Hawa Jah Al Rasoul

Hawa al-Tagtaga (alternatively Hawa Jah Elrasool, , 1926 — 10 December 2012 Her father was a Sufi mystic and her mother a poet. From a young age, she wanted to be a singer, but her family were opposed to this and married her to a cousin, whom she later divorced so that she could follow a career in music.

She moved to Khartoum when she was fourteen-years old and soon after her arrival her singing was in demand for wedding parties. She was a member of the Brothers Party, led by Ismail Al-Azari. Along with Hasan Khalifa al-Atbarawi, she was arrested on the eve of independence in 1956 for singing nationalist songs at the Labour Theatre in Atbara and jailed for three months. Moreover, she had her front teeth knocked out by British troops whilst participating in a demonstration with the wife of Sudanese revolutionary Ali Abdel Latif.

Musical career Being a well-known singer for weddings, she also sang for a variety of famous people, including Yasser Arafat, and performed at the wedding of King Farouk of Egypt and Narriman Sadek. She was an exponent of the important role television and radio could play in people's lives, particularly in bridging gaps between generations. The flag was used from 1956 to 1970, but had a recent surge in popularity on social media in the 2019 revolution, with popular feeling wanting a new and more representative flag for the country.

Al-Tagtaga's mixture of political song and protest has inspired new generations of women in Sudan. During the 2019 revolution, the civil rights campaigner Alaa Salah recited poetry in the front of a crowd of protesters in Sudan. This marks a new chapter in a long tradition of Sudanese women singing poems of praise and lament in order to boost morale, honour the dead or to defy rulers.