Photo: AP/Amr Nabil.
Sudanese Camirata troupe founder Dafallah el-Hag at the Russian cultural center in Cairo, Egypt, this past September.
There is too much war going on.
I struggle to think what alternative Ukraine had after an invasion, but I wish there had been some less lethal way to kick the invader out. In the Middle East, the fighting has gone on beyond anything the world at large can condone. And there are endless ethnic wars in places like Myanmar and Sudan that pain me to think about.
Today’s little story about cheering up Sudanese refugees through art will seem like a feeble attempt to find something positive, but to those who have been touched by the music of kindness, even a tearful, grateful moment can be valuable.
Fatma Khaled wrote recently for the Associated Press (AP), “As the performers took the stage and the traditional drum beat gained momentum, Sudanese refugees sitting in the audience were moved to tears. Hadia Moussa said the melody reminded her of the country’s Nuba Mountains, her family’s ancestral home.
“ ‘Performances like this help people mentally affected by the war. It reminds us of the Sudanese folklore and our culture,’ she said.
“Sudan has been engulfed by violence since April 2023, when war between the Sudanese military and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces broke out across the country. The conflict has turned the capital, Khartoum, into an urban battlefield and displaced 4.6 million people, according to the U.N. migration agency, including more than 419,000 people who fled to Egypt.”
[Think about that, a flight to Egypt.]
“A band with 12 Sudanese members now lives with thousands of refugees in Egypt. The troupe, called ‘Camirata,’ includes researchers, singers and poets who are determined to preserve the knowledge of traditional Sudanese folk music and dance to keep it from being lost in the ruinous war.
“Founded in 1997, the band rose to popularity in Khartoum before it began traveling to different states, enlisting diverse musicians, dancers and styles. They sing in 25 different Sudanese languages. Founder Dafallah el-Hag said the band’s members started relocating to Egypt … as Sudan struggled through a difficult economic and political transition after a 2019 popular uprising unseated longtime ruler Omar al-Bashir. …
“The band uses a variety of local musical instruments on stage. El-Hag says audiences are often surprised to see instruments such as the tanbour, a stringed instrument, being played with the nuggara drums, combined with tunes of the banimbo, a wooden xylophone. …
“Kawthar Osman, a native of Madani city who has been singing with the band since 1997, feels nostalgic when she sings about the Nile River, which forms in Sudan from two upper branches, the Blue and White Nile.
“ ‘It reminds me of what makes Sudan the way it is,’ she said, adding that the war only ‘pushed the band to sing more for peace.’
“Over 2 million Sudanese fled the country, mostly to neighboring Egypt and Chad, where the Global Hunger Index has reported a ‘serious’ level of hunger. …
“Living conditions for those who stayed in Sudan have worsened as the war spread beyond Khartoum. Many made hard decisions early in the war either to flee across frontlines or risk being caught in the middle of fighting. In Darfur, the war turned particularly brutal and created famine conditions. …
“Armed robberies, lootings and the seizure of homes for bases were some of the challenges faced by Sudanese who stayed in the country’s urban areas. Others struggled to secure food and water, find sources for electricity and obtain medical treatment since hospitals have been raided by fighters or hit by airstrikes. Communications networks are often barely functional.
“The performers say they struggle to speak with family and friends still in the country, much less think about returning. ‘We don’t know if we’ll return to Sudan again or will see Sudan again or walk in the same streets,’ Farid said.” More at AP, here.
During this tragic war, very little aid has gotten through, although nonprofits like Alight, one of my favorites, are always poised to help. Rachel Savage at the Guardian wrote that on Christmas, the first successful shipment since the war started a year and a half ago finally got through.
She wrote, “An aid convoy has reached a besieged area of Khartoum for the first time since Sudan’s civil war broke out in April 2023, bringing food and medicines in a country where half of the people are at risk of starvation.
“The 28 trucks arrived in southern Khartoum on 25 December, according to the World Food Program (WFP), which provided 22 trucks loaded with 750 tons of food.
“Unicef sent five trucks with medicines and malnutrition kits for children, while Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) [Doctors Without Borders] contributed one truck of medical supplies, according to the Khartoum State Emergency Response Room (ERR), a grassroots aid group that is helping to coordinate the distribution.
“Sheldon Yett, Unicef’s Sudan representative, said: ‘Access to the area has been essentially cut off due the conflict dynamics. It took three months of often daily negotiations with government authorities at all levels and with other parties who controlled the access.’ ” More at the Guardian, here.
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