Echoes of hope
Samar’s plea for peace and her lost violin
In a small room furnished with three small beds and a few suitcases tucked in a corner, 11-year-old Samar resides with her family. A year ago, they fled the war in Khartoum, reducing their lives to these scanty possessions in a makeshift shelter within a primary school in Kassala state, their newfound refuge.
“In Khartoum we had a big home but now we don’t have one. My bedroom was spacious with a small table,” Samar recalls wistfully.
Twenty-two families, including Samar’s, have sought refuge in this school, which serves as a safe learning space where children from host and displaced communities come to play, learn, sing, dance, meet and make friends.
Despite the upheaval, Samar’s love for music endures. On a hot afternoon, she leads her peers in a dance imbued with messages of peace, finding hope in the rhythms and melodies that fill the air.
Samar’s love for music and dancing is profound. As the melodies come through a small speaker placed on a table, Samar and her peers dance and enjoy the music.
Music has been and continues to be part of Samar’s life despite the circumstances.
While the war has disrupted her life, she won’t let it snatch her love for music.
A year ago, Samar lived a different life in Khartoum, attending grade 6 in a nearby school, and mastering the art of playing violin and had perfected many songs including the birthday tune and several other Sudanese melodies.
Her journey with the violin began when she was just two years and since then she has perfected the art of playing the violin. She loved her violin, but the brutal war separated her from it. Something that saddens her to date.
She cannot hide the pain of leaving the violin behind. She breaks down while narrating “Before we left Khartoum, we had moved to a relative’s house, and I hadn’t taken my violin with me because we all thought we would return home. “I never got a chance to return to pick it up,” she recalls as tears roll down her eyes.
Music and the violin her only hope
Samar has a lot to say about the violin “The violin was my friend,” Samar muses as her eyes alight with memories. “Whenever I draw, sing, dance, or write, all I see is the violin.”
Suddenly she lightens up as she speaks about the instrument and the music she played then. In a second her hands follow as she mimics how she held the violin in the past.
She closes her eyes, while ‘playing the violin’ and sings Happy Birthday. She is later joined by her father Nassir in the music session. Nassir introduced her daughter to the music world many years ago. He too plays several instruments including the piano, drums, and violin.
As the only girl in the family, Samar enjoys a special bond with her father that is further strengthened by their love for music and instruments.
Together they relive the good old days and happy moments while in Khartoum. Samar pretends to play the violin as her father sings along hitting one note after the other. Cracking his fingers for additional sound. Samar moves her hands along. Nassir corrects her when her arms wander in the wrong place. “Ta la la ta……….” Nasser sings.
Even without the violin, they keep their small but intimate home warm with music. Music is their hope during these long hopeless times. But the actual violin remains in her memory.
Her wishes and dreams
Yearning for normalcy, Samar dreams of returning to school, reuniting with her best friend Retaj, whose whereabouts remain unknown. But above all, she longs for the day when the guns fall silent, and displaced families able to reclaim their homes.
“We are displaced. We need to return home so we can live with our families.”
“I want the war to end so I can get my violin back,” Samar implores. “If I got it back, I would fly and be the happiest girl on earth.”
