The Last Efendi is a long-term project inspired by my late father’s notebook, which I discovered inside his personal briefcase when I returned to our home in Khartoum after two years of displacement caused by the 2023 war in Sudan. The diary traces the daily life of my father, a Sudanese sailor, moving between African, Asian, and European cities and ports during the 1970s–1990s, a period when Sudan held a strong presence within global maritime routes.

The project also represents an attempt to understand my relationship with my father, the questions that remained unanswered after his passing, and to comprehend myself within a new reality shaped by war and displacement. The project is an interplay between the personal and the historical, between family memory and a national memory that is being erased. At its core, The Last Efendi is a reflection on what loss leaves behind—a nation that has lost its maritime structure, a generation that has lost its stability, and an individual trying to hold on to a memory that is fading.

(An ongoing project)

The Last Efendi | أفندي الأخير