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 عود على بدء بقلم الفاضل عباس محمد علي
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01:54 PM June, 02 2018 سودانيز اون لاين
الفاضل عباس محمد علي-
مكتبتى
رابط مختصر
هذه الورقة كانت قد أعدتها إبنتي زينب الفاضل بالإنجليزية كإحدي متطلبات حصولها على البكالوريوس من الجامعة الأمريكية بالشارقة عام 2013 . وبما إنها تتناول موضوعاً لم يلتفت له الإعلام السوداني بتاتاً، قمت بتلخيص الورقة بالعربية ونشرتها كما هي بالصحف الإسفيرية. واليوم نعيد نشرها فى أجواء الدعاية الكويتية والمصرية السلبية ضد السودانيين التى تنعكس في بعض مسلسلاتهم أثناء رمضان المبارك الحالي.
Research Paper
الشخصية السودانية في الإعلام العربي
الفاضل عباس محمد علي
مرفق أدناه الورقة التي صاغتها إبنتي زينب متضمنة خلاصة البحث الذى قامت به هذا السمستر فى جامعتها كجزء من المتطلبات الأكاديمية...بعنوان:
:The Sudanese in Arab Media
Misrepresentation or Misconception
ولقد حاولت أن تجد إجابة علي التساؤل: لماذا يتم تشويه صورة السودانيين بوسائل الترفيه والاتصال العربية، خاصة فى المسلسلات والأفلام السينمائية وغيرها من البرامج التلفازية والإذاعية الفكاهية؟
وفي دراستها لمنتجات الإعلام العربي الترفيهية، ركزت الباحثة علي برامج بعينها حظيت بشعبية كبري في السنوات الماضية، مثل:
1. المسلسل الكويتي "فضائيات" – 1997
2. المسلسل الكويتي "شبابيك" – 2006
3. البرنامج الكويتي "دي تيوب" – 2009
4. المسلسل السعودي "طاش ما طاش" – 1003/2010
5. الفيلم السعودي "مناحي" – 2008
6. المسلسل السوري "الحور العين" – 2005
7. البرنامج المصري "سوبر هنيدي" – 2008
8. البرنامج التلفزيوني الفكاهي الإمارتي " شعبية الكرتون" – 2005-2010
وقد خلصت الباحثة إلي قاسم مشترك أعظم بين كل هذه الفعاليات وهو:
• الدارجة السودانية مجال للتندر والسخرية (وهذا ما أثّر مؤخراً علي المشاهد العربي صغير السن الذى يردد بعض التعابير السودانية مثل "آي" و "يازول" و "عليك الله"... كأنها من لغة أخري غير العربية).
• هنالك سخرية مركزة من لون السودانيين باعتبارهم سوداً كالفحم تماماً ، وليسوا خلاسيين كما هو الواقع، إذ يطلي الممثلون الذين يشخصّون السودانيين بمكياج أسود مبالغ فيه، وعلي رؤوسهم باروكات ضخمة من الشعر الكثيف المجعد بمثلما كانت الموضة دارجة فى سبعينات القرن العشرين.
• تتميز الشخصية السودانية حسب هذه العروض بالسذاجة والبلاهة والقابلية "للبلف وأكل المقالب"، وهو ضعيف مستكين أمام زوجته.
كما خلصت الباحثة من دراسة البرامج المذكورة أعلاه ألي أنها جميعاً تركز علي خصائص سلبية معينة تزعم أنها تميز الشخصية السودانية:
1. فالسوداني سوقي "####################"، لغته ركيكة، غير مهندم وأشعث، أسود للغاية، كل عاداته وتقاليده هدف للسخرية.
2. لغته ركيكة، كسول للغاية، ملابسه مهزأة، موسيقاه نشاز، أسود للغاية، أبله ضئيل الذكاء.
3. يدّعي المعرفة وينطق بلغو الحديث، أسود للغاية، .......
وهكذا الحال بالنسبة لباقى العروض الأربعة المذكورة أعلاه.
وترى الباحثة أن العلة تكمن فى الآتي:
1. الغياب الكامل للعروض المبثوثة من السودان التى يمكن أن تستقطب المتفرج العربي وتعرّفه باللهجة السودانية وبتقاليد وتراث وثقافة ذلك الشعب.
