The Sudans Takeover
July 22, 2016 6:23 AM   Subscribe

As South Sudan tries to restabilize after the shaky resolution of the 2013 civil war, The Guardian turned over their African coverage to Sudanese and South Sudanese journalists to talk about more than just violence.

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Natalina Yaqoub, crowned Miss Nuba Mountains, has used her platform to appeal to the Sudanese government to stop bombing in the Nuba Mountains. Natalina was crowned at the Nuba Cultural Heritage Festival, which works to maintain Nuba culture among displaced people living in Khartoum. You can keep up to date with news of the Nuba Region with Nuba Reports.

Natalina also spoke at TEDxSoba, along with activists against female circumcision, drummers, and poets.
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The Sudanese diaspora is using social media (especially WhatsApp and Facebook) to coordinate volunteering, charity, and aid projects.
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A small woman with greying braids sits under a tree in front of Khartoum’s Ombada prison, looking tired in the stifling afternoon heat.

It’s hard to imagine that this 70-year-old woman is the princess of a territory the size of France. Or rather, she would have been, if her great-grandfather, Sultan Ali Dinar, hadn’t been killed by the British army 100 years ago.
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"Tonight, these partygoers are determined to overcome ethnic differences in favour of a good night out. Koryom Kuol, a 27-year-old events organiser, says despite the insecurity in the capital he’s been organising these monthly concerts, called Club Vegas, to unite young people regardless of their background.
Muhaba Be Kam
New South Sudan
Banyop Ka Babul
posted by ChuraChura (5 comments total) 23 users marked this as a favorite
 
(Even if you click on no other links in this post, may I recommend that you watch Banyop Ka Babul, which is the first music video I've seen that features both cows and a fight over goat legs?)
posted by ChuraChura at 7:54 AM on July 22, 2016 [2 favorites]


Thanks for this post. I did not know that "journalists are banned from the Nuba mountains. This makes it extremely difficult for International media to cover the war and it’s impact on civilians," as explained in the Nuba Reports link. Nuba Reports and its journalists are breaking the law, providing valuable information about the conditions there. I particularly appreciate this description of how they work. They're doing a very important thing at great risk. There are some really interesting gems on their site, including a video of how bombs that are dropped there are repurposed into tools.
posted by sockermom at 8:07 AM on July 22, 2016 [2 favorites]


Great post (as usual), ChuraChura. I really liked the Guardian coverage. It's a great idea on so many levels to enlist locals in your foreign news coverage.
posted by Rock Steady at 8:48 AM on July 22, 2016 [1 favorite]


Incidentally - this has been a very bad few weeks of violence in South Sudan, and the humanitarian situation is spiraling pretty rapidly. It's worth keeping an eye on news coming out of the region.
posted by ChuraChura at 10:40 AM on July 22, 2016 [1 favorite]


Great post ChuraChura! It put me in mind of This terrific post about a doctor working in the Nuba mountains from our beloved man of twists and turns not so long ago.

That last video was great, and I really love how it captured something quintessential to so many rural African areas: that fusion of traditional pastoralism and modernity.

Over 11 million cattle in South Sudan have brought opportunity and trouble to the area of a long time. When your shepherds are packing ak-47s, and you have decades of inter-tribal cattle-rustling with brutal reprisals and revenge attacks (Here is a great background to the problem by a Sudanese academic), climate change and war don't help things very much.

There have been some successful programs trying to address this. I also read a great piece in Nat Geo, I think, a few years ago about overcoming generational inter-tribal feuds in northern Kenya/southern Somalia, but damned if I can find it.

I loved the links you have about the Sudanese diaspora. We have a number of Sudanese communities here in Australia. Like any visible minority, they have been subjected to a lot of racism and slurs, however that doesn't diminish the community's terrific achievements, community spirit, and happiness and value they've found all over Australia. The story of Johnson Maker-Adeng is really inspiring, I think.
posted by smoke at 11:15 PM on July 22, 2016 [2 favorites]


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