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The Success Story of the Kamal Group of Sudan
The Success Story
Kamal Abubakr grew up like millions of children in the Abu Hamad slums of North-Eastern Sudan. The eighth of thirteen children, Kamal’s father could not afford to send any of his children to school so Kamal began to fend for himself much earlier than most Sudanese kids.
From the age of six, he started selling langalanga in daytime by the Abu Hamad — Atbara — Khartoum railway station, and worked as an apprentice night soil man by night. Just a couple of weeks shy of his twelfth birthday, Kamal decided to go to Khartoum to try his luck in the big city, boarding the night train from Abu Hamad to Atbara before getting on another bus to Khartoum with nothing but two pounds in his pocket.
With that two pounds he bought his first piece of Kente fabric and a pair of scissors. He cut the Kente fabric into narrow strips and created the very first of the now familiar neckties or neckie as it is fondly called by the millions of men and women that now wear them across Sudan.
On the first day of selling the now globally recognized neckties, whose popularity ballooned after the English ambassador to Sudan wore it at a state function, Kamal made over a pound on his two pounds. The next day, he was back again with more.
