One day in the year 1983, I had to be at work by 7:30 am, and I had the habit of showering early. Unfortunately there had been a water shortage problem facing the whole island for almost two days, due to breakage of pipes and water leakages.

That morning, after I did my ablution for Fajr prayers with what was left from the zeer’s[1] drinking water, I decided to go to the river and wash there, as I had lost any hope that water would again begin flowing through the pipes that day.

After I was done, something drove me to swim towards one large piece of land in the middle of the river, but then I hesitated, as I was afraid to come across crocodiles at this early time of the morning. This was especially considering the ambient noise that day, which was unusually quiet as the farmers hadn’t yet shown up at their farms.

A few moments passed by, and after I had swam several meters towards the piece of land, I turned back towards the shore carrying a plastic bucket filled with water for my family.

By the time I had returned to work at 3 pm, I learnt that a giant crocodile was hiding on the same land I had swam towards and then backed off this morning. This crocodile had also preyed on a young man who had come from the suburbs of Khartoum to swim by the island.

After the spread of the news, snipers were summoned to eliminate this creature. These men were familiar with their behaviors and they knew that crocodiles eat half of their victim and keep the rest for later.

As such, they sent a search party to look for the rest of the body, which was found hidden between shrubbery. A trap was set for the crocodile and they were able to capture him, kill him, and send the body to the zoo where they flayed his skin .

The people of Tuti were well acquainted with seeing crocodiles all around the island, but they were not familiar with it murdering a human being. That is why this crocodile deserved the title ‘The Crocodile of Tuti’, as he was one of a kind...

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1: Zeer is a local pottery pot used to save water that exploits a scientific phenomenon, which is fumigation. This helps to cool its contents, as the evaporative process helps to keep the water cool without the need for electricity.