Graffiti as Voice for Voiceless People : Critical Discourse Analysis of Sudanese Graffiti During Sudanese Revolution 2019

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Graffiti as Voice for Voiceless People

Critical discourse analysis of Sudanese graffiti during

Sudanese revolution 2019.

Malmö University Author: Ahmad Alnaji Department of Global Political Studies 8801081350 Peace and Conflict Studies

Bachelor Dissertation

PACS III Spring Semester 2020

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Abstract

This paper highlights street art in the social movement in Sudan and the role of murals and political graffiti in relation to the Sudanese revolution of 2019. Characteristic for this movement is the appearance of murals depicting the events of the revolutions. In particular, the colourful graffiti during the Sudanese uprisings of 2019 has been a crucial element in the social movement in the country.

This study explores role of graffiti, its function as an art of resistance and as a communication medium during Sudanese movement, how graffiti contributes to Sudanese revolution 2019. Sudanese graffiti creates a profound understanding of the social transformation in Sudan, including most important events after revolution such as the third of June massacre in Khartoum and the political process and solidarity against discrimination. It establishes a social relational space that ranks high values on collaboration and sharing significance, as well introduces emancipatory alternative for better future in Sudan.

The study uses four-dimensional analytical framework including graffiti as communication tool, illegality and call for place, visual and verbal language, and graffiti as a public memory. Furthermore, it uses critical discourse analysis method through utilizing three-dimensional framework including text, discursive practice, and sociocultural context. At the same time, the study uses telephone interviews method and photo-elimination method as data collection methods and encompassing structure for the research.

Key words: Graffiti, Communication, Social interstice, Emancipation,

Repurposing the place, Public memory. Words: 14155

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1

Introduction

“Graffiti has expanded exponentially form a youth subculture practiced by a small minority to writing and artistic acts that cross generational and gendered boundaries” (Lennon, 2014, p.242) It takes different roles during peace and conflict times. However, during social movements graffiti is an art of resistance. It resembles demonstrations in squares but in another way. Graffiti occupies walls and streets as a way of struggling to achieve social change. This study will elucidate how Sudanese graffiti contributes to the Sudanese social movement 2019, what is its role in the movement, and how can it be read as a communication and emancipatory tool and a memory for the revolution.

1.1

Research Problem and aims

This study examines the relationship between graffiti as a resistance art and Sudanese social movement. During transformative time, “Art is a never-ending revolution” (Webel and Galtung, 2007, p.359) and artists are like demonstrators, they are “drawn into the fray. They must choose. They must change. they take a position” (ibid. p.355). Since graffiti aligns with the political and social context of a revolution, this study aims to explore the role of graffiti in the social movement of Sudan. It aims at getting deeper understanding of graffiti conduct in the Sudanese revolution and how this mechanism contributes to social movements.

1.2

Research Questions

This study handles two questions. They are:

 How can graffiti in the urban space be used as a tool of communication and a means of imagining alternative political communities in relation to the Sudanese revolution 2019?

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 What are roles and characteristics of graffiti that contribute to Sudanese social movement 2019?

1.3

Relevance to Peace and Conflict Studies

During transformative times, graffiti as an art of resistance “is functioned as social criticism, and it is one of the healthiest ways to release accumulated societal tension” (ibid. p.364). Graffiti plays a distinctive role in reflecting and documenting the realities of a revolution which differs from the traditional role of a social activism. In other words, graffiti is a peaceful tool to express social fury, moral outrage. It is a non-violent medium to express an explosive range in a revolution. At the same time, graffiti is not only a mirror of life “it is a newly created life surrounding life, like extra layer of quivering consciousness, extending and deepening our vision as it re-defines life according to its own discoveries, obsessions,

anxieties and fabrications.” (ibid.)

Graffiti’s role in the Sudanese revolution, as a subject of this research, is relevant to peace and conflict studies since it focuses and highlights on the violent acts that were committed in the revolution, and at the same time, it is a voice and an image of unspeakable parts in the revolution. For example, the direct violence that was practiced by the Sudanese regime against demonstrations, during the sit-ins, resulted in what is called and remembered as the 3rd of June massacre. Furthermore, during the revolution, graffiti strongly relates to peace since it aims to be an active factor in clarifying and drawing a route of nonviolent social

transformation through presenting emancipatory alternatives for a new future in Sudan. “Stepping back from violence, re-framing, re-channelling, sublimating and imaginatively transforming wrath into a work of art will go a long way towards ameliorating the

evolutionary traits of aggression.” (ibid.)

1.4

Background

This chapter presents the backdrop of the Sudanese social movement 2019, including the most articulated events and the context of the revolution.

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The Sudanese revolution commenced as civil disobedience and uprising on 13 December 2018 in Al-Damazin (the capital city of Blue Nile province). It was a reaction to austerity measures imposed by the authoritarian government, as well the deterioration of the economy and high prices of living in Sudan. However, in the same month, the regime, and their Rapid Support Forces (RSF) used brutality against protesters, resulting in 250 casualties and “at least 1,000 arrested. Protesters have been brutally beaten and sexually abused. Hospitals, homes and universities have been raided and looted” (Diab, 2019).

On 6th April 2019, the Sudanese Professional Association (SPA), consisting of 17 associations including the Unions of doctors, lawyers, workers, artists etc., invited people to demonstrate and organise a mass sit-in at Al Qeyada square in front of the Headquarters (HQ) of Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) in Khartoum. They demanded downfall of the Sudanese president Omar Bashir and his dictatorial regime. The army chose the side of the protesters and Omar Al-Bashir was ousted by a military coup d’état on 11th April 2019. This process resulted in what is called today the Transitional Military Council (TMC), a combined civilian and military government that rules the country for an interim period of 3 years.

After ousting president Al-Bashir, sit-ins however persisted for months despite calls of the military elements of the TMC to stop the protests, which led eventually to the 3rd of June massacre that was committed by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and other paramilitary forces still loyal to the old president. More than 100 protesters were killed in the massacre, with at least 300 injuries. “At least 40 bodies were pulled of the Nile River where

paramilitary forces disposed of dead bodies. In addition, residents reported rapes and robberies at the hands of paramilitary forces. Others have been arrested, sexually abused, brutally beaten and even urinated on” (ibid.).

On 9 June, the SPA called again for a massive civil disobedience as a demand to transfer the political power to the civil government in the TMC. Civil rule is one of the main demands of the Sudanese revolution. After a long negotiation process and a mediation that included Ethiopian meditator Mahmoud Drir, an agreement was reached “On 17 July 2019, FFC and TMC signed an agreement to establish a joint 11-member military-civilian sovereign council that will rule the country by rotation for a period of at least three years and three months” (ibid.)

