Paper short abstract:

In this paper, I explore how members of the revolutionary movement in the Sudan remain committed and passionate about it in the aftermath of the 2021 military coup by focusing on creative practices of commemorating the martyrs and the affects and moral bonds associated with them.

Paper long abstract:

In October 2021 the transitional government in Khartoum was overthrown by a military coup, seriously challenging the revolutionary movement and its aspirations of freedom, peace and justice. The road to democratic elections and democratic government, paved since the start of the so-called December Revolution in 2018, has stalled. Since then, weekly protests against the coup and everyday resistance have been met with unprecedented violence and repression by the military and security forces. Confronted with setbacks, violence and death, a sense of frustration is increasingly spreading among the members of the revolutionary movement, hampering efforts to maintain a sense of change and possibility. In this presentation, I examine creative practices of resistance that generate moral commitments and affective resonance among the revolutionaries. I focus on practices of mourning, commemorating and honouring the protestors killed in the demonstrations and analyse how martyrs are imagined and cultivated, but also contested. Slogans about martyrs fill revolutionary poems, songs, wall writings and murals. Funerals turn into demonstrations, attended by hundreds of people. I shall argue that commemorative practices such as rituals, performances, murals, banners and slogans play a central role in the political affection. Drawing on ongoing ethnographic research in Khartoum, I show how these practices are imbued with affects of loss, love and care. In turn, they create feelings of political belonging and moral obligations to continue the struggle for a new Sudan.