Pulling a “Long Nine” – Crime in Khartoum – Sudanese Arabic Documentary Transcripts with English Notes

Background to This Week’s Text

This week’s 6-minute intermediate-level, topical Aljazeera news report is dedicated to a growing crime phenomenon hitting the streets of Khartoum. It has become the subject of numerous Youtube videos and there has been much speculation both as to its causes and how to combat it. The report describes the crime in fast journalistic Arabic, provides an eye witness account from a victim and interviews a news correspondent who is also president of the press body, Journalists Against Crime. The middle section of the report has no dialogue but provides valuable written background to the story, screenshots of which I include at the end of this post.

The news report has sections in both colloquial Sudanese and standard journalistic Arabic. If you are unfamiliar with the “Long Nine”, what does it involve? If you are interested in more analysis, what factors are discussed which may be behind this phenomenon? Where does the expression The Long Nine come from? What were the features of the first case to hit the headlines and why were they perhaps surprising? What role does the media play in the phenomenon and what approach is suggested for reporting on this issue?

Above, a young woman recounts her experience. What precautions had she taken and what was stolen?

What does the journalist say about the origin of the phenomenon?

Lexical Focus

How many different types of criminal activity can you name in Arabic and how many are mentioned / appear written in this report? You will hear expressions for the following ideas; gang, passers-by, aggravate, escalate, deterioration, disaster, to no avail, possessions, its no secret and media platforms. What expressions do you think will be used?

How does the victim interviewed explain that she had taken care to avoid this type of crime? Can you retell her story in the colloquial way she did?

Watch the Report here:

Transcript

Transcript with Explanatory Notes

1 the new phenomenon (Zaahirah) of robbery (nahb), (also looting / ransacking in other contexts)
2 escalate/ rise (taSaa`ada); worry/ anxiety is escalating in the Sudanese capital after
3 the growth (also development) in cases of
4 (bag/etc) snatching / seizing (also kidnap in other contexts)
5 by means of / using motorcycles
6 which has been called / given the nickname of
7 gang
8 passers-by / pedestrians
9 after literally; the fall (saquuT) of another victim (Dahiyyah)
10 …and literally; the raising of voices demanding through platforms (manaSaat), literally lectern
11 to put an end / stop to …….and we will follow some of the details together in this clip
12 a new disaster / calamity
13 possessions / property
14 police officers / also controls
15 a noticeable rise / increase in and 15) careful / cautious (HariiSah)
16 stabbed by thieves / robbers while they were trying to steal his mobile
17 reports (also communications)
18 …combat the phenomenon
19 but to no avail (also feasibility / usefulness in other contexts)
20 the phenomenon has changed the view of….
21 the fluid (sayuulah; fluidity / liquidity) security situation in the country
22 and the deterioration (taradii)/ also reversal

23 a card game
24 to be updated
25 coordination (tansiiq)
26 to exacerbate / aggravate ( tafaaqama)
27 political complications
28 come to the surface (yaTfuu `ala) (saTaH; surface)
29 observe / monitor
30 a (bizarre / odd) (also, monstrous and deviant) crime (involving) an attempt to steal a bag
31 criminals
32 hire / rent
33 to pay their university fees