Africa Is a Country

This is Africa: Sudanese TV in Dubai Edition

Africa Is a Country Podcast
African Five-a-Side Podcast

This is Africa: Sudanese TV in Dubai Edition

By
Boima Tucker

Sudan's vast diaspora in the Gulf reflected in media available via satellite in Dubai.

A screen grab from Blue Nile TV.

I came across a concert on Sudanese television station Blue Nile TV while flipping through channels in Dubai (lot’s of great music on there). Sudan has been in the news for the repression by the central government in Khartoum in Darfur and its war with South Sudanese fighting for self-determination, but the broadcast I watched reflected a much more upbeat sense of the country. Not sure if it is a channel of the state or the diaspora.

This singer, above, really seemed to get a warm reception, which included rose throwing.  Does anyone recognize him? Perhaps it’s just because of shared language, which means access to a wider audience, but I find it interesting that while Sudan borders many African countries, the text message ticker on the bottom of the screen includes only Arab countries like Oman, Jordan, Bahrain, The UAE, and Yemen, perhaps reflecting Sudan’s large diaspora in the Gulf region.

Further Reading

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Thirty-eight years after Thomas Sankara’s assassination, the struggle for justice and self-determination endures—from stalled archives and unfulfilled verdicts to new calls for pan-African renewal and a 21st-century anti-imperialist front.

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