Hawa al-Tagtaga (alternatively Hawa Jah Elrasool, Arabic: حواء جاه الرسول, 1926 – 12 December 2012) was a Sudanese singer, composer and activist, who campaigned against British colonial rule. She was of Fulani and Hausa descent.
Al-Tagtaga was born in 1926 in El-Rahad, Abu-Dakna district in North Kordufan.[1] Her father was a Sufi mystic and her mother a poet.[2] From a young age, she wanted to be a singer, but her family were opposed to this and married her to a cousin, whom she later divorced so that she could follow a career in music.[3]
She moved to Khartoum when she was fourteen-years old and soon after her arrival her singing was in demand for wedding parties.[1] Her work developed into the wider role of the ghanaya - a woman who is responsible as a performer and singer for getting a bride ready for marriage, including teaching the bride to dance for the so-called henna party while also bathing and massaging them and passing on information about sexual relations.[3]
During World War II she sang to entertain Sudanese soldiers.[3] There are two rumours about why her name changed: One that she was given the nickname by British authorities, as she was demonstrating in every major town; the other that her voice was likened to a specific type of palm tree.[1]
Al-Tagtaga joined the popular struggle against British colonialism and was famous throughout Sudan for her political activism and singing.[1] She was a member of the Brothers Party, led by Ismail Al-Azari.[2] She was arrested by the British government on several occasions, as well as being shot at when Al-Azari raised the new Sudanese flag.[4] Along with Hasan Khalifa al-Atbarawi,[5] she was arrested on the eve of independence in 1956 for singing nationalist songs at the Labour Theatre in Atbara and jailed for three months.[6] Moreover, she had her front teeth knocked out by British troops whilst participating in a demonstration with the wife of Sudanese revolutionary Ali Abdel Latif.[5]
After Al-Azari's election, Al-Tagtaga wrote a new song praising his wisdom and education, but also teasing those who now regretted not having joined his movement:
"Those who denounced you, they regretted / You won the state election / God bless your ideas and thoughts / Which represent your knowledge and wisdom / You have skilfully won our independence/ from the greatest country [England]"[7]
Being a well-known singer for weddings, she also sang for a variety of famous people, including Yasser Arafat, and performed at the wedding of King Farouk of Egypt and Narriman Sadek.[2] In later life, Al-Tagtaga was recorded singing on the television programme Names in our Lives.[8] She was an exponent of the important role television and radio could play in people's lives, particularly in bridging gaps between generations.[9]
Al-Tagtaga lived out her life in Omdurman, but she never married, choosing, as she said, a life as a singer.[3] As one of the last survivors of the revolution, she became a spokesperson for it, presenting television shows and receiving honours from Omar al-Bashir.[5] She died aged 86, on the 12 December 2012.[2]
Al-Tagtaga was a well-known figure, and was easily recognisable, as she often wore a tobe (Sudanese women's garment, similar to a sari) in the colours green, yellow and blue, which were the colours of the first Sudan flag of independence.[9] The flag was used from 1956 to 1970, but had a recent surge in popularity on social media in the 2019 revolution, with popular feeling wanting a new and more representative flag for the country.[10]
Al-Tagtaga's mixture of political song and protest has inspired new generations of women in Sudan. During the 2019 revolution, the civil rights campaigner Alaa Salah recited poetry in the front of a crowd of protesters in Sudan.[11] This marks a new chapter in a long tradition of Sudanese women singing poems of praise and lament in order to boost morale, honour the dead or to defy rulers.[6] Today, many women in Sudan see Al-Tagtaga as a feminist icon in their country, and there are more female singers, considered as "Hawa's girls" , following her lead and performing political songs in public.[5][12]
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