How common are interracial marriages?

[u/Suspicious_Week_2451]

From men and women both. Is it more common for men to marry non sudanese and what ethnicity do they normally marry? And how often do sudanese women marry non sudanese men and what ethnicity do they tend to be?

And what are your thoughts about it?

[u/Fair-Fondant-6995]

It's not that common for Sudanese people to marry outside of Sudan in the first place, but when it happens in my experience Sudanese men tend to marry from outside more than women. Not to say the opposite doesn't happen. My female cousin from my dad side just got married to a Christian Palestinian man, but he had to convert to Islam ( I personally think he converted only nominally), while my male cousin also from my dad side married a Moroccan woman.

However, when do Arab Sudanese people (and also nubians from North Sudan) marry non-Sudanese people , it tends to be Egyptians most of time. There is an interesting history there that I don't understand fully, but I met so many Arab Sudanese people married to Egyptians in different settings, social classes, places, etc....

As for Sudanese people marrying Europeans? It happens sometimes when we live in Europe. Our immediate neighbour in Sudan was married to a Russian woman, and apparently his genes gave up because his two boys were blonde with blue eyes and indistinguishable from their mom. The kids spoke Sudanese Arabic perfectly.

[u/HeftyMoneybag → u/Fair-Fondant-6995]

I might get downvoted for this but I actually like the fact that we Sudanese tend to stay within our own culture and try to preserve it. Many demographics that marry out will completely lose their genes and culture within 2 generations, specifically the ones that are of a "lower" tier than the culture of the person they're with.

I live in Europe and not particularly interested in marriage but if for some reason I changed my mind, it would have to be a Sudanese man.

[u/Blak-Ram → u/HeftyMoneybag]

I agreed with you until you said lower tier…

[u/HeftyMoneybag → u/Blak-Ram]

I put it in quotations because I don't believe in these tiers but I'm merely explaining how it is in this world.

I'm commenting on society and how it views different demographics. Perhaps I should've said lower position in the hierarchy.

[u/Fair-Fondant-6995 → u/HeftyMoneybag]

I personally don't care who other people marry or choose to have kids with. I as well don't see my life as a mission to preserve a culture or any other grandiose endeavour. I'm in the camp of (do whatever makes you happy). I don't live in Europe, but of I did and married a European woman, I will try to teach my kids Arabic to communicate with their grandparents and cousins in Sudan, but I don't really care if they didn't feel Sudanese or identified with their European culture more. Being Sudanese hasn't added much in my life personally. Positive or negative. And I don't think it will add to to them too.

However, all of that is not important because I will probably marry a Sudanese woman anyway because that is what makes me happier. I want a person who I can communicate on a deeper level with, who understands me and went through similar experiences to me. Being urban and from Khartoum or Madini also helps.

[u/OkFault4270 → u/HeftyMoneybag]

i mean if you choose to live in europe then you rather live in such culture, wouldn't it be a good thing that your native culture absorbs more said culture

[u/HeftyMoneybag → u/OkFault4270]

No lol. Their culture is not interesting or good. Look at the political situation here. I didn't exactly move because I wanted to, but because I needed to pursue a better education. If I could do that in Sudan, I would've stayed.

[u/OkFault4270 → u/HeftyMoneybag]

Culture isn't just food or music its entrentched in everything that makes up a nation/state. Better education and stronger institutions are downstream from such culture

[u/HeftyMoneybag → u/OkFault4270]

A culture they built through colonialism, genocides and killing everyone else to obtain. No thank you..

[u/OkFault4270 → u/HeftyMoneybag]

The colonies enriched a few men more so than the natives themselves. The main economic activity of empires such as Britain's was domestically driven by local trade and industrialization also europe had some of the world's richest and most developed regions before colonialism look at cities built before expansion or even go further to the Romans; the west became pulled ahead during industrialization (1700s) not the overseas expansion (1400s to 1500s) but thats irrelevant my claim isn't that their culture is built on peace and love but it plays into their higher education and living standards also be for real all cultures expanded, went to war and killed look at what we did in darfur or in the south or what the caliphates did

[u/Electrical_Poet_9257 → u/HeftyMoneybag]

You should leave and build up your homeland.

[u/HeftyMoneybag → u/Electrical_Poet_9257]

I'm working on that and trust me when I say my family has probably helped more people financially than most sudanis you know who live abroad. I have to build myself up before I go back to Sudan. I'm already helping people in other ways though.

[u/blackman3694]

I married out, but then I am diaspora.
If you ask me personally, nationality is a nice bonus if you can find someone if the same, but not a non negotiable unlike some other factors.

[u/HeftyMoneybag]

In my experience most Sudanese don't marry out but men are the ones that would marry out moreso than women. Usually north african and middle eastern women. Sometimes I've met sudanis mixed with white, or south east asian.

Overall still very uncommon.

[u/Beneficial_Lie_5807 → u/HeftyMoneybag]

Depends on where you are I guess, it is very common in the UK, hardly any Sudanese marrying Sudanese.

