lament for the destruction of the sudanese republic

another great weirdshire compilation featuring sharron kraus, jacken elswyth, nancy wallace


somewhere in bruce chatwin’s the songlines (p.170 - thank you google books) there is such an epic poem of this title (written on rather a lot of pieces of paper sellotaped together) written by a grandson of the mahdi. horsemouth has finished reading songlines (thank you long train journeys and days off sick).

La République Soudanaise was a briefly existing political entity formed out of french sudan (french occupied sudan) broadly (and confusingly) covering what is now mali. it lasted from november 1958 until 20th June 1960 when it was absorbed into a combined state with senegal (the mali federation). this only lasted until 20th august of the same year when the two counties split one becoming the republic of mali (lead by modibo keita) and the other senegal.

this is however NOT the sudanese republic discussed in bruce chatwin’s the songlines. there the actually sudanese sheik s. writes the epic poem lament for the destruction of the sudanese republic. exactly which sudanese republic he is referring to make take some time to discover.

horsemouth once saw salif keita and his band making use of a pedestrian crossing in kentish town (the one just by the tube) before a gig up at the town and country club. he lacked the courage to go up and say hello. horsemouth finds the music from all the regions mentioned amazing.

it’s a grey day outside (ok no to be fair the sun is breaking through). horsemouth has had his coffee and had the heating on while he typed this. his main mission for the weekend is to determine whether he is in fact sick or not, he cannot of course tell yet whether he is suffering from the modern fashionable ailment or merely some plebian and disgusting cough and cold.

work seems to be drawing to a close for the year and horsemouth’s instinct is to draw it to a close sooner rather than later. he’s not so fussed about the money (he has savings he can afford a ‘bad’ year). he’s worries about the timing. he worries about the practicalities of it. he should have the chat.

as sten noted this is exactly the sort of apocalypse horsemouth would have wished for - the apocalypse of staying in and reading books - and yet horsemouth struggles with his desire to be useful, to do work, and not to let people down.