By: Talal Nayer
Political situations profoundly
influence the art of cartooning in Sudan. Forms of governance and political
circumstances became very decisive and contributed significantly to the matter
of appearance and continuity of cartoonists. Also, it had a strong influence on
the issues discussed by the artists. Every political regime brought a new
vision and widely contributed to the formation of the conditions for art and
culture in the country.
After the success of Intifadat April[i] in
1985, the newly elected government of Al-Sadiq Al-Mahdi[ii] sent
the main army-generals of The Second Dictatorship[iii] of
Ja’afar Neimeri[iv] in
prisons. Everybody was cheering joyfully to see the dictators behind bars. The
Sudanese cartoonist Salah Hamadah[v] was
editing and drawing a satirical page entitled In (Minn Ghair Za’all)[vi] in
al-Seyasa newspaper. Hamadah was responding to the letters had been sent
to his page in May 1989, a message came from a reader who made fun of the
imprisoned army generals that seemed under total control of the newly born
Sudanese Democracy:
Reader: From where did you gain this
aristocratic attitude?
Hamadah: …after visiting the prisoners of
Intifadat April!
Other reader wrote to Hamadah about the
booming success of al-Seyasa newspaper and its high-selling:
Reader: I am afraid about al-Seyasa from
arrogance. What are you afraid of about al-Seyasa?
Hamadah: I am afraid of the Coup d'état.
Hamadah wasn’t sure about the situation
of the unsecured democracy. al-Seyasa means in Arabic (The politics), and the
respond of Hamadah could also say and understood as: “I am afraid about our
politics (our democracy) of the Coup d'état.” The whispers and the conspiracy theories
about the coup were spread out around Khartoum since the Islamist officers in the
Sudanese Army sent a memorandum to the Prime Minister al-Sadiq al-Madhi on
February 20, 1989. Everybody was considering the note as rumors that cannot be
a threat to the ruling coalition or democracy. But after four months, the
prophecy came from the dark joke of Salah Hamadah turned to be a nightmarish
reality:
The Coup d'état took over politics
and democracy. The military troops attacked the young Sudanese democracy again;
it was the Coup d'état of the Islamic National Front[vii],
and from there it was the beginning of The Third Dictatorship on June 30,
1989, and which is ruling until now.
Omar Al-Bashir orchestrated the military
coup changed the country dramatically; in a few days after the Coup d’état the
Islamists opened detention centers where many civilians where had been tortured
and killed. Al-Bashir is ruling Sudan by iron-fest for 30 years, years full of
blood, tears, and fire. After many broken and defeated uprisings
during the last 30 years, in December 2019 arrived the latest wave of the
revolutionary uprisings to hit the position of Omar Al-Bashir who was preparing
himself to the elections of 2020. The 75 years old dictator was planning to
remain power forever after changing the constitution a few weeks ago, but now
his authority is surrounded by doubts and ringed by the protesters, and the
artists have their share of promoting and popularizing the
revolution.
The political cartoonists in Sudan face
challenges to communicate with the ordinary audience and traditional
newspapers, but they took advantage of the internet platforms and social media
in a smart zig-zag move of to trick the censorship of the ruling military
government of Omar al-Bashir. Charles Darwin once said: “It is not the
strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives.
It is the one that is most adaptable to change”. The Cartoonists are artists of
re-adaptation and surviving because they can always sharp their minds and find
a way to escape if there are harsh conditions: firstly artists had
started to paint on walls of caves and churches, and now they publish their
drawings in the Cyberspace when they face censorship. The artists were drawing
by pens and paints, now some of them bring by pixels. The political cartoonist
is livings prove that cartooning is the art of surviving.
I guess the role of the cartoonists and
the artists went beyond “documentation the events,” to involve in the movement
that supporting democracy and freedom in Sudan. The Sudanese artists are the
natural ally of all freedom fighters in the country. Woody Allen[viii] said
once: “There are worse things in life than death. Have you ever spent an
evening with an insurance salesman?”. If Woody Allen was born in Sudan,
he would not mention insurance-sales-associates; instead, he will criticize the
brutal militarists who legalize censorship and break records on illegalities of
human rights. I had solitary with all artists who are anonymously active, and I
hope someday they will find people appreciate their efforts to support and
promoting democracy and will celebrate it publicly someday.
