Upon coming to Sudan I was warned
that it doesn’t exactly have a vibrant social scene, in the traditional Western
sense. I was told of course there arn’t movie theaters*, concerts are limited,
and there isn’t exactly night life. My social life in Sudan has proved much of
this to be quite contrary. I’ve frequented concerts, parties, and stayed out
very late on Nile Street. This can’t be attributed to getting on the inside of
the Khartoum expat social scene either, as Rachel and I have happily found
ourselves slightly outside that circle. Rather the past couple weeks I’ve had
my fair share of exposure to Sudanese culture and entertainment through several
festivals. There have been really great events.
First Sudan Film Factory partnered
with a number institutions including the Goethe Institute (German cultural
institute) and hosted Sudan’s First Independent Film Festival. How great is
this? I was lucky enough to get my name on the list for the opening night. On
opening night there was a screening of “Faisal Goes West” a short film about a
family who emigrated from Sudan to Texas. You can watch the trailer here because I’m
about it SPOILER ALERT in my experience and review of it. I loved that the film
maker chose to tell this story framing it around the struggle of immigrants and
not making it about refugees. There is even a line “Darfur. Yeah we aren’t from
there.” It was also super interesting to watch the film as an American in an
audience full of Sudanese. In many ways America is still “a big dream” for many
Sudanese who I’ve talked with. Rachel and I estimated about 3 out of every 10
Sudanese friends or colleagues have told us they applied for the lottery. The
movie does have its cringe-worthy moment where Faisal runs into some guys that
jump him. Obviously I don’t want my Sudanese friends to think that if they come
to American they are going to be attacked or robbed and that we have become an intolerant
society of outsiders in America so yeah my initial reaction was a sarcastic “oh
great”. Upon reflection though I think the scene, clearly the climax of the
film, speaks symbolically about the difference between perception and reality
of the typical immigrant’s journey. Anyway it’s a great film you’ll laugh, you’ll
cry, you’ll wonder if there really are still chicken farms in Texas.
After the movie there was a great performance by Dina Al
Wadi a French-Egyptian Singer who wore a hot pink mumu type dress. She even
sang some Sudanese songs of which the crowd loved and sang along with. I think she
was the most talented singer I’ve seen perform in Sudan.
Anyway I went to an additional screening of another film though
the festival screened maybe up to a dozen and generally think the film festival
was a success so that’s really great. Additionally there was a Sudanese
Cultural Festival hosted by the Sudanese National Museum and co-sponsored by
the British Council. During this festival I attended two concerts. One
showcased a local Reggae band and the following night a British Dub-Reggae Band
(cause apparently that’s a thing now) performed. I think I’ve mentioned before that many Sudanese
love reggae music. At one point one of the nights hosts made the claim that
reggae music started in East Africa…a claim which definitely raised an eyebrow
or two. The concerts ended at 11 due to a noise curfew or something. While
generally I don’t want to put down these types of events I was scratching my
head a bit at the fact that a British band was headlining the final night of a “Sudanese”
cultural festival. To the organizers’ credit for a few songs some local artists
joined the band on stage.
It could have been an off-hand remark but my friend Mohammed
turned to me during Dina al-Wahi’s performance and said that because there was
such an international crowd she should sing some American music. I get the
impression that Sudanese culture isn’t perceived as “special” or “good enough” and
was reminded of this again with the British band incident.
As far as entertainment between festival based events (and there
seems to be a festival of some sort every month) there are several restaurants
that have live-singers on Thursday nights. One of which is a popular Souq Al-Arabi
restaurant called Papa Costas. All I can say is I’m still recovering from my experience
dancing and listening to the band play everything from “Hotel California” to popularized
Arabic music to a Tom Jones inspired take on “Yesterday” and I don’t think any
amount of words could fully describe my night there, but it was definitely fun
and unexpected.
Finally not to leave out one of the more glamorous nights out I most recently attended a very lovely party at the German residence located at a Nile front
property.
*The newly opened Afra Mall has a theater showing Egyptian
movies
