In the thousands of years of Sudanese Nuba wrestling history, there had never been anything like it: A barefoot Japanese diplomat in a tight-fitting blue singlet stepping onto the sandy pitch to take on Sudan’s toughest.
Four times this year, Yasuhiro Murotatsu has challenged the Sudanese. Four times he has lost. But “Muro” is not giving up. He says his wrestling diplomacy highlights this “precious culture” and can help unite a divided country.
The Nuba Mountains of South Kordofan state are home to a linguistically and religiously diverse group of people collectively known as “Nuba”.Wrestling is central to their farm-based society, but for more than two years a more modern form of combat has devastated the region.
Non-Arab rebels from South Kordofan have joined with other insurgents from Darfur, in Sudan’s west, in rising against the Arab-dominated regime which they complain has marginalised the regions. ”Sudanese wrestling can be a symbol of a united Sudan,” says Murotatsu, 33, a Japanese embassy political officer who tries to spend one hour a day training for his bouts. ”That’s why I am fighting. This is very important. I will be very happy if all tribes... come to Haj Yousef to support Sudanese wrestling.
This is my intention,” he said before his latest match at the stadium in the Khartoum district.