0:00

Hey, Henna. Hey, Lila. So

0:02

Lila, I want you to listen to something

0:05

with me. Om

0:07

rima bansa. Om

0:09

rima bansa. Uh,

0:12

uh, uh, uh, uh. Oh, I

0:14

like that. What's he saying? Om

0:16

rima bansa? Om rima bansa. What's

0:18

that mean? So this is one

0:20

of my favorite Sudanese songs. I

0:22

have it on cassette tape. It's

0:25

a classic. It's by Abdulla Dursale. And

0:29

it's called, you're right, you said it, Om

0:31

rima bansa. And that means

0:34

I'll never forget her. I

0:36

love it. Om rima bansa. Mm-mm.

0:38

Om rima bansa. Mm-mm. Oh,

0:46

yes. So it's a love song with

0:48

a little bit of beat and bop

0:50

to it. I love the violins and

0:52

the guitar. This is cute. I like

0:54

it. So the guitar, it's called oud.

0:57

Oud, OK. Yeah.

1:01

Hmm. Wait. OK,

1:04

energy has shifted with you. What's

1:07

going on? You love this song. Yeah.

1:10

You know, it feels good.

1:12

It feels nostalgic. And

1:14

yeah, I love the song. But as

1:17

I'm listening, there's this other

1:19

feeling creeping in. I

1:22

don't know. I can't help it. What

1:25

is it? What's wrong? I mean, I'm

1:27

just thinking cassette tapes like this one,

1:30

our music, it's so

1:32

valuable now. And it

1:34

may be all that's left. Left from

1:37

what? What do you mean? Leela,

1:39

I think we got

1:41

to stoop this out. The

1:49

stoop. The stoop. The stoop. The stoop.

1:51

Stories from across the Black diaspora. That we

1:54

need to talk about. My cousins were water

1:56

and grease girls. And I couldn't be a

1:58

water and grease girl. I'm talking about

2:00

ballerina in the hood. We be, like, each

2:02

other. A black woman walks

2:04

up to the desk in

2:07

labor. What preconceived

2:09

notions do you have about her? I didn't even

2:11

know we had a hair shirt. Hey,

2:27

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2:29

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2:31

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2:33

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2:36

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2:38

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2:41

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2:46

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match limited by state law. Hey,

3:52

Hannah. Hey, Leela. So

3:55

Leela, I want you to listen to

3:57

something with me. Umri

4:01

ma bensa. Uh,

4:04

uh, uh, uh, uh. Oh,

4:06

I like that. What's he saying? Umri

4:08

ma bensa? Umri ma

4:10

bensa. What's that

4:12

mean? So this is one of my favorite

4:14

Sudanese songs. I have it on cassette tape.

4:17

It's a classic. It's by Abdulla Dursalem.

4:19

Mm-hmm. And it's called, you're

4:22

right, you said it. Umri ma

4:24

bensa. And that means I'll

4:26

never forget her. I love

4:28

it. Umri ma bensa. Umri

4:31

ma bensa. Oh,

4:38

yes. So it's a love song with

4:40

a little bit of beat and bop

4:42

to it. I love the violin and

4:44

the guitar. This is cute. I like

4:46

it. So the guitar is called Oud.

4:49

Oud, okay. Yeah. Hmm.

4:55

Wait. Okay. Energy has

4:57

shifted with you. What's

4:59

going on? You love this song. Yeah.

5:01

You know, it feels good.

5:04

It feels nostalgic. And

5:07

yeah, I love the song. But as

5:09

I'm listening, there's this other

5:11

feeling creeping in. I

5:15

don't know. I can't help it.

5:17

What is it? What's wrong? I

5:19

mean, I'm just thinking cassette tapes

5:21

like this one, our music. It's

5:24

so valuable now. And

5:26

it may be all that's left. Left

5:29

from what? What do you mean? Lela,

5:32

I think we gotta stoop this

5:34

out. My

5:39

cousins

5:42

were water and

5:45

grease girls, and

5:48

I couldn't be a water and grease girl. That's

5:52

what I'm talking about. When a black woman

5:54

walks up to the desk in labor. What

6:01

frequency of notions do you have about her?

6:03

I didn't even know we had a hair

6:05

sharp. Oh, wow. Oh,

6:09

wow. Oh, wow.

6:12

Oh, wow. Oh,

6:14

wow. Oh,

6:17

wow. Oh, wow. Oh.

6:22

Oh, wow. Oh,

6:24

wow. Oh,

6:26

wow. When

6:28

I was little, I didn't understand most

6:31

of the Sudanese music. They were humming

6:33

and singing, but I knew

6:35

there were words and tunes that brought

6:38

them joy. I mean,

6:40

it's beautiful. And I'm sure it made you

6:42

feel a lot more connected to

6:44

Sudan, even when you were far away,

6:46

because there were times when you were

6:49

living there. But, Hana, what happened to

6:51

you just now, going back

6:53

to when you were listening to the song? Yeah,

6:55

I mean, now listening to that cassette tape with

6:57

you, something hit me

7:00

really hard. It's hard

7:02

to even talk about it. Like, I want

7:05

to enjoy the song, but

7:07

this other feeling is just so strong.

