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Introduction1 On 30 June 1989, a military coup in Sudan “But They Can’t Manage to Silence brought a regime under Omar Al-Bashir to Us:” Mahjoub Sharif’s Prison Poem power, which publically displayed itself as a nationalist revolution empowering “A Homesick Sparrow” (1990) as Islamic state-building. However, under this umbrella the regime established struc- Resistance to Political Confinement tures of domination, building on an eco- nomic-political network protected by mil- itant security forces.2 One of the first steps after the coup was the wide-ranging arrest of potential oppo- sitionists to the new rulers. Among them was the poet and teacher Mahjoub Sharif. His imprisonment was brought to some international attention when Amnesty International, Africa Watch and BBC’s Pris- oners of Consciousness series took up his Enrico Ille case at the beginning of the 1990s.3 Not only for his poems, but also for his politi- This article discusses the poem “A Home- tiation of the modalities of public appear- cal views associated with the Sudanese sick Sparrow” by the Sudanese poet ances and utterances in Sudan. In this Communist Party, Mahjoub Sharif was Mahjoub Sharif (1948-2014) in the frame sense, the poetic language and the way it imprisoned in August 1989 and sus- of recent cultural policies in Sudan. The was brought outside the prison walls are pended from his work as a teacher in poem was written in 1990, one year after understood here as a performative act of accordance with the far-reaching removal the military coup that brought the present political resistance against governmental of oppositionists from public service “for regime to power, while the poet was attempts of peripheralization vis-à-vis cul- the public good” (lil-ṣāliḥ al-cām), as the imprisoned together with others regarded tural policies aiming at homogenization new regime called it. as oppositionists to the new Islamist gov- and centralization through political Islam. Mahjoub Sharif was born around 1950 in a ernment. It reflects not only a specific, rural area of the Gezira region east of the critical positioning against contemporary Keywords: Sudanese Poetry; Cultural Pol- Nile.4 Early in his childhood, he experi- political events, but can be read in the icy; Political Islam; Public Spaces; Political enced both, rustic life during his primary context of a long-term, often harsh nego- Prisoners. school education and urban surroundings
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in Omdurman, where his family engaged to three years. In addition, he was fre- reflection of a state of mind in prison. Its in petty trade. Instead of following this quently forbidden to work in public ser- subsequently rich connotations provide profession, he entered the Maridi Institute vice, both under Nimeiri and under Al- a fruitful entry point into a wider analysis for Teachers in Khartoum and remained a Bashir, while the latter regime restricted of socio-political and cultural history, as it primary school teacher for most of his pro- his mobility to the capital, Khartoum, until both reflects and reaches beyond the fessional career. His creative methods of 1998. The performance of his poetry in condition of confinement. teaching Arabic are among the things public media is subject to selective cen- Several studies of prison writing have most remembered by those who knew sorship up to now, although some musi- moved beyond accepting the institution him during those years. But the periods cians continue to defiantly make the point “prison” as the only relevant context and when he could be active as teacher were of performing songs based on his forbid- focused on the relation of “inward/out- cut short by repeated imprisonments, den poems in their concerts, while some ward.” While an “anthropology of prisons” which started in 1971, two years after Colo- poems and songs became an integral part can attempt to engage with the inner life nel Jaafar Nimeiri took power through a of Sudanese popular culture. of this institution (Rhodes), the harsh mark- military coup, toppled only in 1985 by a It is this translation of political criticism ing of societal boundaries intended by its popular uprising. and defiance against censorship into the establishment can also be scrutinized with Mahjoub Sharif, still a young man at that creation, performance and distribution of a look at the consequences of a failure to point, initially hailed the coup as a possi- poetry that is the focus of the following have the intended effect. In political ble alternative to the stagnant bickering of article. Its central argument is that the imprisonment, related to the boundaries the old-established parties that were built prison poetry of Mahjoub Sharif is not between legitimate