Teaching in the midst of war

"Lu Xun's 1921 short story Hometown (Gu Xiang) brings to mind Sudanese novelist Tayeb Salih's much-celebrated work Season of Migration to the North. While Salih's work explores colonialism and East-West encounters, both stories grapple with the emotional challenges of returning home — evoking nostalgia and disillusionment, alienation and change, and offering sharp social critique," says Abdalla, whose own experience as an interpreter for the Sudanese president Omar al-Bashir in the mid-2010s made him acutely aware of the fractures and contradictions of his country.

Over the past few years, he has translated several of Lu Xun's works into Arabic, including two novels set to be published later this year. "Sometimes, I would change the names of characters and places to Sudanese ones and share them with my Sudanese friends — and most of them naturally assumed they were Sudanese ones," says Abdalla.

"In Chinese literature, I saw the commonalities between China and the Arab world — their histories, struggles and aspirations," he says. "Imperialism once struck China, but it never took root in the same way it has in Africa or Latin America. One crucial reason is that China has always preserved its cultural memory through its own language, allowing stories to be told from its own perspective.

"This remains true today. While Western cultural dominance shapes narratives through social media and global platforms, China has its own ecosystem — WeChat instead of Facebook or Instagram for example — which enables it to assert its own voice and sustain its own collective memory."

Since the civil war erupted in April 2023, on-site classes at the University of Khartoum have halted. Yet, Abdalla and his Chinese Language Department students persist online — he gave tests just a few weeks ago and is expecting new applicants.

"Today, Sudanese universities host the largest number of Chinese language learners in Africa outside of Egypt," he says. "I tell my students: uniting the country is difficult, but it must be done — and it can be done."