Sudan

We have been working in Sudan for the past decade, delivering workshops and training courses, in partnership with the National Museum of Sudan, to help build skills and capacity in all aspects of digital media, including filmmaking, photography, archiving and museum services.

Since 2018 we have been working on the ‘Western Sudan Community Museums‘, a ground-breaking initiative funded by the British Council and the Aliph Foundation. We are working in collaboration with Kings College London, Cambridge University, ICCROM, the Sudanese Ministry of Culture and Mallinson Architects, to refurbish 3 regional museums; in El Obeid (in the Southern state of Khordofan), Omdurman (to the North of Khartoum) and Nyala (in South Darfur). All three museums are in areas that have suffered from decades of neglect and regional conflict.

The project is focused on developing a community-based approach to cultural heritage, bringing together local communities to conserve, share and celebrate their cultures. The three museums are owned and managed by the communities, who collaborate across ethnic and cultural divides to define each museum’s agenda, content and priorities. The museums have become thriving cultural hubs; at the centre of a network of outreach, working with community groups, artists, musicians, dancers, schools, colleges and universities.

Our role is focused on developing media content for the museums, training and mentoring a team of Sudanese filmmakers and photographers to document and celebrate the rich and diverse cultures of these regions. In each of the museums we have installed bespoke, interactive cinemas, showing a selection of 52 films that had been made by our teams, some of which incorporate colonial archive film (from the Durham University Sudan Archive) that dates from the 1940s and 50s and have not been seen in Sudan before. Examples of the films and photography created for the project can be seen on the links below.

Dancers at a Rezeigat tribal gathering in South Darfur.

Sunrise at a waterhole in the Khordofan desert, South of El Obeid.