2. عدم وجود إعلاميين وممثلين ومخرجين سودانيين بالقنوات العربية يستطيعون أن يقوموا بهذا الدور بالطريقة الصحيحة...أي تشخيص السودانيين...وأن يساعدوا فى تصحيح ما علق بالأذهان من خرافات وفريات متداولة عن السودانيين، ليست كلها بحسن نية، خاصة فى إطار المنافسة فى أسواق العمل بالدول النفطية بين كافة الجنسيات العربية القادمة من كل أطراف الوطن العربي.
هذا، ولقد ذكرت لي زينب أنها توقفت كثيراً لدي مسلسل "الخواجة عبد القادر" ليحيي الفخراني الذى بثته الفضائيات المصرية والسودانية برمضان المنصرم... باعتباره منصفاً للشخصية السودانية ورداً مفحماً لكل ما يشاع عن السودانيين من سلبيات ركزت عليها البرامج مكان الدراسة، وكان في نيتها أن تضمنها البحث لتعكس موضوعيتها، من جانب، ولكي تشير إلي الإمكانيات الموجودة ببعض أطراف الإعلام العربي التى يمكن استغلالها لإبراز الصورة الموضوعية وغير المتحاملة عن الشخصية السودانية....ولكن المشرف علي البحث كان لديه رأي آخر، إذ أن مسلسل واحد لا يرجح بذلك الكم الهائل من العروض التى استدلت بها الباحثة لتبرز النقطة الأساسية بالبحث وهي إساءة تصوير السودانيين بمجمل الإعلام العربي فى السنوات الأخيرة...وهو على كل حال مسلسل لم يتابعه إلا أهل مصر والسودان، ولم تعلق عليه الأقلام العربية وصمتت نحوه الفضائيات التى تجعل من السخرية من السودانيين بضاعة تتعيّش عليها، خاصة فى موسم رمضان المبارك من كل عام.
وأريد كذلك أن أضيف للأسباب التي يمكن أن تكون خلف سوء الفهم المتداول للشخصية السودانية....غياب الدور الذى يمكن أن تضطلع به السفارات والجاليات السودانية:
• أما البعثات الدبلوماسية، فمن واجبها أن تحتج علي البرامج التى تخرج عن طور الفكاهة البريئة وتتخصص فى الحط من قدر السودانيين، إذ قد يكون من ورائها نزعات ذاتية وشخصية وغير موضوعية....ليس لشعوب هذه الدول علاقة بها، فالمعروف أن السودانيين يحظون باحترام عميق، خاصة فى السعودية ودول الخليج، لما قاموا به من أدوار فى الخمسينات حتى الثمانينات فى مجال إرساء دعائم البنية التحتية، خاصة كمعلمين ومهنيين وأطباء وفنيين وعمال وشفّات علموا الناس كيف أكلون. وتستطيع السفارات أن تستدل بمعيار معروف وهو المعاملة بالمثل فى الإطار الدبلوماسي: فهل مثلاً ستتحرك أم لن تتحرك السفارة السعودية بالخرطوم إذا أدمنت إحدي الفضائيات السودانية التقليل من شأن السعوديين؟ وبنفس القدر، من واجب السفارة أن تخاطب الجهات الصحيحة وأن تعمل علي القيام بالأنشطة التى تدحض الأكاذيب السائدة عن السودانيين... والتي تركز علي الاحترام والفهم الصحيح المتبادل بين الشعوب.
• أما دور الجاليات، فهو الخروج من القوقعة السودانية، ومخاطبة المجتمعات التى يقيمون بين ظهرانيها بما يرفع من شأن السودانيين ويحافظ علي الصورة التى كانت راسخة لدى الأجيال المتقدمة من الشعوب العربية، لا أن تركز فقط علي تقديم العروض بدورها وأنديتها التى لا يدعي لها غير السودانيين.
