the sudan: 25 years of independence || art and dialectics: a sudanese/american experience

Art and Dialectics: A Sudanese/American ExperienceAuthor(s): Sondra Hale and Mohamed Omer BusharaSource: Africa Today, Vol. 28, No. 2, The Sudan: 25 Years of Independence (2nd Qtr., 1981), pp.97-107Published by: Indiana University PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4186004 .

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Art and Dialectics: A Sudanese/Anerican Experience

Sondra Hale

with art work by Mohamed Omer Bushara

In an attempt at cross-cultural conversation Mohamed Omer Bushara and I worked in constant conjunction with each other. In our collaboration he used the language of graphics, I, the language of poetry. We attempted to form an artistic commune, to finish each other's lines. For many reasons there was an unlikelihood of such a collaboration, and it is here where we transcended the dialectics of our existence and, by adding experience to theory and practice, forged the beginning of a synthesis. We saw the dialectics in our different ages; in the male/female contradiction; in "black" and "white"; in "Christian" and "Muslim" cultures; in "Third World" and "First World"; and in American and Sudanese. We attempted to break down the dualism seemingly inherent in these identities. And we could do that by adding experience to theory and practice. The experiences we shared were our poor backgrounds and our visions of the oppressed. In order to communicate and survive, we have embraced the anguage of Marxism to produce within a bourgeoise .world.

The Bushara/Hale dialectical relationship is salient in this following poem with companion drawings. The idea of "returning", with its dialectic of attraction and repulsion is expressed in "The Return". Bushara, too, had also returned to Sudan after two years in England, and expressed in these pieces and in another set entitled works "Series of 14", a similar ttraction and repulsion. Both our works suggest a feeling of suffocation :hrough being embraced, at the same time there is the alienation from the environment.

In a longer collaborative work (poems and drawings) entitled Seasons of Discontent, the Bushara/Hale experience takes the form of socio- political statements in Haiku pieces with graphic statements. Below is excerpted approximately one-sixth of the total work:

Mohamed Omer Bushara. Sudanese graphic artist /journalist. was the subject of a one-person shovu)at the African-American Institute in New York (February 20-May 31. 1981). He is an African Arts first prize recipient. a frequent intemational exhbitor. and a graduate of The Slade in London. He and Sondra Hale have collaborated on two'bobks and several other pieces Sondra Hale is an American anthropologist and art critic who spent six years in Sudan. She wrote the catalog forThe Vision of Mohamed Omer Bushara. She is currently the Director of the Women's Studies Program. California State University. Long Beach.

2nd Quarter, 1981 97



THE RETURN by

Sondra Hale

It was the year of my return: The streets of Khartoum were peopled by the images of another time . . . I looked into the faces and saw a whole other era simmering there - timeless. and yet obsolete. Even the faces of the young were remnants of the forgotten. Who has forsaken them?

It had been over a decade since I had lived among them. truly feeling their bodies and mine as one. Our skins had touched. colours shading into one tone. The voices had lingered there together: a monotone. Who has forsaken whom?

I walked among them now a stranger - not touching -

aloof. afraid. suspicious: cynical even of the beggar child. They look at me but with eyes averted. or empty - with shifting. shallow eyes. Their eyes are cold when they touch me. why is my skin so cold? It is damp. sweating from a coldness of heart. whose heart? Who has forsaken whom?

AFRICA TODAY



------- - ----

-------------------------

And the people, those people with whom I had felt one looked at my face, saw into my eyes and knew my love. Yes. Who has forsaken whom?

But who could understand such an abstract love? Could I expect it of them: the colonized, the dominated, the oppressed?

Why should they love me now? My skin is white. I fought in Vietnam. I bombed Hiroshima, invaded Cuba, and infiltrated the Third World. Did I? Did they? Did we? Who has forsaken whom?

Do cadavers that embrace feel the mutual death? Can a heart removed keep pounding - repeating? Can a body removed return again? Who has forsaken whom?

I was Sudanese; they said it as they transfused my blood. I was Sudanese; they wrote it in the newspapers: 'You are one of us,' (they said), 'We will always keep you among us; drink the waters of the glorious Nile. Return to us; we are one.'

2nd Quarter, 1981



NO.

As the waterwheels groaned and the hawks circled the mosques, the ubiquitous goats nodded assent. Yes.

Those who embraced me a decade ago - What are they doing now? They have built extensions to their city - the Grand Amarat. They call it'progress': They run their own business now and sit in their Mercedes behind a driver - racing through the crowded streets: passing the beggar - the farmer - the workers passing the shanties. Who has forsaken whom?

Those who embraced me built iron bars around their university. Doctors patch their pockets with the sores of a wounded people and the fruits of a woman's labour. Comrades meet and talk; Comrades meet and talk. Those who embraced me in that decade now hold a gun. They call it 'stability'.

Do cadavers that embrace feel the mutual death? In our senselessness we are finally one. Who has forsaken whom?

(Khartoum)

100 AFRICA TODAY



-

r s>^m~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ...... ... .

2n Quarter, 1981 101



Six Haiku with companion drawings from Seasons of Discontent:

1. We all drain ourselves away in tears and torpor, languishing in heat.

/of

102 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~AFRICA TODAY



2. A man, so thirsty drowned in a tebaldi tree. Now he needs nothing.




AIM

3. The sheikhs and sayyids in Parliament gloated, brains shrunk in their emmas.

104 AFRICA TODAY



4 These thin black lines cannot say how we feel: grotesque figures.




5. Your death fills our hearts and your blood becomes our tears; the noose is our chain.

106 AFRICA TODAY



6. There are many pawns. We line up in rows to face the taller pieces.

2 1981. . . . . . . . . . .1 07

2nd Quarter, 1981 107~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~7 X



the sudan: 25 years of independence || art and dialectics: a sudanese/american experience

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