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This section summarizes and describes some important figures and institutions relevant to the Sudanese Revolution of 2019.

Ahmed Awad Ibn Auf is a Lieutenant General who served as the minister of defense from august 2015 to April 2019. He participated in the 2019 coup d’état and headed the TMC for just one day.

Abdel Fattah Abdelrahman Al Burhan is a Lieutenant General and the General Inspector of the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF). He took over as head of the ruling of TMC after Ibn Auf. Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo (Hemedti) is “the head of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), deputy head of TMC and leader of the Janjaweed” (ibid.). He is still part of the TMC.

Forces for Freedom and Change (FFC): one of the leading opposition unions in addition to SPA.

Rapid Support Forces (RSF): a paramilitary force commanded by SAF and led by Hemediti. The RSF is responsible for the massacre of 3rd of June along with Janjaweed militia.

Janjaweed: a militia that “originates from and mostly operates in western Sudan and eastern Chad. They are responsible for massacres in Darfur, Nuba Mountains, South Sudan and mostly recently, Khartoum” (ibid.).

Kizan (plur.)or Koz/Kuz (sing.) (“cup” in English translated from Sudanese Arabic) singular is a word that describe loyalists of the former regime, this ranges from the president to any soldier or intelligence officer who served the regime even people who support the regime are called Kizan.

Tasqut Bas is a popular slogan of the revolution, meaning “Just Fall, that’s All!” (ibid.). Bomban is a Sudanese vernacular word which means “tear gas”.

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2

Literature Review

This chapter elaborates on the concept of urban street art and introduces a general literature review. At the same time, it focuses on one of its most important notions in relation to the political use of urban street art during social movements in which graffiti is used as public resistance.

Urban street art can be an art that aims to communicate dissident perspectives and opinions, it is a tool to express views out of social, political, or environmental interests and worries. Urban street art “is a visual culture of the city, an artistic expression that appears, disappears, and reappears.” (Armstrong, 2006, p.2). It has different formats, models, styles, and

approaches including mosaic tiling, sculpture, stickers, graffiti, and spray paint. Urban street art is “a multidimensional hybrid of street art, graffiti and fine art, adapting methods of graffiti, as well as the street in which it is exposed, framed within conceptual ideas.”

(Tunnacliffe, 2016, p.5). In addition to this, urban street art has become a channel for people to express their messages by reclaiming “a small segment of space through the creation of illegal art in public places” (Armstrong, 2006, p.2). Artists reveal their writings or pieces on walls to the public allowing for an interconnection relationship with the spectators as well opening the space for active participation.

Urban street art has been a pivotal player in the process of reconnoitring the social, political, cultural and behavioural changes through “deconstructing and reconstructing the

relationships, power dynamics and social make up of urban society” (Tunnacliffe, 2016, p.6). However, the main function of urban street art not necessarily relies on introducing new or exclusive information, on contrary, it works on manifesting its ideas and purposes, regarding specific context, using new way to produce them. A new way of viewing the purpose, a new way of visioning the urban texture of everyday life considering the political, economic, and cultural circumstances and changes. This process stems out of the relationship between the artist and the viewer. Floch (2007, p.iii) argues the moment that the spectator sees the artistic work is the moment that draws the urban street art, this process is awakening unconscious process which through it the spectator becomes an effective participant in the process of change, in other words, “its relationship to the public via interactivity and the questioning of the spectator remains an essential springboard for the creation of urban street art.” (ibid.)

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Therefore, urban street art does not operate in vacuum but “requires reflection, consciously or unconsciously, of both the artist’s and viewer’s past, present and future experiences and hopes.” (Tunnacliffe, 2016, p.8)

Urban street art shortens the distances between artist and viewer and between individual and society because it exceeds the traditional and controlled paths of using spaces. It is an “appropriation and re-appropriation of dominant images, products, messages, spaces, economy and hierarchical distribution of space experienced in urban environments” (ibid. p.6). This entailed that this art is free and not subject to any control. In other words, the art challenges the “corporate-government monopoly of visible expression, creating a disturbance where there can be other images coexisting with advertising.” (Irvine, 2011, p.4) Furthermore, its political use might be one of the most important aspects of urban street art. Tunnaclife (2016, p.12) argues that The particularity of street art is that being publicly generated and uncovered, “It carries rebellious, anti-capitalist and anti-consumerist messages typically unauthorised or supported by local governments” out of this nature, street art in general and the notion of graffiti as a resistance street art in particular has a lot to do in relation to revolt and social movements.

Currently modern graffiti forms appeared in the late of 60s in New York city as it developed in 70s, 80s, and 90s. At that time, graffiti took the shape of tagging that is the practice of writing one’s alias. These tagging writings happened usually in subways, abandoned

buildings and in places where the writers inhabited (cities and neighbourhoods). At the same time, they are not readable to the public since they are written in a highly ornated ways. In addition to that graffiti is characterized with territorial feature which means it occupies spaces since its writers reclaimed the urban spaces where they live.

Later, graffiti writers and artists develop new forms of graffiti by using sprays and aerosol paints as well permanent makers. These new forms or subcategories of graffiti are tags, throw-ups and pieces that are short masterpieces include, signs, faces, places, colours and symbols.

In addition to the fact that these types of graffiti take longer time to be done than mere tagging, they are ephemeral because of their rebellious nature and being illegal and

unauthorized by governments. Lennon (2014) argues graffiti shapes a geographical dilation of reluctance, particularly during times of transformative movements and “there is a direct materialist connection between writing on walls and inhabiting streets in protests” (Lennon, 2014, p.243) Furthermore, Chmielewska (2007) indicates to the relationship between graffiti

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and revolt, “graffiti whether being slogan, icon or a signature can be read as a specific history of protest, contestation and subversion framed by the locality.” (2007, p.163)

Moreover, with the technical development that changes the face of the globe and transforms the world to be as one country through the use of internet, phones and social media, graffiti artists build an active relationship with social media and internet to expand their graffiti from being locally revealed to be more international. For example, during Sudanese revolution, protesters established an online website entitled Sudan Revolution Art (2019). This online platform offers details (images, locations, YouTube, and visual reports) about the graffiti works made during the movement of 2019. The website is written in the English language which gives this artistic arena an international and cosmopolitan characteristic.

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3

Theory

This chapter presents characteristics of graffiti during processes of revolution and proposes a four-dimensional theoretical framework for study and analysis.