• هنالك خميرة يستطيع الإعلام السوداني أن ينطلق منها لتصحيح الصورة، وهي أن الإعلام العربي بمنطقة الخليج كان أصلاً من صناعة العظماء السودانيين أمثال الطيب صالح أول وكيل لوزارة الإعلام القطرية، وعلي شمو مؤسس التلفزيون بأبوظبي ، وفى معيته حمدي علي بدرالدين...وغيرهم كثيرون....وهناك إعجاب منقطع النظير لدي المثقفين العرب بأدب الطيب صالح (لدرجة أن الكويتيين هم الذين أنتجوا فيلم "عرس الزين" بالإنابة عن السودانيين الذين لم ينهضوا لأي مهمة من هذا القبيل حتي الآن.) إن أعمال الطيب صالح ما زالت قابلة للتحويل إلي أفلام ومسلسلات تستطيع أن تنافس بسهولة فى أسواق الترفيه والمثاقفة العربية.
وهذا موضوع يستحق الدراسة والتأمل بغرض البحث عن حلول، فمن غير المقبول أن تتواجد هذه الكميات الهائلة من المثقفين والمهنيين السودانيين بالدول العربية التى تتعرض لغسيل الأدمغة بواسطة بعض الفضائيات، ثم يلوذون بصمت القبور...كأن الأمر لا يعنيهم من بعيد أو قريب...بينما هم الأولي بإزالة الأوشاب التى خلفها الإعلام الخاطئ، بحكم قربهم من صناع القرار ومن المثقفين العرب بكافة دول المهجر العربية، وكثيرون منهم كتاب وصحفيون وإعلاميون معروفون وبارعون.
ألا هل بلغت.....الهم فاشهد!
والآن لورقة زينب:
The Sudanese in Arab Media Productions: Misrepresentation or Misperception؟!
Zeinab Mohamed Ali
37879
INS 205
Spring 2013
Word count: 4,570
Table of Content
Cover page……………………………………………………………………………1
Abstract………………………………...………………….………………………….3
Literature Review…………………………………………………………………….4
Hypothesis and Aim………………………………….…………………………..…11
Methodology ………………………………………….…………………………….12
Table of Data…………………………………………...……………………………14
Findings…………………………………………………..………………………….16
Conclusion…………………………………………………….……………………..22
Reference List…………………………………………...…………………………..23
Abstract:
The Sudanese individual finds him/herself misrepresented in the Arab media productions today. This observable fact exists in various Arab series, TV shows and films. The question this paper addresses is why are the Sudanese individuals being misrepresented in the Arab media؟ However, the researcher developed a hypothesis throughout the paper that states; the over-dependency upon Arab cultural products in representing Sudanese individuals caused this misrepresentation of Sudanese among the Arab audiences. The researcher used textual analysis to examine a number of popular Arab media productions that included representations of Sudanese characters, such as Fada’yiat (1997), Shababeek (2006,) D-Tube (2009), and more. The researcher ultimately highlights the most repetitive characteristics that coincide with the Sudanese individual in the Arab media, such as: use of improper dialect, inaccurate physical features and naiveté’s.
Literature Review
Background:
The Republic of Sudan is a country located in the north eastern part of the African continent. Throughout history, this country had an interesting relationship with several dual features and double characteristics. Modern Sudan used to have two capital cities (since 1821): Omdurman and Khartoum; and two colonizers: the Egyptians and the British (1898). Geographically speaking, Sudan has two Niles: the White Nile and the Blue Nile; and two environmental spheres: the northern desert and the southern jungles - (Levy and Abdul Latif 2007, pp. 5-27). Moreover, the country’s most critical feature is its dual identity; the Arab and the African. Today, Sudan , after the January 2011 referendum, has lost one of its last dual characteristics, being an African and an Arab state. Two Sudans now exist side by side, albeit uncomfortably.
The people of Sudan have never been unified when it comes to culture. Those who come from the South see themselves as pure Africans who have descended from the indigenous inhabitants of the Nile Valley. While those who come from the North view themselves as the descendants of the Arabs who came from the Arabian Peninsula during different major migration movements during ancient times, maintaining their Arabic mother tongue and Arabian culture.
The dual identity has always been played out as a factor that generates tension in the country, rather than perceiving it as a source of diversity and strength. That led to having a ruling and hegemonizing ethnicity: Northern Arabs, and another being ruled: Southern Africans, since independence in 1956. The fact that northern Arabs of Sudan had the upper hand in the country (Lesch 1998, pg. 5) led it towards embracing an official and recognized Arab identity, by adopting a pan-Arab ideology, and joining the League of Arab Nations in 1956; thus, turning the Sudanese individual into an inseparable element of the Arab World.
