Musical History of Sudan

Since the start of the civil war in April 2023, more than ten million Sudanese have fled — and taken with them the musical scene of one of Africa’s most fertile nations¹. In Khartoum, clubs and studios closed. But in the refugee camps of Addis Ababa, Cairo, and Nairobi, songs continue. Sudanese music, which has crossed millennia of Nubian civilization, Arab caravans, the jazz orchestras of the 1970s, and the slogans of the 2019 revolution, remains standing².

In 2018, researchers from the Swedish label Ostinato Records reissued digitally recordings from the 1960s–1980s, the golden age³. Abdel Aziz El Mubarak, Mohammed Wardi, Kamal Keila, and Sharhabil Ahmed now appear on global platforms⁴. But this music today is also that of rappers in exile and diaspora artists like Alsarah and the Nubatones⁵. A look back at the musical history of a country at the heart of Africa and the Arab world.

The Crossroads: From Pharaohs to Electric Lute

Sudanese music traces its roots to Nubian civilization, where frescoes depicting the drum — a lyre of great antiquity — have been found on temple walls dating from the kingdoms of Kush and Meroë (IIIrd–Vth century AD)⁶. Sudan, a commercial crossroads between sub-Saharan Africa, the Mediterranean basin, and the Arabian Peninsula, has always been steeped in a blend of influences⁷.

In the 19th and 20th centuries, three pillars structured music: madeeh, religious chants honoring the Prophet Muhammad practiced in Sufi brotherhoods; wedding songs; and war songs of pastoral peoples⁸. The latter rely on a pentatonic scale — a succession of notes widely used in African and Asian musics — which remains Sudan’s sonic signature to this day⁹.

The rupture arrived with the first recordings. In February 1903, engineer Franz Hampe of the Gramophone Company recorded in Cairo the first discs by a Sudanese vocal quartet¹⁰. This marked the beginning of the phenomenon known as hageeba, from the Arabic word for pouch. This name, applied retrospectively to 1920s music, evokes Omdurman’s radio and its host Ahmed Mohamed Saleh, who broadcast 78s kept in a pouch¹¹.

During the 1920s and 1930s, pioneers laid the foundations of a distinct urban style. Abdel Karim Karouma wrote several hundred songs, while Mohammed Ahmed Sarour, considered the father of Sudanese commercial song, initiated a vocal music with frame drum percussion that gained complexity with the arrival of the violin, accordion, and piano¹². Mohammed Wardi, for his part, trained under the influence of British and Egyptian military orchestras, which introduced brass instruments and the notion of professional ensembles¹³.

Did you know? Mohammed Ahmed Sarour, born in 1898, traveled with a rifle to organize his concerts and enforce discipline among his choir¹⁴.

The Golden Age and the Years of Ash (1956–2018)

Independence in 1956 coincided with a cultural effervescence. President Gaafar Nimeiry, who came to power in 1969, massively subsidized the arts, inspired by Nasserism¹⁵. Khartoum became a cultural showcase for Africa¹⁶.

This period, often called the “golden age of Sudanese popular music,” saw the birth of a unique style that blended American jazz, funk, and rock with pentatonic rhythmic structures¹⁷. The group Sharhabil and his orchestra, formed by Sharhabil Ahmed and his Omdurman comrades, was at the forefront¹⁸. Zakia Abdul Gassim Abu Bakr, Sharhabil’s wife, was the first female guitarist in Sudan¹⁹.

Mohammed Wardi (1932–2012) became the country’s greatest icon²⁰. A Nubian from Halfa, he combined classical Arabic with the Sudanese dialect²¹. After his village was flooded by the Aswan Dam in 1964, he became a cultural activist²². His album Al Mursal, recorded in exile in 1997, was the best-selling record in Sudanese history²³.

Parallel to this, Abdel Gadir Salim (1946–2025), from the Nuba Mountains, studied at the Khartoum Institute of Music founded in 1969²⁴. He abandoned urban music for the folk songs of Kordofan, blending oud (fretless Arabic lute) and percussion²⁵. His album Sounds of Sudan, released on the World Circuit label in 1986, introduced Sudan to the entire world²⁶. His contemporary Abdel Aziz El Mubarak (1951–2020) embodied the cosmopolitan urban current²⁷.

The brutal turning point came in 1983, when Nimeiry imposed the “September laws”²⁸. Music, considered by some religious figures as forbidden, was censored²⁹. On November 10, 1994, singer Khojali Osman was stabbed to death in Omdurman — Abdel Gadir Salim survived the same attack³⁰. Wardi left Sudan in 1990³¹.

The regime of Omar al-Bashir, who came to power in 1989, intensified repression³². Young Sudanese turned toward reggae and nascent hip-hop. Rap, still underground, began to speak of resistance³³.

Renaissance: from street rap to diaspora artists

In 2012, the rap group Nas Jota — whose name means “chaotic people” — released No to Dictatorship, explicitly singing for the end of the regime³⁴. In November 2018, during the Sudanese revolution, Nas Jota became the soundtrack of the demonstrations³⁵. In 2019, after the fall of al-Béchir, they returned to the country for a historic concert³⁶.

The next generation carries this flame in exile. Soulja (Usama Ashraf) has been residing in Cairo since 2021. His EP Nomadic (2021) and his album Deja Vu (2024) blend Arabic hip-hop with Sudanese rhythms³⁷. His song Donia, released in June 2025, has already accumulated over one million views³⁸. Others are emerging: Bas, a Sudanese-American rapper who used his music to denounce the war³⁹; Flippter, a pioneer of Sudanese rap; and Alsarah and the Nubatones, led by Alsarah Naima (born in Khartoum in 1982), who reinvent Nubian music with an ensemble of nine musicians in the diaspora⁴⁰.

After the death of Mahmoud Abdel Aziz — nicknamed “Al Hoot”, the whale — in January 2024, his songs became resistance anthems⁴¹. His verses “Juba” and “Ya Madhacha” are sung in protest marches⁴².

A future to rebuild

Sudanese music is not a relic of the past — it is a living present, dispersed but tenacious. The 2019 revolution proved that Sudanese music is not merely entertainment⁴³. As the civil war tears the country apart, Sudanese people sing with lutes, electric guitars, jazz drum kits, and microphones⁴⁴. Sudanese music saves itself, note by note, verse by verse⁴⁵.

Sources

n.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abdel_Gadir_Salim ; SudUpdate, « Music in Sudan », URL : http://www.sudanupdate.org/REPORTS/MUSIC/MTEXT.HTM