Updated Sudanese Ancestry - 23andme, G25 Vahaduo, Illustrative DNA
- Maternal & Paternal Haplogroups E-M123 & L2a1
- Tribe: Kawahla Kamalab - more specifically Shanabla Al Gezira (not to be confused with Shanabla Kordofan)
- Located in: Nayel, Al-Kabur, Al-Musallamiyah, Arbagi, Fiteis, Abderahman, Algoz, Al Nedeyana, Madani, Wad Biliya, Al Marabi3a, Tanoub, Wad Hussein, Al Mahas, Al-Sa3dab etc.
- Common family names: Al-Nuwayri, Shamboul, Masaad.
A little background: My family is from the Kamalab branch of the Kawahla Tribe in central Sudan, mainly around Wad Madani, Nayel, Musallamiyah, and Arbagi. According to tribal genealogy, the Kawahla trace their lineage back to Kahil bin Amer and ultimately to Al-Zubayr ibn al-Awwam, one of the Prophet Muhammad’s companions and a member of Quraysh. The tribe migrated from Arabia into Egypt and later Sudan during the early Islamic period, where they mixed with local Nubian and Arab populations and became one of the major Arab confederations in Sudan. The Kamalab (“sons of Kamal”) emerged as a respected Kawahla sub-clan known for leadership, scholarship, and governance in Gezira and the White Nile regions. Oral histories also mention a massacre of the Kamalab by a Ja’aliyyin leader in the 1700s, after which the lineage was rebuilt through a surviving child named ʿUrwa. Later, Sheikh Shamboul, a Kamalab figure, established the Shanabla of Gezira (not to be confused with the Shanabla of Kordofan), whose descendants settled around Nayel and Wad Madani. During the Mahdist wars, Madani wad Shamboul fought with Hicks Pasha’s forces and died at the Battle of Shaykan in 1883. Under British rule, Nazir Masaad from the Kamalab became a prominent tribal leader in Musallamiyah. Today, many Kamalab and Shanabla families still maintain strong roots in Gezira, while also preserving a mixed Sudanese Arab and Nubian identity shaped by centuries of migration, intermarriage, and Sudanese history.