As a particular form of urban street art, graffiti includes many characteristics that enable it to contribute to social movements. Graffiti is spontaneous, imagined, ephemeral, public, and rebellious. It is not a work for profit like other sorts of arts. Graffitists voluntarily participate in social movements and carry the same motives that leads protesters to participate in

demonstrations but in an artistic way, through applying artistic works that include political and social meanings. Being a public art means “the work displays a spectrum of uncensored talent that is immediately put in front of an audience, ready to be liked, loved, hated, judged or simply ignored” (Mathieson and Tàpies, 2011, p.7). Being imagined art means it develops out of the graffitist’s distinctive imagination, motives, and visions not following a certain agenda. “Graffiti is unsanctioned and unregular and, due to its illegality, it has a spontaneous, rupturing quality” (Lennon, 2014, p.241). However, graffiti has many roles that contribute to social change during socially transformative times. This chapter elaborates on these roles in developing an applicable theoretical framework.

3.1

Theoretical Framework

Four main dimensions of graffiti as urban street art were identified from the existing literature that help in developing a theoretical framework; graffiti as communication tool, as

visual/verbal political language, illegality and a call for place, and a form of public memory (see figure 1 for an elaborative diagram).

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Figure 1 Elaborative Diagram

3.1.1 First dimension, graffiti as communication tool and

emancipatory art for social change.

During transformative times, graffiti contributes to social movement through introduces new lines of communication, its emancipatory nature, new visions of reality, in addition to being operates as a newspaper for revolutions.

Communication is one of the main factors that pushes social movements forwards. Through creating instant and active tools for communication, many social movements around the world succeed in seeing their demands fulfilled. It is an unavoidable fact that social media is one of the most prominent factors that offer instant communication for social movements. For example, in the Egyptian revolution 2011, protesters “planned the protests on Facebook, coordinated them through Twitter, spread them by SMSs and webcast them to the world on YouTube.” (Castells, 2015, p.60). However, although social media and internet platforms are eminent ways that contribute to social movements, graffiti and murals also play an important, unignorable and communicational role that operatively contributes to social movements.

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Communication is a process consists of three main elements that are sender, receiver, and message. According to Berger (1995, p.11) “the process of communication, mass or otherwise, requires encoding (by a sender) and decoding (by a receiver), which can be achieved successfully only by participants who share a common set of codes—that is, language.”

In relation to the artistic arena, the artist is the sender, the spectator is the receiver and graffiti, or the spectacle is the message that carries the intended meaning. Thus, graffiti is a

communicational tool during transformative times. In this communication process, the message of graffiti does not spin in nothingness. It is out of reality, contributes to, stimulates, reconsiders, and questions the reality. In other words, graffiti as a medium for communication carries a project either political, cultural, or social one or all together. According to Nicolas Bourriaud (2002, p.4) “there is nothing more absurd more either than the assertion that contemporary art does not involve any political project, or than the claim that its subversive aspects are not based on any theoretical terrain” this means that graffiti is not a call for utopian realities “but to actually be ways of living and models of action within the existing real.” (ibid. p.13)

Graffiti is a communication tool because it creates a relational space. Since graffiti operates within theoretical tracks that include political and social goals, it is an interactional art

depends on creating relational space that drive this art to be more than mere sings, colours and images that work in an independent symbolic space but to be a reciprocal action in itself. In other words, graffiti can be read as a “social interstice” (ibid. p.14). Bourriaud (2002) argues that social interstice focuses on the intersubjectivity, the idea of being-together in elaborating the meaning through an encounter between the spectator and the image. Graffiti is a “state of encounter imposed on people” (ibid. p.15) that pushes them to a more sociable and relational spaces. The degree of sociability and relationality in graffiti dwells in its power to activate sharing values, ligament, and connection between people. For example, an image includes terms such as icons, signs or logos of a flag or national landmark can be read as elements that gather in one image lead to concepts of sharing and empathy for beholders therefore graffiti creates a distinct communication way that involves “power of linkages” (ibid.), stimulates dialogue principles and “tightens the space of relations” (ibid.).

This relational space distinguishes by being uncontrolled and not disturbed by a third term other than the sender(artist) and the receiver (spectator). It is oriented directly to the audience with no mediation in between not like other communication tools that are controlled such as

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tv, theatre or media that aim at directing people to specific interests such as consumption interests

In addition to the communicational aspect of graffiti, it is an emancipatory art that is strongly related to revolt. It is “an intervention, a collaboration, a commentary, a dialogic critique, an individual or collective manifesto, an assertion of existence, aesthetic therapy for the

dysaesthetics of urban controlled, commercialized visibility” (Irvine, 2011, p.3)

This nature of graffiti enables the spectator to freely analyse, understand and perceive the surrounding reality. The spectator interprets the spectacle observed (graffiti works on walls or streets) by escaping rules and restrictions. Therefore, graffiti is an art of emancipation. It emancipates the spectator by giving him/her a space to understand the social, the political or the cultural product without any interference. It challenges the barriers of subjections between the artist and the spectator. Rancière (2011) argues that by viewing, action of emancipation occurs, when viewing leads to asserting or converting a specific perspective, emancipation occurs. Graffiti instigates emancipation of spectator because it defies the concept that “the self-evident facts that structure the relations between saying, seeing and doing themselves belong to the structure of domination and subjection” (Rancière, 2011, p.13)

Furthermore, the emancipatory element of graffiti relies on allowing the spectator to possess “the capacity to know and the power to act” (ibid. p.2)

The capacity of knowing means the capacity of seeing subjects not through specific agenda which means that spectator knows and perceive in his own way. Capacity of knowing means that spectator can see the spectacle (murals) at the same time is able to contemplate at it and understand it without any interruption. According to Rancière (2011, p.14) in the

Emancipated Spectator, emancipation is “the blurring of boundaries between those who act and those who look; between individuals and members of a collective body”. However, emancipation of a spectator appears in the dual relationship that graffiti includes. A spectator is already “an actor and every actor is a spectator in their everyday life” (Tunnacliffe, 2016, p.8). Therefore, by viewing, an actor is a spectator because in the process of viewing

spectators link what we see with what we have seen or said, therefore new doors of learning and understanding are opened.

The power of act, that graffiti provides, dwells in the ability of the spectator to analyse, criticize, link the spectacle with his/her history or with another event, comment, confirm, refuse, accept, perceive or take away from the experience. This makes the spectator an active participant who is free to react through the use of graffiti and gives people the capacity to

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“choose what and how they respond to urban street art, and not a curator who places a work in front of an audience” (ibid. p.13) These new lines of communication and the emancipatory nature of graffiti, contribute to social change by “opens up a dialogue between real activity and the spectacle, taking place within the street, making its accessibility both immediate and indiscriminate” (ibid. p.11)

Moreover, the emancipatory nature of graffiti appears in its capacity to provide new ways of visioning the reality. It introduces emancipatory alternatives (political or social alternatives) for better future. The spectacle of a graffiti work builds a new vision of a society. Gavin (2007, p.7) argues that “the spectacle is society itself, is part of society and the instrument to dominate society.” Graffiti challenges the reality through replacing reality itself and

introducing new visions of seeing it. It acts “as beacons for exploring the emancipatory possibilities of life in the present and breaking through to new and better futures” (Pinder, 2004, p.108)

These emancipatory alternatives are presented through occupying walls by murals and images. Occupying walls is the instrumental and revolutionist aspect of graffiti that contributes to social transformative movements. Akin to the process of occupying urban spaces (streets and squares), during social movements, by demonstrations to struggle against dominant political order, graffiti also strives and struggle against dominant political or social order by occupying spaces (walls, streets) of main symbolic squares and buildings in relation to the movement. It is the power of imagining and creating urban space differently in a way that non-violently serves the aims of the social change movements in their struggle.

