Published by
Al-Araby
Al-Araby
In 2008, Abazar Hamid had to hide 200 traditional jazz songs after his performances infuriated Sudan’s then autocrat, Omar al-Bashir. Now in exile in Norway, like many of Sudan’s refugee musicians, he is squeezed between a relentless Covid-19 pandemic that has grounded live performances, and on-off coups back home in Khartoum that makes a return improbable. “I was destroyed,” Abazar tells The New Arab of his feelings after the global outbreak of Covid -19. The pandemic swiftly buried his creative voice, and the one assertive component of his identity in exile: music. “[Hamid’s] conflicted emot…