One Woman’s Journey
Liela Medani Tells the Story Behind Her Photo
Above, portrait of London-based Sudanese women’s activist and humanitarian, Liela Medani by award-winning photographer and cinematographer, Adam Docker. This contemplative, poignant work has been shortlisted for Britain’s largest annual photography exhibition; Portrait of Britain 2025, organized in partnership with the British Journal of Photography. Winning entries, to be selected in January next year, will be on public display across the country in digital form.
Liela’s portrait was taken during the final stages of shooting Liela’s Journey; a short documentary film directed by Tom Newman and produced by Fable for Waging Peace UK, and embedded below. The film recounts Liela’s hair-raising journey out of Sudan in the wake of the outbreak of war in April 2023. Her story is one shared by tens of thousands of Sudanese whose lives have been ripped apart by a brutal conflict.
This photograph is reproduced here with Adam Docker’s kind permission.
Above, Liela leading calls for an immediate end to the ongoing conflict in Sudan during International Women’s Day in London, 2024.
“Sudanese women are the core of both their families and their communities and when they take the initiative, when they believe in a cause, they will act. It only takes two or three courageous women to lead. It’s time for women to take the front seat and call for the end of the war. The pain of war is felt so keenly by women and peace can be restored by women; every wife, mother, sister, daughter, grandmother and aunt has a part.”
Liela Medani talking to Waging Peace.
One Woman’s Journey: Liela Medani Tells the Story Behind Her Photo
“I am counting the days and nights for the war to stop. Sudan has been erased, leveled to the ground but we will build it again.”
Liela has lived in London since the late 1990s and speaks of the city with great affection, feeling as much at home there as in her native Sudan. She is secretary general of the Sudanese Women’s Union UK and former vice chair of the Westminster Women’s Forum. I was lucky enough to meet Liela while she was collaborating with Waging Peace in their 2023 Peace by Piece initiative led by Sudanese women living in Britain.
The beautiful, handmade patchwork peace toub made in the Peace by Piece initiative has emerged as a powerful symbol of hope and unity among the sadly, now increasingly divided Sudanese diaspora. It became the centre piece of International Women’s Day march for peace in Sudan held by Waging Peace supporters in March 2024. The toub was recently displayed as part of The Imperial War Museum’s Unsilenced; an exhibition exploring the impact of sexual exploitation in war.
When I asked Liela what was going through her mind when the photo was taken, she told me “The photo was taken in the sitting room of my humble flat. I wasn’t actually thinking about the camera lens on me because I was absorbed in all my memories of that time, trying to remember all the details, recalling the scene of the journey out of Sudan and having to leave my family in the midst of the horrors of war; not knowing what would happen to them. Having to say goodbye to my brother as he returned to Sudan, after he had accompanied me to the border and not knowing if I would ever see him again or not. All these bitter memories running through my mind while I was answering Tom Newman’s and Adam’s questions.
I never thought that the image would be of any interest to anyone. It was the last thing on my mind, I just saw it as a part of the story records. I was so surprised and taken aback when I found out later that the photo had been entered in the competition and short-listed for an award – something that had never occurred to me in my wildest dreams. But it happened and I am very grateful to everyone for giving my story extra dimensions. It’s nearly three years since the war broke out in Sudan and and I still can’t see my family. We are now scattered between Egypt and Sudan and I am just praying for the best to come soon. For peace to prevail in my country. God bless us all.”
Above left, Liela at the International Women’s Day march, London 2024. Above right, a work by Sudanese artist Rana Altahir, who speaking on what drove her to make this image, explained “Sudanese women, no matter their age, deal with a real fear of violence and assault – a fear that’s worse than even the fear of death.”
See more in Unsilenced and Still Time to See!
The Peace by Piece Toub held aloft outside the Houses of Parliament.
Liela’s Journey; A Waging Peace Documentary
“I love my family, I love Sudan, I love London.” Liela Medani, speaking in Liela’s Journey.
In April 2023, Liela was in Omdurman, celebrating Eid with her extended family at their Omdurman home; a celebration shattered when war broke out in the capital. “There was no water, no electricity, shelling every day, looting … no bread … they shot the milkman,” Liela calmly recalls. In the 20-minute documentary embedded below, Liela recounts her long trek across Sudan from Omdurman, via Wad Medani, Gadarif and Gallabet to the Ethiopian border. Accompanied by her brother, Liela braved checkpoints manned by RSF, curfews, mud and rain as they journeyed through territory where there was “no safety no security, no government.”
Liela’s testimony is that of so many Sudanese forced from their homes, their families uprooted and dispersed, often struggling to eke out a living abroad. But it is also one of resilience and hope. The documentary was selected for the Activists Without Borders Film Festival and in August won best short film at Luleå International Film Festival Sweden.
Watch the film here:
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Women's literacy in Sudan 