"You may serve as an interpreter, but your true calling is to teach', one of my Chinese professors at the University of Khartoum once told me," recalls Albadawe Abdalla, now a doctoral candidate at Tsinghua University's School of Humanities.

After graduating from Khartoum's Chinese Language Department in 2010, he went on to lead the department from 2015 to 2017, before coming to Tsinghua — one of China's most esteemed institutions of higher learning. He did so to study with a scholar specializing in 20th-century Chinese political, literary and philosophical history, a period Abdalla finds especially meaningful, "because of what my country is living through today".

Nearly two and a half years after conflict first erupted in Khartoum on April 15, 2023, and quickly spread across Sudan, Abdalla, 42, is returning to his teaching post — online. Resuming his role as head of the Chinese Language Department, he now offers virtual classes to students eager to continue their studies, regardless of the war.

"With our country facing immense challenges, a teacher can expect little in the way of financial reward. Badawi (Albadawe) had already served as the department head — he doesn't need the title to enhance his resume. He does it purely out of love and a deep sense of responsibility toward the younger generation of his country," says Omer Mustafa, 30, who once studied under Abdalla at the University of Khartoum.