Africa Is a Country

Weekend Music Break No.104 – Songs from banned countries: Sudan edition

Weekend Music Break No.104 – Songs from banned countries: Sudan edition

By
Boima Tucker

Sinkane.

We’re returning to the older format of Weekend Music Break (a series of embeds rather than a playlist) for this very special guest selection from proud Sudanese-American Ahmed “Sinkane” Gallab. We reached out to Ahmed to give us a selection of tunes from his parents’ homeland, one of the seven countries on US President Donald Trump’s visa ban list.

It’s been a trying couple weeks for our global community, particularly for those of us who understand (and enjoy the benefits of) an interconnected world. We understand that the current form of globalization’s ills stem from the twinned trends of freedom for money and limits for people.

We thought an attempt to humanize Sudan and Sudanese people, by experiencing their folk, youth and online culture (freedom for information), would allow some folks to understand a bit of what’s at stake when borders are hardened for people. We don’t imagine Africa Is a Country readers are amongst the population who don’t understand this, but remember 49% of American support the ban, so share this post widely on social media!

We also want to do our part to assuage some of the panic going on via the mainstream media, so for those of us who don’t need such perspective as above, this perhaps can be just a bit of an escape from the deluge of negative news and tweets.

Check out Ahmed’s selection of classic and new Sudanese sounds below and preview his new album “Life & Livin’ It” which he is currently on the road supporting.

1 ) Sammany – “Dyarom”

2 ) Salah Mohamed Al-bashir

3) JVLS – “Enemies”

4) Qurashi & Salah Mohamed Al-Bashir

5) MaMan – “Brain Wars”

6) Ibrahim Awad

7) Rainy Day feat. Rotation – “All Night, All Summer”

8) Salah Bin Al-Badia

9) Rotation – “Rota$ion”

10) Sufyn – “Moon Dance”

11) Bonez, Skripter, SP a.k.a Sporadic – “All I Can”

Further Reading

Fuel’s errand

When Africa’s richest man announced the construction of the continent’s largest crude oil refinery, many were hopeful. But Aliko Dangote has not saved Nigeria. The Nigerian Scam returns to the Africa Is a Country Podcast to explain why.

Fragile state

Without an immediate change in approach, Somalia will remain a fragmented country populated by self-serving elites seeking foreign patrons.

Coming home

In 1991, acclaimed South African artist Helen Sebidi’s artworks were presumed stolen in Sweden. Three decades later, a caretaker at the residential college where they disappeared found them in a ceiling cupboard, still in their original packaging.

Imaginary homelands

A new biography of former apartheid homeland leader Lucas Mangope struggles to do more than arrange the actions of its subject into a neat chronology.

Business as usual?

This month, Algeria quietly held its second election since Abdelaziz Bouteflika was ousted in 2019. On the podcast, we ask what Abdelmadjid Tebboune’s second term means for the country.

The complexities of solidarity

Assassinated in 1978, Henri Curiel was a Jewish Egyptian Marxist whose likely killers include fascist French-Algerian colons, the apartheid South African Bureau of State Security, and the Abu Nidal Organization.