Paper short abstract:

This paper reflects upon the Generation Tasgotbas (Just Fall). Based on ethnographic research on Sudan’s current revolutionary movement, it asks who considers themselves part of it, what is new about it, how it's related to former movements and how it's linked to political and social transformation.

Paper long abstract:

“Tasgotbas!” (English: “Just fall”) was one of the main slogans of Sudan’s youth-led December Revolution. Starting with uprisings in December 2018, the continuous protests led to the overthrow of dictator al-Bashir in April 2019. Since then, the imperative tasgotbas! has been used as a description for Sudan’s youth, more particularly those, who grew up under the former Islamist regime, that had been in power since 1989.

This generation has been growing up in what Vigh (2008) calls “crisis as context”: It has witnessed an oppressive regime, a devastating civil war and the separation of their country, as well as economic malaise and infrastructural decay.

Not just since 2018 have young people been working in resistance, and they have not stopped even after a recent coup d’état carried out by military in October 2021. This talk is meant to explore the phenomenon of the Generation Tasgotbas. It is to draw out its new identities and significant attributions in its relation to the political resistance of previous generations.

This depiction is based on results of an ethnographic research in Sudan, which took place from October to December 2021 as part of my dissertation project about political subjectification within Sudan’s current resistance movement.

The exploration of the Generation Tasgotbas can make an empirical contribution to the panel’s goal to “link the genealogical with the socio-political”, by drawing out how a seemingly well-defined cohort is shaped by the narratives and discourses of change, resistance and dissidence.