Kholoud Massaed, of Sudan’s Hadaria tribe, vividly remembers the day her face was scarred with a sharp blade, an ancient practice that was once common.
Now in her 80s, she still bears the three lesion lines on each cheek that have darkened over time.
“They took me to see a man who was known to be in the practice. He did it with a small knife,” Massaed told AFP in her village of Om Maghad, some 66 kilometers south of Khartoum.
“I was seven years old and I cried. They told me I should have these face marks because they are a sign of beauty.”
Tribal scarring, an ancient practice formerly common in Sudan, involves marking the skin mainly to identify tribal affiliation or as a symbol of attractiveness.
It has also been practiced in Sudan, where about 30 percent of the population is believed to be from African minorities, while the rest are Sudanese Arabs, according to the Minority Rights Group.
The practice has greatly reduced over the years, and many now consider it unsanitary, archaic, and outdated.
“People used to sing for it,” Massaed said. “It had great value in the past.”
She’s struggled to cope with her scars for a long time, and now she’s thankful the practice is dying.
When her own children came of age, Massaed refused to let them endure the same torment.
“I didn’t take any of my kids to tag,” she said. “It’s a different time now.”
“Only old people still carry these marks, not the younger generations.”
Like Massaed, Fatma Ahmed of the Ja’aileen tribe has similar facial lines.
“The pain lasted for weeks,” she said, adding that she had used many traditional healing ointments to ease her condition.
Communities in remote rural areas of Sudan have long struggled to access adequate health care due to poor facilities and infrastructure.
Many men were also marked for life.
In males, according to Babiker Mohammed of the Mahas tribe, these markings often varied from small vertical or horizontal lines on the cheeks to shapes resembling a “T” or “H”.
“It wasn’t a choice then. It was inevitable,” said the 72-year-old.
“People would just bring kids to the person who’s known for tagging faces and he would tag the face after their tribal name,” he said.
Mohammed said he also refused to tag his own children.
“I’m probably from the last generation in Sudan to have their faces drawn,” he said.
Idris Moussa Abdelrahman, who belongs to the Ja’aileen tribe, hopes the practice never returns.
“It’s a distortion and it harms people for no reason.”
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