The podcast Folktales from Sudan launched its second season on 20 June 2026, featuring brand new audio stories from Sudanese folklore for children and their families.
New stories include a clever girl named Filayfla whose bright ideas save her family, a mean Sultan with a secret who learns a big lesson, fairies, ghouls, princesses, queens, and, by popular demand, more animal tales with sly foxes, tricky jackals, and a very spoiled frog diva named Bantar. Plus, as is customary in Sudanese folktales, plenty of fun chants and songs to sing along with.
Folktales from Sudan first launched on 1 April 2025 by award winning Sudanese-American public radio journalist Hana Baba. It is a series of sound-designed audio stories that revives the cherished oral storytelling traditions of Sudan. This first of its kind series is a translation of stories originally told in Sudanese Arabic, and is an invitation to global listeners, children and adults alike, to experience a culture they may have only heard about through news headlines.
Since its debut in April 2025, the series has enjoyed much success recognised by The Podcast Academy’s Ambie Awards as a ‘2026 Best Podcast for Kids’, and by the Global Leaders Institute as a project that ‘advances innovation through creative practice.’ It has been featured on global media outlets such as NPR, BBC, OkayAfrica, AfroPop and more.
Listeners from 134 countries downloaded the podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and YouTube. According to Baba, listenership is the biggest success. “People comment and email me, saying things like ‘I’m not Sudanese but my spouse is, we have a child, and these stories allow us all to enjoy his culture,’ or ‘I’m a war refugee and I don’t know when we will ever go back to Sudan – thank you for bringing Sudan to us,” said Baba.
According to Baba, the Sudanese diaspora has made up a large part of the audience, and making these stories accessible in both English and the Sudanese Arabic dialect has also attracted a global audience with no connection to Sudan.
Baba has also launched a live show element, performing the folktales live, with Sudanese musician accompaniment, at festivals, schools, and libraries. “And that’s a big part of what this project seeks to do,” says Baba, “to also be in real life, out and about, meeting kids and telling these magical stories they have never heard, from a part of the world they have most probably never encountered in storytelling, and witnessing live Sudanese musician playing the oud in front of them, while they sing along. It’s really a magical experience!” she said.
As for adults, Baba says, the project is valuable because it brings a cultural appreciation for a country they mostly hear about in news headlines related to war and poverty. “Those are our truths, but it’s also true that we are a vibrant culture with a rich heritage that deserves to be experienced and appreciated. Our story is not only one of struggle and destruction. It is also a story of joy, light, art and vitality,” Baba says.
The series takes on added urgency amid Sudan’s ongoing war that began in April 2023, killing hundreds of thousands of people, and displaced millions who are now in diaspora. The war has devastated Sudan’s physical cultural institutions, destroying libraries and archives, but the intangible collective memory of oral traditions is also at risk with so much displacement. With Folktales from Sudan, Baba seeks to share the stories with the world, and protect these invaluable pieces of heritage.
The series is available on YouTube with animation and Baba’s storeytelling. The artwork is by Sudanese-Australian illustrator Waddah El-Tahir and the music is by Sudanese-American media composer Ramy El Baghir.
Folktales from Sudan is available on all major platforms.