7:10

As I was listening, I couldn't help thinking

7:12

about what's going on right

7:14

now. There's a war

7:17

in Sudan, and it's a war

7:19

that's erasing so much culture, and

7:22

it's heartbreaking. The Sudan

7:24

Civil War started in April, and

7:27

it continues. In recent days,

7:29

fighting forced thousands of civilians to flee

7:31

the city of Waid Maderni. More

7:33

broadly, seven million people are internally displaced

7:35

by the war. Fighting in

7:38

Sudan between forces loyal to two

7:40

generals is threatening to turn into

7:42

a prolonged conflict. Violence

7:44

erupted in Khartoum a week ago. That followed

7:46

weeks of power struggles between Army

7:48

Chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and his deputy

7:51

Mohammed Hamdan D'Agolo, known as H accounts

8:00

of atrocities. They

8:04

went from door to door, rounding up the men. It's

8:06

been more than eight months since the

8:09

lives of millions of Sudanese were plunged

8:11

into conflict and uncertainty. The

8:13

RFS paramilitary group, or Rapid Support

8:15

Forces, has gained momentum in recent

8:18

weeks, consolidating its grip on the

8:20

vast Darfur region and seizing new

8:22

territory. Leela, when

8:24

that war broke out in Sudan in

8:26

April 2023, the devastation and the

8:29

destruction was

8:31

just massive. Homes

8:34

were looted, banks were destroyed,

8:36

factories and buildings were burned,

8:39

and even iconic sites and

8:41

centers of culture were a

8:43

target. The National Museum in

8:45

Khartoum was also stormed, and

8:47

exhibits, including ancient mummies, were

8:49

destroyed or damaged. Events

8:51

on libraries and publishers such as

8:53

Dar Madarik, Dar Al-Khandaka, and the

8:55

Book Sellers Complex in Khalifa Square.

8:58

The war in Sudan is destroying not just the

9:00

country's future, but also the

9:02

country's past. I mean,

9:04

this is devastating. Yeah. And

9:08

I mean, whole shopping areas and

9:11

markets were destroyed, where folks

9:13

would go to buy their

9:15

music, to buy their cassettes,

9:17

places like Sukh Umdurman, Umdurman

9:20

Market. The country's

9:22

biggest open-air market, it's this

9:24

sprawling, buzzing market, and it

9:27

was completely destroyed and burned down. And

9:31

you know, the country's radio broadcast headquarters,

9:34

they were occupied by the militia. And

9:38

that is home to a wealth of

9:41

music collections, because basically it's where

9:43

Sudanese musicians and singers came to perform

9:46

and record. They were also the main

9:48

studios for the whole country. And

9:51

I have so many memories at that

9:54

place. I actually used to host a show

9:56

there in English. I had no idea that

9:58

you'd host a show. hosted a radio

10:01

show in Sudan. I

10:03

did, I did. Back in the

10:05

day, I'd walk to the radio

10:08

library. It's this

10:10

massive library with thousands of tapes

10:13

in these rows and rows on these

10:15

shelves all the way to the ceiling.

10:18

And I'd pick out some tunes to play

10:20

that night on my show. And then what

10:23

happened to the radio station? It

10:25

was occupied by the militia

10:27

that's fighting the army. And

10:30

then the army took it

10:32

over. And so who knows what they

10:34

did inside? There's a whole country's musical heritage

10:36

in that place. And there

10:39

are reports of parts of this

10:41

library being destroyed. Nobody

10:43

really knows the full damage right now,

10:45

because again, like we

10:47

said before, not a lot

10:49

of reporting is coming out of Sudan. And

10:52

we're getting all of these messages on our

10:54

websites and different ways like that.

10:56

But it's just thinking

10:58

about that library or

11:01

even part of it being destroyed. It's

11:04

just too much to think about. And

11:07

I remember all of that every time I

11:09

hear a song from Sudan now.

11:12

I feel like, especially now,

11:14

they're just so special. It's

11:17

like watching parts of our culture

11:20

just disappear right in front of

11:22

us. And now it feels like you're

11:25

at risk of losing so much history.

11:27

Yeah, that's what it feels like. And I

11:30

actually spoke to someone else who's

11:32

thinking about our music and how

11:34

to save it and just where to

11:37

start. My favorite song

11:39

growing up was actually Rahmak Yamalak in

11:41

that tape. So this is

11:43

Haneen Sid Ahmed. She's a

11:45

25-year-old Sudanese American woman. She lives

11:47

in Oakland. And she grew

11:50

up listening to her parents' old

11:52

music tapes from Sudan. I

11:54

sat with her in her home while she was showing

11:57

me her boxes of cassettes.

12:00

Tell me about the Qamakiyamalak and why it's your

12:02

favorite. We had an old like 1991 Camry. It

12:05

was the first car we got when we

12:07

immigrated to the States. And I remember that

12:09

tape playing like clockwork. I remember

12:11

it was like side A song number one.

