Category Archives: History

Celebrating Dr. King: DJ General Strike’s Top 40 Martin Luther King Day Protest Songs

January 15, 2024 Shouts - Music from the Rooftops! Leave a comment

Photo filed under a CC0 1.0 Deed Creative Commons.

Greetings comrades, and happy Martin Luther King Jr. Day, today. I’m DJ General Strike, host of the weekly protest music radio show, Protest Tunes on 91.3 KBCS FM in Seattle. In celebration of MLK Day I’ve compiled an extensive list of protest songs about, inspired by, that mention, quote or sample Dr. King, and broadcasted two distinct 2 hour MLK Day shows. You can listen to my most recent MLK Day show on the KBCS archive here.

For readers outside of the US, Martin Luther King Day, celebrated annually on the third Monday of January, honors the legacy of civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr., who advocated for racial equality and justice through nonviolent resistance during the American civil rights movement, until he was assassinated in April 1968. Martin Luther King Day, established in 1983, commemorates the birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. This day, observed since 1986, not only celebrates Dr. King’s contributions but also calls attention to the ongoing pursuit of justice and equality for all, urging activists to carry forward his legacy.

Musicians of all genres have been writing protest songs about and inspired by Martin Luther King since the 1950s. I’ve compiled over 150 MLK-themed protest songs, most of which you can hear in this Spotify Playlist. I’ve narrowed that down to my top 40 MLK themed protest songs, which I’ve organized by genre below.

Folk

Mike Millius & The Spiritual Warriors – The Ballad of Martin Luther King
Mike Millius is a singer, songwriter and producer from Bedford, New York, best known for writing the song “Lord Only Knows” which Beck reinterpreted on his album “Odelay”.. Millius wrote The Ballad of Martin Luther King, in 1968 immediately after Dr. King’s assassination. Pete Seeger, Brother Kirk covered the song for the Sesame Street album Pete Seeger & Brother Kirk Visit Sesame Street in 1974.

Anne Feeney – Have You Been to Jail for Justice?
Anne Feeney was a singer-songwriter, political activist and attorney from Pittsburgh. She began her music career in 1969 as a student activist playing a Phil Ochs song at a Vietnam War protest. Her business cards described her as “Performer, Producer, Hellraiser.” Feeney sadly passed away last year from Covid 19, at age 69. This 2001 song celebrates the history of nonviolent civil disobedience.

Frederick Douglass Kirkpatrick & Jimmy Collier – You’re Just a Laughin’ Fool
Singer-songwriters and civil rights activists, both Jimmy and “Kirk” worked with Dr. King in the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and were on the streets with KIng organizing the Poor Peoples’ Campaign until Dr. King’s assassination. They released their civil rights album Everybody’s Got a Right To Live in 1968, which included this song, just after King was assassinated, a month before the Poor People’s March on Washington.

Pete Seeger – Take It from Dr. King
Pete Seeger, a legendary American folk singer and social activist, played a pivotal role in shaping the folk music revival of the 20th century. Seeger, who helped popularize the Civil Rights movement’s protest anthem “We Shall Overcome,” first met Dr. King in 1957 at Highlander Folk School, a social justice leadership training school and cultural center located in New Market, Tennessee.

Grace Petrie – Farewell to Welfare
Grace Petrie is a socialist-feminist folk singer-songwriter from Leicester, England. She was hailed in The Guardian as “a powerful new songwriting voice” in 2011. She wrote this song in 2010 about the advent of the Conservative-led coalition government following the (UK) general election. This song is about the erosion of the anti-poverty programs which Dr. King fought for.

Country

Old Crow Medicine Show – Motel In Memphis
Old Crow Medicine Show, an Americana string band based in Nashville, that has been recording since 1998. Bluegrass musician Doc Watson discovered the band while its members were busking outside a pharmacy in Boone, North Carolina. They wrote this song in 2008 for the 40th anniversary of Dr. King’s assassination.