Arab and Sudanese Media:
During the last 20 years, the Pan-Arab media have greatly developed and have adopted international standards. Numerous Arab radio stations, newspapers, and TV channels came to the scene, such as Al-Jazeera network, MBC group and others, (Samoleit 2007, pp. 6-8). During that period, Sudanese media have not succeeded in marching forward on a par with the rest of the Arab media, for various reasons, the most significant of which has been the chronically unstable political situation in Sudan. Anyway, the country started showing interest in developing its media in the late 1990’s, reversing previous attitudes, as Heather Sharkey has maintained in his journal A Century in Print: Arabic Journalism and Nationalism in Sudan, 1899-1999. Sharkey said,
“In 1999, Sudan observes a double centennial: one hundred years with its Anglo- Egyptian borders and with its Arabic periodical press. The press helped Northern elites make sense of colonial frontiers by producing a "Sudanese" nationalism in their own cultural image. Sudan enters the 21st century in need of a new national image, one more capable of sowing peace and stability in place of war.” (Sharkey 1999, p. 545)
In modern times, the connection between the different Arab societies has strengthened rapidly. For example, the modern forms of media make the far away Mauritanian know what Bahrainis favor for a lunch meal, or drive an Iraqi to croon a Moroccan song. Lebanese shows, Syrian series and Egyptian songs are all over Arab Sat and Nile Sat, painting an image of each of these countries to the rest of the Arab societies, and indirectly enforcing their cultures into the life of almost every person within the Arab World.
On the other hand, the Sudanese cultural products have been quite meagre until this very day. That goes back to various reasons, such as: the lack of media professionalism and modern standards within the media domain in Sudan. Thus, when an Arab gets offered a collection of various Arab channels, he/she will logically choose to view the ones that follow modern production standards such as LBC (Lebanese Broadcasting Corporation) or Dubai TV. These channels will be preferred to the ones that still use outdated production techniques and fall away from the track of media modernity, such as Sudan TV. All that is destined to result in the lack of proper representation of the Sudanese culture in the Arab World, and can lead to painting a distorted image of the Sudanese individual to the Arab audiences.
The Issue of Misrepresentation:
This distorted image of the Sudanese man, who is popularly called “Al-Zoul Al-Sudani” in the Arab media, varies in its forms. In different pan-Arab shows, the Sudanese has been limited within the low-income-worker frame, such as cab driver or security guard, as evidenced by the Syrian produced series El-Hour El-Eein, (Anzoor 2005). However, the Sudan is well-known for being one of the major Arab countries that exports teachers, professors, medical doctors and professionals to different Arab regions such as the Gulf countries. The talkative Abu Fatna in the Saudi series Tash ma Tash, (Al-Ghanim 1993), and the extremely naïve Osman of the Emirati local produced animation Sha’biyat El-Cartoon, (Muhammad 2005), as well as many other biased shows, contribute to the unfortunate distorted representation.
This research paper will address this issue methodically and objectively. It will examine the topic in detail, with a view to proving that deficiency in Sudanese cultural products, and over-dependency upon Arab cultural products in representing the Sudanese individual, are responsible for the misperception of the Sudanese among the Arab audiences of today. It’s a challenge that should be taken seriously in order to expose and overturn this trend.
When a person takes a look at the image painted about the Sudanese in the Arab media, he/she will recognize that the issue has different angles through which it can be perceived.
One of these angles is the general stereotypical concepts such as, “all Sudanese are lazy”, which help reinforce that wrong image. Several scholars wrote about stereotyping and prejudice, its types and its consequences over time. Macrae, Stangor and Hewstone stated in Stereotypes and Stereotyping that the type of stereotypes which include generalizing a thought over a whole population is one of the oldest and most basic kinds of stereotyping in social psychology. (Macrae, Stangor and Hewstone, 1996, p. 3)
Thus, stereotypes are very easy to spread among people, until they reach a level where they are taken for granted. The truly devastating issue is when such stereotypes turn into a source from which media productions draw their knowledge about the Sudanese people, (or any people, for that matter). In this way the stereotype turns into a fact in the eyes of the audience.
