In the 1990s, as the war continued to escalate in southern Sudan, northern Sudanese activists arrived in conflict-affected areas in what was called a peace convoy. Initially the activists felt they were “mistrusted and no-one wanted to speak” to them, but after some days, this changed and people began to open up.
Much the same has happened since 2011, when war broke out in Blue Nile and Southern Kordofan and activists began pitching the idea of visiting the conflict areas and the refugee camps to send a message of solidarity.
Sudan’s conflicts have often involved areas on the marginalised periphery revolting against the more powerful and wealthy centre. There is a gulf between the people who live in these different areas.
Hajooj Kuka, a Sudanese filmmaker, has spent significant time in Blue Nile and Southern Kordofan to film Beats of the Antonov from the perspective of those affected by war as they navigate their lives through the raids by Soviet-made Antonov bombers, and reaffirm their cultural and physical existence through music, dance and story-telling.
When Kuka arrived at the camps for internally displaced people (IDPs) and refugees, usually finding himself the only or one of a very few there from the ‘centre’, he was met with many questions: “Why are people from the capital not coming here? Why is the only doctor in the area an American and not a Sudanese? Where is the centre in all of this?”
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Photo Credits: Photograph: Adriane Ohanesian/AFP