War and the Destruction of Historical Records in the Sudans

In Sudan and South Sudan, irreplaceable antiquities and archives are being lost to civil war and state collapse. Khartoum’s National Museum — home to artifacts spanning five millennia — has been comprehensively looted and the Ethnographic Museum largely destroyed by fire, In South Sudan’s capital Juba, the National Archive, rescued from termites in the aftermath of the 1983–2005 civil war, faces renewed threat from a dysfunctional government, insurgency beyond the capital, and the near-total withdrawal of foreign aid. I’ll describe the conservation and digitization work I’ve been involved in with the South Sudan Ministry of Culture and the Rift Valley Institute, and reflect on the role of history and memory in the making — and remaking — of national identity in these countries.

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For more information, call 845-758-6822, or e-mail [email protected].

Time: 12:00 pm EDT/GMT-4

Location: Campus Center North 101

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