Takias: Community kitchens or the second half of the glass| Sudanow Magazine

(Port Sudan- Agencies- Sudanow)
There is a filled half, to be considered, in the current Sudanese war, now over 600 days long, since it broke out in April 2023.

It is true that the overall drawn picture is bleak: no sufficient humanitarian aid is reaching millions of needy, farms are destroyed, people livelihood and means of subsistence have been disrupted, and with continued shelling, bombardment and destruction, the expected war-induced calamities occur - hunger, outbreaks, children malnutrition, and trauma and, ultimately, huge fatalities.

But while stories of atrocities, including rape of hundreds of women, death of thousands of people and displacement of million in and outside the Sudan, is reported, another filled half of the glass is overlooked: Sudanese heritage that helped greatly mitigate the impact of vicious conflict.

It is called Takia, commonly translated in foreign NGOs literature as: community kitchen. But it is more than community kitchen.

The statistics say over 11 million people have been displaced and some 3 million have left the Sudan to neighbouring countries, mainly, Egypt, Ethiopia, Chad, South Sudan, Eritrea, Libya, Central African Republic and the Gulf region. Sudan’s population is over 52 million.

An unaccounted number include those who, lacking the resources could not leave the war zones, or the country. They remain inside the Sudan in areas held by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF)militias or government Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF).

The majority could not stay with relatives- as the customs in the Sudan- because houses that used to shelter a family of six are nowadays hosting dozens and dozens of displaced relatives, which explains the existence of very few IDPs camps as could be expected in such a war situation.

Those families, with the new arrivals, have their resources stretched to the limit, and the thousands of Sudanese expatriates sending money from the Gulf are nowadays showing all symptoms of donor-fatigue.

According to one elderly, even if you have money “the shops are knocked down, the hospitals, even our neighbours have left, this place remains our only source for meals nowadays” said, 70-year-old, Momyen Saleh (not his real name), living in Al-ardha Janoub, an Omdurman suburb. “I cannot thank them enough.”

Here comes the Takia: it is neither a registered association nor an official charity body. Rather, this is a community-based initiative, usually around a mosque, koranic teaching schools or sophist group or sport club or even a private group of youth from the quarter who gather money from individuals, sometimes make sharing to buy food stuff for cocking.

The money gathered is used to purchase non-expensive but highly nutritional food legumes, lentils, beans and in extreme cases meat.

And the Takia preserves “the dignity of the family”: no pictures if you don’t wish to be photographed and no camps: one family member comes to the place to collect food for the whole family, usually the male member, and goes away without his name or that of his family being registered and recorded.

Nobody asks about identity, or status: rich or poor. If you come there then you need assistance. And it continues for days and months.

“This war has really tested people and shown the real essence of (genuine philanthropist). has it not been for people working (in the Takia) what would (poor) people do? They are doing invaluable service to us. Let us pray that God rewards them the hereafter,” said Mohamed Al Hibir, in his 60’s, who came to collect food for dozens of families trapped in Tuti Island, across the river from Omdurman.

“Six hundred days now, we are serving our people, not only one meal as is the customs in other takias, but three good meals, for thousands of families” Sheikh Al Amin Omer, a renowned sophist in Omdurman said in December.

His Takia, known as the Masjid Sheikh Al Amin Takia, has been serving hundreds of families in Omdurman and in six other states countrywide ever since the war broke. They further provide first aid medical care and help families bury the dead, and at the peak of the war when such an enterprise was prohibitively difficult. They provide drinking water for hundreds of families trapped in the national capital.

Sheikh al Amin is known to be a self-made billionaire Sophist man, but a humanitarian, who converted all his wealth during the war to serve his community in Omdurman, the national capital and those who displaced to the area. When he started serving people there was no government and no NGOS serving people.

“We are from this community and we serve our community,” Sheikh Al Amin, well dressed, in his early fifties stressed in a recent interview.

