``Camerata`` Transports Sudanese Refugees Home with Music
Matinoon
With performers taking the stage and traditional drum rhythm gaining momentum, Sudanese refugees sitting in the audience sprang into tears. Hadia Musa said the tune reminded her of the countrys Nuba Mountains, the home of her ancestors.
"Such offers help people mentally affected by war. It reminds us of Sudanese folklore and our culture ".
The Sudan has been engulfed in violence since April 2023, when the war broke out between the Sudanese military and rapid support forces across the country. The conflict turned the capital Khartoum into an urban battlefield and displaced 4.6 million people, according to the United Nations Migration Agency, including more than 419 thousand people who fled to Egypt.
A contingent of 12 Sudanese members now lives with thousands of refugees in Egypt. The band called "Camerata" includes researchers, singers and poets determined to maintain knowledge of traditional Sudanese folk music and dance to prevent it from being lost in the devastating war.
The bands artists say they struggle to talk to family and friends who are still in the country. There are not many ways to communicate with loved ones.
Fatima Farid, a singer and dancer from Kordofan, moved to Egypt in 2021. She said, "We dont know if were going back to Sudan again... or walk the same streets ".
Today, the band is determined to preserve traditional Sudanese folk music and dance. The bands artists use a variety of local musical instruments such as Manfur (a string instrument). Sometimes, they will integrate panembo. They often play the carpenter, one of the oldest instruments in Sudan.
Kothar Osman has been singing with the band since 1997. She becomes emotional when she sings about the Nile River that forms in Sudan. "It reminds me what makes Sudan what it is," she said.
Founded in 1997, the band rose to popularity in Khartoum before it began traveling to different states, enlisting diverse musicians, dancers and styles. They sing in 25 different Sudanese languages. Founder Dafallah el-Hag said the band’s members started relocating to Egypt in recently, as Sudan struggled through a difficult economic and political transition after a 2019 popular uprising unseated longtime ruler Omar al-Bashir. Others followed after the violence began. El-Hag arrived late last year.
