Sudan, Remember Us: Loving and Leaving

In one of the best films at the festival, ‘Sudan, Remember Us’ brings to the western consciousness the question of Sudanese sovereignty in a world intent on keeping the land’s people dispossessed and removed.

Through poetry, painting, remembering and a lot of song, people can learn of the strength and tradition of the Sudanese spirit of peaceful liberation, and the forces fighting against it. Maybe they will also learn of our progressiveness — which has been suppressed by Islamist regimes and largely ignored by the rest of the world.

But the heartbreaking lesson everyone will take away, which is a lesson I learned very early in my life, when asking about my origin — for Sudan to survive in the Sudanese people, for life to be liveable, for our dreams and potential to be realised — we all have to leave.

I am the product of two generations of leaving — and I have never seen Sudan while I was able to remember it. Most of my experiences with my heritage have been traumatic. I can imagine this film will have a similar effect on other Sudanese expats who have never seen home — we’re remembering something we’ve never seen, proud of people we’ve never met, family with people who also have now had to leave. As an El-Neil, the visions of the Nile stirred up a particular form of unfamiliar nostalgia. And somehow, despite not being fluent in Arabic, I could always tell when a Sudani was speaking!

At the end of the day, Sudan is a land of talent — and if those on that land intend to kill that talent, then they must leave, for their safety and for the future of our diaspora. I only wish this wasn’t the conclusion that has been reached for the better part of a century.

Despair returns, but our parents don’t despair. Our parents are thinkers, passionate — they are the kids who had to leave. Those who see potential and change being possible. A glittering Sudan where we are allowed to love and care for our land and our people without interference and extraction. Where we can enjoy the beauty of what god gifted us, and not have to leave.