The rich and varied music of Sudan has traditional, rural, northeastern African roots and also shows Arabic, Western or other African influences, especially on the popular urban music from the early 20th century onwards. Since the establishment of big cities like Khartoum as melting pots for people of diverse backgrounds, their cultural heritage and tastes have shaped numerous forms of modern popular music. In the globalized world of today, the creation and consumption of music through satellite TV or on the Internet is a driving force for cultural change in Sudan, popular with local audiences as well as with Sudanese living abroad.
Even after the secession of South Sudan in 2011, the Sudan of today is very diverse, with five hundred plus ethnic groups spread across the territory of what is the third largest country in Africa. The cultures of its ethnic and social groups have been marked by a complex cultural legacy, going back to the spread of Islam, the regional history of the slave trade and by indigenous African and Arab cultural heritage. Though some of the ethnic groups still maintain their own African language, most Sudanese today use the distinct Sudanese version of Arabic.
Due to its geographic location in North Africa, where African, Arabic, Christian and Islamic cultures have shaped people's identities, and bordering the Sahel region, Sudan has been a cultural crossroads between North, East and West Africa, as well as the Arabian Peninsula, for hundreds of years. It has a diverse musical culture, ranging from traditional folk music to Sudanese popular urban music of the 20th century and up to the internationally influenced African popular music of today.
Despite religious and cultural objections towards music and dance in public life, musical traditions have always enjoyed great popularity with most Sudanese. Apart from singing in Standard Arabic, the majority of Sudanese singers express their lyrics in Sudanese Arabic, thereby touching the feelings of their national audience as well as the growing number of Sudanese living abroad, notably in Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the Gulf countries. Even during times of wide-ranging restrictions of public life imposed by the government, public concerts or the celebration of weddings and other social events with music and dance have always been part of cultural life in Sudan.Verney, Jerome and Yassin, 2006, pp. 397-407
Folk music and other traditional musical forms
Rural traditional music and dance As in other neighboring African regions, the traditional musical styles of Sudan are ancient, rich and diverse, with different regions and ethnic groups having many distinct musical traditions. Music in Africa has always been very important as an integral part of religious and social life of communities. Performances of songs, dance and instrumental music are used in rituals and social ceremonies like weddings, circumcision rites or to accompany the long camel treks of the Bedouins and sedentary Arabs. In these performances, music always has been a social event, marked by the combination of performers, lyrics, music and the participation of the community, like dancing or other types of sharing a musical event. Traditional music and its performance have been handed down from generation to generation by accomplished musicians to younger generations and was not written down, except in recent times by formally trained musicians or ethnomusicologists.In his report on the Nubian musician Dahab from 1973, ethnomusicologist Artur Simon gives a detailed description of the social and artistic aspects of traditional Nubian music and the changes it had undergone through modern society. See
In contrast to traditional Arabic music, most Sudanese music styles are pentatonic, and the simultaneous beats of percussion or singing in polyrhythms are further prominent characteristics of Sudanese music.Cross-beat are also a feature in traditional Sudanese music featuring complex, layered, and interlocking patterns often based on a 3:2 ratio like the Tumtum (or tum tum) rhythm common in the North and West of the country. The music of Sudan also has a strong tradition of lyrical expression that uses oblique metaphors, speaks about love, the history of a tribe or the beauty of the country. In his essay Sudanese Singing 1908–1958, author El Sirr A. Gadour translated an example for the lyrics of a love song from the beginning of the 20th century as follows:
One of the most typical East African instruments, called tanbūra or kissar in Nubian music, was traditionally played by the singers as the usual accompaniment for such songs, but this Sudanese lyre has largely been replaced in the 20th century by the Arabic oud. middle eastern Drums, hand clapping and dancing are other important elements of traditional musical performances, as well as the use of other Arabic instruments, like rabbabas, mizamars and qanun. One example for this are the elaborate wooden gourd trumpets, called al Waza, played by the Berta people of the Blue Nile state.Archivedat Ghostarchive and the Wayback Machine: Despite this adaption of some arabic and western instruments in 20th century Sudanese popular music over some traditional and ancient Nubian instruments, Sudanese music remained Distinctively related to Ancient Nubian Music, the sahel, The Horn of Africa and Sub saharan Africa in Melodic use of the pentatonic scale (especially the Minor pentatonic scale like in 1940's Haqibah music), Polyrhythmic structure, call and response and emphasis on rhythm, polyphonic and homophonic textures with more traditional Ancient Sudanese Drums remaining favored in most Sudanese music and generally uniquely distinct from music from much of the arab world (particularly Egypt, the Levant and Mesopotamia) which generally utilises the melodic Arabic maqam, emphasis on Melody, a monophonic texture and traditional Rhythm in Arabic music (iqa'at and Dumbek rhythms), Musical Structures and Elements generally being absent in Sudanese music, This unique Sudanese music Distinct Among the arab world suggests an Ancient Nubian Folk music Origin for much of modern Northern Sudanese Music.
