Archeology, art, and literature for a new Sudan: Reimagining the past, rethinking the future

Given Sudan’s apocalyptic present, it may be difficult to recall that not long ago a promising movement of democratic solidarity filled its streets, enfolding Sudanese from a wide swath of the political spectrum. Although its slogan was the sparse “just fall” (tasqut bas), an abridgment of the famous Arab spring populist chant without even an invocation “the people” as firm ground on which to stand, in actuality, a quite robust reimagining of what Sudan is and could be was taking place.

Among many initiatives, activists mined Sudan’s ancient past to imagine a different sort of future for Sudan, drawing on a long, but often dormant, strand of “Kushism” to mark a pharaonic starting point to Sudanism (sudanawiyya), reviving ancient kings and queens (kandakat) as part of revolutionary parlance and practice. And yet, the movement represented not merely a break with Sudan’s recent history, but also a re-engagement with it, taking on Islamism, Nubianism, and broader gestures to Africanism in equal measure.

Through an exploration of street art, speculative fiction, popular history, poetry, and archeology, both during and directly prior to the 2018-19 revolution, my talk will explore this important attempt to reimagine Sudan’s past, examining what possibilities and pitfalls it still may hold for Sudan’s uncertain future.

Noah Salomon (PhD University of Chicago) is the Irfan and Noreen Galaria Research Chair and Associate Professor in Islamic Studies in the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Virginia.