and illegitimate polit- on authoritarian models of religious lead- just an expression of a will to resist politi- ical action, inducing such a failure can be ership and had failed to establish a work- cal oppression, but that the circumstances seen as an act of political resistance, which ing democracy in the years before. How- of its creation and distribution made it a questions both the coercive effectiveness ever, the violent nature of the new regime performative act of political resistance and the righteousness of the institution. soon caused him to change his position and political communication. At the same By focusing on an incarcerated writer completely, and already in 1971 he time, the poetry’s aesthetic characteristics whose artistic work was continued, not reminded in a poem that “[b]ullets aren’t can be seen not only as a functional tool started, in prison, this article relates to a the seed of life” (qtd. in Africa Watch). for such an act of defiance; they also car- number of works on political prison litera- In the following three decades, political ried, to its own end, emotional content ture that combine aesthetic aspects of imprisonment became a common reac- that was formed by the same circum- such literature with issues of human rights tion to his poetic creations, closely con- stances. This prison poetry is therefore (Wu), literary documentation (Elimelekh) nected to his social and political activism; neither merely social commentary, nor and intellectuals’ involvement in political up to 1996 he was incarcerated ten times merely intentional political communica- conflicts (Cooke; Sakr). for periods ranging between a few months tion, nor merely intellectual and aesthetic
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In this direction, Abou-bakr noted that “[t] written, will be shown to place the poet family on their vacations provided this he political prisoner […] is often preoccu- into a pro-active process of political com- information. pied with continuing the struggle inside munication that does not strive for an anti- When the family stayed in Port Sudan with the prison and with sustaining communi- language, but, on the contrary, for collo- relatives and friends, they heard new cation with the world outside”, but the “act quial intelligibility. In this sense, the poem poems—some set to music—which Mah- of communication might be blurred by the discussed here is an example of an artistic joub Sharif had created during these two absence of a reader” (261). Furthermore, production which took place inside a years, among them a poem called Al-asfūr the exceptional reality of imprisonment prison and directly relates behavior and al-ḥanīn (“A Homesick Sparrow”), written may lead to a kind of writing “against what relations inside this institution with the in Suakin in 1990. Suakin, much more iso- the audience is familiar with as character- societal developments outside it. lated than Khartoum North and Port izing mainstream discourse” (262). In the Sudan, is very hot and humid, and the case presented here, however, the suc- A Homesick Sparrow5 prison was built on an elevated spot that cess in finding an immediate receptive When Mahjoub Sharif was arrested, his concentrated both the heat and humidity audience in prison mates and even among family was not officially informed about in the cells, added to by swarms of flies the prison’s staff is argued to constitute an where he was taken. After two years, the and bats. It had been previously closed act of political resistance that includes family was allowed to visit him in a prison for sanitary reasons, but was reopened by more than the single poet himself, and in Port Sudan. They had already learned the new regime, whose prisoners had subsequently also left the prison walls. that he spent these years in different pris- filled all other prisons. The prisoners were Rather than just declaring the writer an ons, the first of which was Kober Prison in sleeping on the ground, surrounded by “anti-hero,” who rejects a differentiation Khartoum North, then Suakin in eastern dust and the dirt of animals. In this situa- between himself and “the people” suffer- Sudan, and finally Port Sudan on the Red tion, the poem was created in form of a ing outside the prison (285), performance Sea. Friends who had been released, and letter to those outside:6 and distribution of poetry, both oral and sympathetic guards who had visited the
A homesick sparrow, 1 Perches on the heart’s window; 2 With longing eyes, 3 It cranes out to glance at the houses, 4 At the distant skies, Waiting for a cheerful morning, 5 With promises laden,