Historical Perspective:
Another angle from which the issue can be addressed is the historical record of the phenomenon. In order to research the problem, looking at the past is required. The way Arabs , including close neighbors such as the Egyptians, perceived the Sudanese people during different periods of time can give a good understanding of the basis of the issue. Eve M. Truott Powell, a professor of modern Middle Eastern history, shed some light on how Egyptians perceived the Sudanese during the Anglo-Egyptian colonization of Sudan, in her book A Different Shade of Colonialism: Egypt, Great Britain and the Mastery of the Sudan.
Powell wrote: “the Sudanese were clearly considered by many Egyptians to be part of Egypt, and this conception developed into a pronounced sense of possessiveness about the Sudan by the late nineteenth century…Mustafa Kamil wrote that ‘the Sudan, as it’s clear to the reader, is a piece of Egypt and has been stripped from her without a legal right.” (Powell 2003, pg. 6)
Such views are not expected to fade away easily; hence, their influence on how Egyptians perceive the Sudanese people today, and by default, how the Sudanese attributes are rendered in the Egyptian media. However, what is definite is that the possessive view that was mentioned by the author appeared in various Classical Egyptian movies in the 40’s and 50’s, in which Osman El-Bawab or Osman El-Sofragi, which stand for Osman the janitor or Osman the butler, were the only characters that were chosen to represent the Sudanese people. That used to be the image held by the Egyptians about the Sudanese.
Sudanese Cultural Products:
The most important window to look through is the Sudanese window itself. Today, the researcher may assume that the Arab scene is Sudanese cultural products-less. No one would find a Sudanese series on a Kuwaiti channel, or a popular Sudanese magazine known in Arab countries. The Sudan lacks the cultural products that flatten the way before sculpturing a distortion-free image about it and about its people. Over the past five years, Sudan has launched five TV channels: BNTV, Al-Shurooq TV, Harmony TV, Zoal TV and Sahoor TV. Sudan has also established entertainment magazines to reflect a modern image of Sudan, such as the monthly magazine Ayyam o Layali. However, the media situation is still lagging behind. A report that was published by Human Rights Watch in 2009 tackled the media situation in Sudan and concentrated on the local newspapers. The organization wrote; “Currently, more than 30 local Sudanese newspapers are available at the news stands in Sudan. However, despite the number of newspapers available, the scope of information available to people in Sudan is more and more restricted, as discussions and debates about political development or other matters of significant public interest are curtailed through harsh limitations” (HRW 2009, pg. 10) Such topics that are dominating the media market, which are irrelevant to the Arab audiences and sometimes irrelevant to the Sudanese audiences themselves, have obviously deterred the interest of Arab media away from Sudan.
Literature Review Conclusion:
In conclusion, the literature review manifested background information, to give the reader a general idea about the situation. However, the literature review displayed that there have not been many serious studies regarding the misrepresentation of the Sudanese individual in the Arab media production. Thus, the researcher aims to investigate this issue thoroughly right through the paper.
Hypothesis:
The over-dependency upon Arab cultural products in representing Sudanese individuals has caused the misperception of the Sudanese among the Arab audiences.
The Aim:
The aim is to highlight the lack of Sudanese cultural products as the main reason behind the misrepresentation of Sudanese individuals in the Arab media today. Along with that, the researcher hopes that emphasizing this issue may encourage the Sudanese media institutions to put more effort into the Sudanese cultural production.
Methodology
Approach:
The paper will follow the qualitative approach, since it has descriptive and inductive characteristics. Unlike the quantitative approach that depends on statistical bases, the qualitative approach can provide the researcher with more freedom in expounding the topic as much as possible; hence, the researcher will be capable of conveying the aim behind this research paper. Consequently, the explanatory nature of the qualitative approach will ease the task of illustrating the over-dependency of Sudan upon Arab productions in its representation. Not only that, but it will also aid the reader in understanding how over-dependency led to misperception of Sudanese among the Arab audiences.
Research Method:
Textual analysis is the method that will be used in this research paper. The researcher will have to take a deep look at different electronic documents such as TV shows, series and movies in which Sudanese characters have been represented. Textual analysis will enable the researcher to examine how the Sudanese character is represented in different Arab productions, as she will be able to shed some light upon the image portrayed or depicted about the Sudanese. The attributes of the Sudanese character that will be investigated in this study include the social status that’s commonly given, the level of IQ the characters reflect, the physical appearance of these characters, and how much of standard stereotypes come along with them. Through applying textual analysis on media products, the researcher will be able to analyse how the Sudanese are depicted.
