Paper details

Paper authors	Kara Blackmore
In panel on	The Safety of Strangers: humanitarian protection in South Sudan, Sudan and Uganda
Paper presenter(s) will be presenting	In-Person / Online

Abstract

Protection of artists during times of conflict has no specific framework in international humanitarian law. However, cultural sites, artefacts and institutions are protected. However artists are targeted during conflict just like material culture for their symbolic contribution to society. Artists are also embedded in contexts of vocalising discontent during recent civil wars in South Sudan, protests in Sudan and opposition in Uganda. In the last decade, advocates working from the position of ‘cultural rights’ understand that artists who are specifically persecuted should be protected for defending human rights and under the legal framework of freedom of expression that is often targeted during times of conflict.

During times of armed conflict, artists have few places to go. This worsens in protracted conflicts that drag on for generations. This article contributes empirical evidence from Sudan, South Sudan and Uganda to reveal how art institutions have become informal protection stakeholders. The contribution explores how universities, such as in Khartoum and Kampala, have historically harboured artists fleeing conflict. Yet in the last two decades, artists have struggled to find safety in other spaces such as art residencies or international donor-led temporary shelter and relocation programmes. Outside of the institutions, in places like Uganda, exiled artists find interim communities and build solidarity over time. In contemporary South Sudan, conflict has driven out artists seeking protection and freedom of expression. In these contexts, this article shows the trajectories artists take to not only seek shelter but to continue their work in exile.

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