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To land like a turban, 6 On the shoulder of the homeland. 7 With each coup in a dark abyss we plunge, 8 The heavy-footed junta besiege our songs, 9 They agitate our inkpot, confiscate its internal peace. 10 They poison the cheerful spring, 11 And place their muzzles on everything. 12 What a pleasant dream they disfigure, 13 In the eyes of each mother. 14 But they can’t manage to silence us. Never. 15 In their cells we sip, 16 The perseverance syrup, 17 To remain bold and steadfast. 18 O my times in incarceration 19 O my pain of longing and torment, 20 If I lose touch with you, 21 Who, in this time of coercion, would I be? 22 If I lose touch with you I will betray 23 The little ones yet to come, If I lose touch with you, 24 Conceited and self-centered I will become. 25 So long as I have a voice in my chords, 26 What prison—or even death—can silence me? 27 No. We will never succumb. 28 They have no say 29 In our destiny. No they don’t. 30
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We are the ones who bring life 31 To the dead pores of dormancy. 32 O my sweetheart, 33 My life partner, 34 In the high regards I will always keep you. 35 36 O my beloved daughters, 37 Nestled in the shade of the kind people. 38 O the luminous space in the eye range: 39 Warm me up with your peaceful greetings, 40 With your letters. 41 Give my greetings to my peers; 42 Give my greetings to the clouds; 43 Give my greetings to the earth; 44 Give my greetings to the crowds; 45 And to the words of romance, 46 In the notebooks of the youth. 47
Interpretation from being achieved (“distant skies”). In the translation than in the original (line 14). The addressees of this letter are related in the lyrical imagery, the fulfilment of these The perpetrators in this dichotomy are multiple ways to its composer, both on a hopes is symbolized by a “cheerful morn- shown as repeatedly striking militant force societal and on an individual level. The ing,” whose dawn is likened to a turban, a that puts limitations and obstacles to free letter starts with an image (lines 1-6), a long shawl widely used as a headgear, its expression, represented by singing and view out of the prison window that is end resting easily on the homeland’s writing. Expressions of joy are silenced, deeply entrenched with the inner life shoulder, a frequently used allusion to aspirations are negated, and dreams for a (fuʿād) of the prisoner, longing for and Sudan’s mountains and the banks of the better future, here seen through mothers’ belonging to both private dwellings White and the Blue Nile. eyes, are diminished. This attempt at cen- (houses) and a widely shared homeland After this image, drawn in ellipses, a we/ sorship and prohibition is defied by a (bilād), for which hopes and visions are far they dichotomy is introduced, earlier in “we,” the voice of protest, confined but
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patient and outspoken. As opposed to the onistic construction, an aura of death sur- tent moral substructure. In this way they wider content of “we” in the lines before, rounding “them.” This central invocation of form a body of socially and politically which encompassed all affected by the an antagonistic grouping is made deliber- engaged cultural production, which dis- military dictatorships, the grouping ately clear and unmasked. Being intended plays, as Magdi El Gizouli summarized it, seems now concentrated inside the for wide distribution and mobilization, the an “extraordinary capacity to imagine prison, where struggle is the uniting ele- avoidance of heavy symbolism and the another future in feather-light lines, suit- ment and “beautiful patience” (al-ṣabr straightforward, colloquial wording in the able even for the playful entertainment of al-jamīl), freely translated as “persever- poem’s central parts aim to facilitate an children.” ance syrup,” is a drink shared by the audience that counters the deliberate It is not surprising, though, given its con- inmates. At the same time, the implied attempts to limit public appearance of text of creation, that the antagonistic terms close relation between political confine- ‘unauthorized’ cultural productions. The under which the military coup of 1989 and ment inside and outside the prison dis- rhythm of the lines is intensified here the form of political Islam following it has solves and defies this difference.8 through the repeated usage of lā (“no”), taken place is reflected in the poem’s con- Rather cherishing than devaluing impris- and the latter two lines were often frontational dichotomy. What is to be onment, a further part (lines 18-27) repeated by the poet during perfor- stressed here, however, is that the poem addresses, after an assumed future mances: represents not just simple resistance release, the time of detention as an intrin- lā wa lā nistakīn (literally: “No, and we against being put in prison, but a chal- sic part