12:14

So it was probably the song that I

12:16

tuned into the most. So

12:31

what were the lyrics to that song? What was

12:34

he saying? So this is a love song. And

12:37

Qamakiyamalak, what he's saying, means

12:39

have mercy on me, angel. Your

12:42

glory has taken me over. I

12:45

want to love you, though your

12:47

love destroys me. It destroys

12:49

me, possesses me, and drives

12:52

me insane. Oh

12:55

goodness. Is this

12:57

a good thing or a bad thing? Or is

12:59

this just some crazy love

13:01

right here? And a lot of

13:04

our songs, you know, come from

13:06

these love poems that were written

13:08

decades ago. Deep poetry

13:11

full of descriptions of

13:13

love and longing. I

13:26

don't hear the vibe. These classic

13:29

tunes from the 50s

13:31

to the 80s and 90s, they were mostly

13:33

on cassette tapes. CDs

13:35

didn't really catch on in

13:37

Sudan. And digitizing wasn't

13:39

available to everyone. And

13:42

so there's all this music in the diaspora now

13:44

that's just on these cassettes. Like

13:47

your tape that we just heard. Yeah. I

13:49

mean, we all have our boxes of tapes.

13:51

Every Sudanese family does here

13:54

in the diaspora somewhere in a

13:56

garage, in an attic somewhere. And

13:59

for Hanin, they're all just like, oh, I'm sorry. And she is

14:01

a new generation that wasn't going to

14:03

live in Sudan. And so

14:06

these tapes are all she had. Of

14:09

course, I mean, there were folks who had

14:11

uploaded MP3s here and

14:13

there, but it was all

14:15

in Arabic. The audio was

14:17

shoddy. So

14:19

she started to digitize and

14:21

archive these tapes that she had.

14:24

And that was way before this horrific

14:27

war even began. So

14:41

it was March 2020. It was

14:43

the pandemic. I would say this is my

14:45

version of baking bread and like doing all

14:48

the things that people were

14:50

trying to do to stay sane. During the beginning of

14:52

the pandemic. Couldn't leave the house. I

14:54

was going crazy and I was like, I need to

14:56

find something to do. I go to the garage and

14:58

there's this like big box of my dad's tapes. A

15:01

bunch of them keeps them in pristine conditionals. And you

15:03

know, I should do something with these. So

15:06

she started getting the tapes out and

15:09

digitizing each tape in her

15:11

family's collection one by one.

15:15

I have different collections. So the

15:17

one I'm pulling out right now is,

15:19

you know, from my dad's collection. So it's

15:21

the OG collection. You

15:25

know, I have the ones I got from Sugham Durman and they're

15:27

like mine, but you know, these are names here.

15:30

So we have Samira Dunia, Kalam

15:32

and Nas. We have Assam Hamad

15:34

Nur. We have Ahmed Al

15:36

Mustafa, Samiri. And then of course, this

15:39

one is iconic. This is Gizma Al

15:41

Adil-Wazend. So Gizma is a singer. She

15:43

is part of this genre known

15:45

as Akani Banath or women's music. And

15:47

a lot of this music is very integral

15:50

to the Sudanese wedding process. So the

15:53

song Al Adil-Wazend is played in

15:55

every Sudanese wedding.

16:00

The fire is you for as a

16:02

sudden these wedding the did take the

16:04

traditional part of the wedding. I would

16:06

say every said in his woman who

16:09

has got married has had this exact

16:11

for some of the song playing build

16:13

it gets exciting like you know is

16:16

about the site when the song player

16:18

So this is a classic. So.

16:32

Life. Isn't

16:34

Dead! I love this as a reminder of

16:37

every for them is letting I've been to

16:39

and like. Was this. I signed.

16:41

The men have an ad the a Exuberance by

16:43

getting and days and getting So I'm feeling that

16:45

now. I said like I'm I'm at a wedding

16:47

and I'm like. In all

16:49

dancing with the. In

16:52

a crowd of people celebrate in a bribe

16:54

so. I feel good.

16:56

Like I'm feeling good. I know, Who

16:58

know it'll last says this is

17:00

played at your wedding to? Oh

17:03

yeah, it's an essential part of

17:05

every sit in. His wedding is

17:07

almost like a blessing of the

17:09

bride and groom. all the elder

17:11

family women. Are around you

17:13

performing this ritual called the

17:15

Just. Step by

17:17

step. one woman's. Putting

17:19

a red crescent ribbons

17:22

on and grooms had

17:24

another one is putting

17:27

of gold necklace around

17:29

the prize max and

17:31

incense just wafting over

17:34

around. It's beautiful and

17:36

spiritual experience. The

17:41

Honey and started this process digitizing

17:44

tapes and uploading them to a

17:46

website see made So they lived

17:48

somewhere online so that is other

17:50

Young Sydney's Americans were on as

17:53

they could find this music so

17:55

it wasn't just for her is

17:57

driven by lived my experiences be.

