The extra long staple cotton named Sudan Barakat is planted in the irrigated fields of this region.

[3] The plan was launched by a group of English weaving companies called the Sudan Plantation Syndicate, which had already started a successful pump scheme at Taiba (Ţayyibat Ḩamad an Nīl) in 1910.

[4] The town is home to the headquarters of the Sudan Gezira Board, which runs the Gezira-Managil Irrigation System.

After the Battle of Karari (2 September 1898), in which the Mahdist forces of the Khalifa were defeated by an Anglo-Egyptian army under General Herbert Kitchener, the Mahdi's family was sent to Shakaba under government escort.

After hearing a rumor that the group was conducting Mahdist propaganda, a force of government troops fired on the group at random, killing Khalifa Muhammad Sharif and two of the Mahdi's sons, al-Fadil and al-Bushra.