of an “I,” whose social responsibil- will not surrender”) lenge to the attempt to criminalize and ity to speak out is closely connected to it ʾinnahum lā yamlikūn (literally: “They thereby marginalize certain forms and and not limited to the present genera- do not own/decide”) contents of publicized expressions. It can tion, but also the “little ones still to come.” ʾan nakūn aw lā nakūn (literally: “If we thus be seen as resistance to having a fun- Mahjoub Sharif represents this period are or [if] we are not”)10 damental societal difference between here as a moral reminder that the chal- It is important to note that an appreciation legitimate and illegitimate ideas in public lenge of the right to public presence and of this aesthetic quality is not peripheral to spaces enforced through the threat and public speech should not be seen as understanding the political potential of physical removal of persons contesting threatened, but confirmed and strength- this and similar poems.11 Mahjoub Sharif’s centrally, ideologically defined bounda ened by this period.9 poems cover a wide range of formats, ries of such legitimacy.12 The return to the dichotomy of we/they from songs for children to elegies calling For such resistance, active intellectual, (lines 28-32) carries the refusal not only of for revolution. But most poems share a emotional and communicational links submission, but of any kind of leader or poetic language that is concomitantly between inside and outside the prison ownership over “our” lives by those who based on colloquial Sudanese Arabic, are of essential importance. After the claim both. The stress of liveliness coming playfully rhythmic and associative usage statements of defiance, the letter turns to from “us” also implies, through the antag- of sounds and images, as well as a persis- the sphere of the private—to wife and chil-
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dren, who featured often in Sharif’s poems while ending on a lighter note, reminding a jellabiya, into which an imprisoned tailor as the central emotional reference point, of the beauty of expressions still had sewn it. also reminding of the impact of political exchanged between young people, in However, writing was always the more violence on personal lives.13 His wife and spite of the muzzles. dangerous way of conserving poems in children were themselves subjected to However, resistance against confinement prison, so Mahjoub Sharif very early eviction from their home and exclusion was not limited to the content of the poem adopted oral ways of transfer, having from the government’s food ration sys- as an expression of the will to resist. As already been before prison an oral poet tem. The—at this point assumed, hoped- much as controlled fluctuation between who was able to recite most of his poems for—solidarity shown to them by friends is uncertainty about and contact to the “life of a more than forty-year period of work. translated here into the larger term shaʿb outside” was tried to be used to strengthen His way of composing and distributing (“community, people”). the impact of imprisonment, the ways in poems started with small elements, The strain put on personal relations which Mahjoub Sharif’s poems got out- verses, which grew over time to the whole through enforced distance, as well as the side the prison speak not only of the fail- poem. He would repeat the parts he was uncertainty about each other’s situation, is ure of the regime to completely control comfortable with loudly, in his cell, in the an intentional element of imprisonment political and social relations, but also of prison yard, or in the bathroom, so all pris- and was reportedly repeatedly stressed transgressions beyond the roles assigned oners and guards would listen to them during interrogations and torture. But to individuals in its executive system. repeatedly and memorize them. When a even a certain degree of contact consti- One of the ways came to use when there poem was finished, he would go around tuted an intended basic element of a pris- was a spontaneous chance, such as a declaiming it with clapping hands and oner’s existence—shared suffering being friend being released. Since he was not stamping feet, marking the rhythm, which one of the anticipated emotional conse- allowed to have pen and paper, Mahjoub always was a central element of his quences leading to behavioral changes Sharif wrote down what he had composed poems. This made them also easy to among sympathizers. This shows the on the inside of his clothes (a white long adapt as songs, which would become an importance of the appearance not only of gown, called jellabiya, or a shirt), on essential part of cultural life in the prisons those close persons in the letter, but also matchboxes or on cigarette packs.15 