Iris Dement – How Long
Iris Dement is a legendary folk, country and gospel singer-songwriter and musician from the Arkansas delta, now based in Iowa. This gospel song, off her 2023 album Working on a World, is based on an MLK quote, “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice.”

Kris Kristofferson & The Borderlords – They Killed Him
Kris Kristofferson is a retired country singer, songwriter, and actor, best known for writing songs for other artists. This track was originally written by Kristofferson for Johnny Cash who released it as a single in 1984, then Kristofferson recorded it himself in 1986 on his album Repossessed and Bob Dylan covered it a few months later on his album Knocked Out Loaded.

Rock

James Taylor – Shed a Little Light
This six-time Grammy Award winning singer-songwriter and guitarist, was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2000. He is one of the best-selling music artists of all time, having sold more than 100 million records worldwide. This Dr. King tribute track is off Taylor’s thirteenth studio album New Moon Shine released in 1991.

Joe Strummer and the Mescaleros – Johnny Appleseed
The legendary frontman of pioneering punk rock band the Clash wrote this metaphorical song about the struggle for freedom in 2001 with his backing band The Mescaleros. The song tells the story of how 18th century environmentalist Johnny Appleseed and Martin Luther King Jr. both used nonviolent means to achieve social change. It had a second life as the theme song of 2007’s HBO series “John from Cincinnati.”

Stevie Nicks – Show Them The Way
Legendary singer, songwriter, and producer Stevie Nicks is best known for her work with the band Fleetwood Mac, and also as a solo artist. In this autobiographical 2020 single Nicks sings about her political experiences in the 1960s, including when she sang for Martin Luther King Jr.

The Entrance Band – M.L.K.
The Entrance Band is a band started by Guy Blakeslee, from Baltimore, Maryland. Blakesley said about this 2008 song, “The reason I wanted to make a song about Martin Luther King is because I felt that, even in a time when we have an African-American president and that’s a revolutionary thing for this country, it’s still a president that’s sending so many people to war and is, I believe, kind of just a much more charming, much more intelligent face of the same system that still has yet to change.”

U2 – Pride (In the Name of Love)
The best selling, 22 Grammy winning, Irish rock band from Dublin, released this MLK tribute track in 1984. The song was intended to be a critique of Ronald Reagan’s pride in America’s military power, but on reading the book Let The Trumpet Sound: A Life of Martin Luther King, Jr. by Stephen B. Oates’s, Bono was inspired to rewrite the lyrics to make the song about MLK.

R&B

Lenny Kravitz – Black and White America
Born in New York City to TV news producer Sy Kravitz and actress Roxie Roker, Kravitz was exposed to the entertainment industry at a young age. Kravitz won the Grammy for Best Male Rock Vocal Performance, four years in a row from 1999 to 2002. This song is the title track of his 2011 funk album, Black and White America is about the insults endured by his interracial parents in the 1960s.

Ben Harper – Like a King
Ben Harper is a three-time Grammy Award winning singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. The lyrics of this 1994 song draw parallels between the experiences of Martin Luther King Jr. and Rodney King, African American man who was brutally beaten by LAPD officers in 1991, to highlight the lack of racial progress in American society.

Cameron Forbes – If I Was White
Chicago-raised, Los Angeles-based R&B singer & hit songwriter Cameron Forbes has written songs for Tyga, Carrie Underwood, Sean Kingston & G-Eazy among others. He wrote “If I Was White” about police brutality and the Black Lives Matter movement. Forbes, his co-writers and his label, donated a portion of all proceeds from “If I Was White” to Mother’s Against Police Brutality and Campaign Zero.

Calypso

The Mighty Stalin – The Immortal Message of Martin Luther King
The Mighty Stalin AKA Black Stalin was a prominent Trinidadian calypso musician, known for his lyrics against European colonial oppression. He brought his unique style and social commentary to the genre, addressing issues of politics, inequality, and Caribbean culture. He wrote this MLK tribute song in 1968 not long after King’s assassination.

