Artists have celebrated and commemorated Sudan’s revolution this year with murals and graffiti across the capital, Khartoum. Some of the murals were destroyed by security forces who killed dozens of protesters outside the national army headquarters in June. The murals are being re-created by painters who support the people’s push for democracy and civilian rule.
Soon after protests against longtime president Omar al-Bashir began in December, murals and graffiti appeared in Khartoum, especially in the flashpoint neighborhoods such as Burri, Shambat and Abaasiya.
Graffiti artists drew the slogans of the protests, such as “Freedom,” “Peace,” and “Justice.”
They also created expressive murals, calling for civilians to be part of a post-Bashir transitional government, and demanding the killers of the protesters be held to account.
Pictures of those killed during the protests are everywhere.
Sudanese artist Mohamed Ambadi says the artists are giving a vital and honest expression of the revolution, and archiving its history.
He says that the project of painting in the walls is a spontaneous and popular project by the old and young artists and all those who attracted by the sense of the expression of these murals that have widely spread in different parts of the country.”
Amal Tag Aldin, a singer who said she supports the artists’ campaign, said this activity is part of a reconstruction project that aims to clean up and beautiful neighborhoods not only in the capital but around the nation.
We are marking the places where the marches were begun during the protests time and to remind the people that the these flashpoints areas have done a lot in the revolution, she says. So we want not just Khartoum but the entire cities in Sudan to be beautiful like Khartoum.
Another artist, Abdul Magid Affif, said he and his colleagues have launched a campaign to repaint the murals that were demolished by the army and security officers after the attack on the sit-in outside army headquarters on June 3rd, when around 100 protesters were killed.
He says these murals have been demolished from the walls around the army headquarters by the Transitional Military Council, TMC, so we as artists have taken the challenge not just repaint the walls around the army headquarters but the entire capital of Khartoum through the individual and collective initiative of the artists.
Artists are also painting murals in other parts of Sudan, such as Port Sudan, Omdurman and Kassala.