The Population and Sample:
The population of this research paper is a selected number of Arab-produced series and TV shows of the past two decades (1990s-2010s). The selection is based upon two elements: the availability of Sudanese characters within the cultural products, and the time of the year in which the cultural products were premiered; which is the holy month of Ramadan. That specific time of the year – Ramadan- was chosen as a criterion by the researcher because the rate of TV viewers increases dramatically during that month. The selected samples will be: the Saudi series Tash Ma Tash (1993-2010), the Kuwaiti show Fada’eyat (1997), the Syrian series El-Hur El-Ein (2005), the Emirati animation Sha’biyat Al-Cartoon (2005-2010), the Kuwaiti show Shababeek (2006), the Egyptian animation Super Hinedy (2008), the Saudi movie Menahi (2008), and the Kuwaiti show D-Tube (2009). The process of examining the texts will consist of looking at the attributes of the Sudanese character and how it has been represented in comparison with the other characters that represent other Arab nationalities within the same product.
Limitations:
The researcher will still face a number of limitations such as missing episodes in some shows, as she will be looking at various productions that can extend to 30 episodes. Another limitation is the limited time to which the researcher is restricted.
Table of Data:
Name of Product Date
of
Production The Country of Production Genre Observations
Tash ma Tash 1993-2010 KSA TV series
• Talkative
• Nosey
• Repetitive
• Stubborn
Fada’eyat 1997 Kuwait TV show
• Vulgar
• Improper Arabic
• Untidy and improper outfit
• Ridiculously black
• Mocking tradition
El-Hur El-Ein 2003 Syria TV series
• The lowest social status among the characters
• Weak personality
• Always ordered around
• Accused for having HIV
Shabiyat Al-Cartoon 2005-2010 UAE Animation
• Improper Arabic
• Very weak personality
• Naïve
• Low IQ (Silly)
• Always the victim
• Sudanese women are dominant over Sudanese men
Shababeek 2006 Kuwait TV show
• Improper Arabic
• Extremely lazy
• Improper outfits
• Improper music
• Ridiculously black
• Low IQ (Dumb)
Super Hindey 2008 Egypt Animation
• Sudan = An arid desert
• Dull people
• Unsafe place
• A subject for mocking
• All Sudanese are called Osman
Menahi 2008 KSA Movie
• Naïve
• Dull
• Extremely lazy
• Used as a subject for mocking
D-Tube 2009 Kuwait TV show
• Ridiculously black
• Improper Arabic
• Mocking the dialect
• Weird and exaggerated face expression
• Extremely lazy
• Claims knowledge + speaks nonsense
Findings:
The analysis of the material selected demonstrated numerous stereotypes and distorted attributes. They diversified in type; there were stereotypes that tackled the persona of the Sudanese individual, such as being naïve, having a weak personality or being extremely lazy. Also, there were distorted attributes that tackled the physical and outer appearance, such as the traditional costumes and skin color.
However, the reader should note that the researcher took into consideration the different circumstances and the diverse genres of all the selected cultural products. A number of the analyzed shows follow the comedy genre. In these shows, the exaggerated representation of nationalities’ characteristics is expectable, for it will be used as laughter stimuli. Thus, the researcher undertook comparisons between the representation of the Sudanese characters and the non-Sudanese characters in these shows. That will enable her to examine if the exaggeration is indeed prevalent with regards to all the represented nationalities.
The examination process of the selected material illustrated several stereotypes and distorted attributes. So, limited by time, the researcher chose to select a number of them to be discussed in-depth. The criterion of selection was the repetitiveness of the stereotype or the distorted attribute. Upon that, the researcher selected the improper dialect, the physical and outer appearance, and the personal attributes to be addressed.
