Mohammed Osman Hassan Salih Wardi (; 19 July 1932 – 18 February 2012), also known as Mohammed Wardi, was a Nubian Sudanese singer, poet and songwriter. Looking back at his life and artistic career, Sudanese writer and critic Lemya Shammat called him an "inspirational figure in Sudanese music and culture, whose prolific talent and massive contribution remains unsurpassed in Sudan."

Early life

Wardi was born on 19 July 1932 in a small village called Sawarda close to Wadi Halfa in Northern Sudan. His mother, Batool Badri, died when he was an infant, and his father, Osman Hassan Wardi, died when he was nine years old. He was brought up in a diverse and culturally rich background and developed an interest in poetry, literature, music and singing. To complete his education, he moved to

Shendi Shendi or Shandi () is a small city in northern Sudan, situated on the southeastern bank of the Nile River 150 km northeast of Khartoum. Shandi is also about 45 km southwest of the ancient city of Meroë. Located in the River Nile s ...

in Central Sudan, and returned to Wadi Halfa as a secondary school teacher.

Musical career

In 1953, Wardi went to

Khartoum Khartoum or Khartum is the capital city of Sudan as well as Khartoum State. With an estimated population of 7.1 million people, Greater Khartoum is the largest urban area in Sudan. Khartoum is located at the confluence of the White Nile – flo ...

for the first time to attend a convention as a teaching representative for his area. After this, he moved to Khartoum and started his career as a musical performer. In 1957, Omdurman Radio chose him to record and sing on national broadcast in an arena with singers such as Abdelaziz Mohamed Daoud, Hassan Atia, Ahmed Almustafa, Osman Hussein and Ibrahim Awad. Wardi recorded 17 songs in his first year. and worked together with poet Ismail Hassan, resulting in more than 23 songs. Wardi performed using a variety of instruments, including the Nubian '' kissar'' and sang in both

Arabic Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...

and Nubian languages. He has been described as one of "Africa's top singers", with fans mainly in the

Horn of Africa The Horn of Africa (HoA), also known as the Somali Peninsula, is a large peninsula and geopolitical region in East Africa.Robert Stock, ''Africa South of the Sahara, Second Edition: A Geographical Interpretation'', (The Guilford Press; 2004), ...

. His songs address topics such as romance, passion, Nubian

folklore Folklore is the body of expressive culture shared by a particular group of people, culture or subculture. This includes oral traditions such as Narrative, tales, myths, legends, proverbs, Poetry, poems, jokes, and other oral traditions. This also ...

, heritage, revolution and patriotism, with some of his political songs resulting in him being jailed. He was aligned with the political left and a member of the Sudanese Communist Party (the largest in Africa during the Cold War). After the military coup in 1989, he left Sudan for exile in Cairo and Los Angeles. In 1990, Wardi played a concert for 250,000 Sudanese refugees at a refugee camp in Itang, Ethiopia. He returned to Sudan in May 2002, and was awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Khartoum in 2005.

Death

Wardi suffered from kidney failure later in his life. He eventually received a kidney transplant, after one of his fans donated a kidney to him in 2002. He died on 18 February 2012 and was buried in the Farouk Cemetery in Khartoum.

Poets and songwriters, with whom Wardi collaborated

* Abdel-Hadi Osman Ahmed * Sawi Abdelkafi * Aljayli Abdelmoneim * Omer Altayib Ad-dosh – ''"Banadeha"'' * Mubarak Basheer * Mohamed Muftah Alfaytori * Ishaq Alhalanqi – ''"A3z Alnas"'' * Ahmed Altahir * Ibrahim Alrasheed – ''"Saleem Alzog"'' * Abdelrahman Alrayah * Alsir Dolaib * Abu Amna Hamid * Ismail Hassan – ''"Alhaneen ya Foadi", "Nor Al3en", "Habenak mn Qlobna", "Almostaheel",'' * Salah Ahmed Ibrahim – ''"Altayir Almohajir"'' * Mohammed Almakki Ibrahim * Haile * Kamal Mahessi – ''"Jamal Aldoniya"'' * Mohammed Abu Qatati – ''"Almursal"'' * Altijani Saeed – ''"Gult Arhal", " Min Gair Meiad"'' * Mahjoub Sharif – ''"Ya Sha3ban Lahbt thwrtak", "Masajenak", "We Will Build It (The Alternative)" ("حنبنيهو")'' * Saadaddin Ibrahim * Mohammed Abdalla Mohammed Babekir

References

External links

Mohammed Wardi
on

discogs Discogs ( ; short for " discographies") is a database of information about audio recordings, including commercial releases, promotional releases, and bootleg or off-label releases. Database contents are user-generated, and described in ''T ...