The Two Sudan Mourn Singer Chol Manut
22 March, 2020
KHARTOUM (Sudanow) - The Sudanese media was recently awash with news pieces and commentaries mourning the Southern Sudanese (or better, the Sudanese) young singer Chol Manut who finally closed his eyes after a journey of love for the united Sudan and its music.
Chol Manut was seen by many as the icon of the unity of united Sudan which he demonstrated both in his art and his speeches.
Manut’s love for the united Sudan had prompted him to perform Northern Sudanese melodies which would seem too difficult for a man his age and whom Arabic was not his mother tongue.
Manut passed on Saturday 14 March in a Khartoum hospital after suffering form a tuberculosis infection that plagued him for years.
The late singer and preacher of Sudan’s unity first appeared in the popular Blue Nile Satellite TV’s program Nujoom Alghad (Tomorrow’s Stars) that introduced new singing talents appearing before the public for the first time.
After his Blue Nile TV debut, Manut continued to grace other TV channels and also the City’s galas and wedding parties.
What infatuated the public with Manut was his fine voice and his strong rhythm.
His choice of songs that reflect noble values and his high self-esteem had endeared him to music lovers who loved to call him “The Little Giant”.
Little Giant because when he stood before the audience, he was very tiny in stature, but when he sang his voice came out strong and sounding.
After he contracted the disease, so many initiatives came forward. Public donations heaped on and his lovers took him to Egypt for medication. In Egypt his health improved somewhat, but he then suffered a series of setbacks until he was announced dead.
Manut’s death was received with awe upon the suffering of creative persons in our society, amid questions about the role of the state in calamities like Manut’s.
The poet and journalist Dengdit Ayok Wrote: “Manut’s story and his condition is similar to that of the late fine artist, writer and melodist Mohamed Hussein Bahnas who died of cold and hunger in a Cairo street in December 2013. In his heyday Bahnas shone out as a bright star but when his talent was to fade out, he gradually lost glamour until he died on a cold street pavement. In the same way Chol Manut has died, leaving a stigma of shame imprinted on our collective conscience we Southern Sudanese. It is the suffering and ordeal of people of creation in both parts of Sudan.”
Still there remains the hope that Sudan’s post-revolution could be more appreciative of the position and role of creative Sudanese.
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YH/AS
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