Ahmed My Beloved

The hadra is a ritual, with embodied gatherings and invocations of communion with ancestral spirituality. The term translates from Arabic to mean a Devine presence. It is this presence that Elsadig Janka connects in his series Ahmed My Beloved.

For this photographic work, Janka accompanied pilgrims journeying to Halagat Zikr in Omdurman, Sudan. Weekly he joined the dervishes and assembly of devotees to dance, chant and experience the power of collective spiritual practice. Janka’s work glimpses into one of the largest Sufi communities in the world. Some estimates say that upto 60% of the population’s faith has been influenced by Sufi rituals with millions of Sudanese identifying with this mystical form of Islam.

The photographs are reflective of the Sufi practices that are rooted in movement. Through Janka’s techniques of blur, stop motion and multiple exposure the images capture the embodied practice of spiritual gathering and trance. Janka also focuses on the objects of ritual that are used to adorn the pilgrims’ bodies and illuminate the ritual. The artworks often enmesh the spatial context of the place, the individual subjects and the material artefacts of the experience. His techniques thus amplify the connectedness between location, body and materiality rather than to objectify the sacred.

This meeting site of Halagat Zikr is also a resting place for ancestors where dhikr or forms of remembrance are conducted. In that continuity of connection, the series is dedicated to Ahmed, a dear friend that used to join Janka in the weekly sessions. May he rest in power with the ancestors and return to the Hadra.

Medium : Digital prints on photo rag

The inner circle does not have a door, and the point which is in the center is Truth/ The meaning of Truth is that from which externals and internals are not absent, and it does not tolerate forms.

Al-Tawasin

Oh Ahmed, in your highlife, remember us at the Hamad al-Nil cemetery in Omdurman, which has been facing the war bombardment since April 2023.

The film we started together is still a manuscript that has not been completed and will never be completed.

In the heights of your surroundings, our first joy was flying to another destination.

I would gamble with Allah with all of me to dices you through another game.

Or you may dice yourself, as usual, through another game.

The Noba drum voiced your heart that not left Hamad Al-Nile courtyard.

The city carpeted by our iron wheels,

I left after your passing in lean years

We debate a lot about the philosophy of Clumsiness, if any.

Is Hadara the clumsiness of the dervish, sir?

Elsadig Janka

0 The Path

الطريق

و قال لى القرب الذى تعرفه مسافة, والبعد الذى تعرفه مسافة, وأنا القريب البعيد بلا مسافة

محمد بن عبد الجبار النفري

The nearness which thou knowest is distance, and the farness which thou knowest is distance: I am the Near and the Far without distance

Muhammad ibn ‘Abdi ‘l-Jabbar al-Niffari: The Mawaqif and Mukhatabat

90 x 60 cm, 2016

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Ahmed My Beloved

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