“It taught me to be proud to call myself Sudanese.”

“Growing up, I lived in Sudan until June of 2019 when I moved to Michigan. My family and I were able to make it out of Sudan in harsh circumstances. Many people aren’t aware of the rebellion happening in my birth country, so in the last few years, I’ve shared my story and informed classmates.

In the painting attached you can see a pool of blood at the bottom representing the lives lost. On the wall there is a phrase in Arabic,  تسقط بس translated to “just fall” in English. The man spray-painting the motto on the wall, while completely ignoring the stinging pain throughout his body, is a representative of the resilience of our peaceful fight to save our country, but we still cry for those who died midway.

While our dictator has chosen to use violence, we choose to continue on with our peaceful protest and carry on with the will of our brothers and sisters who died midway. The small man on the left side of the picture represents our tyrant. Under him are his supporters. You can see money falling from the tyrant to the supporters, representing the ambiguity of their support, for you can not tell whether they really support him or simply support him for his money. I incorporated the blue as it was our peace color through it all. Going with the peace color, the man in the middle represents us as people. He is holding up a peace sign, once again representing us and the peace.

This rebellion has taught us a lot and brought us together. It taught me to be proud to call myself Sudanese.”