On Trek in Kordofan

The life of a Colonial District Officer on trek has seldom been revealed in more detail than in Lea's journals from Kordofan, in the Western Sudan. Never intended for publication, these trek notes contain rare candour and informality, and give an unvarnished view of the land and people during a period of rapid social change. Though in many ways typical of the elite Sudan Political Service, Lea was most at home while on trek in the desert. Northern Kordofan, especially Dar al-Kababish, was then little known, and these notes therefore form an important record of the customs, economy and politics of the Arab and Nuba tribesmen who inhabited those regions.