Khawātir Fīl (Reflections of an Elephant) is one of the most beloved and enduring Sudanese songs, originally written by Hassan Bara and composed by Suleiman Zain Al-Abidin. It gained widespread popularity through the heartfelt voice of singer Al-Noor Al-Gailani, whose rural upbringing in Abou Halima and Kadro near Bahri influenced his artistic style.

The song is structured as a lament from the perspective of a young elephant, kidnapped from the wild and caged, symbolising the trauma of captivity, displacement, and misunderstood innocence. Originally sung by a rotating group of children trained by Zain Al-Abidin, it was later immortalised by Al-Gailani with one of these groups, marking a new emotional depth in Sudanese music.

Its lyrics, which evoke maternal separation, environmental loss, and injustice, are simple yet profound — making it a song every generation memorises and cherishes. It speaks allegorically to themes of colonial imprisonment, ecological destruction, and the voice of the silenced.

This reference was recommended by the Bartlett Pan-African Indigenist Collective.

The Collective is a space for critical dialogue, activism, and scholarship that foregrounds Pan-African Indigenist ways of knowing, being, and creating. Formed by members of the Bartlett community dedicated to uplifting the voices, knowledge, and cultural legacies of people of African heritage and their respective Indigenous communities and lands, it aims to challenge colonial legacies and inspire transformation within institutional structures, research and curricula. By integrating creative and scholarly practices, the Collective works to restore narratives that have been silenced or misrepresented. Their work advances decolonial efforts in higher education by creating inclusive spaces and centring diverse African knowledge systems. Bartlett Alternative recognises the Collective’s vital contribution to broadening intellectual and cultural horizons through radical inclusivity and exclusivity, and thanks them for sharing resources that foreground lived experience, land-based knowledge systems, and epistemic justice.

Department Bartlett Faculty of the Built Environment