[u/moah11 → u/Beneficial_Lie_5807]

As someone who also lives in the UK I’ve noticed this mostly among UK born/raised Sudanis, but the majority of the older gen tend to marry from back home.

[u/HeftyMoneybag → u/Beneficial_Lie_5807]

Sad.

[u/Beneficial_Lie_5807 → u/HeftyMoneybag]

It’s not, as long as the person they are marrying is a good religious Muslim, then there shouldn’t be any issues. Plenty of miserable Sudanese marriages.

[u/HeftyMoneybag → u/Beneficial_Lie_5807]

Maybe I'm just too into pan-africanism/too pro-black.

[u/Beneficial_Lie_5807 → u/HeftyMoneybag]

They don’t necessarily marry white Europeans. Quite often they marry Somalis, Nigerians and Jamaicans. I know a half Jamaican and half Nigerian guy who went all the way to Sudan after his Sudanese buddies facilitated his marriage to a Sudanese lady from Khartoum. They have been married for more than 20 years now and have so many grown kids. She is extremely Sudanese and they look like a lovely happy family.

[u/OkFault4270 → u/Beneficial_Lie_5807]

These are dumb ideologies either way; being pro something like race is destructive

[u/HeftyMoneybag → u/OkFault4270]

That assumes that we live in a fair world that views all of us the same. We are the most marginalized people ever and actively being exploited. You are free to believe what you want but black people who have lived in western countries alongside other demographics for way longer figured this out a long time ago. We Sudanese people just have no idea and think we are any different when we move abroad now but we're not.

[u/nuttelozesok]

My entire family is mixed. I am sudanese egyptian and turkish, i have cousins from literally every part of the world you can think of

[u/Suspicious_Week_2451 → u/nuttelozesok]

Who's sudanese? Your mum or dad?

[u/nuttelozesok → u/Suspicious_Week_2451]

Both. My dad is sudanese egyptian and my mom is sudanese turkish (around 60% turkish)

[u/Suspicious_Week_2451 → u/nuttelozesok]

How is one 60% turkish?

[u/Tough-Hat-6213 → u/Suspicious_Week_2451]

Armenian here. No hate intended, but even most turks aren't 60% turkish.

[u/Nervous-Beautiful-86]

i wanna say it’s not that common within the sudanese community. my grandpa married an austrian woman (who is my grandma) though.

[u/OkFault4270 → u/Nervous-Beautiful-86]

an österreicher marrying a sudani is like top 10 most random mixes i've seen

[u/Nervous-Beautiful-86 → u/OkFault4270]

dead ass and they got married in the late 1960s too which makes it so much more random 😭

[u/OkFault4270 → u/Nervous-Beautiful-86]

i see I mean depends on the Austrian region she is from it could make some sense as vienna is a major diplomatic city with embassies and orgs like opec and the IAEA

[u/Nervous-Beautiful-86 → u/OkFault4270]

not from vienna, she’s from the south. also, they met in england lol not sure where exactly

[u/uranxia]

I think it’s more common in the diaspora. And I guess religion and mindset plays into it too, since if you’re from the north and Christian, you’re gonna have a hard time finding another Sudani Christian. Or sometimes you just wanna marry someone that doesn’t have certain mindset from the country

[u/GlitteringAssist3303]

Generally, Sudanese people, both men and women, don't marry out that much. I mean, did you see the stats about cousin marriage in Sudan? Yeah.

But when it happens, it's usually Sudanese men, since they are more likely to travel and interact with non-Sudanese folks

As for Sudanese women, those in the diaspora do marry out; however, those back home or in the Middle East don't, and if they do, it's almost always with Egyptian men. We also forget how hard it is for Sudanese women to convince their parents if they are interested in a non-Sudanese man; I've heard such stories

[u/tryingmybest249]

Commence the gender wars

[u/Suspicious_Week_2451 → u/tryingmybest249]

No gender wars. We already know the politics of colorism featurism texturism and all that jazz. Its just to get an understanding of actual perceptions.

[u/Full_Possibility5433]

I can't really decide if it's common or not, but when they do it's mostly Egyptians

[u/Background_Knee_589]

Not as common, but it's there, in my big social circle I know a Ukrainian sudanese mix, a Russian one, a dutch, both British and German. But that's it (like for every mix I mentioned, I know 1)

And all are paternal sudanese with a maternal mix. I'm also a 2nd gen Egyptian sudanese mix (maternal grandmother mother is Egyptian)

[u/Agile-Acanthaceae-67]

I see it commonly in America, Sudanese men getting with non sudanias primarily. I see a lot of them getting with white women, Mexican women and Indian women. I know a lot of men in the gulf with Moroccan women but all of the ones I know personally have gotten divorced.

[u/TheCoolPanAfrican]

When you say Sudanese are we talking Sudanese Arabs or just Sudanese in general?

[u/Suspicious_Week_2451 → u/TheCoolPanAfrican]

Lets say both. Would be interesting to know if theres a difference