Another emancipatory and communicational aspect of graffiti that contributes to the social change movements is that graffiti represents a newspaper of any revolution. For example, in Sudanese revolution, graffiti works show the unfolded events of the movements and play an informal role in the revolution. Graffiti is a “wallpaper, a stylistic gesture providing a

backdrop for urban planning projects on display” (Chmielewska, 2007, p.146) From the point that defines graffiti as a writing act in itself, graffiti becomes an alternative and uncontrolled way of informing and showing most important events of the social movement. It consists of “written expression of oral speeches. In other words, they are a writing act aiming at orality” (Klaus, 2014, p.21) In this newspaper spectator can follow the unfolded event of the

revolution. However, these symbolic newspapers are also supported with images, colours, and signs to make more influence on the spectators.

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3.1.2 Second dimension, graffiti as a visual and verbal language

signifying symbolism, identity formation and group collectivity.

Language is a cognitive process that gives meaning. It is a systematic act depends on producing and understanding linguistic terms, expressions, and concepts. It is a

communication medium which graffiti relies on in achieving its aims through writing specific words and slogans on walls or streets. According to Austin (2010, p.44) “A revolution that does not allow the citizens to write in the city walls can be no revolution at all.” Graffiti employs language by linking it with the political or social climate of the social movements since street art works with political and social meanings. The linkages appear in the artistic process of reproducing revolutionary slogans, used by demonstrators during sit-ins, on walls and streets giving these political statements kind of permanence and persistence. For example, in the Sudanese revolution many slogans are written on walls in a way that gives them

symbolic and physical meaning (this will be discussed later in the analytical part of this research using the elaborative example photograph of ‘Building man cartoon character’) Another way of using language in graffiti is the utilizing and reproducing of phrases and slogans used by dominant authorities to repress demonstrations and make negative moral effects on them, these slogans are “amended or distorted in order to produce a nuanced meaning, or to express the exact opposite message” (Klaus, 2014, pp.21-22) This artistic technique of expressing a message by using specific sort of local language such as rephrasing slogans, restructuring of palimpsest of words that assign to a specific political climate

indicates “to the key role of language in representations of local identity” (Chmielewska, 2007, p.146). Furthermore, by writing on walls using words that indicate to collective

concepts such as our martyrs, our land, our freedom etc., graffiti provides a new definition of affiliation and group collectivity that do not rely on a certain internal hierarchies but operates on achieving a common project for all society spectra

3.1.3 Third dimension, illegality, and graffiti as a call for place.

“A useful differentiator for street artists is the use of walls as mural space (Irvine, 2011, p.6) Walls as visible spaces are court for graffitists that enables them to struggle and participate in the process of social change during social movements. “A graffito is site specific even if its placement may seem arbitrary” (Chmielewska, 2007, p.161). When a graffito is placed, “it designates its context marking a spatial entity with the individual trace. By taking place, it

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makes itself public, taking position within the larger visual sphere and its immediate

discourse” (ibid.) Streets, walls surrounding buildings, universities, churches and squares of cities, usually “regulated by property and commercial regimes for controlled visibility” (Irvine, 2011, p.8), are aims for graffiti artists to distribute their message. However, it is unauthorized process particularly during social movements. Therefore, at one hand graffiti is “usually technically illegal and often performed as an act of non-violent civil disobedience” (ibid.) on the other hand it is a call and claim for place.

Since graffiti, during revolutions, is unauthorized and illegal, graffitists work in an uncertain environment. This asserts that their work is as risky as the demonstrators themselves what can be considered as a revolutionist element of graffiti. This element appears in the conceptual force of the artistic work itself, “the work as performance, an event, undertaken with a gamble and a risk, taking on the uncertain safety of neighbourhoods, the conditions of buildings, and the policing of property” (ibid. p.5) Furthermore, this risky situation when doing graffiti works (since writing and drawing a graffito usually takes time) highly appears at the beginning of any uprising especially in the countries that have authoritarian regimes. However, to avoid this situation many graffitists use stencils to do their works because it is faster and can briefly apply the intended purpose. And even the places that are usually chosen at the beginning of uprisings are different from places during other times of the uprising since beginnings of uprisings are perilous and most visible spaces are securitized and not available. Therefore, graffiti’s illegality feature renders graffiti artists to have certain criteria of choosing the spaces to apply their works during social movements.

Selecting graffiti locations can be read as an argument about visuality. Graffiti is a call for place, it is a public art and does not work out of the political and social context of the locale. Therefore, when doing graffiti, during social movements, graffiti artists carefully determine the urban space that they want to apply their product on. The significance of the places dwells in the events that title these places. For example, graffiti artists in Sudanese revolution 2019 pay a clear attention to the process of choosing the spaces when apply their graffiti works. They used places where major events of the revolution happened, such as Al Qeyada square in Khartoum. This square has a symbolic value since it encompasses the main demonstrations in the country during the revolution. Therefore, determining the places for graffiti includes symbolic messages and intended meanings and indications. “A well-placed street piece will

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reveal the meaning of its material context, making the invisible visible again, a city re-imaged and re-imagined.” (Ibid. p.3)

Furthermore, choosing specific site for graffiti refers to a sort of symbolism. It is a call to keep on remembering related events that happened in the same places or around. in other words, a specific site is a symbolic space, it is a “practiced place” which means a “space created by lived experience, defined by people mapping their own movements and daily relationships to perceived centres of power through the streets, neighbourhoods, and transit networks of the city” (ibid. p.5). Determining a space for graffiti is as to provide a space with awareness, to provide a wall or a street with the capacity to speak, to express, to refuse and even to be active demonstrators. According to Irvine (2011, p.9). “The street is disorder… This disorder is alive. It informs. It surprises.

