Strategic Use New Media Peaceful Social Change

20
Strategic Use of New Media for Peaceful Social Change
Reflecting on Sudan’s contemporary
blogosphere with Omnia Shawkat
Omnia Shawkat is a young Sudanese and global citizen. She
is an avid commentator on Sudanese current affairs and is
interested in learning and sharing an intergenerational perspective
of Sudanese culture. During 2012 and 2013 Omnia did an on-theground
exploration of the Sudanese cultural scene that was then
complemented by a survey of Sudanese blogs to study whether the
richness of Sudan’s cultural diversity was justly reflected online. In
this interview she tells us about her findings.
Q1. You have been doing a survey of active Sudanese bloggers
in 2013. What general trends do you see in terms of topics
and themes that are addressed (social, cultural, religious,
political, etc.)?
I found there is a lot of poetry and political analysis. In both we see
that the identity matter is reflected in all the writings, no matter what
the topic is. The themes are usually about belonging [as] there is a
lot of diaspora writing from all parts of the world. But even Sudanese
who are blogging [from Sudan] are writing about their own belonging
and their own culture.
Q2. How big or small is the Sudanese blogosphere, and are
the majority blogging from inside Sudan or outside?
Almost half are in Sudan and half are outside Sudan. So far I have
come across 33 or 34 blogs that are either political or poetic, or
creative writing and short stories. A lot of them are people reflecting
on topics that are of relevance to them, with the topic of Sudanese
culture as the backdrop.
Q3. In terms of the on-the-ground cultural scene, can you
tell us a bit about what’s happening and the kind of activities
as well as the restrictions? Also, is that cultural scene justly
reflected online?
There are a lot of perspectives on that, so let us take it step by
step. First there is a scene that is targeting the senior audience.
It attracts Sudanese and non-Sudanese and it is mostly for the
older generation. That [scene] is more about songs and fine art,
but it’s also about social issues, and they tend to have fundraisers
associated with that. It’s been going on for years at the Rashid Diab
Arts Center for example – it is the most frequent one. The audience
you see there is quite diverse. You see all types of people but they
are mostly from the older generation. 35
35 http://www.rashiddiabartscentre.net/indexen.php.