Tea is the most popular beverage after water. This wonderful beverage has been penetrated to each and every corner in the world. No exception to North East African nation Sudan as well. This article is all about “The Tea Lady” in Sudan.

Awadeya Mahmoud or Awwadah Mahmoud Koko (Arabic: عوضية محمود كوكو ) is a tea seller and activist from Sudan. Mahmoud lived in southern Kordofan. She was born in 1963 & got married and in 1986. Awadeya began selling tea to make living. Due to war in south Sudan, she moved to Khartoum. She initiated tea selling by the side of the road. Unfortunately almost every day, the local police harassed her and threatened her. Unshaken by the fact that she had no legal recourse in Sudan’s male-dominated society. She was unable go to the government, so she organized and gathered local women. She assisted them speak to politicians and use the media to get attention for their burning issues.

Awadeya Mahmoud has been fearless in confronting government authorities, challenging unfair social norms, and overcoming economic obstacles.

Then the police put her in jail for four years. Ultimately the courts of Sudan said she was free. With the help of the Sudanese Development Association, an NGO, she started an organization to help the women who sell tea.

Ms. Mahmoud is also The Founder and Chair of both the Women’s Food and Tea Sellers’ Cooperative and the Women’s Multi-Purpose Cooperative for Khartoum State. The cooperatives represent about 8,000 women, many of them internally displaced by conflict in Darfur and the Two Areas, who depend on selling tea and other informal sector work to survive. About Thirty years later, her continuing resolve to seek justice and equal opportunities for women remains an inspiration to women throughout Sudan.

By recognizing her great effort she received “Woman of Courage Award” from US Secretary of State John Kerry in Washington in 2016.

I never hesitate to honour brave personal like these who are around the wonderful beverage “Tea”. She’s also a great example to the mankind.

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References

1. US Department of State https://web.archive.org/web/20160330080648/http://www.state.gov/s/gwi/programs/iwoc/2016/bio/index.htm

2. Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Awadeya_Mahmoud