• Improper dialect:
The repetitiveness of “improper dialect” in the table, confirmed how unacquainted the actors and the actresses are with the Sudanese dialect. In the Kuwaiti produced sketch comedy show, Fada’iyat (1997), for instance, the 30th episode included a scene mocking a talk show on Sudan TV, featuring the Kuwaiti actress Entisar Al-Sharrah as a Sudanese anchor and the Kuwaiti actor Dawood Hussein as a Sudanese singer. Both Al-Sharrah and Hussein used a hybrid dialect that contained vocabulary from various Arabic dialects, which held no relation to Sudanese Arabic. The characters reached a state where their entire conversation became chattering. However, the researcher found that the show managed to represent the Syrian dialect ideally in an episode that mocked the popular Syrian show, Ghawwar. The difference between how the Sudanese dialect was represented, and how the Syrian dialect was represented, showed that the Kuwaiti actors were exposed to the Syrian dialect quite enough to grasp it; whether from local Syrian series or from Syrian actors staring in various Arab productions. On the other hand, their representation of the Sudanese dialect showed the opposite. That could be due to the nonexistence of Sudanese productions in the scene today.
In the 25th episode of another similar Kuwaiti show called D-Tube (2009), a scene was titled “Za’lan Leh؟” or “Why are you mad؟”, which featured two actors playing Sudanese characters. The dialogue that took place contained a lot of flaws, such as using sentences that are not used in the Sudanese dialect, like “Eish Feek؟”, which means “what’s wrong with you؟”, instead of the Sudanese-used “Malak؟”. Or using “Hadak El-yom”, which means “That day”, instead of the Sudanese-used “Al-yom dak”. The dialogue contained repetitiveness of certain popular Sudanese words, such as, “Aa’ay” and “Zatu”, which highlighted the fact that the characters have faced a serious difficulty in speaking the dialect. Surprisingly, the show succeeded in producing a full episode in fluent Farsi. This might go back to the geographical factor, as Iran is located in a close distance from Kuwait; hence, the interaction. However, it also reveals the paradox that grasping a foreign language can be easier than grasping a dialect of a mutual language, if the lack of exposure existed.
Sha’biyat Al-Cartoon is a popular Emirati produced animation that has been annually aired since 2005, until 2010. Even though it is a cartoon, its audiences varied in age. The animation is based on the daily humorous incidents that take place in an Emirati neighborhood that has consists of different nationalities. Those nationalities included in the show are Emirati, Egyptian, Saudi, Omani and Sudanese. The researcher found that the show was not successful in representing the Sudanese dialect. Osman, the Sudanese character for example, stresses the wrong parts of the words constantly; he stretches the end of the sentences ridiculously and keeps on repeating certain words in the wrong context. Eshraqa – Osman’s wife - shares the same characteristics regarding the improper dialect. The lack of exposure to the Sudanese dialect and culture, which resulted from the nonexistence of popular Sudanese productions, has its imprint in this show. The researcher noted that Eshraqa starts ululating whenever she is incorporated in a fight, a tradition that has no base in the Sudanese culture. On the other hand, the researcher found that all the other Arab dialects and traditions were decently represented. In fact, the Saudi character Dhayim was played by a talented Saudi lad called Mansur Aal-Bakheit, which explains the flawless Saudi dialect. As a result, the researcher noted that, not only is the absence of Sudanese productions creating difficulties in representing the Sudanese dialect in pan-Arab shows, but the absence of Sudanese actors who would’ve been able to participate in these productions, or assist in them, is also creating difficulties in representing the Sudanese dialect in pan-Arab shows.
• Physical and Outer Appearance:
In order to represent a nationality convincingly, the accurate physical and outer appearance is very important. The Saudi-produced comedy series Tash ma Tash (1993-2010) has been fortunate in its physical representation of the Sudanese character Abu Fatna. Nevertheless, the researcher noted that the rest of the shows were not as fortunate in their physical representation, whether due to the repulsive and unrealistic charcoaly color painting the actors’ skin, or the random garments covering them.