The Mighty Sparrow – Martin Luther King for President
Trinidadian calypso vocalist, songwriter, and guitarist, known as the “Calypso King of the World”. Sparrow paid tribute to MLK not once but twice, advocating for the civil rights leader’s election to higher office in this 1963 track, and then again shortly after King’s 1968 assassination in the song “Martin Luther King.”

Reggae

Max Romeo – Tribute to Martin Luther King
Max Romeo is a Jamaican reggae and roots reggae artist formerly of the rock steady group The Emotions. This song was written in 1978, 5 years before MLK Day was established. While the hook “No one remembers Martin Luther King” sounds rather dated now, it was poignant at that time.

Morgan Heritage – Black Man’s Paradise
Grammy-winning Jamaican reggae band formed in 1994 by five children of reggae artist Denroy Morgan. This song from 2000, addresses the ongoing struggle for equality, justice, and freedom for black people, reflecting on historical figures and movements, like Martin Luther King Jr., Marcus Garvey and Nelson Mandela..

Burning Spear – I Stand Strong
Burning Spear is a Grammy winning Jamaican roots reggae singer-songwriter, vocalist and musician, and one of the most influential and long-standing roots artists to emerge from the 1970s. This 1993 track is about standing strong against the oppressive system as his heroes Martin Luther King and Marcus Garvey demonstrated.

Gospel/Soul

Brother Will – Hairston Alabama Bus
Brother Will Hairston was a gospel singer and preacher in Detroit, Michigan, called “The Hurricane of the Motor City”. In 1956, Hairston wrote and recorded “The Alabama Bus” with Washboard Willie on percussion, about the Montgomery bus boycott. Hairston’s recording, was the first song to reference by name the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

Nina Simone – Why? (The King of Love Is Dead)
Nina Simone, “The High Priestess of Soul” was a 4 time Grammy winning singer, songwriter, pianist, and civil rights activist. She first performed this song just 3 days after King’s assassination at the Westbury Music Fair.

Rap/Hip Hop

The Last Poets – Blessed Are Those Who Struggle
These forefathers of hip-hop were founded in Harlem in 1968, named after a poem by the South African poet Keorapetse Kgositsile. This 1977 song honors MLK as well and other historical figures who were assassinated while fighting for black liberation.

Common & John Legend – Glory
Conscious rapper, actor, and activist Common, and singer, songwriter, pianist, and actor John Legend wrote this song with Rhymefest in 2014 as the theme song from the 2014 film Selma, which portrays the 1965 Selma to Montgomery marches. This song was awarded an Oscar, a Golden Globe and a Grammy in 2015.

The Game – Letter to the King (feat. Nas)
This 2008 hip-hop duet by West Coast rapper The Game and East Coast rapper Nas was written on MLK Day as a tribute to MLK. The Game said about it “‘Take me back to ’65. Martin Luther King is getting dressed in the morning. Coretta Scott King is dusting his shoulders off. He’s about to go out. The dude waiting in the car, I’m him. I don’t know if I’m his homie; I’m just gonna drive him to where he’s going, and I’m gonna talk to him.’

Three Times Dope – Increase the Peace
Three Times Dope was an American hip-hop group from Philadelphia, consisting of EST, Chuck Nice and Woody Wood. They released this conscious track about nonviolent social change, in 1989 as part of their album “Original Stylin’.” The song starts with a powerful introduction, featuring a quote from Martin Luther King Jr.

King Dream Chorus – King Holiday
This song was composed by Phillip Jones, Kurtis Blow, Grandmaster Melle Mel and Bill Adler, and spearheaded by Martin Luther King Jr.’s youngest son, Dexter Scott King. It was released in honor of the first Martin Luther King Jr. Day, which was first celebrated as a national holiday in the US on January 20, 1986. All proceeds from the single were donated to the King Center for Nonviolent Social Change.