18:00

The Sudanese and growing up in the

18:02

States and really trying to find things

18:04

that anchor your identity. So I think

18:06

the thing with Sudan is there isn't

18:09

this huge entertainment industry. Where you know

18:11

there's a lot of cultural exports for

18:13

example you know like myself these and

18:15

friends they had like Bollywood are they

18:17

had like suits things are referred to

18:19

tankard themselves and I was. Like ah,

18:21

like. I wish I had something like

18:24

that that. Given the circumstances and

18:26

Sudan it, it wasn't always accessible,

18:28

so it was my own. Process

18:31

of excavating. And my

18:33

heritage and my identity. You

18:40

say that he started this for

18:43

yourself? You know it was the

18:45

pandemic. I want to do something.

18:47

This is something I love. At

18:49

What point did it turn into

18:51

being a bigger project? Than

18:53

just for adding that would get messages

18:55

from people being like oh my god

18:58

like I can't believe like you know

19:00

you uploaded to stay by a completely

19:02

forgot. about it. So then I was like okay

19:04

like there are lot of people in the same

19:06

says me. that are yearning for reconnect

19:08

with these parts of the of

19:10

bringing their childhood, their culture, Saw

19:13

I think like other people saw it as.

19:15

Like. A reclamation of like of

19:17

of memories that have been forgotten because.

19:19

So much of the music

19:21

hasn't necessarily made it onto

19:23

streaming platforms, so there's a

19:25

huge like. Swath of said and

19:27

music to this and that is

19:30

is not not accessible in the

19:32

way that you see others. music

19:34

traditions are so. That's when

19:36

I was like, okay, I'm seeing the broader impact.

19:38

Of the work and I really

19:40

want to invest in it and

19:42

grow it into something that has

19:44

this heritage preservation kind of like

19:46

Koreans he said. Have

19:58

like A and excess. I have

20:00

an inventory of the tapes and the

20:03

songs in the names of the music

20:05

and what I do as I ng

20:07

from the arabic obviously a man I

20:09

include like the.abuses the you know with

20:12

the letters and stuff is a lot

20:14

of accessing music as about. Having

20:16

the language. So sometimes it's like the

20:18

don't know Arabic that working on Das

20:20

were kagan and necessarily pick up on

20:23

it. We're gonna start searching things like

20:25

you know, using a seven for a

20:27

higher like a breeze. I include both

20:29

of those names so that's what is

20:31

out of easy. Thought of easy as

20:34

like Arabic. But just ran out in

20:36

english and then this or and like things

20:38

that. I'm indicates Arabic letters that

20:40

aren't available in English language, so.

20:43

Alike include the Arabic and then I'll.

20:45

Ride it out like and lot of easy

20:47

like with the seven or three years, you

20:49

know, whatever. Onto the size of my

20:51

my songs. Before I moved to Saudi and

20:54

actually learn how to write Arabic. Silly

20:57

that it wasn't as archiving the

20:59

music that she was doing. It

21:01

was really gaining a new connection.

21:04

To her culture play it like

21:06

a deep connection. And

21:09

then the war intensified. It

21:11

became so clear that we

21:13

need to save our history,

21:15

our culture and our stories.

21:18

And I keep thinking about that like

21:21

am I holding on to an. Important

21:23

part of history and is it

21:25

up to me to now archived

21:28

this music and keep it safe.

21:36

So. When war broke out in Sudan. Honey

21:39

and had a realization. And

21:42

it started with sorghum to the man. A

21:44

member of the market that I

21:46

mentioned earlier, a historic open air

21:48

market, right? Cause that's the place.

21:51

Before the war just a couple

21:53

years ago, that's the place honey

21:55

and was going. Every year

21:57

when they went to Sudan, define more?

21:59

Could. set tapes for her

22:01

collection. And now that same sugum

22:03

dormann is literally, like,

22:06

raised to the ground. Lila,

22:10

she found that that same sugum

22:12

dormann was totally

22:14

destroyed. Now there's this undercurrent

22:16

of, oh, our heritage is

22:18

actively being destroyed. And

22:21

these initiatives that

22:23

are going to happen mostly in

22:25

the diaspora are probably going to

22:27

play an integral role in preserving

22:29

Sudanese culture. And I think

22:31

it feels more urgent and serious for

22:33

me now. I think, like, now there's

22:35

this renewed sense of, oh, I

22:38

need to make this happen. It didn't feel

22:40

as urgent before. And

22:43

Lila, she realizes, like, we all

22:45

are right now, that at least

22:47

for the foreseeable future, there is

22:49

no going to Sudan anymore. There's

22:52

a whole generation of kids who won't

22:55

get to go now. More

22:57

than a million people have fled the country. Whole

23:00

families fled to

23:02

countries like Egypt or the Emirates or Uganda.

