♦ Awarded Honorary Doctorate by University of Juba, 1985

♦ Neurosurgery Section - Ain Shams University, Cairo 1969-1971

The Ministry of Health Started the Super Specialties Program and I was chosen to establish the first Neurosurgery Department in Sudan. At the time; I was exhausted from the previous post, but I accepted the challenge. I met Professor Ahmed Al Banhawi (One of the pioneers of Neurosurgery in Egypt) in Khartoum while he was attending the Arab Medical Conference in 1968. Professor Al Banhawi offered me to join his Neurosurgery Team in the Department of Neurosurgery at Ain Shams University – Cairo. And, I accepted his offer to join his department at - Damardash hospital Ain Shams University. It seems that the Royal College were not pleased that a Fellow acquires further training in a place other than the U.K., but, that was the right place for someone who is going to start from the scratch. So, I went to Cairo under guidance of Professor Al Banhawi. I witnessed a broad spectrum of neurosurgical cases, assisted and operated on a number of cases and made good contacts with all the neurosurgical sections in Egypt at that time.
My daughter Manasik was born in Cairo in 1969, I returned to Khartoum in early 1971 to start the first Neurosurgical Section in Sudan.

♦ Fellow Royal College of Surgeons 1964-1965

In May 1962 I was chosen as a Surgical Registrar, and then transferred to Khartoum Hospital where I spent 2 years. I spent the first year preparing for the Part One of the Fellowship Royal College of Surgeons (F.R.C.S), and I completed Part One Diploma in Khartoum.
I lived in a small house in Alhilla Al-Jadeeda facing the Molid Square. My son Yasser was born in June 1962 when I started my journey in surgery. After passing Part one, I spent another year in Khartoum Hospital as a Surgical Registrar under the direction of Mr. Bayomi and Prof. Nichols.
I left Khartoum in mid 1964 for the U.K., and was assigned to Saint Georges Hospital; part of the hospital was in the Hide Park corner and the second part was located south of London in Tooting Grove. I lived in a small house in the hospital called The Bleak, where a number of Resident Registrars shared this residence.
I worked in the surgical unit presided over by Mr. Victor Riddle, and assisted by Bradley and Effron, my associate was Richard Let. I passed my final Fellowship exam on May 13th 1965. My colleagues Abdel-Aal Abdulla Osman and Hassan Goreish passed their final exam on the same day. I returned to Sudan to be told that I was chosen as Surgeon of Darfur Province. I took my family, Aziza, Eman, Mohammed and Yasser to the City of Al-Fashir where we spent almost 4 years.

♦ MB, Kasr Al Aini School of Medicine - University of Cairo 1951-1957

On the 14th of September 1951, I took the train to Wadi Halfa (A small town in northern Sudan) and then a boat to Aswan (a small town in southern Egypt) and then a train to Cairo. After 4 days we arrived at Bab Alhadeed (Ramses Square) to live in a totally different environment in Cairo. I spent six and half years in Kasr Al Aini which is considered the best medical school in Egypt. The lectures and professors were fountain of knowledge. The following is a listing of the professors at Kasr Al Aini at that time:

Professors of Surgery:
Prof. Batrawi – Anatomy
Prof. Tarkhan – Histology
Prof. Samaan – Physiology
Prof. A. Elshafi – Pathology
Prof. Abdella Elkatib Surgery
Prof. Mihriz
Prof. Abuzikri
Prof. Subaye
Prof. Ginawi
Prof. Lotfi A. Alsamie
Prof. Zinini
Prof. H. Jeres
Prof. Ibrahiem Altirie
Prof. Omar Askar

Professors of Medicine:

Prof. Mohammed Ibrahim
Prof. Sayed Iffat
Prof. A. Aziz Sami
Prof. Jinena
Prof. Hafiz Musa
Prof. Mansur Faiz
Prof. Anwar Atrabi
Prof. Magdi
I was highly impressed by our teachers in surgery, and perhaps that’s why I’ve developed interest in surgery.