Big Daddy Kane – Word to the Mother (Land)
Big Daddy Kane, is an American rapper, producer and actor who began his career in 1986 as a member of the Juice Crew. He is widely regarded as one of the most influential and skilled MCs in hip-hop. This 1988 song about African American pride and history is off BDK’s debut album Long Live the Kane.

Vic Mensa – Go Tell ’em
Vic Mensa, a conscious rapper and singer from Chicago, was a member of the group Kids These Days, which broke up in 2013, and a founding member of the hip-hop collective Savemoney and the rap rock group 93Punx. This track is off The Birth of a Nation: The Inspired by Album, the companion album to the 2016 movie The Birth of a Nation, about 1831 slave rebellion leader Nat Turner.

Talib Kweli – All of Us
Talib Kweli is a conscious rapper from New York, best known for being half of the hip-hop duo Black Star with Mos Def. This 2017 anti-police brutality track, features Jay Electronica & Yummy Bingham. It highlights the struggles that people of color face in America and calls for unity and solidarity in the face of oppression as Dr. King did.

Run-DMC – Proud to Be Black
Run-DMC, founded in 1983, in Hollis, Queens, New York, was the first hip hop group to achieve a Gold record and a platinum record, the first hip hop act to have their music videos broadcast on MTV, the first hip hop act on the cover of Rolling and the first hip hop group to be nominated for a Grammy Award. This 1986 track is a powerful affirmation of Black identity and history.

Micah Bournes – All Hands on Deck
Micah Bournes is a musician and poet born and raised in Long Beach, California. His work centers on themes of culture, justice, and faith. This 2018 track is a cipher that links the civil rights movement and Black Lives Matter movement and features Izzie Ray, Jackie Miclau, Liz Vice and Lucee.

Jasiri X – Dr. King’s Nightmare
Jasiri X is a Pittsburgh-based conscious rapper and net-neutrality activist. This 2010 song is written from the perspective of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in response to conservative political commentator Glenn Beck’s Restoring Honor rally at the Lincoln Memorial, on the 47th anniversary of the 1963 March on Washington, in which Beck was accused of co-opting Dr. King’s legacy to spread his racist right-wing ideology.

Run the Jewels – Thieves
Run the Jewels are a Super-duo composed of Brooklyn-based rapper and producer El-P, and Atlanta-based rapper Killer Mike, taking their name from a lyric in the LL Cool J song “Cheesy Rat Blues” This song about the 2014 uprising in Ferguson, Missouri was inspired by the MLK quote “riot is the language of the unheard.”

Public Enemy – By the Time I Get To Arizona
Political hip-hop group founded by Chuck D and Flavor Flav in 1985. By the Time I Get to Arizona” is a song from their 1991 album Apocalypse 91… The Enemy Strikes Black, written by frontman Chuck D in protest of the state of Arizona, where Governor Evan Mecham had canceled Martin Luther King Jr. Day and the people voted against its reintroduction.

Punk/Metal

Rage Against the Machine – Renegades of Funk
RATM was known for melding heavy metal and rap music with punk rock and funk influences, as well as their radical leftist views. This track is a cover of a 1983 song by Afrika Bambaataa & Soulsonic Force, off Rage’s 2000 cover album Renegades. The song draws a connection between historical activists and revolutionaries like MLK to present-day social movements.

Good Riddance – Shadows of Defeat
GR is a punk rock band from Santa Cruz, California. They released seven full-length studio albums then disbanded 2007 and reformed in 2012. This 1999 track from their album Operation Phoenix begins with a sample of Martin Luther King’s 1964 Poverty of the Soul speech.