23:06

So now it feels like the Sudanese diaspora

23:08

communities are basically going to be, like, small

23:11

Sudan's and do the work of

23:13

connecting folks to their culture. There's

23:16

generations of kids who are not going

23:18

to have the same access. They're not

23:20

going to have the summer trips or

23:23

the December trips back to Sudan. I

23:25

think, like, there's going to be this sense of

23:28

being unanchored. For

23:30

me, again, like, the essence of archiving and

23:32

why I got into it was to find

23:34

an anchor for myself personally. And, but, you

23:37

know, I had the luxury of going back

23:39

to Sudan to help facilitate that. So

23:41

now it's going to be things like this, that

23:43

anchor, like the young ends

23:45

and, you know, young generations moving

23:47

forward. So yeah, the meaning has shifted

23:50

a lot. You

24:18

know that

24:21

song? I

24:25

mean, Leela, it's one thing to preserve

24:27

tapes, like what Haneen is

24:29

doing, but we also have

24:32

a tradition of just singing

24:34

together. And that's what this is. This

24:37

is the woman's chorale of the

24:39

Sudanese Association of Northern California.

24:49

Back home, every time we got together with our

24:51

cousins at our grandma's house, you

24:54

know, we'd just be hanging around after

24:56

lunch and someone would just break out

24:58

something to drum on, like literally anything,

25:00

a pot, a pan. And

25:03

we'd just sit around and someone

25:05

would start a song up and everybody

25:07

would join in. I love that.

25:10

And so for these women that

25:12

we're hearing in this song, they're

25:14

from California. Women

25:17

in this area, they get to sing together and

25:19

just sing. Do

25:21

they perform? They sing for themselves, but

25:23

they also perform at community events and

25:25

they sing the classics, the

25:28

songs that they grew up on.

25:32

On this day, they're all on stage in

25:34

the community center. It has

25:36

high ceilings. So the

25:38

acoustics are like perfect for a

25:41

choir. And they're singing a

25:43

love song called Elise el Mabitu

25:46

by a trio of sisters that used

25:48

to be called the Supremes of Sudan.

25:51

They're called El Penabi. They're

25:57

saying, if you just ask

25:59

around. You won't get lost. You'll

26:01

find my house is close by if

26:04

you just asked about me. You'd

26:06

know where I was and you'd know

26:08

what's going on with me. You

26:10

used to say when we part for

26:13

seconds that it felt like days. Have

26:16

you changed or have they jinxed

26:18

our love? Ooh, I

26:20

like that. Jinxed our

26:22

love. Have you changed? Just ask about

26:24

me. I'm right here. You know, I

26:26

haven't left. Yes. Ooh, this

26:28

song is getting to me. I like it

26:30

though. So it's like calling for him.

26:32

She misses him. You

26:34

know, remember, I haven't gone nowhere. She's

26:37

there. You know, I never knew. You

26:40

have to translate this for me because I

26:42

never knew the meaning of the Arabic. You

26:44

know, I don't speak Arabic. I need to learn

26:46

it though. You're like my personal

26:49

Sudanese song whisperer. I

26:52

am happy to be your Sudanese

26:54

song whisperer. So

26:57

on this night, they're practicing for an event.

27:00

And so they pick that love song and

27:02

then they picked another song. It's

27:05

about love, but not for a girl.

27:08

It's about love for Sudan. It's

27:11

called Gamar Doreen by

27:13

Sudanese legend, Abd al-Kareem

27:15

al-Kabri. Okay,

27:28

so this is slower. It's more

27:30

like a ballad. It's a little bit more

27:33

reflective. It's a love song

27:35

for the country. It's all

27:37

about longing for the full moon

27:39

over the Nile at night,

27:42

the water and the palm

27:44

trees. It's

27:46

really nostalgic. And I

27:48

talked to one of the chorale members.

27:50

Her name is Manahil. And I

27:53

asked her, why choose these

27:55

oldies? And what did her kids

27:57

think? My daughter, her name is

27:59

Elise, okay? She asked me one day, what's

28:01

the gamar dawd in mamma? I like

28:03

the song she liked it. She cheered up like when

28:05

we sing it. I said to her, it's

28:07

like a full moon. This is it. After

28:10

the full moon, what is it? It's the light,

28:12

full light in the dark. That's

28:14

the meaning of the song. And

28:16

the song describes our Sudan, describes

28:19

the Nile, the palm

28:22

tree. Everything

28:25

beautiful about Sudan is this song.

28:27

They like those type of songs,

28:30

the old songs. Okay?

28:32

And it touched us deeply.

28:35

So, Hana, Manahil and these

28:38

ladies are doing, you know,

28:40

another kind of cultural

28:42

preservation, live singing. That's

28:44

the way to hand it down. And

28:46

I love it because their kids are

28:48

here. They're just playing and hanging around

28:50

this hall. Whether consciously

28:52

or subconsciously, they're taking this all in.

28:55

And this is

28:57

what I'm talking about. These music

28:59

traditions, they will be carried on

29:01

in the diaspora. And now as

29:03

people are witnessing cultural centers

29:06

being destroyed at home, the

29:08

culture lives on in the people,

29:11

wherever they go. So,

29:26

okay, Hana, I have a question. It seems

29:29

to me while I understand that

29:31

you might feel sad listening to

29:33

a song because of

29:35

what's going on in Sudan. I

29:38

mean, I really like for you to remember the joy

29:40

in this music, you

29:43

know? Like that's

29:45

also a way to honor the past. I

29:48

don't want you to hear these songs and feel

29:50

so sad. I mean, can you do that,

29:52

do you think? I mean, honestly, listening

29:54

with you was a different experience than

29:56

listening alone. I love this

29:59

music. I'm proud of it. I'm sharing it

30:01

with you. You're jamming to like, Abdulla Qadr

30:03

Salim. And that

30:05

makes me think that whatever

30:08

the future holds, I

30:11

want others to learn about this music.

