Babikir Badri

Babikir Badri (1856 – 1954) is considered as the pioneer of girls’ education in Sudan. After having participated in the battle of Karari near Omdurman, he migrated to Rufaa, a small town in the Bleu Nile where he founded in 1907 the first school for girls in Sudan and called it “al Ahfad”, later transformed into the famous al Ahfad University for Girls. His thoughts about the girls’ education were strongly contested by the Sudanese conservative society who was sceptical toward the idea of letting the girls out for school. His autobiography “My Life”, considered as a Sudanese classical, is an important reference on the Sudan history in the Mahdiste era and during the British colonization.