Sudan Archive

III. 3.x. THE GUHAYNA GROUP 283

The 'Abd el 'Ali section, like the Rizaykat, Messiri'a and Humr,

generally claim to be descended from 'Ati'a and say they are the true

original Hawazma, This may well be so: a distinction is commonly

drawn, as the trees show, between the descendants of Gunayd through

'Atia on the one hand and through Haymad^ on the other, the

Ta'aisha, the Habbani'a and the Beni Helba falling into the latter group and the Humr, Rizaykat, Messirta and Hawazma into the

former; but the 'Abd el 'Ali of course contain many alien elements,

e.g. "el Kura'an," like every other subtribe of Bakkara.

Of the Halafa we have already spoken. The RowowGA are alleged by the other Hawazma for the most

part not to belong to the tribe at all, by descent that is, but to be in

part Beni Seli'm and in part Kenana, and to have come at some

distant period from the east and joined the 'Abd el 'Ali. They

probably contain more Nuba blood than most of the other sections. Not only is one of their main divisions called Awlad Nuba but

their names are suggestive: for instance, the head sheikh of the RowowGA, Daud el Mamun, gave the following pedigree in 19 13 to a Government Inspector^

:

El Lieu

I Hamid Abu Kitr

I \ 1 Karongo Daud Gabrfl

I I I Kakidri 'Ali Koko

I I I Tawwar Mamun Mohanna

Somi Daud

"Karongo," "Kakidri" and "Koko" are obvious Nuba names, and " el Lieu " is certainly not Arabic. We obtain a distinct indication of the approximate date at which

the Hawazma first broke away from the parent stem by examining

the pedigrees of the present generation. The names of the eponymous

ancestors of the main sections are quoted as those of sons, grandsons

or great-grandsons of the original "Hazim," and are generally re- membered by all, though the exact relationship of each to other is

not ; but it is each man's own business to know how he is connected

^ M. Carbou (il, 51-74) speaks of the Haymad ("Hemat") as the most important

division of Bakkara descended from Gunayd. He gives their subtribes as following: "Oulad Hemed [Hamayd?], Oulad 'Amer, Noumourra, Djerarha, Selmaniye, Ta'acha, Nedjmiye et Habbaniye," and adds "Aux Hemat se rattachent encore:

les Dja'adne, les Salamat, qui constituent une des tribus arabes les plus nombreuses de I'Afrique Centrale et les Khouzam."

- Capt. A. L. Hadow.

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