“Ghaybouba Song” from the Poetry of (The Caliph for Our Day) Mohammad Taj Al-Sir Ali Al-Sheikh, composed and sung by Awad Jad Al-Rab in Abadamak for 55 years

Prof: Abdullah Ali Ibrahim

Abadamak Progressive Writers and Singers submitted a memorandum on public opinion in the winter of 1968 in which we denounced the attack by the Muslim Brothers at the University of Khartoum on the National Culture Group’s concert. That was the incident known as the Al-Ajako incident. Al-Ajako is a dance belongs to western Sudan. As soon as its female student dancers got on the stage, the Muslim brothers ruined the party and broke it up. One student died in the battle.
In our first meeting, January 10, 1969, we passed two decisions. One denounced the Muslim Brothers’ attack on the National Culture Society concert. As for the other decision, we denounced the apostasy ruling issued against the late Mahmoud Mohammad Taha read as follows:
The meeting of Progressive Writers and Artists denounces the restrictions imposed on the mind by some parties in the name of religion. The embarrassment to which the mind and conscience were exposed by the thought and approach of Professor Mahmoud Mohammad Taha standing before the Sharia judiciary is a embarrassment to the hearts of all those who want our country to enjoy dialogue, to be guided by argument and statement, and for the mind to be protected against arrogance and antagonism. We definitely affirm the responsibility of thought in creating a contemporary Sudan in history, time and place. We will not bow before the courts of apostasy and the like. In the depth of our visions, our people and their heritage live, and in their name we anticipate the horizons of modernity and splendor.
At a meeting of Abadamak, Awad Jad Al-Rab played the song “Ghaybouba (Coma) ” by Mohammad Taj Al-Sir. The meeting was at the German Friendship Society (Cinema Coliseum) on January 10, 1969 (give or take a little). This was our first meeting to approve the manifesto submitted to the meeting. We decorated it with an attractive artistic program. We listened to a song by Maryam Makeba in the Tussa language from South Africa, which emerged with its own music from between the teeth (click song). As for the surprise, it was a song by Professor Awad Jad Al-Rab, written by engineer Mohammad Taj Al-Sir, called “Ghaybouba .” We were astonished that it came from us with our term and from colleagues, one of whom you could touch if you extended your hand. Unfortunately, we do not have an archive of the song, which intoxicated (really and metaphorically) the generation. Awad was a great singer and Mohammad Taj Al-Sir was a great poet. The sweetness of the song is still what I remember like dew in my mind. It was an attempt to popularize new singing. Would you please share it with us if someone has a record of it, such as a song or poem? . . He will earn a reward.
Mohammad Taj Al-Sir recently helped me with the text. He promised to restore his singing to his family, which includes the well-known singer Ahmed Jallab in America, until the news reaches Awad and makes us happy.
Ghaybouba (1968)
After it blossomed in the heart and bore fruit
That good man fell asleep
After he enlightened my house
With cheer and joy one day
Gather the light and away he went
In deadly silence he passed and left
After him at home fear,
Tembling and darkness
***
It was a passerby dream
If there was not imagination in my heart
It was a pulse in my sorrow
How can I forget that
Sprinkle dew on me one day
Wet the fire that
It was eternal hell
On my forehead
How and the longing that revived my eyes
With virgin tenderness in the sad night
From his pregnant countenance were signs of majesty
***
I don’t have to
He was near me
Then went away
Glory, the drop of honey
Tournament, dream
I never read it as a pleasant day
Not explained
He was having fun
In my arteries and nerves rejoice
The night sleeps in my arms and I cry
In tenderness , fearing for him
A candle in the courtyard of the heart
Sweet, rhythmic engravings
Start but don’t want to repeat
And he shouted loudly
My love was a dream
From the myths of the time

Below is a link to an article about Abadamak
Abdullah Ali Ibrahim – Abadamac Diaries (1968-1969): Maryam Makepa shades us | Ontology (alantologia.com)