The History of the World in 100 Objects features a large wooden slit drum in the shape of a buffalo from southern Sudan, probably made in the 19th century for traditional performances in larger ensembles or to summon warriors, that is now held in the British Museum in London. A copper kettle drum that was reputedly used by Mahdist forces in the Battle of Omdurman (1898) is in the collection of the National Army Museum in London.
The role of women in traditional music In many ethnic groups, distinguished women play an important role in the social celebration of a tribe's virtues and history. In her report about women as singers in Darfur, the ethnomusicologist Roxane Connick Carlisle recounts her fieldwork during the 1960s in three ethnic groups. She describes the common traits of these bards from the Zaghawa ethnic group like this:
Another traditional form of women's role in oral poetry are the songs of praise or ridicule of singers in western Sudan, called Hakamat. These are women of high social standing, respected for their eloquence, intuition and decisiveness, who may both incite or vilify the men of their tribe, when engaged in feuds with other tribes. The social impact of these Hakamat can be so strong, that they have been invited by peacebuilding initiatives in Darfur to exert their influence for conflict resolution or contemporary social issues, like environmental protection.
Sudanese women are also known both at home and in the wider region for their role as singers and musicians playing the dalooka drum in aghani al-banat (transl.: Girls' songs) as well as for their spiritual musical performances called zār, believed to be able to exorcise evil spirits from possessed individuals.
Zikr rituals as religious forms of recitation and performance The numerous brotherhoods of Sufi dervishes in Sudan are religious, mystical groups that use prayers, music and ritual dance to achieve an altered state of consciousness in an Islamic tradition called zikr (remembrance). These ritualized zikr ceremonies are, however, not considered by the faithful as musical performances, but as a form of prayer. Each order or lineage within an order has one or more forms for zikr, the liturgy of which may include recitation, instrumental accompaniment by drums, dance, costumes, incense, and is sometimes leading to ecstasy and trance. Zikr rituals are most often celebrated on late Friday afternoons, like the one at the tomb of Sheikh Hamed el-Nil in Omdurman.
Brass bands and the origins of modern Sudanese music From the early 1920s onwards, radio, records, film and later television have contributed to the development of Sudanese popular music by introducing new instruments and styles. Already during the Turkish-Egyptian rule and later during the Anglo-Egyptian condominium until independence, first Egyptian, and then British military bands left their mark, especially through the musical training of Sudanese soldiers and by introducing Western brass instruments. According to social historian Ahmad Sikainga, "Sudanese members of military bands can be regarded as the first professional musicians, taking the lead in the process of modernization and indigenisation."Sikainga, 2012, p. 247 Today still, such marching bands represent a characteristic element in Sudan, playing the National Anthem on Independence Day and other official celebrations.
Development of modern Sudanese music
The 1920s: hageeba, the origin of modern popular music in Sudan
The strongest stylistic influence in the development of modern popular Sudanese music has become known as hageeba music (pronounced hagee-ba and meaning "briefcase"). The name hageeba, however, was only applied much later to popular songs from the 1920s, when radio presenter Ahmed Mohamed Saleh talked about old records, collected in his briefcase for his show hageebat al-fann (artistic briefcase), that he presented on Radio Omdurman during the 1940s.
In terms of the history of music of Sudan, the label hageeba applies to an important change in the development of modern music: A new urban style of singing and lyrics was evolving, moving away from tribal folk songs and the melodies of religious, devotional singing. This style was inaugurated by the singer Muhamad Wad El Faki, as well as others like Muhamad Ahmed Sarour, who were later inspired by Wad El Faki. These songs were initially inspired by the vocal tradition of Islamic praise chanting for the prophet Muhammad, known as madeeh. Gradually, melodies known from madeeh were used by singers like Wad El Faki and others to accompany new, non-religious lyrics. During his childhood years at a religious school, called khalwa in Sudan, Wad El Faki had learned recitation in classical Arabic, voice control and correct pronunciation. According to El Sirr A. Gadour, Wad El Faki "did not belong to any of the main ethnic communities in Omdurman. This freed him from a narrow identity and made him a 'general' singer, crossing the tribal barrier to broader national affiliation."
Hageeba started as essentially vocal music, sung by a lead singer and a chorus, with percussion coming from the tambourine-like tar frame drum. It was performed at weddings and other social occasions and soon became popular. – During the 1930s, the first commercial 78 rpm gramophone records of Sudanese musicians such as Muhamad Ahmed Sarour and Khalil Farah were recorded in Cairo and marketed from Omdurman, from where this new music spread to listeners in greater Khartoum and other urban centres.Sikainga, 2012, p. 249
1930s – 1950s: rise of popular music through records, radio and music halls