SSSUK 2026 Symposium - tickets now on sale!

The SSSUK Symposium and Annual General Meeting will take place at SOAS on Saturday 21 November 2026. Full details of the programme will be released soon but some highlights are summarised below.

Tickets are now available on Eventbrite!

This year's symposium presentations will include:

• Impact of War on Heritage – Ismail Hamid

• The Nilerian Script – Mawan Muortat

• Sudanese Anthropology in Exile from the War of 2023: a 2026 Report from Cairo – Janice Boddy and Ellen Gruenbaum

• Community Peace Carrier: the civil capital forged by war – Dr Mekki Elshibly

• Sudan's Digital Paradox: digital food assistance as a tool for saving lives, exploitation, or waging war – Susanne Jaspers

• Digital Rights and Justice – Asil Sidahmed and Alex Darby

• History of German-Sudanese Relations – Roman Deckert

The symposium will also feature cultural performances.

Venue: Brunei Gallery Lecture Theatre, School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), Thornhaugh Street (off Russell Square), London WC1H 0XG. 

The Symposium is open to all so please spread the word! The AGM is also open to all to attend, but only members may vote.

Sudan Studies #74

Issue #74 of the journal will be published in July and hard copies should arrive in members’ mailboxes in early August. Here is the table of contents. A digital edition will be available to members on this website shortly.

Urgent Concern about new UK Visa Policy for Sudanese Students

We write to express our concern and dismay about the Government's statement of 4 March 2026. The statement declared that visas will not be issued for students from Afghanistan, Cameroon, Myanmar and Sudan, on account of what it calls widespread abuse, namely students from these countries lodging asylum claims.

The UK and Sudan have a long and deep, mutually beneficial history of educational ties and exchange, dating back to colonial times. Maintaining this relationship could not be more important than in the present circumstances. The war that erupted in Sudan almost three years ago has devastated the country's education sector. Millions of Sudanese children, youth, and young people are facing an uncertain educational future, making them and the country ill-prepared for the task of post-conflict reconstruction to come.[1] Offering British education for Sudanese students, rather than cutting it off, should therefore be a policy imperative at a time of utmost need.

Doing so aligns with the FCDO's stated commitment to assist the people of Sudan. As the UN Security Council penholder on Sudan, the UK's conduct carries considerable weight. Effectively banning students from studying in the UK sends the wrong message, to the Sudanese and to the world at large, on how the UK responds to the war and views the Sudanese people. It is a discriminatory and disproportionate response to the 120 Sudanese students who reportedly claimed asylum last year, up from 90 the year before, out of over 4 million Sudanese refugees worldwide.[2]

Many Sudanese students are recipients of scholarships which demonstrates their potential. They and their families frequently have to make considerable sacrifices to enable them to study in the UK, which Sudanese still value as a destination for higher education. Seeing letters that are circulating in which applications by Sudanese students for Chevening Scholarships have been terminated following the announcement is heartbreaking and unconscionable. It runs contrary to the spirit of the programme which is intended "to enable outstanding emerging leaders [and to] build lasting positive relationships with the UK".[3]

SSSUK therefore calls on the UK government to lift the visa ban for Sudanese students. At the very least, it should provide visas for students on schemes like Chevening and university scholarships. SSSUK also urges the Government to take proactive steps to enable young Sudanese to exercise their right to education, to prepare themselves for the future challenges their country faces, and to contribute to maintaining and strengthening the long-standing relationship between the two countries and its peoples in the field of education.

SSSUK Committee

7 March 2026

enquiries@sssuk.org

The Society for the Studies of the Sudans UK (SSSUK) is a UK registered charity that promotes the study and understanding of South Sudan and Sudan in all their aspects, serving as an important forum for exchange and learning between the UK and the Sudans.

[1] 'Case Study: Current Education Situation in Sudan', ERICC Helpdesk report by Rebecca Glade and Ahmed MS Elbashir, May 2025 (accessed 6 March 2026); and ' Universities under siege: The impact of the Sudanese war on the sustainability of higher education in Sudan', by Mohd Elmagzoub Eltahir, Osman Sirajeldeen Ahmed, Asma Sirageldin Ahmed, Emad Eldin Omer, Journal of Adult and Continuing Education, 16 October 2025 (accessed 6 March 2026).

[2] Figures on the numbers of Sudanese Study Visa holders making applications for asylum are taken from Home Office press pack 'Notes to editors', 3 March 2026, accessible online on Politics UK. 'Sudan Regional Refugee Response Plan 2026 - At a Glance', available on the UNHCR Operational Data Portal (accessed, 6 March 2026).

[3] Chevening, the UK government’s international scholarships and fellowships programme, Scholarships website page (accessed, 6 March 2026).

