Building the Stage and the Studio: A Film, Television, and Theatre Industry for Sudan
On May 13, 2023, the singer, poet, and activist Shaden Gardood was killed by a sniper while sitting on the roof of her family’s home in El Obeid. She had spent the previous day posting online about the war and calling for peace. Nine days after her death, Asia Abdelmajid – Sudan’s first professional theatre actress – was killed by random gunfire in Bahri. A report published in late 2024 by the African Center for Justice and Peace Studies and the Sudanese Music Research Center, titled Tears of Guitars and Screams of Museums, documented more than fifty-five artists, musicians, and performers killed since the war began: some by sniper fire and shelling, some through denial of healthcare when hospitals stopped functioning, at least one – the percussionist Kamel Hasan – through torture in detention. The National Museum was looted. Sudan’s national theatres were bombed or turned into military barracks. ...