Artists paint horrors of Sudan’s civil war

Amnesty International Kenya (AIK) had been planning to commemorate (or commiserate) the first anniversary since the latest round of the civil war in Sudan began on April 15, 2023.

But it took a small nudge from the Sudan Democracy First Group (SDFG) to suggest the concept of ‘Art for Aid’ be the theme of that day.

In the mind of SDFG’s executive director Omayma Gutabi, a collaboration between AIK and SDFG could provide an effective contrast between the panel of Sudanese war experts organised by Amnesty’s executive director, Irungu Houghton and Sudanese artists, all of whom had to flee Khartoum for their lives. Some had come to either Kenya or Uganda in 2023. A few as early as 1994.

Either way, the artists could provide witness accounts of the terror, ‘arbitrary bombing, targeting of civilians, and gender-violence inflicted on women and girls’ that was referenced during the panel of experts on April 15, 2024 at the Noir Art Gallery.

The artists, through their art, could also provide a sense of hope and beauty prophetically revealed in works like Gutabi’s painting entitled ‘Re-emergence’.

“That painting is all about a time when we will be able to re-emerge from the dark shadows of war into the light of day and peace. It’s all about hope,’’ Gutabi told the BDLife at the opening.

Amnesty picked up on Gutabi’s idea but reframed the title to be Brushstrokes of Resilience: A Year of Reflections and Memories from Sudan.

The aid that Gutabi hoped to raise funds for specifically was the Community Kitchen that feeds people experiencing famine in Khartoum. She noted that thousands of famine-stricken people could be fed there for just a few thousand dollars or pounds. But that required funds which she hoped could be sourced from African civilians rather than from foreign donors. But food is just one of her people’s needs.

As we heard from Kenya’s Principal Secretary in the State Department for Foreign Affairs, Dr A. Korir Sing’oei, the situation in Sudan is dire. In addition to famine, there are no medical supplies since all aid into the country is blocked, much as it is in Palestine. The incessant calls for a ceasefire are utterly ignored, again much like Palestine. And according to Amnesty, ‘The internal conflict has killed over 14,000 people and displaced over 10 million people in the last year alone,” Yet media attention to Sudan’s civil war compared to that given to Israel- Hamas war is like two percent to 98 percent for Israel.

That is one reason Omayma is grateful for the collaboration between AI, SDFG, and a crew of Sudanese artists mobilised by the Sudan Democracy First Group and NGO International Film Festival. The exhibiting artists include Adlan Bahar, El Tayet Dawelbait, Faiz Abubaker, Fatima Hassan, Hussein Haufawi, Omayma Gutabi, Sumer Deefalla, Tibian Bahari, and Yassir Ali.

For me, there are two works in the show that stand out for being most reflective of the current suffering of the Sudanese people. One is the painting by Yassir Ali, the other is a sculpture by Adlan Yusif who also has a solo exhibition currently in the Kibera Art District.

The painting is covered in flaming hot red acrylic with just a small head centred at the base of the piece. It’s as if the person is being showered in blood, the result of having been bombarded by drones, missiles, bullets, and whatever new models of modern warfare have been invented to diminish or even genocide total populations as is also being done in Palestine. Yassir’s work looks simple but it’s most effective in revealing the anguish of the Sudanese people.

The sculpture by Adlan Yusif is equally powerful in conveying the horrible burden of being alive and struggling to survive during this time of war. Here again, is one man, carrying a huge box that has been constructed with scrap metal. The box could symbolise all the burdens that ordinary Sudanese are trying to cope with. It could also contain the few bits of precious property the man remains with.

Either way, it suggests the loss of what Sudan once had but has now lost, leaving the people stranded with little to show for themselves after years of needless war.

The remaining paintings are either abstract, semi-abstract or figurative. The majority of them are by Omayma who curated the show and reached out to Amnesty International Kenya as a means of getting out the Sudanese story to a wider audience and also to introduce a new audience to Sudanese art.