Sudanese Dances: Creativity and Diversity
Khartoum – Sudan Events
Sudan, literally meaning “The lands of the Blacks” in Arabic, can be found tucked away in the Northeast part of Africa bordered by Ethiopia to the southeast, Eritrea to the east, South Sudan to the south, Libya to the northwest, Egypt to the north, Chad to the west and the Central African Republic to the southwest. With a total number of 37 million people (as of 2017), it is the third largest country on the continent.
With diverse ethnic groups, Sudan boasts quite a lot of amazing music and dancing cultures.
Dance is a part of the regular life of the Sudanese people. They enjoy their music and dance in their ceremonies and special occasions.
Although the dancing rhythm differs from place to place, the pattern is essentially the same across the country.
Sudanese music shares similarities with other East African countries due to the identical nature of their musical scales which is pentatonic, with five notes per octave. Ethiopia for instance has a pentatonic musical note in all Its music and dancing rhythms.
The Kambala dance is one of the famous dancing styles in Sudan. It is practiced by the Nuba people from the Southern Kordufan Province.
The basic principle of this dancing style is imitating the movements of cows on a field. It is strictly forbidden to eat from the newly harvested crop unless the Kabala dance is performed. As a result, Kabala takes place during the harvesting season along with the similar Koninr dance which is performed during this period once in a year.
