‪#‎Sudan‬, the invisible county ... an appeal for international media

In case you don’t know what Sudan is, it is an African country- well, identity aside, this might be the only thing Sudanese people would agree on, its location. It shares boarders with Egypt and Ethiopia, among other countries, but you’d properly know these two countries if you live in the northern hemisphere, or anywhere to be frank. Our president, Omar al-Bashir, is the only sitting head of state wanted for genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity for his crimes in Darfur. That might ring a bill.

This plagued country rarely makes it to the headline unless million of people die, a UN official issues yet another press release expressing concern about escalation of violence and calling on the Khartoum regime to bla bla bla, or a reporter manages to get his/her piece to print/wire for the lack of more worthy news ... only then, Sudan may make it to the news, and you’d see it in a shy corner under Africa affairs. However, more often than not, we are forgotten. We don’t exist. But the painful truth is, we do. And our live in Sudan is not that great and lack of media coverage exacerbates our agony.

The thing is, our stories are not sexy, and by that I mean they are not appealing to international media or audience. We are not ‘exotic’ enough, or at all. We fit the stereotype of an African country: poverty, inter-communal conflicts, kakistocracy government, and so many complex issues that no one has the time to unpack, or cares to do so. And for that, we are not making it to the headlines most of the time thus we circulate our miseries among us, Sudanese. We are consumed by tragedies; we enjoy interval moments of peace until the next blow. We have some uplifting stories from time to time but they too, go unnoticed.

Sudanese gathered at a graveyard burying a Student who was shot on April 27. Photo published on Twitter with little or no background info.

To be fair, we share some part of the blame. We, Sudanese, are not good at communicating with the world. We talk among us, we don’t think of non-Sudanese as audience. We often post photos with phrases only a Khartoumi or an urbanized Sudanese can decipher. We are insular; as a defense mechanism or as a copping one, it doesn’t matter, at the end of the day it keeps us out of the picture. And we are convinced that we are to face our daily promise of death alone. We’ve learnt that we are destined to mourn our victims alone. We learnt to express our sorrow in the most esoteric way for a foreign to understand what the hell is going on: fill our newsfeed with photos of young victims’ bodies covered with blood and faint phrases with no substance to tell the whole story; we share weeping poetry to refers to historical days or event, and you, non-Sudanese, will not know what we mean or what the hell is going on. We pay back for ignoring us by isolating you, which hurts us more than it hurts you. It gives us more reasons to indulge in our self-loathing rituals. 

We know that we have no Tahrir square to fill up with of thousand of energetic people holding funny signs that could go viral; we don’t’ have many savvy social media activists who have enough social capital to relay on to drag the attention. So we grew insular. We adjusted ourselves to the fact that we are left alone to deal with it on our own. We also think no non-Sudanese cares, so why bother to make our pain and stories accessible?

But we need international media to look our way; we need international media outlets to give us a line or two to tell our story. The few times our stories were heard, many lives were saved.[1] & [2]

3ayin Sudanese news website with focus on Nuba Mountains

Finding the right contact in Sudan might not be easy, I know. He or she might not have all the facts; but why don't you try to reach more than one person? I'm a journalist myself and I know tracing complex issue is hard, and we, journalists, function under tight deadlines and we tend to reach out to handful of names that we gathered over the years for each country. But, I hope you’d do more next time you cover Sudan. Spare an hour a week to follow some Sudanese social media. Believe me, one of the random photos with Arabic description might be your gate to a worthwhile story. Sudan has more to tell than what UN press releases or officials of other countries say about Sudan. Sudanese have a lot to share, and it will help you connect the dots. Try to reach out to them. Try. It will make our live better if our stories are heard. Just try, please.

[1] "An Idealist on Death Row," Foriegn Policy, October 3, 2012

[2] "Sudan 'apostasy' woman Meriam Yahia Ibrahim meets Pope," BBC, July 24, 2014