30:14

And I want my kids to learn about this music

30:16

and to know their culture. And

30:19

I love that my daughters are able

30:22

to jam and dance along to

30:24

Sudanese music and that they enjoy it. Again,

30:27

like me when I was little, maybe they

30:29

don't understand it all, but Leela,

30:32

they know it's theirs. You

30:34

know, it belongs to them. And

30:37

that's special

30:39

and that's important for me as

30:41

somebody raising these children here.

30:44

And I

30:46

don't know if they'll ever be going back to Sudan.

30:49

I'm so grateful that they did get

30:51

to see Sudan because,

30:54

like Haneen was saying, a lot of kids will

30:56

never see it. But

30:58

for this music, I

31:00

think if it's in our hearts, it

31:03

can't go away, right? Right.

31:06

It will not go away. I mean,

31:09

you're helping to preserve this music too. Don't

31:13

forget that. I mean, that's very beautiful,

31:16

very powerful. Girl,

31:18

are we ready to hear our

31:22

song? Can we just listen to some music

31:24

to late? What do you want

31:26

to hear, Leela? I want to hear

31:28

another song by Abdel Gettier-Salim. I love

31:31

that. Oh, I

31:33

love it. All right. So

31:35

here we go. Listen

31:43

to that. Hana, are you feeling this?

31:45

Are you feeling it? Yeah, because

31:47

I am. I am.

31:49

I love this. I'm

31:51

feeling good. This song

31:54

is called Mesama. That

31:56

means the smiling girl

31:59

and the beach. About to drop. This is

32:01

just the warm up, but Lila

32:04

A Hazard Double clap and I

32:06

want you to do. It with

32:08

me or j birthday read. The

32:12

footsteps. Wait wait

32:14

wait wait Lila Way. It's

32:16

a how income yet slacks

32:18

and. Say. That your double

32:20

clap at no wait. Patriots

32:23

have. Some.

32:26

Exciting and guy my main

32:28

know as be peace in

32:30

our song sometimes take a

32:32

while to start have slid

32:34

in the moment with this

32:36

old straw means. She's.

32:49

Describing this beautiful girl he

32:52

loves says a beautiful smile,

32:54

she smells beautiful when she

32:56

walks by and he's saying

32:58

god knows the love I

33:00

have my heart for her.

33:02

Like. It since short. I just

33:04

want her to say hello. I

33:06

can lists. Okay,

33:08

Lila, ready for the devil Now.

33:38

And that's the soup. The Soup is

33:40

a proud member of radio to be.

33:42

A from P r X and network

33:45

of independent. Listener supported artist

33:47

owned podcasts The Stoop Family

33:49

includes producer Natalie carried out

33:51

by Nema Ayer Social Media

33:53

by Summer Williams Sound design

33:56

and engineering by James. rowlands

33:58

at ruth dog studio Special

34:00

thanks to the NPR Story Lab. Connect

34:02

with us on social media. We've got

34:05

more music up there. And

34:07

if you want to hear

34:09

more Sudanese music, go to

34:12

sudantapesarchive.com. OK, Leela, we've got to

34:14

end this. We've got to end

34:16

it. Now

34:18

you taught me the music. I need to learn the moves. Hey,

34:33

it's Hana from The Stoop. Now

34:35

if you've been listening to The Stoop,

34:37

you know that we care about black

34:40

representation in media. That's why

34:42

we're excited to tell you about

34:44

NPR's new collection, Black Stories, Black

34:47

Truth. Black Stories, Black

34:49

Truth is a celebration of blackness

34:51

from NPR. Each of NPR's

34:53

black voices are as distinct,

34:55

varied, and nuanced as the

34:58

black experience itself. In

35:00

Black Stories, Black Truth, you'll hear

35:02

stories of joy, resilience, empowerment,

35:04

and creating world-shifting things out

35:07

of school. Every

35:09

episode is a living account about

35:11

what it means to be black

35:13

today, told from a unique black

35:15

perspective, from Bobby Schmurda to The

35:17

Wire, Michelle Obama to reparations. There's

35:19

no limit to the range of

35:22

Black Stories, Black Truths. Hear

35:24

a feed of episodes from

35:27

across NPR's podcasts that center

35:29

black voices. It's NPR Noir.

