"I was born and raised in Sudan; I completed most of my studies there. I did my Masters degree at the University of Oslo. I studied Pharmaceutics. I spent five years living in Saudi Arabia, after which I moved to Norway, where I lived for about 7 years. I’ve been living in England for more than 10 years and recently moved to Leeds.
My people in Sudan, they are very close, especially in the rural areas. I come from a big tribe, which is called the Nuba Tribe. We are almost 87 indigenous groups who live in the Nuba Mountains, in South Kordofan province in southern Sudan. All these groups have their own languages, but we are a peaceful tribe. Our ancestors, they established a very good living atmosphere for everyone, in the way they accept each other. In all these people, you can’t find any problems or violation of life. If there is ever a problem, the leaders will come and sit together and sort it out peacefully.
You can characterise my tribe as a peaceful and joyful one. We have our own dances, we have our own songs, we have our own traditions. We celebrate marriage, a newborn, if you spent years abroad and came back, we would celebrate your coming. People sing, people dance, we have festivals. We depend on agriculture, and when we cultivate at the end of the agricultural season, we have special songs to celebrate. So when you bring these 87 groups together, you will come out with a huge, huge, huge culture which is based on diversity.
What inspires me is when I see people living peacefully with each other. I think this is a message of Islam. Our Almighty God said I have created you in different colours, in different tongues, so that you may get to know one another. I think this is a very important message. We are different. It’s important for people to exchange their experiences and traditions. We must come together, get to know each other and live peacefully."
