Ana Africi, Ana Sudani: It’s not often that music productions from Africa break through internationally. But this one, may very well be the brilliant exception.
Let us present a very well-made music production with, for the area, well-known artists. It is not often that music productions from Africa break through internationally. But this may be the brilliant exception. This is what happens when you mix traditions with innovation.
The piece is performed by the College of Music and Drama Choir, and also included Ethiopian singer Mahmoud Ahmad, Ugandan singer Shifa Mosisi, Moroccan singer Asma Hamzawi, and the Orbab group.
The music is created by Ibrahim al Kashif and is highly emotional. Patriotic. It speaks to the heart, it speaks to the blood – it is no wonder at all that Ana Africi, Ana Sudani has become something of a leitmotif for the revolution.
Ibrahim al Kashif
Ibrahim al Kashif, born 1915 in Wad Madani and deceased in September 1969, was the most popular Sudanese singer between the end of World War II and the independence of Sudan in 1956. His innovative style developed out of Haqeebah Music, and he added a string section as well as other Western musical instruments to the traditional Sudanese percussion or Arabic oud. Because of these innovations and his choice of poetic or patriotic lyrics, he was later called the “Father of modern Singing in Sudan”.
During the Sudanese Revolution of 2018/19, his song Land of Good – I am African, I am Sudanese was played in the streets of Khartoum. On 11 April 2020, one year to the day after the Sudanese people filled the streets at the military headquarters in the heart of the capital Khartoum to celebrate the downfall of dictator Omar el Bashir, three Sudanese rap musicians published their remake of Ana Afriki, Ana Sudani (I’m African, I’m Sudanese), bearing witness to the ongoing popularity of el Kashif’s patriotic song.