In Shababeek (2006), another Kuwaiti produced sketch comedy show, the researcher found an episode featuring the Kuwaiti actor Hassan Al-Ballam and the Palestinian-Kuwaiti actor Abdulnasir Darweesh at a supposed Sudanese village. What the creators of this show succeeded in was indirectly forcing the viewer to sit and watch the whole episode, as the famous actors looked as if they had just arrived from a neighboring planet. The repulsive black color that was used to cover their body was rather offensive. The ink-black looked as if it was meant to be presented as paint rather than a realistic skin color. In addition to that, the researcher noticed the use of the 70’s huge afro wigs to present the natural hair of the Sudanese. Every single primary male actor and secondary male actor that appeared in this episode had an irrelevant 70’s afro wig on. Moreover, the males’ outfits that were used consisted of garments covered with extraneous Scottish kits-like patterns, while females’ outfits were random pieces of cloth thrown all over them. In Fada’iyat (1997), and in the same episode mentioned earlier, the researcher noticed that Dawood Hussein had a “Tic Tac Toe” game drawn with a white chalk on his black-painted cheek. By that, the show mocked the Sudanese Bedouin tradition of cutting or tattooing –Shalkh or Washm- the cheek or the chin. We should bear in mind that it used to be an ancient tradition that is almost extinct now. The researcher was not able to find any mark indicating the similar Jordanian Bedouin tradition of tattooing the chin in the 16th episode of Fada’yat (1997), in which the popular Jordanian show Haret Abu Awwad was mocked. The researcher relates this to the presence of Jordanian productions that helped in informing the rest of the Arab public about the Jordanian culture. As a result, the cast of Fada’yat (1997) did not have a cultural misconception in the Jordanian episode. Unfortunately, the total opposite is the case when it comes to presenting Sudanese culture.
• Personal Attributes:
The researcher found that some shows, such as, Sha’biyat Al-Cartoon (2005-2010), represented the Sudanese individual as a naïve person that anyone can fool. Other shows, like D-Tube (2009), went for the popular laziness factor. For instance, in the Saudi-produced movie Menahi (2008), the creators of the movie represented the Sudanese as an element to generate jokes about. The creators of the movie managed to sqeeze in a scene that features a Sudanese, even though the scene is clearly not important and has no influence on the movie’s series of events. At the airport in the show “Menhai”, the main character randomly sat beside a Sudanese passenger and asked him if he was Chinese. As a result, the Sudanese passenger got provoked and answered him: “Do you see me light-skinned؟ Do you see that I have tiny eyes؟ Do you see that I have silky hair؟”, to which Menahi replied: “No, but you might be a “grilled” Chinese”, indicating the dark skin color. That was a scene that resulted in nothing but making a joke out of the Sudanese man. In the same movie, for example, an Egyptian character appeared as Menahi’s sophisticated lawyer. Here, the researcher found two representations of two Arab nationalities in the very same comedy movie. However, the two representations fall on the two ends of the spectrum. The Sudanese was made fun of, while the Egyptian was dealt with as a professional with a career. The researcher explains that this goes back to different reasons: First of all, the availability of high-profiled Egyptian actors increases and sometimes guarantees them primary roles in pan-Arab productions, while the absence of high-profiled Sudanese actors reduces the chances of having decent roles reserved for Sudanese in pan-Arab productions. Secondly, the researcher believes that the lack of response – in the form of appropriate informative Sudanese productions - to the way the Sudanese are framed in some Arab productions, keeps the door open for such framings to linger.
Conclusion:
The researcher acknowledges that the nature of the comedy shows addressed never gives a fair coverage of any nationality or culture. However, on the scale of Arab nationalities, Sudan clearly gets the biggest share of the unfair representation. The over-dependency upon Arab cultural products in representing Sudanese individuals indeed caused the misperception of the Sudanese among the Arab audiences. Whether it is generally accepted or not, the Sudanese media institutions and media businesses are to blame for the distortion of the Sudanese people’s image in the Arab media today. They still carry on the act of neglect towards producing Sudanese cultural products that are qualified to compete in the current Arab media scene. The cultural products are no longer restricted to entertainment purposes only; they have become the modern source of intercultural education. They inform the Kuwaiti of what a Moroccan eats, and inform the Egyptian of how the Saudi speaks; thus, the mutual decent representation in each other’s media productions exists, to the exclusion of the Sudanese. Consequently, when a country lacks cultural productions, it lacks a very important source of intercultural education. As a result, the misconceptions thrive, the stereotypes become overused and distortion becomes the norm. Therefore, Sudan and its media institutions have to put more effort into producing cultural products that can find their way to the popular commercial Arab channels. Sudan has to place media production within its priorities because that is the most effective method to deliver the accurate Sudanese identity to the Arab public. It is not possible to blame others for the mistake of representing the Sudanese in a disparaging manner, while the Sudanese themselves lack the tool of correcting them.
References
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الفاضل عباس محمد علي
فيس بوك
تويتر
انستقرام
يوتيوب
بنتيريست