Interview with Adil Ahmed elBishari Abdelmajid

By Nanne op 't Ende
Debkar, Sudan
April 5, 2006

Adil Ahmed is a bus driver in the Nuba Mountains. He is from an Arab tribe, but as a member of the SPLA he smuggled people from the Government area to the SPLA area.

Adil Ahmed

I was born 1978, in Tegali Abbassiya. I've been a bus driver for six years. I used to drive from El Obeid and Khartoum to Karkaray and Um Dulu. Sure, that is the Government area. I drove to these places during the war time - from garrison to garrison. At the same time I was a member of SPLA. Fear? Of what?

I joined the SPLA for my personal reasons - we all have to make our choices. I was driving the bus for my own benefit and at the same time I served the cause of the Movement by smuggling people from the Government area to the SPLA area.

If people wanted to go to the SPLA area I would take them up to Remela. There they got off the bus with their luggage and commodoties. I continued with an empty car. But other friends of SPLA would direct them from Remela to a secret meeting place and at two o'clock at night I picked them up again, to take them inside. I left Remela with an empty bus, I came back with an empty bus - noone could ask me any questions.

After the war many things changed for the better. Before when I transported goods, the Government officials would always ask me where I was going and where I was taking these things. Now I am free. And while the people didn't know me well before, now everyone knows who I am. I used to drive from El Obeid and Kadugli to Karkaray and Remela, now I just drive between Kadugli and Jageba.

Many people come to the Nuba Mountains from Khartoum and other cities in the north. Every Sunday and every Tuesday they get on my bus in Kadugli to come this way. Most of them just bring some bags and their shopping, but others move back permanently and they take their whole personal belongings with them: beds, chairs, pots and pans.

Really, the peace is a good thing.

Interviewed in Debkar on April 5, 2006

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