In addition to that, in transformative times, graffiti repurposes the place, reintroduces it by politicizing it, practising it, and enabling it to become a tool in the process of change. In other words, “a wall is not just a wall, it is somebody else’s opinion” (Shove, 2008, p.102) that has an impact on the process of change. Graffiti is about “Bombing walls instead of enemies” (Lennon, 2014, p.254). It politicizes the space since it transforms it to become a symbolic political and social structure. According to Lohman (2001, p.1) “public art (and in particular mural art) is more directly tied to political and economic structures and social imperatives.” This means graffiti performs politics and graffitists are against the “tendency to blur, collapse and erase the distinctions between art, politics and everyday” (Smith, 2004, p.163) in other words, graffiti produces a combination of artistic work that is informed within theoretical political activism. For example, the Chess Game graffiti (249 Writers, 2019) in photograph of figure 2. It represents the political game in the country during the revolution and thus it politicizes the space itself.

Moreover, “the choice of place reinforces the intended message of the graffiti” (Klaus, 2014, p.19). It means that the meaning of graffiti relies to a large extent on the logic of the spot that graffiti takes. In other words, spotting graffiti includes certain logics.

Spot logics as termed by Enrique Klaus (2014, p.18) is “a location selected for its visibility in the city, or for the fact that it gives the graffiti a particular meaning”. Klaus (2014) introduces two types of spots. First type is “ostentation spots” (Klaus, 2014, p.20). This type of spots links effectivity of a place with its visibility. The more the place is apparent, the more

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“the types of population graffiti target (taxpayers around public administration buildings, art amateurs in the vicinity of galleries, etc.)” (ibid. p.19)

Second type of spots is the “iconic spot” (ibid. p.20). These places refer to meanings beyond their actuality. They are “places that became iconic in the unfolding of the urban revolt” (ibid.) Iconic spots represent “realm of memory” (ibid.) of revolt, that is when revolution finishes, time passes and emotions of struggle calm, graffiti is “still operating as effective, though time-limited, mnesic markers” (ibid.). Therefore, it is a witness of articulated events during movements and works as a reminder of these events.

3.1.4 Fourth dimension, graffiti as public memory (archiving major

moments in revolution, victims, and criminals)

On the account of the memorial role of graffiti, graffiti is also a medium for “a collective memory” (ibid. p.30) It serves as a commemoration of significant events, and in the case of Sudan, also the commemoration of the martyrs of revolutions. When movements finish or calm, graffiti still demonstrates on walls. Through drawing martyrs of movements on specific walls and places, graffiti becomes an instrument “of the perpetuation of the spirit of the revolt and, in the transitional period under military rule, the revolt in itself” (ibid.). Most graffiti works are made in the same places or around where people of revolutions die “giving a physical shape to the memory of the victims of violence.” (Lennon, 2014, p.243) for example, Sudanese graffiti artists do some artistic works that represent major moments in the

revolution, such as massacre of third of June, to sustain on memorizing that event and its impact on the movement. These works are done in the same place of the massacre.

Furthermore, the memorial role of graffiti is not limited to the victims of revolutions. Graffiti is a voice for voiceless people, a distinct way “to represent youths and marginalised

characters in society” (Tunnacliffe, 2016.12). However, graffiti as a memorial instrument also contributes to social movement through its resistance role. It revolts the regimes not only through memorising its victims but also through indicating to its criminals and the people who help him in the repression processes during demonstration. For example, the graffito of the “wanted wall” (Sudan Revolution Art, 2019) in Khartoum represents names of Sudanese regime’s criminals and prisons that used to torture victims of the revolution. In this way, graffiti expands the spot of struggle and “forms a fluid geography of resistance” (Lennon, 2014, p.243).

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4

Research Method

This study will conduct critical discourse analysis (CDA) method. It is an image-based research that uses a three- dimensional framework of the critical discourse analysis method as its analytical framework. Additionally, it uses photo-elicitation visual method as a supportive data collection method.

4.1

Critical discourse analysis

Discourse is a “(re)production and challenge of dominance” (Salkind, 2010, p.4). The discourse of this research is graffiti as medium of resistance that challenging the dominant power during transformative times in Sudan 2019. According to Foucault, discourse is “a practice not just of representing the world, but of signifying the world, constituting, and constructing the world in meaning” (Locke, 2004, p.5)

The CDA method will enable the study to expatiate its discourse that is graffiti as “ways of behaving, interacting, valuing, thinking, believing, speaking and reading and writing that are accepted as instantiations of particular roles by specific groups of people (Mogashoa, 2014, p.107)

4.2

Analytical Framework

CDA method’s three-dimensional framework includes “text, discursive practice and sociocultural practice” (Fairclough, 1995, p.10)

A text in its traditional form means a group of written words that shape a poem, novel, or chapter etc. “A text is a product, produced in a particular time and place, a material artifact that can be described and analysed. (Locke, 2004, p.14) However, text in discourse analysis has a broader view rather than being a mere written or spoken text. “by contrast, texts do not need to be linguistic at all; any cultural artefact - a picture, a building, a piece of music - can be seen as a text” (Fairclough, 1995, p.4). In other words, texts become multi-semiotic that

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includes language and other semiotic forms such as image, music, and design etc. In the research, the photographs of graffiti are the text of the research. They represent “social spaces in which two fundamental social processes simultaneously occur: cognition and

representation of the world, and social interaction” (ibid.)

However, according to the CDA method, text cannot be explored and interpreted in isolation of its discursive practice and sociocultural context. Discursive practice means how the text is produced, how it is consumed, circulated, and distributed. In relation to the research, I shall explore where graffiti takes place in the Sudanese revolution, how it is distributed and seen in the Sudanese society.

Additionally, a text cannot operate in isolation of its context. The meaning of a text has a strong linkage to the context of use. This includes how this text is employed in a specific context. In relation to subject of the research the context of graffiti in Sudan is a political ans social context it concerns “the ideological effects and hegemonic processes in which

discourse is a feature” (Blommaert and Bulcaen, 2000, p.448). According to Mogashoa (2014, p.109) “discourse can be seen as the process of activating a text by relating it to a context in use.”

Through this analytical framework, this study attempts to “link text and talk with the

underlying power structures in society at a socio-political level through discursive” (Salkind, 2010, p.4)

However, there is no one correct interpretation, but many other possible interpretations might be correct. Therefore, critical discourse analysis does not aim to a correct critique of power, “but the process of critique and its ability to raise consciousness about power in social context is the foundation of CDA” (ibid. p.5).

4.3

Photo Elicitation (encompassing structure)

This research is an image-based research that uses photo elicitation method as an encompassing structure for data collection.

During transformative times, visual recordings play an important role, they are central approach that “helps to accurately recording of the exotic ‘to capture fast disappearing native rituals, the capacity to return from far off palaces with data that could be leisurely perused, and to ‘tell a story’” (Prosser, 1989, p.101). This approach enables the study to assert or discover relationships between graffiti and place, graffiti artist and spectator, content of

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graffiti and its context that are hidden or overlooked and thus its contribution to the social change movement in Sudan. The research relies on some selected photographs as its visual materials.

