الأرشيف في السياق السوداني

Introduction:
The absence of documentation has led to the burial of many historical narratives that emerged in the Sudanese context. This absence has created a kind of opacity in the vision toward history and the lives of different communities in Sudan, which has contributed to the reinforcement of certain narratives or perceptions, some of which may be accurate while others are mistaken. This has resulted in continuous confusion in understanding Sudan as a “we” that thinks independently and belongs to its context.
Certainly, the responsibility for archiving falls on the modern state. However, we are dealing with a context in which the state emerged as an “imposed” formation within society. This has reinforced specific techniques and methods in enforcing documentation, preserving information, and reproducing it in history. The policies of modernity have contributed to the alienation of institutions concerned with archiving from the context of society, confining them to the “official” narrative. This creates a gap between the archiving institutions and the society, which operates at a high level of oral tradition and keeps memories and tales within the bounds of social narratives.
Politics and history in Sudan have been marked by continuous conflict and significant attention. We are still in a country where its history is shaped by ongoing conflict, meaning we are facing a canvas whose elements are formed by the blood of its children. This is evident in the fact that the moments when history ends and begins are always moments of conflict and struggle. This conflict is not just about history, its form, or who committed the sins of the moment, but also about documenting it and the space in which it is preserved. Perhaps the moment of April 15 was the harshest on the memory and archive of the Sudanese people, and on their personal archiving practices created away from modern institutions. The war and displacement to safer areas destroyed the archives of families who kept the memory of the city.

The Article:
This article attempts to explore the archive in the Sudanese context in terms of its formation and institutions. It starts from the hypothesis that the Sudanese archive is approached from the concept of “conflict and contention,” where narratives are built around it from a position of division and fragmentation. There is no common space for the archive that represents a unit where people, whether communities or the state and even those who work on it, can meet.

This claim may seem extreme, but it stems from the reality of what we feel in our social context and institutions and their connection and effectiveness within society. Therefore, these claims portray the archive as a “strange” concept within our context. However, we find a kind of authenticity in our institutions concerned with archiving. Despite the neglect they have faced, they still resist in a context of war that devours history.

Where We Find the Sudanese Archive:
We can find the Sudanese archive in its official form in several governmental institutions that are maintained by the government and reflect the development of the state’s official memory. Despite changes in governance, these institutions have preserved their existence, particularly in 2023, when the state declared that the year 2023 would be the Year of Museums.

The National Records House holds 3 million historical documents pertaining to Sudan’s history and also the history of major families in Sudan. These documents date back to distant periods of Sudan’s social history and include documents related to some Islamic kingdoms in the centuries preceding the formation of the modern union.
The establishment of the Sudanese National Records House dates back to 1916 when the British administration considered creating an office dedicated to collecting and organizing financial documents to facilitate the administration of a vast and sprawling country. The scope of interest in collecting and organizing papers expanded in the early 1920s to include judicial papers and correspondences. In 1948, the British administration in Sudan established the Sudan Archives Office and entrusted its management to a committee called the Sudan Archives Committee. This institution, in addition to collecting official documents, also focused on gathering private documents that were in the possession of individuals and families.
We also find that there is an aspect of archiving that has been preserved at the museum level. The Sudanese governments have worked on building museums, and although limited, they have paid attention to the matter of archiving. The state has attempted to construct its historical narrative through the issue of museums. There are currently 24 existing museums and 8 proposed ones in Sudan. Numerous historical literature have addressed this issue. Here, we want to focus on the most important museums that contain significant features of Sudan’s social and political history.

National Museum of Sudan in Khartoum, Sudan:
This is one of the largest museums in Sudan, located on Nile Street next to the Friendship Hall, with its main entrance facing the Blue Nile, just before the confluence of the two Niles. Preparation for the opening of this building began in the 1960s, and the museum was officially opened in 1971. It contains artifacts from all periods of Sudanese civilization, from the Stone Age to the Islamic period, including Nubian and Christian antiquities.

Presidential Palace Museum:
One of the important museums in Khartoum, it contains historical artifacts from the Presidential Palace, the seat of government in Sudan, spanning the successive historical periods of modern Sudan. The museum also includes various other archaeological and heritage artifacts. It is the first museum of its kind dedicated to the belongings of Sudanese rulers from 1884 to 2007. It was officially opened on December 31, 1999.

Khalifa House Museum:
Located in Omdurman in an area rich with artifacts from the Mahdist state era, this museum was formerly the residence of Khalifa Abdullah al-Taashi, the successor to Imam Muhammad Ahmad al-Mahdi, the leader of the Mahdist revolution. The building was constructed in 1887 by the Italian architect Pietro, and an attached two-story section was added in 1891. The house was converted into a historical museum in 1928. It contains many rare artifacts from that era, as well as artifacts dating back to before the Mahdist state.

The Lost Artistic Archive:
While the state has attempted to create an official narrative through museums and the National Records House, there is another archive that exists in a blind spot of official history. This archive appears as a blind spot because it is present within the official analysis of history but is treated as a pre-existing given, i.e., it is classified outside the framework of the artistic archive.

Researchers of Sudanese visual arts divide its levels into two: the first is called “primitive” art, while the other can be termed academic or modern art, which is associated with official institutions that teach arts. The point of distinction between them is the role of café art in the early 1930s in enriching local culture and transforming it from being practical arts that meet daily needs, such as making hand fans, mats, napkins, and traditional beds, to incorporating a new element into collective consciousness—framing art for the purpose of beauty. Some of its most famous pioneers include Ali Osman Ali (1895-1945), Mustafa Al-Arifi (1898-1979), and Musa Qasim Said Kazam, known as Juha.

Abdullah Bula might disagree with what can be called primitive art because he believes that any work done with human awareness, such as the making of traditional footwear and currency, is fundamentally an artistic process. This is because it is based on a prior understanding of history, society, and the human experience of creating art as a concept connected to life.

The academic art introduced by British colonialism dealt with art as a field of education and learning, giving the school/institution an official status. This implies that an important aspect of the social dimension related to visual arts was marginalized. This part, the so-called primitive art, represents a vital social memory and embodies a social reality that has developed and interacted to form within a dynamic social framework.

Perhaps it is this detachment on which the modern artistic institution in Sudan has often relied, working to create a space between the present and the past, giving the future a form of complete separation from their interaction. Thus, the idea of the loss and disappearance of the archive begins with understanding the interaction between society and artistic production with its official institutions.