In this he spent time in.16 of them being safe among supporters, an process, the help of guards, apart from This oral way marked further the bounda assumption that may have had an almost other prisoners and visitors, was also ries of oppression, as it allowed poems to therapeutic effect.14 essential, as they sometimes brought ball- travel through the heads of other people, In the last part of the letter (lines 42-47), point pen cartridges, which were hidden be they fellow prisoners or guards. This greetings widen the view again to the in the elastic band of trousers or in food. symbolic breakdown of prison walls was social environment, the sky and the earth— The written poems were brought outside also perceived by the members of the resounding skies and homeland—and the in similar secret ways: “A Homesick Spar- national security (National Intelligence crowds, the envisaged “we” of the future, row” was brought outside the prison with and Security Service, NISS), and Mahjoub
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Sharif was repeatedly subjected to beat- Contextualization group, intellectually and emotionally, can ings on the head—both as a physical and The features of Mahjoub Sharif’s poem be regarded as an underlying function of symbolic punishment—and confined to presented here are only one of many this poem, especially considering its his- solitary cells. At the same time, support diverse directions poetic production took torical background in protest poetry. was extended not only by individual in Sudan during the 20th century. Covering Mahjoub Sharif often highlighted in his members of national security, but, in case a wide range of classical, neo-classical, poems the need for democratic rule and of the prison in Kober, by the prison direc- folk, religious, symbolic and surreal respect for cultural diversity, which put tor himself, showing the permeability of poetry,18 this production had varied con- him in clear opposition to autocratic one- the ideologically drawn boundaries and siderably in its relation to ruling forces in party rule and political Islam. Even one the roles by which they were attempted to the country. Sudanese poetry during colo- year after his death in April 2014, members be institutionalized. nial times, for instance, took both support- of the popular musical group ʿIgid al-Jalād Against this background, the societal ive and antagonistic stances, increasingly received threats from the NISS for per- vision and the moral values embedded in formulated into nationalist terms, which forming songs based on his political the poem are made more urgent through continued to be used after indepen- poems. Thus, while his poems do not nec- its transportation into a present “we” that dence.19 In a wider discussion of Sudanese essarily lead to large-scale political mobi- is already in the position to speak as a poetry, Soghayroon located Mahjoub lization—though they were an audible part group. Such values—love for one’s country, Sharif’s poetry in the aftermath of political of the popular uprising in 1985—they are the beauty of solidarity and reciprocity, poetry born during a popular uprising in obviously perceived as potential threats to affectionate family relations, even the aes- October 1964 and as part of both literary the status quo, both under previous and thetics of words and sounds—can be and colloquial style used to express popu- present autocratic regimes. shared and identified with across a wide lar discontentment with autocratic rule At the same time, some of his poetic range of social actors as good values, thus since the 1970s (183-87). expressions were used by the ruling party creating an inclusive social space.17 A The detailed study necessary to analyze itself, such as “We Will Build It” strong anti-violence and anti-censorship the social, political and emotional relation- (Ḥanabnīhu) during the 2015 National stance is built as the only legitimate way ships involved here cannot be put forward Congress Party election campaign, from towards living these values, thereby con- in the frame of this article. What is impor- a poem also included in the “Prisoner of verting the attempted criminalization of tant to note for the sake of the poem’s Consciousness” campaign in the 1990s. this cultural production into a positive interpretation in view of cultural policies in Turning around what Magdi El Gizouli value of resistance, or at least, in the eyes Sudan after 1989, is the specific construc- had called making Sharif’s poems “part of of those on the other side of the bars, into tion of a “we” that is taking place. Such a the politically erotic repertoire of opposi- a moment of confusion over the contradic- “we” is presented as an existing group tion congregation,” this appropriation of tion between the charges against the pris- with a unified stand against an oppressive poetic political language by changing its oner and the values shared with him. rule. In fact, the mobilization of such a context reminds of its inevitable ambigu-
