The Social Scene in Khartoum: Concerts, Culture, and Dancing

Upon coming to Sudan I was warned that it doesn’t exactly have a vibrant social scene, in the traditional Western sense. I was told of course there arn’t movie theaters*, concerts are limited, and there isn’t exactly night life. My social life in Sudan has proved much of this to be quite contrary. I’ve frequented concerts, parties, and stayed out very late on Nile Street. This can’t be attributed to getting on the inside of the Khartoum expat social scene either, as Rachel and I have happily found ourselves slightly outside that circle. Rather the past couple weeks I’ve had my fair share of exposure to Sudanese culture and entertainment through several festivals. There have been really great events.

First Sudan Film Factory partnered with a number institutions including the Goethe Institute (German cultural institute) and hosted Sudan’s First Independent Film Festival. How great is this? I was lucky enough to get my name on the list for the opening night. On opening night there was a screening of “Faisal Goes West” a short film about a family who emigrated from Sudan to Texas. You can watch the trailer here because I’m about it SPOILER ALERT in my experience and review of it. I loved that the film maker chose to tell this story framing it around the struggle of immigrants and not making it about refugees. There is even a line “Darfur. Yeah we aren’t from there.” It was also super interesting to watch the film as an American in an audience full of Sudanese. In many ways America is still “a big dream” for many Sudanese who I’ve talked with. Rachel and I estimated about 3 out of every 10 Sudanese friends or colleagues have told us they applied for the lottery. The movie does have its cringe-worthy moment where Faisal runs into some guys that jump him. Obviously I don’t want my Sudanese friends to think that if they come to American they are going to be attacked or robbed and that we have become an intolerant society of outsiders in America so yeah my initial reaction was a sarcastic “oh great”. Upon reflection though I think the scene, clearly the climax of the film, speaks symbolically about the difference between perception and reality of the typical immigrant’s journey. Anyway it’s a great film you’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll wonder if there really are still chicken farms in Texas.

          After the movie there was a great performance by Dina Al Wadi a French-Egyptian Singer who wore a hot pink mumu type dress. She even sang some Sudanese songs of which the crowd loved and sang along with. I think she was the most talented singer I’ve seen perform in Sudan.

          Anyway I went to an additional screening of another film though the festival screened maybe up to a dozen and generally think the film festival was a success so that’s really great. Additionally there was a Sudanese Cultural Festival hosted by the Sudanese National Museum and co-sponsored by the British Council. During this festival I attended two concerts. One showcased a local Reggae band and the following night a British Dub-Reggae Band (cause apparently that’s a thing now) performed.  I think I’ve mentioned before that many Sudanese love reggae music. At one point one of the nights hosts made the claim that reggae music started in East Africa…a claim which definitely raised an eyebrow or two. The concerts ended at 11 due to a noise curfew or something. While generally I don’t want to put down these types of events I was scratching my head a bit at the fact that a British band was headlining the final night of a “Sudanese” cultural festival. To the organizers’ credit for a few songs some local artists joined the band on stage.

It could have been an off-hand remark but my friend Mohammed turned to me during Dina al-Wahi’s performance and said that because there was such an international crowd she should sing some American music. I get the impression that Sudanese culture isn’t perceived as “special” or “good enough” and was reminded of this again with the British band incident.

     

          As far as entertainment between festival based events (and there seems to be a festival of some sort every month) there are several restaurants that have live-singers on Thursday nights. One of which is a popular Souq Al-Arabi restaurant called Papa Costas. All I can say is I’m still recovering from my experience dancing and listening to the band play everything from “Hotel California” to popularized Arabic music to a Tom Jones inspired take on “Yesterday” and I don’t think any amount of words could fully describe my night there, but it was definitely fun and unexpected.

Finally not to leave out one of the more glamorous nights out I most recently attended a very lovely party at the German residence located at a Nile front property.

*The newly opened Afra Mall has a theater showing Egyptian movies