Feature: Folk music bands retell diverse cultures, heritages in Sudan

Asko Damba is one of the oldest and most famous folk bands in Sudan's Nuba Mountains area that plays a considerable role in telling the cultures of the local communities there.

"Nuba Mountains area is rich of heritage and traditions, and the band is concerned with reflecting this heritage and telling about it," Salih Al-Nur Saeed, secretary of Asko Damba, told Xinhua.

He added that the band has managed to reflect the heritage of the Nuba tribes in several festivals inside Sudan and abroad.

At the Nuba Mountains in South Kordofan on the border with South Sudan, the folk music constitutes one of the most important cultural sources in a multi-tribal community of multi-cultures and traditions.

The bands remain one of the bonds of national unity, despite the ethnic and cultural diversity in Sudan.

Some recent studies divide the Nuba Mountains' communities into 10 groups, each comprising 10 tribes, while others claim that the Nuba tribes amount to 99.

The area has been witnessing armed clashes between the Sudanese army and the rebels of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM)/northern sector since 2011.

"The folk music bands play a remarkable role in preserving the heritage of the Nuba Mountains," Al-Nur Ali Musa, secretary general of the Folk Arts and Heritage Union in South Kordofan State, told Xinhua.

"It is one of Sudan's treasures. It shoulders the responsibility of preserving a rich heritage and informing with it to new generations," he added.

Peaceful co-existence, peace, nature and woman constitute the main ideas of the folkloric dances for which Asko Damba band has been famous during its participation in various cultural festivities inside and outside Sudan.

"We sing for peace, love and peaceful co-existence among all tribes. Our message, through music, is for peace to dominate all parts of Sudan," Samiya Taour, a vocalist in Asko Damba Band, told Xinhua. Endit