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ity: it is exactly the constitution of which 2011. However, it soon became clear that Regarding South Sudan, several legal “we” will build which kind of state that the basic challenges of people in north- steps and public statements made a con- remains violently contested.20 ern and South Sudan did not disappear frontational approach clear. A presidential As matters stand, this contestation has with a new border line on the map, and decree on 9 June 2011 excluded all so- already broken Sudan apart when South that many of the challenges were not as called Southerners from work in the north- Sudan separated in July 2011, a process different as suggested by such a line. In ern government, extended in July to all that can serve here to provide more con- South Sudan, the public façade of libera- jobs throughout the country.21 Dual citizen- text to this appropriation of “we.” North- tion gave way to violent struggles for ship was long denied and became in 2012, ern Sudan’s President Omar Al-Bashir was power, exploding into a full-scale war in after long negotiations, part of a Four Free- greeted in Juba with waving flags pro- December 2013. doms Agreement that still awaits imple- claiming “separation” and “secession” The ruling party in northern Sudan, the mentation. In South Sudan, many northern when he visited South Sudan on 4 January National Congress Party, repeatedly Muslims were reported to fear repression 2011 (Birungi). At the same time, high- announced a shift from the diversity-ori- after the separation, and, indeed, general ranking politicians from the Sudan Peo- ented Interim Constitution of 2005 after sentiments of xenophobia swept through ple’s Liberation Movement (SPLM), ruling separation, highlighting a threat to “devi- the country about to form. in South Sudan, traveled the country to ant” ways of living and talking in public. Confrontation and confusion intensified encourage votes for independence in the President Omar Al-Bashir did not even wait for those about to be regarded as “South- referendum on 9-15 January 2011. The ref- for the referendum to declare the end of erners” and thus citizens of a different erendum’s result in favor of separation cultural diversity in the country in favor of state. But apart from unresolved legal sparked much enthusiasm—a citizen of a sharia-based Arab-Muslim constitutional questions, the separation also posed a Juba was quoted saying that “all South order. His statement responded to criti- personal dilemma for many people living Sudanese [celebrated] every night until cism directed at one of the few examples beyond the north-south dichotomy. The morning” (al-Samany)—and the official of related policies that reached interna- writer Stella Gitano, for example, born in numbers of votes for independence was tional platforms via YouTube: namely, a South Sudan but living both in Khartoum said to have reached nearly 99%. For dif- police officer filming the flogging of an and Juba and writing in Arabic, lamented ferent reasons, proponents of exclusion- allegedly adulterous woman in December political agendas forcing people to ary Islamic orders in northern Sudan cel- 2010. While challenges to the workings of choose sides and summarized the ebrated the result as well. a governmental system were turned here encroachment on her “Arab-African” mar- The referendum was followed by high into an issue of cultural and national iden- riage as follows: “If I stay in the north, I will hopes for the ‘youngest nation on earth;’ tity, this system was in fact criticized as an become a foreigner, and if my husband South Sudan’s first President Salva Kiir oppressive security apparatus protecting goes to the south, he will become a for- Mayardit called it “a dream that has come the political status quo. eigner” (Kushkush). true” in his inaugural address on 9 July
