In the marketplace in Omdurman, a large bazaar city across the Nile from Khartoum, there is a special section of the market totally controlled and regulated by women. They are often economically autonomous, and they extend this autonomy into the domestic sphere (unlike the market women of Kumasi in Ghana). They are able to do this through the collective power they have built within their various kin networks as an extension of their workplace. Also, many of them live within walking distance of the market and are at their workplace most of the day, turning the work site into a temporary residence replete with a social network. The interface of kin, residential and occupational networks gives the collectivity of the women’s market the potential for mobilization. . . .
Behavior encouraged in the zaar gives women a rare chance for uninhibited entertainment and drama. At the zaar ceremonies I attended, the protagonists entered states of trance and the possessed exhibited bawdy or lewd behavior not acceptable in
