CAIRO – As the performers took the stage and the beat of traditional drums picked up pace, Sudanese refugees in the audience were brought to tears. Hadiya Moussa said the tune reminds her of the country’s Nuba Mountains, her family’s ancestral home.
“This kind of display helps people mentally affected by the war. It reminds us of Sudanese folklore and our culture,” he said.
Sudan has been gripped by violence since April 2023, when fighting broke out across the country between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces. The conflict has turned the capital Khartoum into an urban battlefield and displaced 4.6 million people, including more than 419,000 who fled to Egypt, according to the UN migration agency.
A band consisting of 12 Sudanese members now lives with thousands of refugees in Egypt. The troupe, called “Camirata”, consists of researchers, singers and poets who are determined to preserve the knowledge of traditional Sudanese folk music and dance to prevent it from being lost in the devastating war.
Formed in 1997, the band gained popularity in Khartoum before starting to tour different states, incorporating different musicians, dancers and styles. They sing in 25 different Sudanese languages. Founder Daffallah al-Haag said band members have recently begun relocating to Egypt, as Sudan is facing a difficult economic and political crisis following a 2019 popular uprising that ousted longtime ruler Omar al-Bashir. Was struggling with change. After the violence started, other people also followed. El-Haag arrived late last year.
The band uses a variety of local musical instruments on stage. El-Haag says spectators are often surprised to see instruments such as the tanbour, a stringed instrument played along with the nugara drum, along with the tunes of the banimbo, a wooden xylophone.
“This combination of musical instruments helped promote some form of forgiveness and solidarity among the Sudanese people,” El-Haag said. He said he was keen to revive a museum in Khartoum that housed historical instruments that had reportedly been looted and damaged.
Fatma Farid, a 21-year-old singer and dancer from Kordofan, moved to Egypt in 2021. His aunt died in 2023 when an explosive fell on their home in Al-Obeid, the capital of North Kordofan.
“My way of looking at art has changed a lot since the war started,” he said. “As an artist, think about what you present. You can convey a message,” she said.
Kawthar Osman, a native of Madani city who has been singing with the band since 1997, gets nostalgic as she sings about the Nile River, which is formed by two upper branches, the Blue and White Nile rivers in Sudan Is.
“It reminds me of what Sudan is made of,” he said, adding that the war only “inspired the band to sing more for peace.”
More than 2 million Sudanese fled the country, mostly to neighboring Egypt and Chad, where the Global Hunger Index reported “severe” levels of hunger in Chad. More than half a million forcibly displaced Sudanese people, mostly women and children, have sought refuge in Chad.
As the war spreads beyond Khartoum, living conditions for those in Sudan have worsened. Many made tough decisions at the beginning of the war to either flee to the front lines or risk being caught in the middle of the fighting. In Darfur, the war became particularly brutal and led to famine, with militias attacking entire villages and burning them.
Armed robberies, looting and taking over homes for hideouts were some of the challenges faced by Sudanese people living in urban areas of the country. Others struggled to secure food and water, find sources of electricity, and receive medical treatment as hospitals were attacked by fighters or airstrikes. Communication networks are often barely functional.
Artists say they still find it difficult to talk to their family and friends in the country, let alone even think about returning.
“We don’t know whether we will return to Sudan again or see Sudan again or walk on the same roads,” Farid said.
Video journalist Mohammed Salah contributed to this report from Cairo.
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