The experience of art usually puts the
cartoonists in an existential self-confrontation about the meaning of
individuality and the question of self-definition among the society, and about
the role of art in front of politics. This uprising is livings prove that the
cartoonists have enough sensitivity to take in their consideration the value of
the individuals and the strong solidarity and bring a political statement, an
opinion against the generalizations and stereotypes, a unique idea with
fantastic drawings.
The seriousness of political cartoonist
comes that he/she stands at the intersection of many creative fields, and the
cartoonist can freely borrow tools and abilities from these arts and after some
installation and rearrangements he/she creates a machine full of high
effectiveness; a mechanism that could originate and change the public opinion,
a device with destructive capability. In little colorful cartoons, many
cartoonists highlighted astutely about global politics.
The cartoonists generally had the
impressive power that could create the possibility of a positive contribution
that could rehabilitee the world, and make it a better place of living.
The Ninth Art; cartooning, has the ability of interpenetration between all the
other eight branches of art. That could contribute to the reinforcement of
acceptance of others.
Artists draw and document human history.
With brushes, they capture all human motions, their happiness, and sadness,
victory and defeat. The artist can freeze history in one painting and the
painting becomes “… just another way of keeping a diary” as Pablo Picasso[ix] said,
and now the cartoonists in Sudan wrote the diaries of the revolution, a diary
was written writing with cartoons, and a revolution to bring the Fourth
Democracy.
[i] Intifadat
April: Intifadat, Intifada,
or Al-Intifada mean in Arabic (uprising). On 6
April 1985, senior military officers led by Gen. Abdul Rahman Suwar ad-Dahab
mounted a coup. Among the first acts of the new government was to suspend the
1983 constitution, rescind the decree declaring Sudan's intent to become an Islamic
state, and disband Nimeiry's Sudan Socialist Union. However, the
"September laws" instituting Islamic Sharia law were not suspended.
[ii] Al-Sadiq
Al-Mahdi: Also known
as Sadiq al-Mahdi; (born December 25, 1935) is a Sudanese political and
religious figure who was Prime Minister of Sudan from 1966 to 1967 and again
from 1986 to 1989. He is head of the National Umma Party and Imam of the Ansar,
a Sufi order that pledges allegiance to Muhammad Ahmad, who claimed to be the
Mahdi, the messianic savior of Islam in 1881.
[iii] The Second
Dictatorship: First,
Second, and the Third Dictatorship are terms used commonly in the Sudanese
political contest to describe the military regimes. The First Dictatorship was
under Ibrahim Abboud (1957-1964), and the Second Dictatorship was (1969-1985),
and the Third Dictatorship (1989-now)
[iv] Ja’afar
Neimeri (1930-2009):
Neimeri was the President of Sudan from 1969 to 1985. A military officer, he
came to power after a military coup in 1969. With his party, the Sudanese
Socialist Union, he initially pursued socialist and Pan-Arabist policies.
[v] Salah Hamadah (1960-2009): Hamadah was a
Sudanese cartoonist and satirical writer.
[vi] Minn Ghair
Za’all: A satirical
page of al-Seyasa newspaper edited the Sudanese cartoonist Salah Hamadah from
1986 until 1989. Minn Ghair Za’all means in Arabic, (Without Anger).
[vii] Islamic
National Front: The
Sudanese branch from Muslim Brotherhood (in Arabic Jamāʻat al-Ikhwān
al-Muslimīn) which is a transnational Sunni Islamist organization founded in
Egypt by the Islamic scholar and schoolteacher Hassan al-Banna in 1928.
[viii] Woody Allen: Allen (Born: December 1, 1935) is an
American director, writer, actor, and comedian
[ix] Pablo Ruiz
Picasso (1881 –
1973): Picasso was a Spanish painter, sculptor, and printmaker.
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