The landscape of Jebel Marra is dramatic. The steep mountain tops contrast with the hillsides of non-irrigated rainy season cultivation terraces.
Umu village of Jebel Marra, Western Darfur.
Photo: Gunnar Haaland, 1966
Tag Archives: Umu
Photo 15 – UBB-HAA-134
Two women winnowing millet (Fur: “sona”, Arabic: “dukhn”). Note the terraces for rainy-season cultivation in the background. Terraces in the Jebel Marra region are mainly used as a technique of soil conservation, and they are only to a very small extent used for dry-season irrigated cultivation.
Umu village, Jebel Marra, Western Darfur.
Photo: Gunnar Haaland, 1969
Photo 18 – UBB-HAA-525
Men drinking beer (Fur: “kira”) during a break in communal house building. Beer is a product that the wife makes for her husbands from millets taken from his granary. It is shameful to sell millet beer. In daily context, men and women generally consume it separately. Otherwise it is used as a major way of mobilizing neighbours for individual undertakings like house building and weeding.
Umu village, Jebel Marra, Western Darfur.
Photo: Gunnar Haaland, 1969
Photo 51 – UBB-HAA-170
A Fur woman is drumming next to the underground nests of flying ants (Fur: “simoa”). The sound produced by drumming is apparently a signal similar to rain-drops and entices the ants to come out of their nest. Fried flying ants are a favored delicacy in Jebel Marra villages.
Umu village, Jebel Marra.
Photo: Gunnar Haaland, 1965
Photo 52 – UBB-HAA-205
Three Fur women are collecting flying ants from underground nests. The Fur of Jebel Marra eat flying ants fried in butterfat as well as raw.
Umu. Jebel Marra, Western Darfur.
Photo: Gunnar Haaland, 1965
Photo 65 – UBB-HAA-538
Men are gathered on the slope of a cultivation terrace for their Friday prayer. Fur people practice rituals associated with Islam as well as with non-Islamic religious traditions.
Umu village, Jebel Marra, Western Darfur.
Photo: Gunnar Haaland, 1969
Photo 100 – UBB-HAA-527
Beer plays a very important role in the life of the Fur, not only nutritionally but also symbolically. It is a major item in rituals that serve to indoctrinate ideas of solidarity among community members. To sell beer is considered an act similar to selling sex. Women who sell beer are thus considered like prostitutes (Fur: “azaba”). In this photo, Fur women from the village of Umu in Jebel Marra are engaging in such an “immoral” act (Fur: “ora”). Shameful sales used to take place at a distance from the central market space.
Umu village, Western Darfur.
Photo: Gunnar Haaland, 1965