The Vernon Walters – M.L.K.
The Vernon Walters was a punk band from Hoorn, Netherlands founded in 1986. The band’s lead vocalist and guitarist Hans Engel was murdered in Spain in 2003 and in 2007, the Hoorn Culture Committee campaigned to have a Hans Engel street named after him. This song was the title track of their 1988 Martin Luther King tribute EP, MLK.

Anti-Flag – 911 for Peace
Political punk band from Pittsburgh, formed by Justin Sane and Pat Thetic in 1988. The band is well known for its left-wing political activism. This post-911 anti-war song off their 2002 album Mobilize features excerpts from MLK’s “I Have a Dream” speech.

Happy MLK Day! I hope listening to these protest songs inspires you to carry on Dr. King’s legacy. Peace Out!

Essay, History

Hip hop in Sudan

August 28, 2023 Shouts - Music from the Rooftops! 1 Comment

At the start of the 1960s, Sudanese musicians began incorporating Western influences in their compositions. Brass instruments, accordions, electric guitars, violins, synths and pianos, accentuated by drum kits, produced a hybrid sound of jazz and blues that was widely loved.

This article was written by Moses Abeka and originally published on the Music in Africa webpage under a Creative Commons license.

Coinciding with the global youth movements of the time, ranging from the anti-colonial struggle to post-independence instability, the youth embraced the music and went on to influence the socio-political sphere.

Also referred to as the ‘Golden Era’, this period produced a number of legendary singers such as Mohammed Wardi. However, the imposition of sharia law in 1983 dealt a blow to the creative industry, but against all odds, another generation of young people started embracing the music of the time – hip hop [1].

This overview text explores the history and current state of hip hop music in Sudan.

Beginnings

Due to Sudan’s long history of political instability and Islamic censorship, limited hip hop activity took place until the late 1990s. Banned in 2004 by the authorities for being political, pioneering hip hop group, Nas Jota, fled the country. This would later help create a vibrant diasporic Sudanese hip hop community scattered across the world, mainly in the Middle East and the US [2].

Likewise, back in Sudan, there was a growing hip hop community with an active scene before the 2011 South Sudanese independence referendum. There was a weekly open mic show at Papa Costa Restaurant in the capital Khartoum between 2007 and 2009, with cultural organisations such as the British Council and Goethe-Institut also giving rappers like Abdulgader Yasir, aka Gadoora, a platform.

A British Council project titled Words and Pictures (WAPI), in partnership with the Ministry of Culture and Goethe-Institut, brought together several upcoming artists from across the country to stage small, weekly concerts in Khartoum [3]. During that period, the country was at war, as the southern part, predominantly black and Christian, waged war against the Khartoum government, predominantly Arab and Muslim, over discrimination and segregation.

In 2010, as the country geared up for a referendum to determine the independence of the south, Nas Jota released an album titled Sudan Votes Music Hopes, which is arguably Sudan’s first major hip hop recording.

Nas Jota followed up the release with a song titled ‘La Dictatorship’, which was further amplified by United Arab Emirates-based rapper Moawia Ahmed Khalid. In response, the Omar al-Bashir government banned their songs and targeted their Sudan-based protégés [4].

In the southern part, rappers discovered by the WAPI project, such as Geng Dulwa and Emmanuel Jal, as well as several others who were dispersed by the war, found their creative abilities living in exile and in refugee camps [5].

The government’s high-handedness was only amplified following the secession of the south, which gave rappers like Emmanuel Jal a new nationality.

Impact of the Arab Spring

As a wave of youth-led protests swept across the Arab world in 2011, Arabic hip hop became a major driving force for political change. Young people in Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, Libya and Syria, among other Arab countries, capitalised on the sudden freedom to express their discontent towards authoritarian governments while highlighting social and political imbalances. The youth were now speaking bluntly and weaving revolutionary and intellectual content in their lyrics while speaking truth to power.

There was a proliferation of home-made music videos and songs from the Arab world, thanks to digital tools and social media, which greatly popularised hip hop as the voice of the youth [6].

