History of Music in Sudan

Sudan has a rich culture and distinctive musical culture that has been through the long-lasting instability and domination during the current record of Sudan.

Starting with the burden of severe sharia law in the year 1989, many of the country’s most popular artists and poets like poet Sharif Manhjoub, were imprisoned while others, and also such as Mohammed Wardi and Mohammed el Amin relocate to Cairo (Mohammed el amin came back to Sudan in the year 1991 and Mohammed Wardi also came back to Sudan in the year 2003). The folk music suffered too, with traditional Zar festivities being interrupted and drums confiscated. In the same vein, though, the European militaries assisted the establishment of Sudanese music by bringing current instruments and patterns, military ensembles, particularly the Scottish bagpipes, were popular and set folk music to military parade music. The parade Shulkawi No 1, is an instance, set of the beats of the Shiluk. Sudan is very different, with five hundred plus ethnic group’s extent all over the country’s empire, which is the biggest in Africa. The country has been a crossroads between North, East and West Africa for hundreds of years ago and it is populated by combination of Sub-Arabs and Africans.

source of picture: www.afropop.org