Political togetherness: pursuits for change among the protesting youth in Sudan 2018–2022

The uprising in Sudan since 2018 is an example of youth agency in the form of protest. The Sudanese youth mobilisation started, however, long before these anti-regime protests, through engagement in different forms of youth voluntarism and charity. While African youth mobilisation often is described as an outcome of tension between an urban underclass and a repressive state [Branch, Adam, and Zachariah Mampilly. 2015. Africa Uprising: Popular Protest and Political Change. London: Zed Books], we argue that in the Sudanese context, a collaboration between different classes, including the middle class, has been key in the fight against the autocratic government. Through interviews with youth activists in Khartoum, we examine how youth-led charity groups managed to change the public urban spaces that were intentionally made apolitical by the previous Islamist regime into vibrant and political ones, which were crucial in bringing about the 2018 uprisings. We propose to analyse the youth protests as an expression of ‘political togetherness’ – how sharing similar political challenges and aspirations not as individuals but as a group, transcending class and other divisions, becomes a political identity. Most of the theorising into political movements and collective action emphasise political action. Political togetherness, however, allows us to grasp the whole experience of the action; the feelings, atmosphere, political positions, opinions, thinking as a group, forming trust and building friendships.