35:32

So make sure to listen to Black Stories,

35:34

Black Truths from NPR wherever you

35:36

get your podcasts. So

35:48

when war broke out in Sudan, Hanin

35:51

had a realization. And

35:54

it started with Sugh Umdurman. Remember

35:56

the market that I mentioned earlier? The

35:59

historic. open-air market. Right. Because

36:01

that's the place before the war

36:04

just a couple of years ago,

36:06

that's the place Haneen was going

36:09

every year when they went to Sudan to

36:11

find more cassette tapes for

36:13

her collection. And now that same

36:15

sugum der man is literally like

36:18

raised to the ground. Lila,

36:22

she found that that same sugum der

36:24

man was totally

36:26

destroyed. Now there's this undercurrent

36:29

of, oh, our heritage is

36:31

actively being destroyed. And these

36:34

initiatives that are gonna happen mostly

36:36

in the diaspora are probably going

36:38

to play an integral role in

36:40

preserving Sudanese culture. And I think

36:42

it feels more urgent and serious

36:44

for me now. I think like

36:46

now there's this renewed sense of,

36:48

oh, I like need

36:51

to make this happen. It didn't feel as urgent

36:53

before. And Lila,

36:55

she realizes like we all

36:58

are right now, that at

37:00

least for the foreseeable future there is

37:02

no going to Sudan anymore. There's

37:05

a whole generation of kids who won't

37:07

get to go now. More

37:09

than a million people have fled the country, whole

37:12

families fled to

37:14

countries like Egypt or the Emirates

37:16

or Uganda. So now it feels

37:19

like the Sudanese diaspora communities are

37:21

basically gonna be like small

37:23

Sudan's and do the work of

37:26

connecting folks to their culture. There's

37:28

generations of kids who are not

37:30

gonna have the same access. They're

37:32

not gonna have the summer trips

37:34

or the December trips back to

37:36

Sudan. I think like there's gonna

37:39

be this sense of being unanchored.

37:42

For me again, like the essence of archiving

37:44

and why I got into it was to

37:46

find an anchor for myself personally. And but

37:48

you know I had the luxury of going

37:51

back to Sudan to help facilitate that. So

37:53

now it's gonna be things like this that anchor

37:56

like the young ends and

37:58

you know young generations moving forward. Though

38:00

he has a meaning his sister a

38:02

lot. More

38:35

than. You know that

38:37

some honestly like it's one

38:39

thing to preserve tastes like

38:41

what honey is suing that.

38:43

We also have a tradition

38:45

of just singing together and

38:47

that's what this is. This

38:49

is the Woman's Corral of

38:51

the Sydney's Association. Of Northern

38:53

California. Back.

39:01

Home every time. We got together with

39:04

our cousins that are grandma's house. He

39:06

know he just be hanging around

39:08

after lines and someone would just

39:10

break out something to drum on

39:12

like literally anything apart a pan

39:14

and we just sit around. And

39:17

someone would start a song up and.

39:19

Everybody would join in. I love

39:21

that and so for these women

39:24

that were hearing and the song

39:26

their from California and women in

39:28

this area they get to sing

39:30

together and just seeing to they

39:33

perform spacing for themselves but they

39:35

also perform a community of fans

39:37

and nice thing. Of the

39:39

classics, the songs that they

39:42

grew up on. On

39:44

this day they're all on stage

39:46

in the community center. It has

39:49

high ceilings, So the acoustics

39:51

are like perfect for a

39:53

choir. And they're singing a

39:55

love song called Alleys and. my

39:57

be to buy a trio of

40:00

sisters that used to be called the Supremes

40:02

of Sudan. They're called the

40:04

Benabis. They're

40:09

saying, if you just ask

40:11

around, you won't get lost. You'll find

40:13

my house is close by if you

40:16

just asked about me. You'd

40:18

know where I was and you'd know

40:20

what's going on with me. You

40:23

used to say when we part for

40:25

seconds that it felt like days. Have

40:28

you changed or have they jinxed

40:30

our love? I like

40:32

that. Jinxed our love. Have

40:34

you changed? Just ask about me. I'm

40:37

right here. I haven't left.

40:40

This song is getting to me. I like it

40:42

though. So it's like calling for

40:44

him. She misses him. Remember,

40:47

I haven't gone nowhere, boo. She's

40:49

there. I never knew the, you

40:52

have to translate this for me because I

40:54

never knew the meaning of the Arabic. I

40:57

don't speak Arabic. I need to learn it though.

41:00

You're like my personal Sudanese

41:02

song with me. I

41:04

am happy to be your Sudanese

41:06

song with Farah. So

41:09

on this night, they're practicing for an event.

41:12

And so they pick that love song and

41:14

then they picked another song. It's

41:17

about love, but not for a girl.

41:20

It's about love for Sudan. It's

41:23

called Gamar Doreen by

41:25

Sudanese legend, Abd al-Kareem

41:27

al-Kabli. Okay,

41:40

so this is slower. It's

41:42

more like a ballad. It's a little bit

41:45

more reflective. It's a love song

41:47

for the country. It's all

41:49

about longing for the full moon,

41:51

over the Nile at night,

41:55

the water and the palm

41:57

trees. It's really

41:59

nostalgic. And I talked to

42:01

one of the chorale members. Her name

42:03

is Menahil. And I asked her, why

42:06

choose these oldies? And what did

42:08

her kids think? My

42:10

daughter, her name is Elise, okay? She asked me

42:12

one day, what's the Gammard Dora in Momma? I

42:15

like the song, she liked it. She cheered up like

42:17

when we sing it. I said to her, it's

42:20

like a full moon. This is it. After

42:22

the full moon, what is it? It's the light,

42:24

full light in the dark. That's

42:26

the meaning of the song. And

42:28

the song describes our Sudan, describes

42:32

the Nile, the palm

42:34

trees. Everything

42:37

beautiful about Sudan is this song.

