Panel discussion: «Sudan archives and Nubiology in times of war». September 8, 2023.

Podcast:
2023 marks the 60th anniversary of the start of the collaboration between the University of Bergen and the University of Khartoum. The humanities have been a central part of this collaboration, and historians, archaeologists, and philologists alike have worked, to various degrees, in the field of Nubiology—the study of Nubia.

In Bergen, the study of these people’s past has resulted, among others, in the most complete corpus of written sources concerning ancient Nubia, the Fontes historiae Nubiorum. Moreover, rich archival material has been assembled as part of the Sudan Collection, of which the University of Bergen is immensely proud. Such archives play a crucial role, given the situation on the ground in Sudan and the risk of the loss of its cultural heritage as yet another casualty of the war that broke out in April 2023.

On September the 8th 2023 at Bergen Global, a panel of Nubiologists discussed the Sudan archives and Nubiology in a hybrid event, looking both to the past - the formation of the archives and the history of Nubiology - and to the present and future, which are being determined by the 2019 revolution and the 2023 war.

Listen to the informative and thought-provoking discussion, and read the full transcription below.

Panelists:
1. Cornelia Kleinitz, Research Associate for sub-Saharan Africa at the Commission for Archaeology of Non-European Cultures (KAAK) of the German Archaeological Institute, Guest researcher at Humboldt University, Co-Director of the Humboldt University Archaeological Mission to Musawwarat es-Sufra, and Curator of the Sudan Archaeological Collection and Archive at Humboldt University, Berlin.

2. Sami El Amin, director of antiquities of Sudan’s Northern Province, responsible for the National Corporation for Antiquities and Museums archive.

3. Artur Obłuski, professor at Warsaw University, president of the International Society for Nubian Studies, director of the Polish Centre of Mediterranean Archaeology.

4. Mohamed Farouq Abdelrahman Ali, Chief Executive Officer of the American Sudanese Archaeological Research Center, Okwui Enewzor postdoctoral fellow at the Africa Institute in Sharjah, UAE.

5. Henriette Hafsaas, head of research, Volda University College.

Chair: Alexandros Tsakos, senior academic librarian, University of Bergen.