Omdurman – City of Sorcerers and Chaos Singers

A colossal picture of Sula I on horseback hung above the royal throne. With his left hand he was shading eyes filled with hatred, looking back towards Salitula after his defeat and expulsion by his brother. Sula had commissioned this picture for his son, Sula II, and had bequeathed it to him together with a hatred for Abardagan. Over the years the picture had suffered from wear and tear and the colours had lost their vibrancy, but the desire to destroy Salitula and to raze it to the ground had gathered strength and had become the unwholesome aim of the sorcerers who were now the rulers of Omdurman, city of the Chaos Singers. Sula I had willed that all his heirs should call their first-born sons Sula. ‘My soul will only find peace when all the rulers of Abardagan are my descendants, and all called Sula,’ he had said. If this really was the case, his soul must have been in great turmoil since, after many years and many wars, Sula I’s son, Sula – waiting for whose birth he had paced back and forth in the hall, looking up now and then at his expelled ancestor – was ruler of Omdurman and no more.
‘It’s a boy! A boy!’ Sula heard his mother’s voice. A tall, grey-haired woman rushed into the hall and embraced her son.
This woman was wearing a black satin dress, she had a red sash with long tassels wrapped several times around her waist, and on her forehead were painted two circles, the sorcerers’ sign.
‘One more Sula!’ said the ruler of the Chaos Singers proudly, looking up with pride at the picture of his great ancestor.
‘Thank you, son.’
‘Why are you thanking me, mother?’ Sula was surprised.
‘For naming your child Sula,’ the woman responded.
‘Well, what should I have called him?’
‘I was told your wife was going to give the child another name!’ said the Queen Mother through clenched teeth.
‘Asai is perfectly well aware I’m calling my first-born son Sula. She won’t dare refuse. She simply asked me permission to call him by another name.’
‘Simply asked you? Under no circumstances!’
‘You are a mother and shouldn’t find it hard to understand her. For several years now all my ancestors have been called Sula, all of them were defeated in the struggle for Abardagan, all killed on the battlefield. Asai thinks a second name might ward off such a fate from our son.’
‘And have you allowed her to do this?’... (See PDF)


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