Developing Sudan’s Tuti Island

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Where the Blue and White Niles meet in Khartoum, Sudan, lies Tuti Island. While Khartoum developed into a modern city, Tuti retained its bucolic environment. But that may be about to change now that a new bridge has been built connecting Tuti to the capital city. Reporter Hana Baba reports. (Photos: Hana Baba)

Relaxing under the bridge (Photo: Hana Baba)

On a breezy Sunday afternoon, Sawsan Adam and her friends sip black cardamom tea. The students bought it from a woman selling hot drinks in the shade of Tuti Island’s new suspension bridge. Although their university is only 15 minutes away, this is their first time in Tuti.

“Look at the view, it’s relaxing and beautiful! I can’t believe we’ve never been here before today.”

Before the bridge, rusty overcrowded ferries were the only connection with Khartoum. Over the years, Tuti Island remained isolated and underdeveloped. And for many islanders here, that was just fine.

This song is sort of Tuti’s unofficial anthem. It tells the story of the Nile flood of 1946, when the Islanders refused to evacuate. Khartoum historian Yusuf Fadul says They rolled up their shirt sleeves and sandbagged the riverbanks around the crescent-shaped Island.

“So they have that spirit of being a solid group against whatever other danger that comes- including modernizing Tuti itself.”

About a 10 minute drive from the bridge lie Tuti’s lush fruit groves. 70-year-old Siddeeg Hasabarrasul grew up around here. He says Tuti residents did agree to the construction of the bridge, but they’re still wary of what it will bring.

“Nobody is against development, we want better roads and a better place to live- but the investors want more than that!”

Tuti Bridge with the new Elfatih Tower in the background (Photo: Hana Baba)

The investors he is referring to is actually one main developer – A Khartoum businessman named Elfatih Abbouda. Abbouda set up an office in a shiny blue-glass building a short walk away from the new bridge. Abbouda shows me a map of his plans for the Island.

“This area will be the residential area, and this is the business district, and this is the recreational area, with hotels, restaurants and a resort…”

He points to pictures of office towers, a golf course, restaurants and sleek condos. But first he has to win the support of Tuti’s landowners. Sideeg Hasabarrasul says Abbouda didn’t start off on the right foot.

“He put up this huge sign that said Tuti Tourism Project. We tore it down and threw it in the river!!”

Then an enraged mob stoned Abbouda’s glass building. He says that’s when he knew he had to initiate a dialog.

“I felt we had to prove that we share the same values, so we set up a committee with the elders and influential personalities, to talk about how to develop Tuti in a way that can benefit and be acceptable to everybody…”

Sideeg Hasabarrasul (Photo: Hana Baba)

“It sounds like a place where men and women are frolicking around in their bathing suits all over the beaches – he says he wants to build resorts like in Lebanon- This is Tuti not Lebanon!”

Back at the bridge, it is late afternoon, and the sandy beach is dotted with beachgoers- fully clothed, of course. If you look up, you can see a steady stream of young people strolling across what’s now called Sudan’s Golden Gate bridge. So whether residents like it or not, it looks like tourism is here to stay. For the World, I’m Hana Baba, Tuti Island, Khartoum, Sudan.