However, “found photographs, whatever their age and history, may be enlightening or misleading if viewed without an ‘encompassing structure’” (Trachtenberg, 1990) Encompassing structure means the analytical framework or the data that contribute to understanding these photos. Therefore, in addition to the CDA’s analytical framework, this study will use photo-elicitation method as an encompassing structure to interpret, analyse and understand the photographs as well to enrich communication to enhance production of data. According to Prosser (1989, p.126) “Any analysis of photographs without information elaborating the macro and micro contexts is generally unacceptable since image production and image reception informs our understanding of those photographs.” Photo elicitation uses “photographs or other visual mediums in an interview to generate verbal discussion to create data and knowledge” (Glaw, et al., 2017, p.1). It provides the researcher with different perspectives about the subject of the research. Furthermore, this method “allows for triangulation between different information sources and can bring different insights to the research” (Bignante, 2010). Therefore, the method is not a mere process of interviewing it is a process of producing information through photo elicitation.

4.4

Data Collection Methods

In addition to be a form of data analysis, photo elicitation method can be read as a data collection method. To apply the method, I have interviewed Sudanese graffiti artists by telephone, who experienced the Sudanese revolution and participated in it, to elaborate on the context of the photos and to get more comprehensive understanding of their motivations and the background of the artistic works. They are three telephone interviews. An advantage of language is used in this research since I as a researcher, the participants and the visual material of the research have the same language that is Arabic language with different dialects.

However, I have received interviewee’s oral permission to include their names and needed information into the research. As a researcher, it is important to protect the participants in my research, “develop a trust with them; promote the integrity of research; guard against

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with new, challenging problems (Israel and Hay, 2006, p.5). Therefore, I have anonymized their names in text citation out of security considerations in case the ousted regime may return to the political scene of Sudan.

The process of contacting people who are living in another country at a distance without being able to travel during the COVID-19 period, proved to be a challenge. Therefore, I used a snowball sampling method to facilitate this process. Snowball sampling method enables the research to identify key informants from Sudan. It is an operational method of sampling “in which sample elements are selected as successive informants or interviewees identify them” (Chambliss and Schutt, 2010, p.99)

The search began with a call to a friend of mine who lives in Netherlands. I talked with him about my research and the difficulties to find people in Sudan to interview. At the same time, my friend told me he has a Facebook friend who works at a library in Khartoum, the capital of Sudan. My friend connected me with the person who helped me get in contact with graffiti artists in Sudan. He connected me with B.S and A.A who are professional graffiti artists in Sudan. Consequently, they also connected me with other professional artists which quickly widened my network. According to Chambliss and Schutt (2010, p.99) “for snowball

sampling, you identify and speak to one member of the population, and then ask that person to identify others in the population and speak to them, then ask them to identify others and so on.”

However, “there are potential advantages of using the telephone for research interviews; for example, savings in time and travel costs and greater anonymity around sensitive topics” (Irvine, et al., 2012, p.88) in addition to that telephone becomes an effective “medium of collecting data” (Sweet, 2002, p.58).

Some of the selected photographs are of works related to the interviewees what “gives them the freedom to choose what they want to talk about in the interview, which makes them more relaxed because they know what the content of the interview will be.” (Glaw, et al., 2017, p.2) In addition to that, some participants such as B.S and E.A become my key informant; “ an insider who is willing and able to provide a field researcher with superior access and information, including answers to questions that arise in the course of the research” (Chambliss and Schutt, 2010, p.188)

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4.5

Materials

The photographic material that is used in this research are a group of selected photographs of graffiti produced1 about and during the Sudanese revolution of 2019 coming from three sources. 1) with her permission, photographs that were captured by Dr. Josepha Wessels, a Senior Lecturer in School of Arts and Communication department (K3) at Malmö University who is also my supervisor in this thesis. Wessels took the photographs graffiti during her field visit to Sudan in January 2019 in Khartoum. Dr. Wessels took in total 94 photographs of which 18 were selected by the student to review for this study. In a second round of selection a total of 9 photographs were selected of which the graffiti is analysed in this paper. Other photographs were collected from the interviewed Sudanese graffiti artists, who captured them by their own phone’s cameras. Thirdly, other photographs were derived, with permission, from the Sudan Revolution Art online website that concerns in the murals, media and most important places and locations regarding the Sudanese revolution 2019.

4.5.1 Why these selections

Photographs in the study are selected for different reasons. Firstly, some photographs are selected by the interviewees, who are professional Sudanese artists, to facilitate photo elicitation process and give them the freedom to express what they want to talk about. For example, photograph of Chess game in figure 2 is selected by the interviewees B.S and A.A. who are the artists that participated in drawing the graffito. secondly, I choose other

photographs for the importance of their places, for example the photograph in figure 6 is of a graffiti work that made on a military building related to the regime in Sudan. Thirdly, some photographs are selected for the plenty of details and indications, they include, to the revolution from different aspects what can enrich the purpose of the research.

1_{Dr. Wessels is currently carrying out a 3-year project in Khartoum, funded by the Swedish Research Council.}

The project deals with resilience and climate change in urban areas. During a fieldtrip in January, she spends a day to photograph revolutionary graffiti in many different places in the city. The collection of these photographs is currently being digitally documented in an ESRI ArcGIS story map about street art during the Sudanese Revolution, to be published in 2020.

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5

Analysis

This chapter will analyze the selected graffiti photographs using the three-dimensional analytical framework of the CDA method in addition to the photo-elicitation method. At the same time, analyzing these photos relies on the theoretical framework of the study.

Figure 2 Chess Game (249 Writers, 2019)

The photo of “Chess Game” (249 Writers, 2019) in figure 1 is for a group of Sudanese graffiti artists established 2016 in the capital of Sudan.

I have interviewed two graffiti artists of this group (call interview) who participated in drawing the Chess Game graffito. Their anonymized names are B.S. and A.A.

The text in Chess Game graffito that consists of an image and used language. It can be defined by relating it to its context. Chess Game graffito reflects the reality of Sudanese revolution 2019 and the political climate of that time using artistic way to expose its purpose. According to Tunnacliffe (2016, p.8), street art does not operate in vacuum but “requires reflection, consciously or unconsciously, of both the artist’s and viewer’s past, present and future experiences and hopes.” Chess Game graffito is a reverberation of its context that is the

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Sudanese movement itself since it has a political project that drives its route. During an interview conducted on 1 April 2020, B.S. states that “This graffito portrays two parties who play a chess game. Chess Game idea represents the situation of Sudan such as to say it is first a game, a political game, this game takes a long time to be finished like the chess game, it is a strategic game between people and the regime.” It operates in the political context of the revolution through representing many of the revolution’s elements and features.

