‘I wasn’t remotely interested – let alone involved – in political activism,’ says Sudan’s pioneer female graffiti artist Assil Diab, ‘until I felt the first stirrings of the uprising against [President of Sudan] Omar al-Bashir in 2012-2013. That was my political awakening.’
Diab aka SudaLove had quite a privileged upbringing. She was born in Bucharest, Romania, where her father was the Ambassador for Sudan and her mother a senior doctor. She grew up mostly between the US and Qatar, where she attended the best schools, holidayed in the swankiest resorts and mixed in influential circles. The family returned to Sudan for weddings, births and funerals, but were otherwise quite isolated from the reality of life there, particularly for women.
