Disir
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- Sep 30, 2011
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A group of artists and musicians in South Sudan is on a mission - to mobilise young people across the country through music, graffiti and poetry to help bring peace to the war-torn nation.
In 2011, the streets of the capital Juba were full of revellers, celebrating the world's newest nation.
But hope for the future has soured after more than four years of civil war, with about a third of the country's 12 million people forced from their homes by conflict.
Arts movement AnaTaban, or "I am tired" in Arabic, is trying to address anger over failed promises and suppression of independent voices by advocating for peace and unity among young people through media they like - rap music, slam poetry, and YouTube videos.
"As South Sudanese we are branded to be violent people but we are being unconventional in a very intentional way," said poet Ayak Chol Deng Alak, 32, who helped set up AnaTaban in Juba in 2016. The group is now aiming to spread nationwide.
"We have seen conventional activism failing. If it is for our country, we might as well get the information out. It doesn't really matter how, as long as we are not hurting anyone in the process," she told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
Born in an Ethiopian refugee camp where treatment from an aid agency saved her life, Alak is now a doctor and published poet in South Sudan, but her campaigning has come with risks.
Armed with poetry and rap, South Sudan's young artists battle for peace
I read about the movement a couple of years ago. Pretty cool song.....have no clue what they are saying.
In 2011, the streets of the capital Juba were full of revellers, celebrating the world's newest nation.
But hope for the future has soured after more than four years of civil war, with about a third of the country's 12 million people forced from their homes by conflict.
Arts movement AnaTaban, or "I am tired" in Arabic, is trying to address anger over failed promises and suppression of independent voices by advocating for peace and unity among young people through media they like - rap music, slam poetry, and YouTube videos.
"As South Sudanese we are branded to be violent people but we are being unconventional in a very intentional way," said poet Ayak Chol Deng Alak, 32, who helped set up AnaTaban in Juba in 2016. The group is now aiming to spread nationwide.
"We have seen conventional activism failing. If it is for our country, we might as well get the information out. It doesn't really matter how, as long as we are not hurting anyone in the process," she told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
Born in an Ethiopian refugee camp where treatment from an aid agency saved her life, Alak is now a doctor and published poet in South Sudan, but her campaigning has come with risks.
Armed with poetry and rap, South Sudan's young artists battle for peace
I read about the movement a couple of years ago. Pretty cool song.....have no clue what they are saying.
