Could Beer Cause a New Civil War?

"We don't appreciate Sharia Law"

South Sudan will become independent in July, following a long civil war.  The people of the Nuba mountains, in the north, are on a collision course with President Omar al-Bashir and his party.

The Nuba are a collection of language groups that are sometimes described as more a political or geographical entity than a homogenous ethnic group.  They follow Islam, Christianity, or traditional religions - but crucially, most see themselves as very different from the Arab elites in Khartoum.

"Despite all the talk about my Arabism, my religion, my culture, I am a Nuba, I am black, I am an African," is how the late Nuba war hero Youssif Kawa Makki put it.   Many Nuba rejected what they saw as attempts to Islamise and Arabise them.   "They [Arabs] discourage you that your religion is not good, tell you to just be a Muslim. They can give you money to change your name to a Muslim one. Anything about your culture, they can destroy it," says Kuku Idriss, a Nuba youth leader.

"They [Arabs] discourage you that your religion is not good, tell you to just be a Muslim. They can give you money to change your name to a Muslim one. Anything about your culture, they can destroy it," says Kuku Idriss, a Nuba youth leader.

 Beer drinkers

Life here is very different to most of northern Sudan.  Local alcohol, like the heady beer marissa, is openly sold, in defiance of the Sharia, or Islamic law, officially imposed in the north.  Women brew it in their homes, then bring it to a line of rough shacks and pour it into calabashes for thirsty customers.

"We don't appreciate Sharia, and don't want it to reach us here," says one drinker, Angelo, an SPLA soldier.   "We have our independence and we hope in the future to be independent," he adds.