To speak of a country or land of the sun in reference to Salah Elmur’s paintings is to immerse oneself in the Sudan of Khartoum and the banks of the Nile, where the artist spent his childhood. It was after a spell in prison for a cartoon that was too critical of the government that Salah Elmur had to leave Sudan for Kenya in the 1990s, before settling in Egypt years later following his marriage. In Egypt, Elmur perceives echoes of Sudan: both countries are deeply bound by colonial history and the shared British and Egyptian domination over his people.