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In fact, these seemingly bilateral confron- testers and other oppositional voices only tion ideas that have been challenged in tations covered the complexities of a few peripheral disgruntled individuals, their public presence under two military inequality and struggle for emancipation maybe even instigated by “the West” or rulers (Nimeiri, Bashir) by prohibition and that not only marked many marginalized Israel or an unidentified foreign agenda? imprisonment. rural areas throughout northern, western, Or were these the first sparks of a public In this sense, the poem discussed here eastern and central Sudan, but also urban uprising, eventually growing into burning represents reclamation of public space dissidents resisting overbearing and dis- flames? Is the present central government after its occupation by political forces try- criminating rule at least since the 1989 in Khartoum the outcome of free elections ing to centralize this negotiation by ren- coup brought the present regime in in April 2010 and April 2015, showing the dering resistance against its policies as power. But instead of a popular uprising will of the majority? Or is it an extension of peripheral and illegitimate. While some or broad social movements, Sudan has the military dictatorship which has been cultural productions have thus been seen multiple forms of everyday-life resis- ruling in a way that has crippled public claimed to take, as majority culture, prec- tance for some decades, whose effects resistance against injustices since grasp- edent over peripheral minority cultures, a can only be seen in details. While a grim ing power through a coup in June 1989, counter-claim is attempted to be posi- economic decline, high inflation, price following in the footsteps of previous tioned here as an integrative public space hikes, gaps and corruption in public authoritarian rulers (General Abboud that is not less nationalist in its political finance marked the years that followed the 1958-1964, Colonel Nimeiri 1969-1985)? visions, but argues against centralization separation, the question was left open if What “we” is active here? of cultural production towards the grow- low-key, fragmented everyday struggles These questions can enter public spaces ing integration of diversity into a Suda- and protests, met with focused brutality by in Sudan often only under existential nese nation. security organs, will remain, or if larger- threats or in disguised form. In this article, Seeing the impending separation of South scale movements, as envisioned in the such obstacles were treated as part of an Sudan as a failure in this regard, a 2011 poem, were about to emerge. ongoing negotiation of what constitutes poem expresses Mahjoub Sharif’s disap- In any case, the regime continued to draw a legitimate presence in public spaces; pointment, but also persistent hopes for different registers of control and diver- more specifically, what kind of ideas are shared political causes capable of setting sion: while it attempted to retain control allowed to be expressed or make them- “fires” of political resistance across both over media coverage and tried to contain selves heard against attempts to prevent countries. Rejecting an ethnic or regional political action at universities and other them from being heard. While belonging definition of such a struggle in favor of an hot-spots of mobilization, it enhanced the to the larger complex of political partici- inclusive Sudan, this transcends political production of political spectacles on “ene- pation and modalities of social action in developments, from decades past and mies of the state”—the rebels, the South, public spaces, the focus was here on an recent, and furthers both a vision of and an the West etc. In the meantime, a contest artistic form—the poem—as a vessel, carry- invitation to a “we” that fights for an alter- over representation went on: Were pro- ing under specific conditions of distribu- native to divisions used as political tool:
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Enrico Ille
Mahjoub Sharif : has a doctoral degree in Social and The trees went (extract) Cultural Anthropology from the University of Halle. After holding positions as Assistant Professor at the But whatever was, Martin-Luther University of Halle and If citizens by a mark, Ahfad University for Women, Khartoum, If neighbors by a line: he is currently an independent When did you, Nile, become researcher as a member of the Law, A number of small streams? Organization, Science and Technology (LOST) Research Group. He co-edited Let us just warm each other, or say the volume Emerging Orders in the Let us invite each other that day Sudans (with Sandra Calkins and Richard [When] we ignite the fires. Rottenburg, Langaa 2014) and published a number of journal and book articles on the Nuba Mountains, discussing history, January 2011 [translation by the author] land issues and political economy, as well as development initiatives for agricultural production and water supply. He also Notes 3 This was also one of the 4 A more detailed biography, 5 This poem has recently 7 There are five further lines, edited an annotated bibliography of few instances where some of mostly written by the author, been featured in the which were discovered only social research on the Nuba Mountains 1 Personal information on his poems were translated and further sources can be exhibition “@Large: Ai in the end of 2014 and are (Chr. Michelsen Institute, forthcoming). Mahjoub Sharif is based to English, and the lyrical found in the English and Weiwei on Alcatraz” therefore not part of the description of an oppressive Arabic Wikipedia articles on (September 2014 to April translation. Recently, his research focus has shifted on conversations with him and his daughter Mariam, security apparatus in “Hey, Mahjoub Sharif. 