Meet Sudanese and South Sudanese Vegans and Vegetarians. Yes, They Exist.

Sherin dos Santos-Oryem, 27, Communications Specialist, residing in Qatar. I’ve been a vegetarian for seven years now. I love milk too much to be vegan. In September 2011, I was thinking about being vegetarian but my dad thought I couldn’t do it. I accepted the challenge just to prove him wrong. Also, one of my favourite actors, River Phoenix, was vegan and very outspoken about animal rights activism. I thought I would do it in honour of his memory and haven’t touched meat ever since then. The first days or months of vegetarianism were miserable. It was like I was fasting for lent – except it wouldn’t end. I missed fish so much, and the smell of burgers, chicken and meat everywhere didn’t help. There were a couple of times when I almost caved in – food was just too tempting. But my own willpower surprised me. It was challenging, because I didn’t want to offend anyone through my life choices.
If I say I’m a vegetarian because I don’t believe we have the right to slaughter animals, many take it the wrong way and argue that animals were created for us to eat them. So, sometimes I just say that I don’t enjoy eating meat at all. With my family members, it was a struggle in the beginning because they felt I was being too fussy about food; but now they understand and completely support me by cooking vegetarian-friendly dishes. They have started to enjoy eating vegetables, and I even succeeding in making my dad a vegetarian. I am not always a healthy vegetarian. I love pizzas, pasta, soups and steamed dumplings. I eat a lot of hummus, bread and beans, and I drink of lot of skimmed milk (often accompanied by oreos). My absolute favourite is South-Indian food. Often times I have Idli-Sambar daily for breakfast, lunch and dinner. I’ll eat anything (except tofu and cabbage). Being vegetarian is not a common concept. I’m from South Sudan, and back home we have two to three main dishes per meal, almost always meat. So when I explain that I don’t eat meat, I can be perceived as picky and ungrateful. I try my best to encourage people to go vegetarian at least once in their lives. I’ve discovered that most people have already tried it at some point, and they love the nourishing effect they get from going meat-free. But the commitment can be overwhelming, and it’s not for everyone. Meat is the base for everything. At home in Qatar, my parents make sure that they cook vegetarian dishes for me, which everyone at home loves to eat as well. But when we go to South Sudan, meat is the core of all our dishes. Sometimes I end up eating bread or salad for a meal. Respect and understanding goes a long way – just like we understand people’s desire to eat meat, people shouldn’t be offended by our life choices and why we are vegetarian. And also – vegetarian food isn’t just salad. It frustrates me when I go to a restaurant and cannot find anything to eat except salad. It doesn’t take much to add an easy veggie option or two – chopsuey, fried beans, literally anything, and believe me, we’ll be happy that you remembered us. I have discovered that Sudanese food can be cooked without meat and they taste exactly the same. With the exception of mullah sharmout (which was my favourite dish, and giving it up was the hardest) everything else can be vegetarian with a little tweak. This goes for khudra (molokhiya), addas (lentil), bamiya (okra), perinda (aka Lulu – white beans with peanut butter), batatis (potato curry), damaa (simple curry), — literarily everything tastes the same.