In Sudan, the government maintained its decades-long control over the airwaves as rappers became critical voices, both locally and in the diaspora, after finding an audience on social media and streaming platforms like ReverbNation and Audiomack. US-based acts like Oddisee and Nas Jota as well as home talents TooDope and Flippter were increasingly leading the way in using social media to get their message across. In 2018, diasporic acts such as Nas Jota and Ayman Mao picked lessons from the Arab Spring and encouraged protesters to overwhelm the al-Bashir government. After the military overthrew the dictator in 2019, several artists in the diaspora returned home to hold concerts [7].

Hip hop today

Despite the growing acceptance of hip hop among the youth, the is still a negative public perception of the genre due to Sudan’s conservative leanings. However, this has presented an opportunity for artists to use their music to convey messages that address themes like peace, love, freedom, hope, unemployment and women’s rights.

Hip hop has also made a bigger appearance on Sudanese media, with a growing number TV and radio stations aligning themselves with younger demographics and incorporating hip hop as part of their programming. Radio stations such as Capital 91.6 FM, Vision 103 FM and Pro 106.6 FM are some of the leading supporters of hip hop in Sudan.

The rap scene in Sudan is currently witnessing an explosion of sorts, as more and more rappers use the accessibility of home production tools and tech to their advantage. Among the younger generation of rappers are the likes of Ahmed Bushara, Mohab Kabashi, Elkhalifa, Omar Dafencii, Hleem Taj Alser, Moe the Poet, Bani Jr, Buddha and Mandela.

Resources and citations

[1] https://www.highsnobiety.com/p/best-sudanese-rappers https://www.highsnobiety.com/p/best-sudanese-rappers/
[2] https://tinyurl.com/5n8hcbbx
[3] https://playbookbeta.files.wordpress.com/2009/05/wapi.pdf
[4] https://books.google.de/books?id=6mR2DwAAQBAJ&printsec
[5] https://www.andariya.com/post/The-Influence-of-Hip-Hop-in-South-Sudan
[6] https://hir.harvard.edu/rap-and-revolution-from-the-arab-spring-to-isil-and-beyond
[7] https://www.voanews.com/a/arts-culture_banned-sudanese-musicians-celebrate-new-year-new-sudan/6182273.html

Essay, History

Women in Sudanese music

June 28, 2023 Halldór H Kristínarson Leave a comment

This article was written by Moses Abeka and originally published on the musicinafrica.net webpage under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercialCC BY-NC licence on June 10th 2023.

Sudan’s musical traditions have largely been informed by Arabic and Muslim traditions. As a country that has always subscribed to stricter interpretations of Islamic law, music in Sudan has generally served religious purposes, meaning that women’s contribution or participation in the art form was and is still discouraged, if not restricted altogether [1].

Couple this with post-independence civil wars and authoritarian military regimes that generally frown upon artistic expression, and one can get a sense of the complicated relationship the country has had with its musicians, both men and women [2].

But despite well-documented religious and political censorship, female musicians’ voices in the country’s social, political and cultural spaces has never been completely silenced [3].

The pioneers

Women have actively contributed to Sudanese musical heritage even before the country’s modern history. Their contribution took various roles such as singing, dancing, playing instruments, composing, reciting verses, and more.

One of the earliest known female musicians was Mihera Bint Abboud, a 19th century poet said to have led the charge against the 1820-24 Turco-Egyptian invasion of Sudan with a rousing performance that fired up demoralised troops.

Later on, women like Aisha Musa Ahmad, better known as Aisha al-Falatiya, would develop their own styles based on traditional musical forms. Al-Falatiya is regarded as one of the first modern Sudanese female singers, whose career began in the 1940s. Despite facing huge resistance in the early stages of her career, she went on to record more than 150 songs and achieved popularity as far as Egypt.

