Khartoum- “I was born here and studied here and work here and my roots here and I will die here.” With these words, George Nazir Fakhoury expresses his adherence to the city of Shendi, north of Khartoum, to which his Coptic ancestors came from southern Egypt hundreds of years ago.
There are many accounts about the first entry of the Copts to Sudan, but the most likely novel says that this was in the fourth century AD, when the Coptic Orthodox Church spread in the Nuba state in the north.
According to the researcher and Coptic historian Samir Habel, it was the first immigration of the Copts to the city of Shendi in 1880 from the Naqada area of Qena Governorate in Upper Egypt, and a part of them settled in the city of Shendi in 1932, and immigration was for the purpose of trade and work with fabric.
The most prominent families that settled in the city are: Youssef Abskaroun, Khakhouri, their master, Milad Salama, Atallah Bibawi, Sadiq Youssef, Habib Yusef, Nabih necklace, writer Fakhoury, Nazir Fakhoury, and Hazel Tawfiq, and the Copts became an essential part of the city’s history and its social fabric.
The injured one
“When the Rapid Support Forces entered the city of a civilian, many people hit fear and panic, but we are the Shendi Copts we did not leave the city, this is our country and our roots here, and what affects people will afflict us,” says Fakhoury, who has worked with the education corps previously and the merchant is currently, to Al -Jazeera Net.
He adds that his parents were a boy in Shendi and remained in it until he left life, and that he received all his educational stages in the city until he became a teacher at the primary stage, and that his work in the field of education created him very wide relations with Muslims.
He confirms that he did not feel any discrimination throughout his life. He says that his uncle Adeeb Fakhoury was maintaining loudspeakers and lighting in the Grand Mosque in the Shendi market, and he donates loudspeakers during the holiday prayers for Muslims, without any return.
Fakhoury explains that the Copts, like other Sudanese, were affected by the war, especially those who were residing in Khartoum, where they lost their property and their cars were stolen and their homes were destroyed by the Rapid Support Forces, many of whom left the capital to the states, some of them to Egypt but temporarily, and now they started to return to the areas liberated by the Sudanese army, especially the city of Omdurman.
The Copts were subjected to widespread violations due to the retaliation of the Rapid Support Forces a number of clerics, and then the storming of churches in Khartoum and Omdurman, and they were targeted on the basis of belief, according to what the perpetrators documented with video clips broadcast on social media platforms.
Distinguished relationships
Samir Abel, 70, who presented his father to the city of Shendi in 1940, was the founding of his late brother Lotfi, the New Al -Ahed Library in 1963, and it is the oldest library in the city and is still working until now.
Samir was born in Shendi and did not leave it, because his life was associated with it, as he says, in addition to the distinguished social relations with Muslims, and confirms that his family fused with the city community and did not feel any Christian.
He expresses his great grief over the continuation of the war in Sudan for more than two years, and believes that there is no gain from the war, and says, “The Sudanese deserve to live in peace.”
The late Ezekiel Tawfiq was a prominent flag of the Copts in Shendi, and his commercial shop is considered a prominent landmark, and his death and his funeral were a referendum for the man’s standing and his vast relationships with the city, and most of his aspects were Muslims.
His daughter, Maryam Ezekiel, tells Al -Jazeera Net, that at the death of her father, she found support and support Muslims To continue commercial work, and from all government banks and institutions because her father enjoyed a good reputation, and she adds that this bond that she found helped her to continue her father’s work and then establish the special dispensary of Hezekal to commemorate his memory.
Maryam – who is also the director general of the clinic – indicates that she did not feel her life from school until graduating from the university with any differences or discrimination, and all her friends from the Muslim female students.
She adds that the skirmishes that were carried out by the rapid support in the Hajar Al -Aswal area, south of Shendi, afflicted many, but she did not think about leaving the city, so all her life and work were associated with it, in addition to that she was confident that the Sudanese army would not allow rapid support to enter Shendi.
And Maryam – as she says – watched the rudeness of the war more in the clinic, through the arrival of cases of children and women with bullets from Khartoum in extremely complex circumstances.
The sect and its contributions
Copts are the largest Christian sect in Sudan, and they belong to the Coptic Orthodox Church, but there is no accurate number of their percentage of Sudan’s population and number, while the most frequently traded accounts say they represent about 1.5% of the population, and their number does not exceed one and a half and a half.
The Copts played a political, cultural, social and educational role in the modern history of Sudan, as they established the first private school for girls in 1902, then the Coptic Library in 1908, and it is full of the most important historical books and manuscripts, and the plays and seminars were held.
The Copts contributed to Sudanese political life since the dawn of the national movement, and dated to entering political life during the era of former President Jaafar Al -Numairi, who appointed Morris Sidra as Minister of Health, and Wadih Habashi as Minister of Agriculture, and Treza Shaker was elected a deputy in Parliament during the era of the isolated President Omar al -Bashir.
Raja Nicolas Abdel Masih also held the position of a member of the Sovereignty Council in the Transitional Authority, which was formed after the December Revolution, the highest constitutional position held by a Coptic in Sudan.
The Copts of Sudan was known as a peaceful sect and no violence incident was recorded in its history. Therefore, through the testimony of Shendi Copts to Al -Jazeera Net, they seek peace and hope that the war that entered its third year will stop.
(Tagstotranslate) Sudan Politics (T)