In Cairo we learned a lot of things, when you walk out in the streets you learn, when you listen to the radio you learn, when you attend public lectures you learn; the cinema, theater, clubs adds to your knowledge. The political struggle was at its peak, demonstrations in Cairo, fighting in the Suez Canal, governments come and governments go, that was culminated by the July revolution in 1952. The traditional political parties and the communist opposed the revolution, the Muslim Brothers supported the revolution at first only to divide into 2 parts one section supported the government and the bulk opposed it. In 1954 Mohammed Najeeb was the president of the revolution council but Jamal Abdel Nasir the second man wanted to take over. The Muslim Brothers were against this move and demonstrated in support of Najeeb, the biggest demonstration started from Cairo University in Al Giza and the police attempted to stop the demonstration as it reached QASR Al Neel Bridge, the police fired gunshots against the demonstrators, some were killed and some were injured. But in spite of that, the demonstration forced its way till Seat of Government in Qasr Abdien. The leader of the demonstration advocate Abdel Gadir Awda (An author of a monogram in Criminal Law) spoke to Mohammed Najeeb from Abdien Castle Square, Najeeb was surrounded by about 10 Sudanese Generals (those were Sudanese who used to live in Egypt and joined the Egyptian Army) and Abdel Nasir was forced to change his decision for a while. Then he again imprisoned Mohammed Najeeb, that year 1954 was marked by the attempt to assassinate Jamal Abdel Nasir, a member of the Muslim Brothers named Mahmud Abdellatif was accused and so begun the black period of the Muslim Brothers, many were imprisoned, many were tortured and some were killed, among them Mr. Abdel Gadir Awda and a group of eminent Muslim Brothers and a lot migrated out side Egypt. This violence destroyed the Muslim Brotherhood at that time.

We used to attend lectures in the headquarters of the Muslim Brothers hall in AL Hilmiya, the lecturers were eminent scholars and included the following:
Mr. Abdel Hakiem Abdien
Mr. Salih Ashmawi
Mr. Mohammed AL Ghazali
Mr. Sayed Qutb
Mr. Saaed Ramadan
Mr. Bahaa Al Kholi
Mr. Abdelaziz Kamil
Mr. Albaghori
Mr. Jalal Kishk
Mr. Abdel Moez Abdel Satar
And some from various Arab countries such as Mr. Bashier Al Ibrahimi from Algeria, Mr. AL Sobayee from Syria and many others.

The July revolution was supported by the Muslim Brothers, the membership of the organization was about 2 million at that time, The Old Guards supported the Revolution but the young generation did not so the movement was split. In 1954 when Jamal Abdel Nasir wanted to depose Mohammed Najeeb, the Brothers were siding with Mohammed Najeeb by the demonstrations. The attempt to assassinate Jamal Abdel Nasir in Alexandria started a vicious war against the Muslim Brothers.
The year 1956 was the tripartite invasion of Egypt by Israel, France and U.K. faded not been for the Threat U.S.S.R. and may be the Americans, Egypt would have been invaded. That setback in Egypt was in the same year of glory to the Sudan when it gained its independence; at the time, Egypt did not seem to like of Sudan getting it’s independence as it was hoping for union between Egypt and the Sudan.

Where we lived in Cairo:
The Egyptian government allocated 3 buildings to the Sudanese students given scholarship by the Egyptian government. A house in Al Munira for medical students, a house in Manyal for art, law, and engineering students, and a house in Mubtadayan for the Azhar students. I lived in Al Munira for one year then we rented an apartment in Kasr AL Aini road building number 40. Osman Hassan Abdel Magid, Abdel Aal Abdella Osman, Al Rayah Al Tireify and myself shared that apartment. Then we moved to Safiya Zaghlool Road, and afterwards to Ilhami Hussein Building in Al Manyal, that was in 1955.
When I thought of getting married, it may be interesting to know that a number of Sudanese colleagues got married that same year, a few to mention included: Mardie Almamoun & Jalila, Khalil Osman & Safiyya, Abdel Aal Abdullah Osman & Nasra, Hussein Abusalih & Aziza, Habbani & Amna. After marriage we lived in Al Giza for some time then moved to Al Munira near Kasr El Aini hospital. After marriage we concentrated more on our school lectures tutorials and seminars and spent more time in various sections in Kasr El Aini Hospital. I had my MB B.ch in December 1957 and spent one year as a houseman in Kasr Al Aini hospital. In 1958, my daughter Iman was born in the City of Omdurman during the month of May.
The system of medical education in Kasr Al Aini – Faculty of Medicine – University of Cairo was divided into:
Preclinical Studies (4 Years) and
Clinical Studies (2 and half years)