He is not alone. All over the country in Khartoum, in Darfur and in Madani, Atbara, El Obied, Fashir and Zamzam, hundreds of such Takias, at least one in every three to four quarters, are serving families in need, at least one meal a day.

The food consists mainly of a bowl of cooked lentil soup, or cooked pea, pumpkins sometimes served with bread. When a contribution comes from Sudanese outside the country, or former habitants of the quarters, meat soup is sometimes served. A family brings a container early in the morning place it according to arrival and first come first served when food is ready.

The Takia youth volunteers, usually try to make use of the seasonal agricultural produce. It might be underestimated by outsiders, but for a family that is deprived of any means of subsistence, it makes a huge difference.

The idea surged from the community practices: collective meals in village and rural areas communities where every family head comes out with his food in the evening and all share, the food, little or much, nutrient or not, delicious or not. And usually, guests who spend night over are welcomed.

It also said to have developed from the concept of Mahajir known in West Africa as Majirai- the religious disciples, impoverished migrants- Koranic school pupils who came to learn the Muslim holy book by heart and they usually come with nothing at all and live away from their families. The local community contributes to their food and shelter.

But it is also said to be hailing from the time of the Turkish colonization where the governor was in charge of opening a place that was frequented by travellers who did not have means of feeding themselves or had no place to stay in for a short time, they went to the Takia to receive free accommodation and food for a short period of time before they took up the journey to their destinations.

In Darfur, women living in villages that were not seriously inhibited by the war, will each couple of days come together in long columns each carrying on her head food container and walk up provide a good hot meal for those living outside in makeshift dwellings or IDPs camp like the famous Zamzam camp.

Some rich families would sometimes bring out couple of camels to be slaughtered for distribution to the IDPS.

According to one elderly, even if you have money “the shops are knocked down, the hospitals, even our neighbours have left, this place remains our only source for meals nowadays”, said, 70-year-old Momyen Saleh (not his real name), living in Al-ardha Janoub, an Omdurman suburb. “I cannot thank them enough.”

But recently the Takias have been running short of resources, sometimes their locations were shelled, other times, especially in areas under the RSF controlled, volunteers were accused of affiliated to the “hirelings or Fulool” a term used to describe those related to the former regime of Omar Bashir.

Sometimes such organizations as the World Food Programmes (WFP) give some of their food material assistance to those Takias without intervening in their mode of work or policies, especially in Darfur. Farmers contribute immensely specially in central Sudan’s Gezira area in providing the Takias with subsistence material.

Still, according to Tom Perriello, the US Special Envoy to the Sudan the current “brutal conflict threatens local farmers desperately trying to harvest their crops and the millions of Sudanese those farmers can feed.”

He argued that at time when over 25 million Sudanese face acute food insecurity, the RSF and SAF must allow farmers to bring in the harvest.  Failure to do so will worsen an already tragic hunger crisis.

While Takia work at the community and quarter levels, the larger picture requires concerted international efforts to deal with the crisis at the national levels.

“We are sorry to announce the stoppage of our work right now, “the south Khartoum Hizam area Takia committee announced in November.

The Hizam Takia, one of hundreds in the country, provides food for 10,000 families, and unlike others its work depends on contribution on donation by charities. With less and less charity being able to enter those areas and local donors’ resources depleted, the youth made an appeal so that the lives of thousands might be saved until the big organizations enter the area.

“We are appealing to charity and to kind hearted people to come to the assistance of this Takia,” the youth said in an appeal, mid-November 2024.

Fortunately, the government has agreed to let the UN and international organizations enter the country and bring badly needed assistance to the needy.

Until that food arrives, “we remain grateful to the young men and women and the volunteers working in the Takia, providing free assistance and serving their community,” Sheikh Amin said in widely circulated video marking 600 days of Takia work in his community of Omdurman. “This will continue as long as we have something to contribute, God willing.”
(Feature by Mohamed Osman Adam, PANA correspondent)
-0- PANA MO/RA 5Dec2024

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