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– Mission carried out in Khartoum (Sudan) of 13th July - 14th August, 2005.
The idea of this mission (letter of mission of the French Foreign Affairs) is to establish the possible correspondances/oppositions in the use of public spaces between Cairo and Khartoum. This comparison, which seemed to me — for all to say — a little curious while landing in Khartoum (the difference between these two urban fabrics was wider than forecasted), reveals fully now its heuristic potential.
This fieldwork has been “disturbed” by the tragic évennements (some violent riots) when was officially broken the news of the death of John Garang, Southerner vice-president of the Sudan, the 1st August, 2005.
Meanwhile, I consider the drafting of an article whose provisional title would be:
Politics, picnics and nilotic loves: Pastoral recreations in 2005’s Khartoum (Sudan).
In a country marked deeply by an islamist regime (which claimed to exert its authority on the behaviors in public spaces), how is negotiated margins of freedom in the greenery of Khartoum, at the time of family or tender outings, or meetings and rendezvous during picnics on the Nile...? How politics are involving into such a trivial subject as parks, gardens and picnics? How passersby can grant such consequences on their daily life to the “Comprehensive Peace Agreement” signed in January 2005?
The data processing of this fieldwork is in progress...
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There is a garden in Khartoum in the shape of a Union Jack flag.
Where is it? Please send me a photograph of this ’’Union Jack’’ garden.
With thanks,
Ann M.F. Pembroke, OSt.J., C.C.
Email: ann.pembroke cityoflondon.gov.uk
Sory for the delay to answer:
It is said that a part of Kharthoum itself was laid out, for military purposes, in a series of patterns resembling the Union Jack British flag. Kitchener ordered this lay-out because it allowed machine guns to be placed at the center of each cross. I’m not sure that there is a garden in this shape...