Torit, Sudan

"Every tribe Every language"

Torit is a small, very African cosmopolitan city. The main strip of the city is a market version of the Wild West. In Africa at least, the people groups are many and the languages are numerous. Somalia, Eritrea ( Idetitnae?greeting ) Arabic traders, Kenyan, Ugandans, Congolese, Ethiopians, Pakistani and Bangledash soldiers who ride around in huge UN convoys. And of course the many different Sudanese tribes; Lutucko ( Ngai), Dinka, Massai Kenyans, and many other Sudanese peoples. Several of the young men I’ve noticed have very distinctive facial and shoulder arm tattooing across their bodies? Every single young Sudanese man is dressed in brightly colored soldier regalia. The Rastafarian hats with khaki shorts or pants and of course always some sort of camouflage. Many NGO’s also make their home in Torit. Catholic social services, of course the UN, Merlin ( A medical group based from somewhere…)

Since my time here I have seen a city emerging from the end of war. There are military marches, numerous armed police forces, motor bikes everywhere, huge convoys, trucks, lorries, construction projects, Wildlife services, Kenyan laborers, SPLA soldiers, Northern government soldiers. Every head of government branch is located for the district of the Eastern Equitoria region here. So the town itself is painted with the colors of the Southern Sudan new government. Buildings, T-shirts, cars, houses. The people of Torit live in tukuls. These are cone/cylinder shaped homes constructed from mud, or cement, and grass thatched roofs. To fly over the city you would see all the newly constructed offices with shiny metal roofs, and then the thousand of tukul and cone shaped huts.