Where do you consider home and why?

Home to me is Sudan, that is where my heart is, wherever I am/go, a feeling of having left unfinished business behind follows. With that being said, a recent trip to Zanzibar via Dhow from the Kenyan coast, forced a revisit to the idea of ‘home’. Here, home was the dhow, a family of 10 members, a fierce ocean with all its various offerings, and a simple primitive belief of survival against all odds. Here, my home was me and all the affirmations and prayers. 

List three words or phrases that come to mind when you think of home. 

Freedom, Peace, Justice.

Have you ever been homesick? Tell us the circumstances and how it felt.

I am struggling with homesickness now. Upon arrival here to Zanzibar, we were held in custody as the wind carried us adrift from our destination (the legal entry point). The night I spent, I was stripped of a newly found freedom. Maybe homesickness arises when you are at your most uncomfortable. Home then becomes the closest memory of what safety looks like. 

What is your opinion about brain-drain?

Being unable to perform at your best, and in the face of a continuous challenge in a country/people unable to host/cater to you, you end up leaving home.

In what way does your physical location impact your creative output?

In every aspect. A lot of my lived experiences are reflected in my creative output, but only when I have the luxury of being in a place where I create. 

What is your preferred mode of travel and why?

I like to travel in any mode. There’s always things to witness, whether flying between the clouds, in a dhow in the middle of the Indian Ocean or cycling across borders and even walking. I encourage travel in any mode, it’s only through travel that I am able to see more and learn more, and relearn better. 

In her debut collection of poems Home Coming, Sonia Sanchez’s writes:

“i have returned \\ leaving behind me \\ all those hide and \\ seek faces peeling\\ with freudian dreams.”

      What does the phrase “freudian dreams” mean to you?

I really don’t know what Freudian dreams are but dreams come true, dreams are subconscious messages, mostly assuring us that we will be okay. I dreamt of oceans and seas, and me on sailing boats during the hardest period of my life. Just being in endless water, I can’t explain why I was having those dreams as I had never experienced being on a sailboat. I understand now that I craved a certain freedom, and that translated itself directly into my reality. That being said,

The mission to establish a colony of humans on Mars is becoming a realistic proposition. Would you agree to be one of the founding members?

Yes and No. Being a part of a collective that lays a foundation for a successful colony is like having a do-over. If done correctly, everyone thrives. If not done correctly, the burden will follow me.

This is the 10th anniversary of Ake Arts and Book Festival. If you have attended this festival before, please tell us what was special about your experience. If you have never attended, what are your expectations?

A genuine experience. I usually don’t have expectations, I believe that everything in life has to be approached humbly regardless of what it may be. 

What does Africa need right now?

Pan-Africanism is something I have always found to be the best solution for Africans. After living such a horrible experience from a sister country, being dragged by Tanzania’s immigration department, I wondered what would have been different if we were in a state of unity.