notes on sudan

There's a story that when Wardi was arrested in 1971 as part of the anti-communist campaigns, he asked if he could take his oud with him to prison. Allegedly the response was no, since we arrested you because of the oud.

Today marks 14 years since Mohammed Wardi - Sudan's most beloved musician - passed away. I wrote a thread on how he narrated Sudan's history from antiquity to recent revolutions on the other app a few years ago, before the war. Since then, his son reported that his oud was stolen by the RSF...

I generally avoid posting about my job on socials but... as someone unfortunately currently on strike (yet again) I actually find it worse when people send you strike solidarity messages but cross the picket anyway. Like at least have the backbone to scab with your chest.

Rendition of the anticolonial love poem written by Khalil Farah (the name 'Azza' used as a replacement for Sudan to evade detection by the colonial government). Happy Valentine's Day ❤️‍🩹

During the revolution a popular & defiant chant began: "He took us to Shala" - from a poem by Mahgoub Sharif on the transportation of communists across several prisons. A more famous poem by Sharif - 7nabneho - dominated the revolution & envisaged a future where prisons are replaced by hospitals.

Hundreds dead in RSF-run prison in Sudan's North Darfur At least 9,000 civilians said to be in Shala prison, southwest of el-Fasher, where cholera has broken out

Jesus Christ. Reports that more than 300 inmates have died in Shala prison in Darfur in the last two months. www.middleeasteye.net/news/hundred...

Films by the lovely people from the Sudanese Film Group are now on Criterion (link: www.criterionchannel.com/sudanese-fil...)

Sorry only just seen this!

They finally made it, snow, ice, blisters and all 🥹💛. More than 900 miles walked to illustrate the long paths to safety that so many displaced Sudanese have had to go through and to support Sudanese children in Chad. Thanks everyone for sharing/supporting ❤️

Thanks to everyone who shared and donated to this both on here and Twitter (I'm still calling it that) where it somehow went viral despite that app otherwise being cursed. They smashed their original target and have upped their goal as a result, and will finish their long walk tomorrow in Scotland 💛

These two amazing South Sudanese friends - Giel Malual and John Kuei - are walking the length of the UK in freezing weather (set off on 23 Dec) to raise money for displaced Sudanese children in refugee camps in Chad. Link here you're able to support and/or repost: www.gofundme.com/f/the-long-w...

Your students are lucky! (Was discussing Sudan nat. archives yday & an incident where a historian had relied uncritically on security records altho every protestor & inmate involved contested this record (exciting NYE chat I know) - so important you're having them think about limits as well)

ah your class sounds super cool, thank you for sharing the clip!

I'm too lazy to write a thread but she's got a section on Wikipedia for those interested in reading more about her. Some other photos of her: (she's the one on the right in the B&W photo with Oum Kalthoum), & still wearing those independence flag colours half a century later.

The woman in the video is the late Hawa al-Tagtaga 💚💙💛. She was arrested multiple times and imprisoned for her anti-colonial activism and music. Although the footage is in B&W, her famous toab first worn here is in the colours of the old Sudanese flag (blue, yellow & green). bsky.app/profile/chri...

😍

Love Gramsci but that "I hate New Year's Day" column of his that always circulates at this time of year is (in my opinion) God awful.

Sudanese labourers excavating wall art (the first depicts the birth of Jesus) from what was Faras cathedral in medieval Nubia, parts of which ended up in the (recently looted) Sudan National Museum.

London yesterday (📸 by Martin Gavin) #Sudan

'Sudan's Grain Divide: A revolution of bread and sorghum' (briefing) / ثورة العيش t.co/idWAsXUtu6

omg the replies to the post you're QTing.... 💀 this app is cooked

Two Revolutions in One | Sudan “How could I possibly demand the overthrow of a political regime while suffering from a repressive regime in my own home?” This is how my friend described the Sudanese women’s revolution while reminis...

'Two revolutions in one' kohljournal.press/Two-Revoluti...
&
'Queering Space' kohljournal.press/queering-spa...

Subaltern Formations and Sudan’s 2018–2019 Uprising This essay explores the role of subaltern groups in Sudan’s 2018–2019 uprising and the immediate aftermath of Bashir’s overthrow, with a specific focus on relations between various subaltern groups...

'Subaltern Formations and Sudan's 2018-19 Uprising' www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Image of a train in a sea of revolutionaries waving Sudanese flags. Protestors fill the image, including many standing on top of the train.

Tomorrow marks the 7th anniversary of Sudan's December revolution, before it was superseded by another war that separated and scattered millions of people across countless countries and worlds. Will slowly be posting readings on the uprising here, focusing first on those by Sudanese 🧵

Arabic title is mo3alem fi tareekh el hizb el shyu3i

Photograph of a book page featuring Arabic text querying the emergence of a communist party in/from Sudanese society

Scanning today 📜

This article captures a phenomenon that's not uncommon but hasn't really been covered in a lot of analysis on the war: young former revolutionaries who marched against the army 6 years ago joining the army or aligned group since the war.
"From revolutionary to soldier":
3ayin.com/en/albarabin...

RSF massacres left Sudanese city ‘a slaughterhouse’, satellite images show Up to 150,000 residents of El Fasher are missing since North Darfur capital fell to paramilitary Rapid Support Forces

MPs were briefed that 60,000 people killed in 3 weeks is the "low" estimate...
www.theguardian.com/global-devel...

Khartoum / The Garden Cinema The screening on 1 December will be followed by a Q&A with co-director Phil Cox, hosted by curator Sally Zarzour. In 2022, Sudanese filmmakers, in collaboration with a British writer / director, an Ir...

This is also screening in London on 1st December at the Garden Cinema (link: www.thegardencinema.co.uk/film/khartoum/) and on 16th December at Curzon cinema in Soho (link: www.curzon.com/films/kharto...).

Screenshot excerpt from the article linked in previous post.

Never told him this when he was alive but realising how much everything I've written is simultaneously about my father, and also very deliberately not about my father. Even though I avoided writing about experiences of imprisoned minors, he/their ghosts still emerge in the stories of others.