‘Grand’ Sudan hotel seeks to reclaim its past glory

POLITICAL talk flowed in the lively Khartoum of decades past and The Grand Hotel was its fountain.
Behind the colonial-era walls, deals were made and gossip exchanged by an elite group of civil servants, politicians, intellectuals and businessmen.
The chatter stopped long ago and The Grand, for decades the city’s only quality hotel, fell into disrepair and economic decline.
But new owners from Pakistan say they have begun refurbishing the five-star property — now known as Grand Holiday Villa — to woo clients back to what locals call simply “Funduk Al-Kbir” (the biggest-oldest hotel).
“It used to be the meeting place of some of the great minds and politicians,” in the 1950s, said historian Abdullah Ali Ibrahim. “Sort of a political club, in a way.” Among them was Muhammad Ahmad Mahjub, leader of the opposition when Sudan gained independence from Britain and Egypt in 1956. He briefly served as prime minister about a decade later.
Other Grand regulars included leading businessman Abu Al-Ila, and Bashir Mohamed Saeed, who co-founded the Al-Ayaam newspaper in 1953, said his colleague Mahjoub Mohamed Salih, who has been at the newspaper ever since.
“It became a very famous group that normally would meet there every evening, practically,” said Salih, who sometimes joined them in a corner of the lobby lounge.
“You would hear a lot of news and gossip.” Built in 1902, the hotel was run by the Sudanese railway as the country’s first accommodation catering mostly to foreigners, Salih said. “The waiters used to dress in jalabiyas with a red belt,” he said, referring to Sudan’s traditional robes.
Khartoum had just 80,000 people at independence yet it was cosmopolitan with Syrians, Jews, Armenians, Britons and others, Salih says, calling it “a very interesting place at the time”.
In fact, Khartoum wasn’t very Sudanese, historian Ibrahim said. “It was a European town. One hundred percent.”
But for the politically connected elite, The Grand was the center.
“They talked about politics... Favurs were exchanged,” Ibrahim said. “This is the reason why people on the margins (of society) felt isolated.” The tempestuous rule of Gaafar Al-Nimeiry, which began with a 1969 coup, led to a decline in the hotel’s political role and in Khartoum’s vitality.
“Nimeiry grew very suspicious of these gatherings because... all these people hated him,” said Ibrahim. “People felt that some of the government spies were being planted in the hotel,” said Salih. “So people just drifted away.”
The Grand lost its political focus but carried on. Four decades ago it was still the city’s best hotel, said Simon Aziz, veteran general manager of a travel agency in Khartoum’s now-crumbling downtown.