Could hashtags save Sudan?

Beyond Today

BBC

News

4.6 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 3 July 2019

⏱️ 18 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Last December, the people of Sudan took to the streets to protest against high food prices and decades of hardship under the rule of Omar al-Bashir. Four months later momentum of the protests spread across the country, and led to the ousting of the president. But then things took a turn for the worse. On 3rd June, military forces opened fire on protesters in the capital, Khartoum. When Sudanese people shared news of the massacre on social media, the government shut down internet access across the country. BBC Africa’s Mohanad Hashim tells us about what it’s been like in Sudan over the past few months, while London-based activist Negla Abdalla explains how international activism is making a difference. Producers: Seren Jones, Philly Beaumont. Mixed by Nicolas Raufast. Editor: John Shields.

Transcript

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0:00.0	BBC Sounds, music, radio podcasts.
0:04.6	Hello, I'm Tina Dehealy and this is Beyond Today, a space to ask one big question about
0:12.4	one big story.
0:14.0	Today, could hashtag save Sudan. So, sir in today's episode's been a massive learning curve. For me, why did you want to do
0:38.7	an episode about Sudan? Not somewhere I knew that much about if I'm honest before this?
0:44.0	So I basically remember scrolling through
0:46.8	Instagram a few weeks ago and being so taken aback
0:49.8	by all of the blue profile pictures that I saw.
0:52.4	Turns out, this is all to raise awareness
0:54.4	about a revolution going on there in Sudan
0:56.7	and the brutal backlash against it.
0:59.6	And this blue profile picture phenomenon
1:02.3	isn't just happening on Instagram.
1:03.4	It's happening across social media, Twitter, Facebook, whatever platforms.
1:07.8	It reminds me of other times when people change their profile pictures to raise
1:12.3	awareness of bad things going on in the world
1:15.2	just sweet Charlie pray for New Zealand yeah exactly and I was really interested to find
1:20.0	out how these movements work and whether they may actually make a difference on the ground.
1:24.8	We've also had a couple of emails from listeners and a request from Harriet's new boyfriend
1:30.8	about what's going on in Sudan.
1:33.0	So what is going on?
1:35.0	What have you learned, seren?
	...

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