Aya Sinada studied architecture but started working as a documentary photographer when the war broke out in Sudan. She documented her own displacement journey from Ailafoon, east of Khartoum – but her laptop was stolen, the photos lost. Now she works as a graphic designer in downtown Kampala.
Uganda has a long-standing open-door policy for the displaced, and now hosts 100,000 Sudanese refugees – even though it doesn’t share a border with Sudan. Among them are artists navigating the challenges of displacement in Uganda’s capital, Kampala.
Here, Ammar Yassir follows some of these artists in exile.
Esraa recently held her first open studio in Uganda. Mahasin balances motherhood and journalism in a land she barely knows. Mohammed Bashir reopened his craft shop. Hamza is homesick. And Aya keeps having to adapt her career to pay the bills. Through it all, they persist, contributing to the fabric of their new – hopefully temporary – home.
Esraa Rahma, a visual artist and painter, just finished a three-month residency at Afriart Gallery in Kampala. Born and raised in El Gezira , Sudan, she holds a chemical engineering degree, but fled the war in 2024. Her work dwells on human memory and how the war has stolen joy and intimacy from her life.
Hamza Teirab, a multidisciplinary artist, was a teacher in the fine arts department of Al Neelain University. He moved through several cities before arriving in Uganda in 2023. In Kampala, he has put his artistic skills to work, making tote bags, beauty accessories, and murals.
Mohammed Bashir holds a PhD and used to teach at the Sudan University School of Fine Arts. His art is in leather crafts, which has proven handy for refugee life, and has reopened his leather crafts practice in Kampala. “We try to incorporate local patterns, especially since we share many of the same motifs.”
A community of Sudanese people is growing in Bwaise, one of Kampala’s most neglected neighbourhoods. Among them is Mahasin Ahmed, a photojournalist from El Fasher in Darfur. She was in Khartoum when the war began. She fled with her three-year old son, Nawaf, in a days-long journey that ended in Kampala.
