“You can kiss your family and friends goodbye and put miles between you, but at the same time you carry them with you in your heart, your mind, your stomach, because you do not just live in a world but a world lives in you” (Frederick Buechner). Family history is extremely important to uncover because the decisions made by family members in the past can inadvertently shape the person that you are and the decisions that you make today. Learning about family history is a way to learn and grow regardless if the history was pleasant or not. By using my sociological imagination, I was able to uncover trends in my family history that helped bring me closer to self-discovery.
In order to develop an accurate family history, I interviewed my uncle Sami Mustafa, who is my mother’s younger brother. Speaking to my uncle took me on a century-long journey into the depth of my roots where I found myself an observer of events that shaped the social structure of my family and uncovered the socio-political roles that they assumed generation after generation. While interviewing my uncle I was surprised that he was willing to share more information about my father’s side of the family than his own. This made me feel like there are some underlying family secrets
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As they intermarried with the indignant African tribes their influence spread. Due to their religious influence, the Jumouia tribe in the country gained political prominence. In the more recent history, my great grandfather Sheikh Mohamed Sharif Nour Al Daiem (1841-1906) became world known for being the religious teacher of Imam Mohamed Ahmed Al Mahdi who liberated the country from British rule in the late 19th Century and ruled Sudan before it was reconquered by The British Colonial Power after his