“But They Can't Manage to Silence Us:” Mahjoub Sharif's Prison Poem

OFF-TOPIC 117 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 oppositionists 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 Middle East – Topics & Arguments #05–2015 OFF-TOPIC 118 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 Middle East – Topics & Arguments #05–2015 OFF-TOPIC 119 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-aṣfūr 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, Middle East – Topics & Arguments #05–2015 OFF-TOPIC 120 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.

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