New play about modern slavery that still celebrates Sudan

As a child, Mende Nazer was abducted from her home in Sudan’s Nuba Mountains in a slaving raid. She spent six years as a domestic slave in the capital, Khartoum, before being sent to London.

Nazer documented her escape from slavery in the book “Slave: My True Story” which became the 2011 play ‘Slave: A Question of Freedom’.

This year, the play returns to UK theatres as civil war continues to rage in Sudan, a country that has been engulfed in conflict since Omar al-Bashir became head of state in 1989.

“It’s been about 24 years since Mende’s experience, but there are thousands and thousands of Mendes still all over the world,” Dr Caroline Clegg, director of the play tells Euronews Culture.

‘Slave: A Question of Freedom’ is due to start a run of UK dates this October, beginning on 9 October at the Lowry in Salford before playing in Bristol, Prescot, and London. A play about growing sympathy for trafficking victims and asylum seekers is sadly all too relevant, opening two months after violent far-right anti-immigration riots spread across the UK and saw hotels housing migrants attacked.

Clegg first came across the play in 2004.

“Somebody passed the book onto me with the caveat ‘you don’t need to turn this into a play, Caroline’. Within the first few hours, it had changed my life,” she says.

Nazer’s experience of slavery followed by the UK’s Home Office denying her original claim of asylum woke Clegg up to the breadth of human suffering perpetuated by modern slavery.

Together with writer Kevin Fegan, Clegg and Nazer put together the play in Nazer’s voice. Featuring eight actors, it tells her story of slavery.

“We are creating a piece of theatre that will project Mende’s truth and not shy away from the difficult subjects,” Clegg explains. “If we just gloss over it, then I don’t think we’re serving Mende or other people who have gone through it. We have a responsibility to share that honestly.”

Importantly for the pair, it also celebrates the Nuba culture that Nazer was torn away from.

“There’s no getting away from it. I’m a white person,” Cleggs says. Despite a lack of first-hand experience, Clegg says she “made a promise to her that I would celebrate, first and foremost, her culture.”

The Nuba peoples are a group of around 50 indigenous ethnic groups living in the Nuba mountains in Sudan. Population estimates vary but it’s believed there are as many as 3.7 million Nuba. However, their culture faces erosion due to the violent effect of Sudan’s civil war.

As Clegg and Nazer began their collaboration, she hosted Nazer alongside other members of Manchester’s Sudanese community. One night, a man started playing the oud and Mende sang a traditional Nuba song to it. She came to Clegg afterwards in tears. It was the first time she’d sung since she’d been a girl.

That song went into the show alongside many other celebrations of Nuba culture. Celebrating the unique cultures of Sudan was of particular importance to one actor involved.

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Mohand Hasb Alrosol Abdalrahem also came to the UK from Sudan as an asylum seeker in 2015. His initial application was accepted in 2016 and Mohand was sent to Bradford where he knew no one and barely spoke the language.

Wanting to learn, Mohand went to a drama group. “My idea was to just meet British people and catch the language,” he says. At first, he couldn’t understand anything but slowly he improved. Eventually, he was cast in a show about the Calais Jungle, in part due to his firsthand experience of the refugee camp. A love of theatre was born and Mohand has since created his own play about his life in Sudan, ‘Mohand & Peter’, which toured the UK.

Joining the production of ‘Slave: A Question of Freedom’ has been cathartic for Mohand. Although from Khartoum, he has Nuba friends back home and the play’s vibrant display of Nuba music, dancing and traditions bring life at home back to him.

It also highlighted Mohand’s deep desire to return. When the war started, he was in Khartoum just two kilometres from the fighting. “I saw many things,” he says. But in the face of those memories, the experience of having his country represented on stage has been revitalising. “This show is about showing people what’s happening in Sudan, to put the focus on our country.”

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Beyond raising awareness with audiences, Clegg and her theatre company Feelgood Theatre, have used the play to raise charity aid for Sudan and trafficking victims. The original run of the play included a performance in the House of Lords and raised £10,000 (€12,000) to build water pumps in Nazer’s village.

Since then, Clegg has travelled with Nazer around Sudan, delivering £25,000 (€30,000) of medical aid in 2017. This year, the theatre has helped fundraise for a maternity clinic in the village and a total of £10,000 (€12,000) in food relief. This latest run of the play also comes with four roundtable symposium discussions on modern slavery.

For Clegg, her principle aim is to keep Sudan and trafficking victims at the forefront of people’s minds. “There are one or two MPs and peers who keep it on the agenda. But it’s not enough,” she says.

“I just want to show people that everybody’s a human being. We’ve all got the same thoughts, feelings and hopes and desires for our family, and that Sudan is the most incredible country, that’s so diverse, and with the most amazing people.”

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Mohand’s hopes are similar with one addition: “Ever since the war started. That we can come back to our country.”

‘Slave: A Question of Freedom’ plays at the Lowry Theatre, Salford 9-12 October; Bristol Tobacco Factory, Bristol 16-19 October; Shakespeare North Playhouse, Prescot 22-24 October; and Riverside Studios, London 30 October – 9 November.