Graffiti is a “process of activating a text by relating it to a context in use.” (Mogashoa, 2014, p.109) In the photograph, the chess board represents the map of Sudan and the players are on the right side the regime and its arms and loyalists, and to the left side stand people of Sudan who represent the protests and demonstrators of the revolution. This graffito represents the political climate of the Sudanese revolution. It can be read as a “specific history of protest, contestation and subversion framed by the locality” (Chmielewska, 2007, p.163).

As a text, Chess Game graffito includes images, signs, symbols, and language in use. The chess board represents the map of Sudan that includes chess pieces for both players. However, chess pieces in the graffito are not the same for two players. They are not black and white chess pieces as usually known but signs, symbols, and messages that graffiti artists want to send to the spectators. For example, the pieces regarding the regime side are bullets, tear gas which mean the violence used in the revolution, and shapes of cups full of water that

represent the regime of Omar Al-Bashir and its members. In the interview, A.A. indicates to these cups as Kizan, “Kizan for plural and Koz for singular and these are labels that are used when referring to members of the ruling party and those who represent him” (A.A 2020, personal communication, 1 April). The Chess Game graffito is a mirror that artistically reflects essential details in the revolution. These details draw the action used by the regime over the protests and demonstrators.

On the other side of the chess board is the side that represents the protests which within the used chess pieces are victory and revolt signs that represent both demands of the protests and their way of expressing these demands that, in contrary to the regime side, do not include any signs of violent acts. They represent “the instruments of the perpetuation of the spirit of the revolt and, in the transitional period under military rule, the revolt in itself” (Klaus, 2014, p. 30).

According to A.A. in the interview, “the main role of graffiti during the revolution is to distribute awareness between people, awareness of the covered and uncovered details” (A.A 2020, personal communication, 1 April). In the process of awareness, graffiti artists of this

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graffito focus on showing many important details that reflect aspects of the revolution’s contested parties. For example, characters, on the right side of the image that represents the dominants power in the country headed by Al-Bashir who is the president of the regime, who wear yellow, blue, and green military uniforms represent the supporters (Kizan) of the regime. However, each one of them belongs to a specific institution or aspect. The characters with the green military uniform and creamy military uniform belong to the formal army of the regime and the character with yellow military and wear a cup with red sign represents the Janjaweed. They are in the first lines which means that they are responsible for most violent acts in the revolution. For the characters with blue military uniforms, they are drawn in the back lines. B.S. in the interview indicates to them as “the policemen in Sudan who has no decision in the whole game, they are controlled tools” (B.S 2020, personal communication, 1 April).

On the chair sits the character of Al-Bashir, head of the regime, that wears a military uniform which means in addition to being the president of the country, he is the leader of the army. He wears the military uniform since he considers the demonstrations as an exterior intervention and the country should be protected from such enemies. According to Tunnacliffe(2016, p.8), Graffiti is “reawakening awareness, bringing the unconscious to the conscious.”

On the same side, there is a man wearing a white costume and a white turban. This man represents Muslim clergy who, according to B.S in the interview, “were warning people during the uprisings that demonstrating against the ruler is forbidden ‘Haram’, and these clergy are not real ones, they are originally members in the regime party, employed by him, they are also Kizan” (B.S 2020, personal communication, 1 April). However, since “no image is innocent of linguistic resonance” (Chmielewska, 2007, p.163), this clergy uses certain words reviling the demonstrators. He says, “you creators are a group of peats.”2 According to B.S in the interview “at that time we considered, as demonstrators, the word ‘creators’ as a good word to describe the protests but here this clergy uses it to revile protests” (B.S 2020, personal communication, 1 April)

Under the chair of Al-Bashir and between people there are some masked men who represent the intelligence of Al-Bashir and the RSF and behind the chair there is a character, a man wearing blue military uniform, that stands and looking at people as if he watches them and at the same time is not satisfied with the situation. B.S. in the interview argues that there are many policemen and members of the regime who considered to be neutrals “when police

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come to kill people many policemen and soldiers quit because of such events” (B.S 2020, personal communication, 1 April).

For the characters of cocks on the same side, “they are locally called the electronic chicken” (A.A 2020, personal communication, 1 April) which means the electronic army of the regime that work on thwarting the demonstrator’s Morales using social media. These cocks wear military uniform as a sign that they from the army, and another one wears blue sweater as a sign that he is a citizen employed by the government. In addition to that, most characters in the scene of the regime side are of military and members that follow the regime and the amount of normal citizens characters is few in comparison to the colored scene of the other side that represents the demonstrations what means the popular base of this regime are

military and intelligence and most people of Sudan pursue to change this regime as they stand on the side of revolution. This discussion refutes the concept that asserts “that contemporary art does not involve any political project, or than the claim that its subversive aspects are not based on any theoretical terrain” (Bourriaud, 2002, p.14)

On the other side of the chess board stand demonstrators and protests who represent Sudanese people. On this side, graffiti artists want to show the diversity of people who participate in the revolution. They are from different places in Sudan and all of them has the same aim that is to change the dominant power in the country and improve the living of people there. Showing variation on this side ensures the solidarity of Sudanese people. It is a call for celebrating the unity of the scene in the side of revolution. Graffiti in Sudan “runs deeper than the artistry of the murals; the real works of art are the changes these collaborative projects inspire within communities” (Greaney, 2002, p.7) For example, in the photograph on the protests side at the first line close to the chess board stand four young men who have different skin colors

between dark skin and brown skin to roan skin. In the interview, B:S states that “the viewer who is a citizen from Sudan will know what we mean by these different colors of skins, he will know that the man of brown skin, for example, is from the east of Sudan and the other is from the north” (B.S 2020, personal communication, 1 April)

Another example of variation that contributes to solidarity in the revolution side of the photograph in figure 2 is a guy with long hair and other with short hair, veiled women, and Muslim clergy, in addition to a guy who has a colorful headband. He represents the Sudanese youth who listens to Bob Marely and have thoughts on liberation.