She, too, played the role of wartime musician in 1942 during the Second World War when she sang to uplift the morale in the camps of the Sudan Defence Forces [4], which were working together with the British against the German and Italian armies [5]. Al-Falatiya died on 24 February 1974 aged 69.

Perhaps one of the most fondly remembered female Sudanese musical trailblazers is Hawa Jah al-Rasoul Mohammed, popularly known as Hawa al-Tagtaga. The singer, who died in 2012, cemented her reputation as not only an iconic female Sudanese singer but also as musical rebel who spoke truth to power. She was repeatedly arrested by British officials for agitating for Sudanese independence, which was achieved in 1956. Al-Tagtaga was a patriot who performed dressed in the colours of the old Sudanese flag [6]. The singer, born in 1926 in Ar Rahad, North Kordofan, was honoured by the state on more than one occasion. She was also a popular figure at weddings and social gatherings across all social classes and was regarded as a true voice of the people [7].

Stars of the Golden (and ‘dark’) Era

The period between the early 1960s and the late 1980s saw the rise of Sudan’s biggest female musicians in popular music. Though few and far between, these women performers proved Sudan was not a musical desert landscape. They did not just entertain but acted as social mirrors by pointing out uncomfortable social truths. However, given the environment they were operating in, many faced backlash from the ruling elite and religious leadership.

As Sudan entered the 1960s, a few all-female groups emerged onto the scene, notably Sunai Kordofani, Sunai el Nagam and Sunai el Samar who borrowed traits from their Western counterparts [8]. But it was not until the 1970s that a female group took Sudan by storm. Al Balabil (The Nightingales) was formed in 1971 by three Nubian sisters – Amal Talsam, Hadia Talsam and Hayat Talsam – who became the faces of Sudanese popular music for almost two decades. Known as the ‘Sudanese Supremes’, the trio immigrated to the US in 1988 as strict Sharia laws we being imposed in Sudan.

Another famous ‘80s female singer was Hanan Bulu Bulu, who was sometimes referred to as ‘Madonna’ or even ‘Marie Lloyd’ for her provocative stage performances that got her in the bad books of the Islamic fundamentalists. Despite the Madonna references, Hanan Bulu Bulu owes her notoriety to two of her forbearers, Gisma and Nasra, who pioneered a popular sensual wedding performance in the ‘70s known as kashif, which was accompanied by fast drumming and direct lyrics for which they were frequently arrested over.

Meanwhile, Hanan Elneel, a blind singer who was also prominent in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s, is best known for her delicate, wistful songs sung to an electronic keyboard. She is considered more mild-mannered than most of her contemporaries.

Today’s stars

Contemporary female Sudanese singers have continued in the same vein as their predecessors, finding ways to entertain and educate in a restricted environment. A number of current artists have found it easier to pursue their musical dreams away from home but still remain true to their roots.

A highly regarded artists of the new generation is Rasha Sheikh Eldin whose rendition of Sudanese music has earned her a global following. Rasha was born in 1971 and grew up in the capital Khartoum. She left the country for Cairo, Egypt, in 1991 to escape the Second Sudanese Civil War, and later immigrated to Spain where she released the critically acclaimed debut album Sudaniyat – rated by British musician Ian Anderson as one of the 10 best albums of 1997. The album boasts of a rich diversity, ranging from Arabic poetry, sufi music and even a touch of reggae [9].

Yalla! Khartoum, a project incubated by Goethe-Institut Sudan as a platform for developing the skills of female musicians, gave birth to the 11-member all-girl band Salute Yal Bannot in 2015. In Sudanese Arabic, salute yal bannot means “respect to the girls”. The band consists of seven vocalists and four instrumentalists who play guitar, bass guitar, piano and percussion. The group aims to inspire women to speak up about the issues that affect them [10].

