“I loved her / and I want to tell her”: Performing Solidarity & Embodied Identity through Sudanese Women's Dance in California's Afro-Arab Diaspora

• In Event: Contested Belongings: Arab Diasporas and Western Expatriates in the Shadow of Empire

Abstract

Focusing on Sudanese migrant musicians, dancers, and artists impacted by war and militarization, this paper chronicles the activism and creative labor of Sudanese women in periods of political, economic, and social strife. This community-engaged ethnography utilizes participant observation, focus groups, interviews, and performance methods to study how California-based Sudanese artists in exile engage in political action, community education, and creative expression to activate social spaces and advocate for an end to the war in Sudan. Diasporic Sudanese women contribute to social and political justice, coalition building, and collective activism through music, dance, and cultural education, uplifting critical issues both in the United States. and back home. This project highlights artists' intent to impact U.S. immigration, intervention, and war policy in Sudan through calls for ceasefire, the right to return, and the guarantee of a civilian-led government. More specifically, this paper further reflects on strategies for fostering solidarity between Arab and Sudanese migrants and performers by asking how interconnecting our struggles, like dancers linking arms in a shared dance, can strengthen our knowing of one another and our commitment to collective freedom. While the moments of performed solidarity may be imperfect, because they do not erase histories of anti-Blackness in the Arab community or resolve the lack of attention on Sudan amidst other anti-war and anti-genocide campaigns, diaspora Arab and African communities and their allies can come together with shared goals to build more just and inclusive worlds. Despite mixed backgrounds, disparate histories, and unequal global attention, the paper’s analysis reveals how this diasporic community and their allies came together in a space with shared goals and intentions.

Author

• Shah Noor Hussein, University of California-Santa Cruz