In this vast and changing country, Sudan, how many sharp thinkers took from the noblest principles, and suspended their life between the painful and powerful words and the deep ideas rooted in an infinite culture. We will talk about one of them now but those few pages are not enough for his plurality and creativity.

Omer Mohamed AlSanosi was born in Wad Madani, al-Gezira in central Sudan. He studied his junior and secondary educational levels in Wad Madani, then joined the Higher Institute of Music and Theater and also studied criticism studies at Sudan University of Science and Technology.

Omer enrolled at the 'Almarai', sans-serif !important University Sudan branch in Alneelain where he pursued law and later joined the College of Education at the University of Sudan where he studied the English Language. All his postgraduate studies were at the University of Gezira, where he studied general education and educational psychology.

AlSanosi believed that all these studies including law, psychology, education, music, studies, critique, and languages complement each other. He worked as a teacher in the intermediate stage and rose through the ranks in the field of education up to the level of Director General during the transitional period after the December revolution that flared up at the end of 2018 and continued until 2019. He worked in many civil society organizations as he is a certified trainer from the British Council, and he is still working in this field.

One of Wad Medani's most famous literary landmarks. Source: Andariya

The Birth of his Critical Vision

The professor’s critical vision of things started at a young age. From the time he entered the Khalwa, he used to look at the Qur’an with a critical eye and it caused him a lot of trouble. He was fond of critical thinking before he was fully aware of what criticism is.

His writing journey started with poetry, prose poem to be specific, even though at the time he was not conversant with the genre. In the early 70s, he wrote a poem titled The Square Circle and presented it to his then lecturer, Prof. Ali Momen who in turn wrote a commentary on four pages appreciating his articulation. This was a shift in his writing career and a strong motivation to continue. He published several poems in various newspapers including the Al-Ayyam and Al-Sahafa.

Omer’s first commentary was a response to a political article by a journalist named Ismail Haj Moussa in the Al-Ayyam newspaper. His piece was published because of its articulacy and maturity despite his young age.

Writers like Omer had an opportunity for their content to be published at the time because there was freedom to publish at that time before President Nimeiri's political reconciliation with political Islam in Sudan. He continued to publish political articles and poetry in the 80’s after joining Al-Jazeera Association for Literature and Arts in Al-Jazeera state during his studies.

In all stages of his academic journey, he had teachers who provided him with the required support. They imparted knowledge and influenced his reading through the provision of books on philosophy, literature, and all kinds of culture due to his passion and willingness to learn.

Omer grew up with wide and extended knowledge at a young age, so he worked under the chairmanship of the Literary Association in his secondary school. This is what gave him distinction at the Faculty of Music and Theater. Academic studies added to him in terms of the systematic arrangement of this knowledge. He stopped writing poetry because he was convinced that he was not a poet, as perhaps the critic's mentality affected him in writing poetry.

Al-Jazeera Association for Literature and Arts helped him to continue publishing, as the members of the association and their acquaintances of journalists, writers, editors, and intellectuals were working in the field of publishing, writing, and criticism. There was more than one newspaper and magazine, especially the Radio and Television Magazine, and it published many translations and critical studies with a clear bias to criticism.

Other than that, Omer AlSanosi has written short stories, novels, theater plays and directed many plays as well. His extensive readings in all forms of culture and the knowledge accumulated helped him to be creative in everything.

 The Clampdown

The idea of ​​publishing a book or poetry collection was not common in Sudan, despite the entry of international books to Sudan at that time, and AlSanosi was content with publishing at the level of cultural magazines and literary pages. He believed that the consumerist spirit of the Sudanese content creators made him focus on international readings more than his need to publish what was written at that time.

This was his justification for not having his content ready for publication, and also the absence of the opportunity that writers who migrated outside Sudan found from the surrounding environment interested in culture - both from the social and political levels.

In 1989, AlSanosi stopped publishing in the cultural sections after the Inqaz government took control of everything in Sudan. The government stopped most of the cultural annexes in print media such as the Sudanese Culture and the Khartoum newspapers. Only bits of what he was sending were published before it was completely stopped.

This censorship personally affected him and other intellectuals as they faced economic hardship, due to the government’s prevention of the entry of many books and cultural magazines and the closing of cultural centers. In 1996, the Inqaz regime confiscated AlSanosi's personal library which had dozens of valuable, rare, and important books that he collected with physical intellectual effort, two hundred compact discs of world music, and many of his manuscripts. He had to start from scratch all over again and he was personally harassed in the fight against critical thinkers and culture.

Recognition of Talent

AlSanosi participated in the Al-Tayeb Salih Creative Prize for his book The Novelist Achievement in the Southern Sahara and won first place in the field of criticism. The book was about African literature, and AlSanosi was interested in this literature and wrote a lot about it. This was the first book to be published among all his poetic, fictional, critical, theatrical, and fictional works.

There are many literary manuscripts that AlSanosi is looking forward to printing and publishing, such as Studies on Islamic Theater and identity related manuscripts. He also wants to focus on the African literature side, and reproduce Sudanese criticism. AlSanosi has three plays and a movie written on Abdelgadir Wad Habbouba with a different vision, and a group of lyrical poems. He is one of the educated people who carry more public concern than publishing what he writes.

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This piece is part of a series on art, resistance and revolution, created with the support of a grant received through the “Research on the Arts Program” Second Cycle (2020-2021), from the Arab Fund for Arts and Culture and the Arab Council for the Social Sciences funded by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. The views expressed in this production are those of its makers and interviewees and do not necessarily represent those of the ACSS.