Panafrican News Agency

Sudanese theater vanguard killed in shelling

Khartoum, Sudan (PANA)  - Sudanese theatre vanguard Asia Abdul Majid, 80, was killed when she was hit by an explosive ordinance from shelling and aerial bombardment of militias strongholds near her residence. 

Majid (1943-2023) was known to be the first Sudanese actress to stand on stage. She was also the first wife of the Sudanese renowned Pan-Africanist and Arab poet, Mohammad Muftah Faytori.

According to her niece, the shell landed in a nearby compound by the Rapid Support Forces in the area of Shambat, a strategic location linking Bahir, Khartoum north, with Omdurman, the seat of the Radio and Television station.

She was the widow of the famous Sudanese Africanist poet, Mohamed Muftah Faytori.

Asia, born in 1943 in Omdurman, was the first Sudanese lady to take acting as her official profession, braving the social norms of the time, not only to intermingle with men but also to even stand on stage, and speak in a loud voice and for her face to be seen directly under light.

She was even playing the role of men at a time men were not well seen as actors or singers and were dubbed “the unruly”.

According to her relatives, she was buried on Wednesday inside the compound of a child education institution she owned, as family and neighbors could not carry the body to a cemetery outside the neighbourhood.

-0-PANA MO/RA 4May2023