and sections and tribes so culture is very different and complex across Sudan.

Here in UK it is an individual culture; very small family. If you live here it is hard to be with a neighbour and love with. But back home I can leave my children even if I go and delay somewhere I know that they are secured. So trust and confidence is always there. When you come abroad, you find sometimes for a week you have not seen any person to sit with or to chat with or to love with. In Sudan; say I want to make a farm; there are neighbours around, so I give them an invitation to come and share with me how we clear and clean my farm. The day you want something to be shared by the community, you give a message to them and they will never refuse.


The doctrine of diversity

There is various religions in Sudan, but the main two is the Christianity and the Islam, but you can take any one of them according to how you wish it and the way they do it is their own way and each and every group has a different way of interacting with that religion in their community. Traditionally for my community, if you are not an elder you are not allowed to perform the traditional spiritual ways because you may misrepresent the ways that the spirits are being believed or the ways people pray to them, so basically it is left for the older people to perform them and then tell the people.


The central problem

When we first come over from Sudan we face obstacles because of the language. And also getting into community in order to get jobs is not that easy. The big problem is that the Sudanese community present here has no centre. A new person coming; in order to be orientated, he has to get to where the people comes together first – to show and know and inform each other about the new experiences. If we have a community base that would help a lot.

Only in the rare situation when we have to collect here and there these small funding to hire a centre or hall can meet and present our arts, so also there is no centre to keep our things and to make the arts transferable; particularly to the younger generation here. They are not getting what we know before, so whenever we do an event, many of them just wander about and say ‘What is this?!’ as they don’t get to see our cultural performances. If there was one main base it would also help with many other things – even with the interaction with the European community and the understanding them. We could invite some people to our centre to come and see what we do and then also they can come back and do a show to people here.


Cross-cultural comprehension

Sometimes when little groups get together we do traditional dancing and music, but this is difficult as well because of all the different traditions and languages spoken in Sudan. So mainly we perform in the English and Arabic – these are our main urban music languages.

I think it is important to go to galleries and theatre in the UK; it is a form of learning. As a child, you learn through arts, dramas and music as they explain the culture and the society itself. This is the most important for us. If I don’t understand your cultural background, even if you love me, I will not relate – simply because I do not know the rest of the background. So to get to arts here is very important for us here because you can learn and also come back and tell the others the new things you learn.”

Photographer: Michiru Nakayama, all rights reserved (c)




From Focus on Ethnicity and Religion, based on 2001 Census data
  • The Black African population has a long history of small-scale settlement in Great Britain with communities established from the late 1940s onwards in the sea ports of Liverpool, Cardiff and London.
  • Migration for the purposes of obtaining training and education has always been a key feature of Black African migration to Britain.
  • Since the 1970s political instability across the African continent has contributed to increased   migration
  • By April 2001 the Black African population was 485,000 – approaching the size of the Black Caribbean population – and 1% of total population of Great Britain.
  • The population is one of the most diverse in terms of geographic origin, including 16% from Nigeria, 10% Ghana, Somalia 8%, Zimbabwe 4%, Uganda, Sierra Leone and Kenya 3% each and the rest of Africa 15.4%. The proportion born in England was 34%.
  •  In 2001, 69% described themselves as Christian and 20% Muslim. Just 2% said they have no religion
  • The age profile was relatively young, with the median age for men 27 years and 28 for women. 
  •  The Black African population of working age included a large proportion (24%) of students.
  • More than three-quarters (78%) of the Black African population lived in London, with 40% living in just seven boroughs. 
  •  36% of households with dependent children were headed by a lone parent; this status was also common amongst other Black groups, accounting for 48% Black Caribbean and 52% Other Black households with dependents.
  • Black African groups were least likely to be owner occupiers. 50% rented from a council or housing association and just 26% owner occupiers.
  • Black African households with dependent children were amongst the most likely group to contain no working adults, accounting for 34% households.