The Preclinical
The first year of Preclinical is called PNS (Preliminary Natural Sciences) where we studied four subjects, Zoology, Botany, Physics and Chemistry. In the Second and Third year we studied Anatomy, Physiology, Histology and Biochemistry. In the fourth year we studied Pathology, Bacteriology, Parasitological and Pharmacology. You’d have to pass all the subjects before you could transfer to the second group of subjects. Part of the preclinical studies was in a form of lectures and the other part is in a form of laboratory work.

The Clinical
The most important two subjects are Surgery & Medicine, the third subject is Gynecology & Obstetrics, the forth is Ophthalmology & forensic medicine and public Health& Hygiene.

The clinical is also lectures, tutorials, word work where we used to take history from patients, examine them and study examinations, attend theatre (operating group) part of the clinical in the out-patients and part of it is in the work.

♦ High School Diploma - Wadi Sayedna High School 1947-1950

I was accepted in Wadi Sayedna Secondary School in January 1947. The school was located North of Omdurman, and it constituted a modern town of itself with the majestic building of the school in the centre, the five boarding houses behind it, and the school teacher houses around. The river bank is decorated by number of green fields for football and places for other activities such as basketball and a swimming pool. The staff was headed by Mr. Lang and a number of Sudanese and British teachers in addition to a few Egyptian teachers. Mr. Obied A. Alnoor was the deputy Headmaster. The following is a list of our teachers during these 3 years:

My Teachers:
Mr. Becker – Mathematics
Mr. Bright – English Language
Mr. Cook – English Literature
Mr. Sinada – Geography
My. Obaid Abdel Noor - History
Mr. Hassan Bashasha & Mr. Elhadi Abubakr _ Arabic Language
Mr. Leg & Mr. Nasr Hamza – Science
Mr. Said Ahmed Almustafa – Religion
Mr. Davidson & Mr. Talodi
The boarding quarters/houses were named: Kitchener, Stack, Winged, Currie and New Bold. The Names were Arabised to: Almukhtar, Jammaa, Albadawi.
Wadi Sayedna had a great impact on my life, I made a number of friends, the education system was first class besides the informative activities like debates, hat nights, quizzes, theater activities and athletics. There were various societies for students to join, and wall magazines in the boarding houses. The years 1947 through 1950 were known as a years of vigorous political strive against colonialism, the political actives in Omdurman seems to affect Wadi Sayedna School and a big number of Student were Engaged in politics.

The Sudanese Liberation Movement had a branch in the school as a secret organization; I joined it for a while only to shift to Islamic Liberation Movement which was antagonistic to Sudan Liberation Movement; that was in 1959.

My mother passed away on the 17th of April 1950 after a severe burn accident. I had difficulty coping with the loss of my mother, and all my hopes and ambitions were shaken, I did not have the drive to sit for the Cambridge exam; had it not been for the persuasion of my uncle Awad Agarib. In December 1950 I sat for the Cambridge school certificate exam and strangely enough I had the best certificate in Sudan. I was supposed to apply with a number of my colleagues to the College of Engineering – University College of Khartoum. But, my School Head Master Mr. Becker wanted me to go for mathematics. I was accepted in the University College of Khartoum in the College of Mathematics but I changed my mind and applied for Medicine in Egypt, I understood lately that was the wish of my father, I was accepted in Kasr El Aini Faculty of Medicine – University of Cairo.