Mahjoub Sharif

Who is Mahjoub Sharif?

Mahjoub Muhammad Sharif Muhammad, known simply as Mahjoub Sharif, was born on 1 January 1948 in Sudan and became the country's best-loved modern poet of political resistance. Working as a schoolteacher, he wrote in colloquial Sudanese Arabic rather than formal classical verse, producing work that ranged from playful children's songs to long revolutionary elegies mourning and challenging his country's rulers. His outspoken poems criticizing the government of Gaafar Nimeiry led to his first imprisonment in 1971, beginning a pattern that continued under Nimeiry and later under Omar al-Bashir; across the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s he was jailed repeatedly, accumulating a total of seventeen years behind bars for his verse, drawing attention from Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch. Many of his poems were set to music by leading Sudanese musicians, including Mohammed Wardi and the Egyptian singer Mohamed Mounir, turning his words into popular protest songs sung at demonstrations for decades afterward. After his final release from prison in August 2008, he continued writing and speaking publicly despite failing health. He died on 2 April 2014 in Omdurman from idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, complicated by injuries from his years of imprisonment, and his funeral drew mourners and coverage across the Arab world, cementing his reputation as "Sudan's poet of the people."

Sources: openDemocracy, "A tribute to legendary Sudanese poet Mahjoub Sharif (1948-2014)" · Dabanga Radio TV, "Sudan's poet of the people Mahjoub Sharif died" (2014) · Sudanow Magazine, "Poet Of The People Mahjoub Sharif: No Sudanese Will Forget You"