The Sudanese woman’s tob is by far the most essential garment worn by local women, and as it is the most visible of them it is the subject of most comment and interest. Despite its unchanging simplicity, female ingenuity has produced many variations over the last half century. The word tob, or thawb, in Arabic is the generic term for clothing but, in the case of Sudanese women, it means an outer, seamless garment, 4 to 4.5 metres in length by 2 metres in width, of bright or pastel colour, initially of cotton material.

For every woman, the tob is a statement of social status: it distinguishes the married woman from the unmarried, different qualities of tob indicate wealth and sophistication, and finally, amongst the diaspora of Sudanese, the Sudanese woman wears her tob with pride as a visible sign of national identity. It is also the most enduring and lasting item of Sudanese women’s national costume. The rahat has gone and the gurgab too, but the tob has survived because of its overall usefulness, its beauty and its adaptability. For a rural woman, her tob can be her overcoat, her mosquito net, the pouch for gathering cotton or other crops, her nightdress, or the curtain behind which she can breast-feed her baby in public places.

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(Excerpt taken from the chapter ‘The Sudanese Tob’ the book ‘Regional Folk Costumes of the Sudan’ by Griselda El Tayib)

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Cover picture © Ahmed Elfatih, Features of a nomadic girl (Badouin), Central Darfur, 08/13/2022