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Song for Sudan - poem/song edited from newspaper texts
The trees in Sudan are not like…….
Nicholas Kristof on youtube (link below)
Articles and reports sourced from the Internet are edited and remixed to voice the genocide and the ‘rape crisis’ in Sudan. I mix a traditional approach to singing death and trauma called ‘keening’, with poetry, drawing and video. The project includes this blog to list source information, present work and discuss my difficulties when considering how to make this work in an appropriate way. The Sudanese government do not acknowledge the genocide in Sudan. Amnesty International says rape is used as a ‘weapon of war’ in Sudan.
Men and boys are tortured and murdered. Women and girls as young as seven and eight risk violent attacks from militia when they leave refugee camps to gather food and firewood. Without these supplies their families would die. If they are left alive, the long term psychological and physical damage these attack cause are beyond measure. These songs attempt to voice the outrage I feel for the daily struggle Sudanese women from the refugee camps face and how their lives are constantly on the brink of terror. Women who endure violent gang rapes may be ostrasized from the community as rape is taboo in Sudan.
Since I cannot go to Sudan, I decided to concentrate on the voice and the writing of someone who has been to Sudan many times, Nicholas D. Kristoff who writes for the New York Times. I used his articles in my first work for the videos, now I have to work on amplifying the voice and the understanding of Kristoff who has first hand experience of Darfur and Sudan.