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Furthermore, the Chess Game graffito enhances the power of participation, ligament, and connection between people as a communication tool that props power of linkages. For example, in addition to the national flags of the country, flag with blue, yellow, and green colors appears in the side of protests. It is the former flag of Sudan that is officially adopted on 1 January 1956 until 1970. It represents Sudan independence from Anglo-Egyptian Condominium, the joint British and Egyptian government that administrated Sudan. These flags are elements lead to concepts of sharing and empathy for the spectators. Therefore, the Chess Game graffito can be read as a “social interstice” (Bourriaud, 2002, p.14) that carries spaces for collaboration and intersubjectivity. Bourriaud (2002) argues when an encounter between the spectator and the spectacle happens, a communicational, sociable, and relational space is created. Graffiti is a “state of encounter imposed on people” (ibid. p.14)

Additionally, the independence flag of Sudan has symbolic and revolt implications. In the interview A.A indicates to the flag as “the flag of independence, it is a symbol of freedom and it appears in the revolution to memorize each other and the regime at the same time that our antecedents got their independence and we also will do so” (B.S 2020, personal

communication, 1 April). Therefore, this graffito uses its memorial role to enhance the revolt feelings of the people. It is a medium for “a collective memory” (Klaus, 2014, p.30)

Another example of the memorial role of this graffito appears in the character of the guy who wears blue cap and sweater and has his left hand severed in the left side of the chess board. “This guy has lost his hand during the sit-ins when he threw the bomban (tear gas) far from the place of the demonstration, and in spite of that accident he continues in demonstrating” (B.S 2020, personal communication, 1 April). In this way, graffiti not only plays a memorial role during social movements, but also appreciates and thanks the demonstrators for their sacrifices.

Moreover, the character of the cock in the side of the protests represents the people who passively affects the revolution by their statements and opinions. Portraying such a character in this side proves that graffiti is realistic and is not a call for utopian realities “but to actually be ways of living and models of action within the existing real.” (Bourriaud, 2002, p.13).

To highlight on the used language in this graffito, I begin with the right side of the chess board that is regime side. The language used in this side represent the violent and suppressive

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background of the regime. For example, one statement directed to the demonstrators says “kill third of them and the other two-thirds will back home”3_{Another statement says “ to you who} does not have money why do you want to get a cow”4 as an indication that this regime is built on stratification in dealing his people.

However, this side adjust slogans related to protests as a try to distribute a reverse meaning. “At times, according to the political context, some slogans were amended or distorted in order to produce a nuanced meaning, or to express the exact opposite message” (Klaus, 2014, pp. 21-22) for example a phrase says “stay just”5 which is an amended form of a slogan chanted by demonstrators on the other side of the chess board that is “fall just”6. “Fall just” is an expression used during the revolution and directed to the head of the regime as an imperative form of asking that means leave the verdict.

However, the protests side shows how graffiti “carries rebellious, anticapitalist and anti-consumerist messages typically unauthorised or supported by local governments”

(Tunnacliffe, 2016, p.12) For example, statements raise the main logos of the revolution such as “freedom, peace and justice”7, “ revolt is the choice of people”8 and “fall just”9.

Additionally, slogans that includes meanings of continuity such as “we cement this

revolution”10 which is a local word that means we are here and will not move until this regime fall, in other words, this revolution is concrete since we cement it.

The discursive practice of this graffito appears in the space that is distributed in. Choosing the space of the chess game graffito depends on a certain spotting logic that is visibility. It is called “ostentation spots” (Klaus, 2014, p.20) which means the more visible a space is, the more affective is. A.A asserts in the interview that “we decide on this wall for its strategic location. It is on the edge of the sit-in area what means that when you enter and when you leave the sit-in area you see it” (A.A 2020, personal communication, 1 April). To the right of it exists the bridge of the Forced Army that links Bahri city in the north of Khartoum with the

3_{“مهتويب وعجريح نيثلثلاو ثلثلا ولتقا”} 4_{“ونشل ارقب زياع شورق ودنع ام يللي”} 5_{“سب دعقت”} 6_{“سب طقست”} 7_{“ةلادع ملاس ةيرح”} 8_{“بعشلا رايخ ةروثلا”} 9_{“سب طقست”} 10_{“اهنيباص”}

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center of the capital. It is located some meters over the sit-in area. Therefore, this location stands for visibility that leads to mobility.

From another perspective, the Chess Game graffito politicizes the space. It performs politics and “Bombing walls instead of enemies” (Lennon, 2014, p.254). It is an artistic work that is distributed within political activism to achieve certain demands of the Sudanese revolution. It “is more directly tied to political and economic structures and social imperatives.” (Greaney, 2002, p.7).

Graffito in photograph of figure 3 is drawn by Amar Al Amin who is, according to E.A in an interview conducted on 15 April 2020, the owner of “Al Amin Magazine, a public Sudanese magazine.” It is called “Building Man” (Sudan Revolution Art, 2019). The graffito is located at Gama’a Avenue (extending from Khartoum University). The importance of its location dwells in its visibility at the same time it is closeness to the sit-ins area.

The text in the photograph includes cartoon character and some written words. For the cartoon character, it is “an iconic character that represents the Sudanese youth and talk about

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them” (E.A 2020, personal communication, 15 April). Its iconic significance stems out from being includes modal meaning. In other words, it attracts us “draws us into its world by channelling our vision or stance through perspective or by highlighting or framing particular elements” (O’Toole, 1994, p.1).

However, this photograph has many indications to the Sudanese Revolution. Firstly, the Building Man cartoon character raises his hand showing the victory sign that is the symbol of the revolution, at the same time, features of anger and seriousness appears on his face that means the Sudanese youth’s willingness to achieve their demands. In addition to that, the tie of the national flag also “represents the dominant necktie approved by Sudanese youth and protests at that time” (E.A 2020, personal communication, 15 April). The flag in the

photograph is fluttering as it is tied to a mast. “Here the artist resembles the Sudanese youth character as a mast that raises the national flag of Sudan” (E.A 2020, personal

communication, 15 April) In other words, the entire revolution in all its articulations relies on the Sudanese youth who is like a mast that must stay steady to achieve the revolution

demands and keep on the national flag fluttering.

For the used language in the text, they are two words in addition to the name of the artist. The first word is “sabenha”11 in Arabic language, which means we have cemented the revolution. It is a slogan used in the revolution to inform the regime that the demonstrations will not end until achieving their demands, therefore revolutionaries have cemented the revolution and transform it to be like cement, unbreakable and hard to be stopped. The other written word is “Besheh”12_{in Arabic local language that means you fall; it is written in blue color to the right} of the cartoon character. It is directed to Al-Bashir telling him that you will fall. In writing this word, graffiti artist combines between the word and its form. It is written in a diagonal way that shows and asserts to the spectators the physical meaning of the word.

This discussion shows how graffiti relates to the context of the revolution. According to Chmielewska (2007, p. 163) “It is the specific context, however, that allows us to interpret and understand writing, a phenomenon that is not separable from its substrate, from its place of articulation, and from discourses in which that place is immersed.”

The Building Man graffito cannot be read apart from political context of the revolution, on contrary, it operates in that context, in addition to that it carries cultural and social structures that represent certain aspects of the Sudanese society. It stems out of the sociocultural context

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of the Sudanese society since the graffiti artist uses a cartoon character that is public, known to all Sudanese, represents Sudanese youth, and comes from the depth of Sudanese society.

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