In mid-2012, protests erupted in Khartoum in opposition to the quarter-century reign of Omar al-Bashir and his National Congress Party. Begun by female students protesting against austerity and high prices, within a week it had spread, involving tens of thousands—and this is a context were all signs of dissent are brutally suppressed.
The protests were organized under the slogan “Lick your elbow,” a Sudanese saying for attempting to achieve the impossible. Marches and a general strike led to intense and bloody clashes with the police, and while the regime was not overthrown, the people of Sudan proved to themselves that they could organize and build power.
Printed at the worker-owned Stumptown Printers, Portland, OR.
This is #119 in the Celebrate People’s History Poster Series.
Josh MacPhee is a designer, artist, and archivist. He is a founding member of the Justseeds Artists’ Cooperative, the author of An Encyclopedia of Political Record Labels, and co-editor of Signal: A Journal of International Political Graphics and Culture. He co-founded and helps run Interference Archive, a public collection of cultural materials produced by social movements.
