Pioneering Afghans

“In the Outback of Australia

Few men ever came,

Came a string of laden camels

Heading north to Alice Springs…”

          Road trains and tour buses plough up and down the Stuart Highway. Soon trains will run all the way from Adelaide to Darwin. The Outback has been thoroughly opened up. Yet, as the song reminds us, the great Australian inland would have remained a closed book without the contribution of Afghans, who first rode their camels into the harsh interior to facilitate the building of the railways.

          The Afghans came to Australia without women and often intermarried with the Aboriginal population. Eric Sultan, who is of Afghan, Aboriginal and Irish descent, is very proud of his mixed background. Jokingly, he calls himself a “liquorice all-sort”.

          Teaching youngsters about Australia’s Afghan history brought Eric Sultan into partnership with Alex Sherrin, an amateur historian in Alice Springs. The children of Sadadeen Primary School had no idea who their school was named after, so Alex decided to show them.

          Charlie Sadadeen was a legendary cameleer, who came to Alice in the early 1900s, carrying loads for local farmers and businesses on his herd of 60 beasts. Alex wanted Charlie to turn up in person and tell the children about his life but since he died some 70 years ago, Alex needed a stand-in. Preferably someone of real Afghan descent.

          He found Eric, standing with his Imam, at the Alice Springs mosque and told them of his idea to put on a piece of theatre at the school. They hesitated at first but later Alex got a call from Eric.

          “Did Charlie Sadadeen have a beard?” he asked.

          “Yes,” said Alex.

          “Then I think I know someone who might do it for you.”

          So Eric, who himself sports a substantial beard, dressed up to re-enact the part.

          “Eric appeared at seven or eight o’clock at night, so the kids were pretty hyper by then,” said Alex. “They were just spellbound and for weeks afterwards, the children kept talking about this Afghan bloke who came to their school.”

          Some elderly people in the audience seemed to believe they really had seen Charlie Sadadeen, back from the dead.

          Their success at the school inspired Alex to re-create the last camel train to mark the Year of the Outback in 2002. That was a magical event that helped to unite Muslims and Christians in Australia despite tensions in the international arena.