Sudan: War's Scars and Hope for Healing - Sudanese Stories Through the Art of Amani Azhari

What the report says

Dabanga, republished by AllAfrica, reports that Sudanese visual artist Amani Azhari is using her series “Healing Sessions” to explore how war, displacement and trauma have affected Sudanese women. The story is set against the wider backdrop of Sudan’s conflict and notes that Azhari was speaking from her studio in Nairobi after having previously lived in Kampala before moving to Kenya.

According to the report, Azhari’s paintings draw on women’s traditional gatherings in Sudanese homes, where relatives and neighbors share conversation, support and private moments away from outside pressures. She uses these scenes to reflect pain, loneliness, motherhood, responsibility and the emotional strain of rebuilding life during war and exile. The article says she also based parts of the work on listening to Sudanese people living abroad describe fear, loss and other wartime experiences.

The piece highlights several visual features of the series, including the repeated use of sofas, domestic interiors and bold colors to suggest memory, intimacy and psychological space. One large work is described as creating the impression that viewers are sitting inside the room with the figures. Another work, “The Room Inside Me,” expands that idea by presenting Sudan as something people carry within them rather than only a physical place.

The article frames Azhari’s art as both personal and collective, linking her own experiences of separation and childbirth away from family to broader struggles faced by Sudanese women during conflict. It suggests the work matters because it turns everyday domestic spaces into a way of thinking about healing, identity and survival.