National Geographic - UK (2022-02)

It had been just two and a half years since the

30-year Islamist dictatorship of Omar al Bashir

fell in April 2019. The nation’s military-civilian

Sovereign Council was steering away from the

legacy of the accused war criminal and three dark

decades of repression, genocide, international

sanctions, and the secession of South Sudan.

But around noon on October 25, 2021, just

weeks ahead of a planned transition to civilian

control, the future of the African nation took

another turn. The chair of the Sovereign Council,

Lt. Gen. Abdel Fattah al Burhan, dissolved the

government and put the civilian prime minister

under house arrest. The general called it a state

of emergency, but the Sudanese people recog-

nized it as a coup and turned out by the hun-

dreds of thousands to protest in the country’s

capital, Khartoum, and beyond.

As befits a 21st-century regime change, it all

played out in real time on social media, and I

watched raptly from my laptop half a world

away. I had been following Sudan since before

ON A MONDAY

MORNING IN

LATE OCTOBER

OF LAST YEAR,

SUDAN’S LATEST

REVOLUTION

WAS CRUMBLING.

Fans of Sudanese

hip-hop artists attend

a music festival in

Khartoum after the

revolution loosened

Islamist restrictions

on pop culture and

dress, including mod-

ern hairstyles now

worn by many young

people in Sudan.

The National
Geographic Society,
committed to illuminat-
ing and protecting the
wonder of our world,

supports Explorer and
photographer Nichole
Sobecki’s work in Africa.

ILLUSTRATION BY JOE MCKENDRY