Also active on the international music scene is Alsarah, a singer, songwriter, bandleader and ethnomusicologist. Born in Khartoum, she relocated to Yemen with her family before moving to the US, finally settling in Brooklyn, New York, where she has been residing since 2004. Alsarah formed the group Alsarah & The Nubatones in 2010 with her sister Nahid and released two full-length albums titled Silt and Manara. In between albums, Alsarah has also worked with Sudanese artist collective Refugee Club Productions on a variety of projects, including the critically acclaimed 2014 Sudanese Civil War documentary Beats of the Antonov [11] [12].

Following the emergence of the popular female-led music genre zanig in Sudan’s urban areas in the 2010s, a new crop of female performers have become stars in their own right. Often criticised for being too raucous, zanig music employs zar chants, a ritual that summons the spirits, and involves drumming, dancing and giving offerings, with the performer sometimes entering a trance-like state.

Some of the genre’s biggest names are Aisha Aljabal and Marwa Alduwaliya. A collaboration between DJ Teddy Jam, a Sudanese rapper based in the UAE, and Aisha Al Jabal brought hip hop, Afrobeats and zanig together on the song ‘Malu’.

While zanig uses a range of instruments such as keyboards, saxophones, drums and those of a percussive variety, the more stripped-down version, featuring only vocals and percussion, is arguably the most popular. It is called aghani banat, aghani dalooka, which translates to ‘girls’ songs, drum songs’. Here, a catchy tumtum rhythm accompanies the singing. The dalooka is one of the main percussive instruments used in the genre but other instruments like the dinger (water calabash) and tar (single-headed frame drum) are sometimes also employed. The dalooka is a small goblet-shaped hand drum made from mud.

Aghani banat discusses topics such as marriage, beauty, love and flirtation. Most of the songs are from Sudan’s Golden Era and are often accompanied by a special bridal dance. New lyrics using old rhythms are constantly being recreated tackling current social issues. Regardless of the topic, they are a powerful expressive tool for many women across Sudan. Aghani banat is also played at weddings and during family gatherings and special ceremonies. For a long time, the genre was viewed as inconsequential due to its originators being women, but the songs have now gained popularity and male musicians have built entire careers out of them, such as singer Taha Suleiman. The most popular female singers in aghani banat include Insaf Madani, Nada Algalaa, Mahdiya, Sulafa Elyas and Hiba Elgizouli.

Censorship

Since its independence in 1956, Sudan has experienced its fair share of civil wars and coups, with six leaders professing different political ideologies serving as heads of state [13]. Amid political instability and the Islamic patriarchy, female artists have endured through instability to showcase Sudan’s rich modern and traditional music traditions.

In 1983, President Jaafar Nimeiry imposed hardline Sharia laws that greatly affected musicians, including female artists. Hanan Bulu Bulu, for example, was physically assaulted by the authorities and thrown out of the Khartoum International Fair in 1986, with her music banned for immoral behaviour. The Sharia law also frustrated Al Balabil, as their provocative undertones landed them in conflict with the authorities [14].

More recently, in 2018, Sudanese police arrested singer Mona Magdi Salim on charges of indecency after she wore tight trousers and a white, long-sleeved top during an event [15].

Not surprisingly, following the overthrow of President Omar al-Bashir in 2019, Rasha and several musicians returned from exile to celebrate his ousting, and held a New Year’s Eve and Independence Day concert [16].

The collapse of al-Bashir’s hardline government had offered a glimmer of hope for a more free and vibrant music industry. But this was quickly quashed in October 2021 when army chief Gen Abdel Fattah al-Burhan led a coup that removed the country’s transitional government [17].

On 15 April 2023, Sudan descended into another civil war in a conflict between rival factions of the military government, once more bringing the country’s cultural activities to a halt [18].

References and citations

Disclaimer: Music In Africa’s Overviews provide broad information about the music scenes in African countries. Music In Africa acknowledges that the information in some of these texts could become outdated with time. If you would like to provide updated information or corrections to any of our Overview texts, please contact us at info@musicinafrica.net.

Editing by Peter Choge and Kalin Pashaliev