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MEIDOB 505
growing enough sorghum and basic vegetables to satisfy all local needs. With
the addition of milk and goat meat, these products form the basic diet.
The Meidob language, which is still spoken by all Meidob, is a member of
the Nubian language group, which is included in the Eastern Sudanic sub-phylum
of the Nilo-Saharan family of African languages. The historically and politically
most important members of this group are the Nile Nubian tribes—the Mahas
and the Dongolawi (see Nubians). Links with these groups are preserved in
Meidob traditions, and certain kinship patterns are also parallel.
The Meidob recognize three internal divisions: the Urrti, Shalkota (or Kargeddi)
and Torti. Linguistically, there are two distinguishable dialects, Urrti and
Shalkota/Torti. Differences have been noted in sound distribution and vocabulary,
but these do not impede mutual intelligibility and show that communication
and cohesion within the whole group has prevented extreme linguistic differentiation.
In the past, each division had its own malik, or leader. The Urrti and
Shalkota both claim to have come to Dar Meidob from Nubia and to be related
to the Mahas. The Torti claim to have come with the Shalkota. Whatever the
truths behind these claims, the divisions remain active and are fueled by hostility
and feuding between them. The Torti, though now subordinates to the Shalkota,
should be noted for having held custody of various ritual objects and offices of
pre-Islamic nature which only disappeared in the last 100 years. Of some historical
significance, also, is the matrilineal succession, which was probably
exclusive in pre-Islamic times and now coexists with other culture patterns. No
other tribes in this area of Darfur Province illustrate any traces of this, though
the Nile Nubians practiced it, at least until medieval times.
Islam first effectively entered Darfur with the conversion of the Fur Sultan
Suleiman Solong (1660-1680). Traditions state that the Meidob malik was one
of 20 chiefs subordinate to the Fur (see Fur). While several prominent Meidobi
individuals held important posts at court, it seems that Meidob isolation allowed
them to retain a great measure of independence. They do not appear to have
become effectively Islamized until well into the nineteenth century. The Mahdiyya
was not welcomed among the Meidob, though various temporary alliances
were made with Mahdist forces, largely to further local rivalries. Active conversion
to Islam spread when the last Fur sultan, Ali Dinar (1898-1916), incorporated
the Meidob effectively under his political control. The incorporation
of Darfur into the Anglo-Egyptian Condominium in 1916 was followed by the
British administrators recognizing the Shalkota malik as overall leader. The Urrti
malikdom was abolished in 1923, that of the Torti in 1944, and that of the
Shalkota technically in 1971, when the Sudan government abolished the vestiges
of the "native administration" with the Peoples Local Government Act. In
reality, the power of the maliks had been considerably reduced since the time
of Ali Dinar, and the territorial sections which became tax-collecting areas had
an omda appointed as their head. These omdas formed a group of political leaders
who exercised effective power, and a similar situation persists at the present