Songs, Poems and Left-Wing “Heroes”: the Soft Power of the Sudanese Left

International audienceTaking its inspiration from the scholarship of Irma Taddia and the central place occupied by biographies and sources in her work, this article explores the contribution made by artistic productions such as songs and poems when read in the light of the biographies of the people who produced them as sources for writing political history “from below”. It looks at the lives of three Sudanese artists, Muhammad al-Wardi, Mustafa Sid Ahmad and Mahjub Sharif, two musicians and a writer, whose lives and work made them popular left-wing heroes and symbols of resistance against oppressive governments, and who contributed towards spreading the values of the Sudanese left, turning it into a “soft power.” Indeed, the existence of leftist “heroes” such as these explains one of the paradoxes of Sudanese historiography – the resilience of leftist ideals, values, and forms of opposition in Sudan in spite of ruthless repression and decline leftist parties there went through, in particular from 1970