42:40

They like those type of songs,

42:42

the old songs. And

42:44

it touched us deeply.

42:48

So, Menahil and

42:50

these ladies are doing another

42:52

kind of cultural

42:54

preservation, live singing. That's

42:56

the way to hand it down. And I

42:58

love it because their kids are here. They're

43:01

just playing and hanging around this hall. Whether

43:04

consciously or subconsciously, they're taking this

43:06

all in. Yeah. And this is

43:09

what I'm talking about. These music

43:11

traditions, they will be carried on

43:13

in the diaspora. And now as

43:16

people are witnessing cultural centers

43:18

being destroyed at home, the

43:20

culture lives on in the people,

43:23

wherever they go. Menahil

43:29

and

43:38

these ladies are dying to look

43:51

for you to remember the joy in

43:54

this music. That's also a way to honor

43:56

the past. I

44:00

don't want you to hear these songs and feel so sad.

44:03

I mean, can you do that, do

44:05

you think? I mean, honestly, listening with

44:07

you was a different experience than listening

44:09

alone. I love this music. I'm proud

44:11

of it. I'm sharing it with you. You're

44:14

jamming to like, Adelka Dersalem. And

44:17

that makes me think that whatever

44:20

the future holds, I

44:23

want others to learn about this music.

44:26

And I want my kids to learn

44:28

about this music and to know their

44:30

culture. And I love

44:32

that my daughters are able to jam

44:34

and dance along to Sudanese music

44:37

and that they enjoy it. Again,

44:39

like me when I was little, maybe they

44:41

don't understand it all, but Lela,

44:44

they know it's theirs. It

44:47

belongs to them. Yeah.

44:51

And that's special and that's important

44:53

for me as somebody raising these

44:55

children here. And

44:57

I don't know if they'll ever be going back to

45:00

Sudan. Yeah. I'm

45:02

so grateful that they did get to

45:04

see Sudan because like

45:06

Hanin was saying, a lot of kids will never

45:08

see it. But for

45:10

this music, I

45:12

think if it's in our hearts, it

45:15

can't go away, right? Right.

45:18

It will not go away. I

45:21

mean, you're helping to preserve this

45:23

music too. Don't

45:25

forget that. I mean, that's very beautiful,

45:28

very powerful. Girl,

45:31

are we ready to hear a song? Can

45:34

we just listen to some music to

45:36

late? What do you want

45:38

to hear, Lela? I want to hear another song

45:40

by Abdel Gaidir Salim. I

45:43

love that. Oh, I love it.

45:45

I'm getting into that. All right.

45:47

So here we go. Listen

45:55

to that. Hannah, are you feeling this?

45:57

Are you feeling it? Yeah. Because

45:59

I'm... I am. I am. I

46:01

love this. I'm feeling good.

46:04

This song is called

46:06

Messama. That means the

46:09

smiling girl. And

46:11

the beat's about to drop. This

46:14

is just the warm up. But

46:17

Leela, it has a double clap and I want you

46:19

to do it with me. Okay. Let's do

46:21

it. Let's do it. Wait,

46:26

wait, wait, wait, Leela. Wait. It

46:28

hasn't come yet. What?

46:30

I'm so excited. Stop your double

46:32

clapping. No, wait. Wait. I'm

46:38

really excited. I'm getting excited. I'm ready to

46:40

move. I know. Just be patient. Our songs

46:42

sometimes take a while to start up. Just

46:45

live in the moment with this

46:47

ood strumming. Hello, she's

47:02

describing this beautiful girl he loves.

47:05

Has a beautiful smile. She

47:07

smells beautiful when she walks by.

47:09

And he's saying, God knows

47:11

the love I have in my heart for

47:13

her. Life is too short. I

47:16

just want her to say hello so I

47:18

can live. Okay,

47:21

Leela. Ready for the double clap? Now it's

47:23

time. Okay. This

47:26

time, okay. Here

47:30

we go. You got it. You got it.

47:32

You got it. I

47:36

love it. And

47:47

that's the Soup.

47:50

The Soup is

47:53

a proud member of Radio Topia

47:55

from PRX, a network

47:57

of independent, listener-supported, artist-owned,

48:01

The Stoop family includes producer Natalie

48:03

Perret, art by Nima Iyer, social

48:05

media by Summer Williams, sound design

48:08

and engineering by James Rowlands

48:10

at Roof Dog Studio. Special

48:13

thanks to the NPR Story Lab.

48:15

Connect with us on social media. We've got

48:17

more music up there. And if

48:19

you want to hear more Sudanese music,

48:22

go to sudantapesarchive.com. Okay,

48:25

Leila, we've got to end this. Now

48:30

you taught me the music, I need to learn the moves. Radiotopia.