2015), organized by the to the relation of state institutions, conducted between 2005 buffoon! Cling tightly” has Chinese artist and the 8 This reminds of the commercial companies and communities and 2015. I thank both for been repeatedly quoted; see, FOR-SITE Foundation. In the description of Robben Island in gold mining and food supply chains the time and openness they for instance, Africa Watch; section “Stay Tuned,” a voice as “University of Struggle,” gave me. Ayittey; Verney, Jerome, and recording by the poet could which was built by prisoners’ throughout Sudan. Yassin. Amnesty International be heard while sitting in one constant challenge of email: [email protected] 2 See Simone for a deeper also mentioned Mahjoub of the former prison’s cells. conditions inside and outside discussion of the origins of Sharif in previous reports at the prison walls, formed into the present regime as it is the beginning of the 1980s; 6 The English translation was poetry by Dennis Brutus based in cliental structures see also Rajab. created by Adil Babikir in (Buntman 34). built up by the National 2014. Islamic Front. ––›
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––› 9 This focus thus differs 11 Ogunyemi noted about 13 In other poems, this 18 Studies on Sudanese poetry Works Cited significantly from statements Wole Soyinka’s prison poetry aspect was center-stage, written in English are scarce, of Sudanese dissidents that that “the poet shamelessly such as “Waiting For You” see Shoush; Hale, “Arts;” Abdel Hai, Mohamed. were mentioned by Hale: courts the public and so (Fī intiẓārik), written to his Abdel Hai; Jayyusi 452-64; Conflict and Identity: “As for their prison days, I must state his case simply, wife, and “Mariam and May” Soghayroon. The Cultural Poetics of often heard the men say that lucidly, and captivatingly (Mariam wa May), written to Contemporary Sudanese these were the best years to put his opponents in his daughters. The extension 19 Compare, for instance, Poetry. Khartoum: Khartoum of their lives—being among the wrong” (82). It is not of the personal to the Muhammad, stressing female UP, 1976. Print. men, telling stories, sharing clear in how far “shame” societal reminds of the prison poets inciting men to fight everything, organizing for should be an issue here, poetry of Faiz Ahmed Faiz against colonial rule, and Abou-bakr, Randa. “The their return for freedom” and the claimed immediate (Coppola). Sharkey, highlighting poets’ Political Prisoner as Antihero: (“Memory” 435). Hale’s influence on political events compliance with the rulers. The Prison Poetry of Wole observation rather points to in Nigeria seems to simplify 14 See the consideration of Soyinka and Ahmad Fuʾad the gendered experience of historical events. However, an emotionally stabilizing 20 Gready reminded in his Nigm.” Comparative inside and outside the prison, both instances show function of poetry on political text on political prison Literature Studies 46.2 and in extension of resistance poetry reaching actively violence in Reynolds et al. writing under apartheid (2009): 261-86. Web. 28 July in general, an aspect vaguely out from confinement in that the “meaning of the 2015. perceptible some lines a way facilitating broad 15 Similarly, Whalen contains written word, regardless of further below. intelligibility. on pages xiii-xv letters of author, is an approximation, Africa Watch. “Sudan: Bullets imprisoned Irish Republican open to interpretation and Aren’t the Seeds of Life: The 10 This alludes to the 12 See Elinson and Orlando Laurence McKeown on toilet appropriation” (507). The Detention of Mahjoub Sherif, Shakespearean wording “to for a similar, though post- and cigarette paper, sent in same can be said about oral Poet and Teacher.” News be or not to be,” without prison challenge of the this form to the Irish Press. communication as well. From Africa Watch. New necessitating an awareness official discourse on the so- York: Human Rights Watch, 5 of this allusion for an called Lead Years in Morocco. 16 See the social function of 21 This was legally executed Dec. 1990. Web. 28 July 2015. appreciation of the rhythmic Thiong’o (13) spoke broadly prison poetry in Sánchez- through amendment of the
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ISSN: 2196-629X http://doi.org/10.17192/ meta.2015.5.3520
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