Showing of the film 'Khartoum', 14 February 2026 - with review

Join us in person to watch this award-winning film, followed by a discussion. Money raised above costs will be donated to HAS. 

The showing will take place at the Lucas Lecture Theatre at King's College London on Saturday 14 February at 4pm. Please arrive on time.

Khartoum: five lives, one city, a nation at war

Native Voice Films & Sudan Film Factory with BBC Storyville, GISA Productions, Ayin Network, XTR

A civil servant, a tea lady, a resistance committee volunteer and two street boys. Five stories from Sudan weave together in search of freedom through animated dreams, street revolutions and a war from the metropolis of Khartoum to escape in East Africa.

A film by Anas Saeed Rawia Alhag Ibrahim Snoopy Timeea M. Ahmed with Yousef Jubeh & Phil Cox.

In 2022, four Sudanese filmmakers and a British writer-director began filming the everyday lives and dreams of five very different residents of Khartoum. Street boys Lokain and Wilson scour a garbage dump so they can buy two beautiful shirts; tea seller and single mother Khadmallah diligently studies maths so she can start her own business; Resistance Committee volunteer Jawad protests against the military regime; civil servant Majdi escapes office life by racing pigeons with his son. When filming begins, they are all living under a military regime that had recently overthrown the civilian government in Sudan. A short time later, the regime splits and a war begins between the military and the Rapid Support Forces militias that displaces more than ten million people. The filmmakers and their protagonists, too, are forced to flee to East Africa. Using animation, green screen reconstructions and dream sequences, they find alternative ways to tell their stories. The result is an emotional, lyrical portrait of five people from Khartoum at a key moment in African history.

Where : Lucas Lecture Theatre, Strand Building, King's College London WC2R 2LS 

When : Saturday 14 February at 4pm

Price : Tickets are £10 and are available on Eventbrite

SSSUK would like to thank Almas Art Foundation and King's College London and its volunteers for their help supporting this event. The showing is a part of Almas Art Foundation’s Voices and Visions of Sudan film programme.

Download the flyer

Review

SSSUK was proud to host a showing of the film 'Khartoum' at King's College London on Saturday 14 February. SSSUK would like to thank Almas Art Foundation and King's College London and its volunteers for their help supporting this event. The showing was a part of Almas Art Foundation’s BFI and National Lottery-supported Voices and Visions of Sudan film programme. There's a short survey the British Film Institute would like people who attended to complete so they can extend these kinds of programming.

The film and a short video piece by co-Director Ibrahim Snoopy were followed by a general discussion, led by Chairperson Aziz Magid. Guest speakers also said a few words - Marilyn Deegan, about the Sudan Memory project, and Giel Malual, about his and John Kuei's Long walk of freedom for Sudan, funding education for refugees fleeing the war. 

Comments after the film included: "I thought it was brilliant in its apparent simplicity ... the way it depicted the heartfelt truths of the people in it ... I was absolutely blown away by the effects. Uncomplicated but so deeply affecting and powerful. Amazing!"; "I especially valued that the film presented real facts about the war in Sudan".

Costs having been deducted, £1,245.92 was raised from ticket sales and donations through Eventbrite. This has been donated to Humanitarian Action for Sudan. Such a sum will fund around 1,500 food baskets (lentils, sugar, oil) which HAS help provide in multiple places across the country, including Darfur, Kordofan or East Sudan. You can read HAS' information on its activities here. Congratulations to all who purchased a ticket and made a donation! 

More events are being planned by the SSSUK Committee and members and we'll be in touch with more details soon.

Sudanese Arabic dictionary and linguistic research resource, by James Dickins

We are delighted to publish here on the website a longer version of Professor James Dickins’ article about Sudanese Arabic that recently appeared in our journal Sudan Studies. The article promotes online resources that are now freely available online.

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​​1. History of the project 

This article discusses an Arabic-English Sudanese Arabic dictionary and linguistic resource which I recently put up on the internet: https://www.phil.muni.cz/linguistica/dickins/. Both the dictionary and the linguistic resource are open for anyone to use (subject to the standard academic acknowledgement of the source of the material). I hope that they will be of use to learners of Sudanese Arabic as well as those with an academic research interest in the language.  

In 1982, I began a Sudanese Arabic dictionary project with Robin Thelwall, at that time a Lecturer in Linguistics at the University of Ulster. I had previously taught English at Gezira Aba Higher Secondary School for Boys between 1980 and 1980, having studied Arabic at Cambridge University before that. The dictionary project began on card files but in 1984 I was able to transfer the material to a VAX mainframe computer at the University of Ulster. The main initial sources of the dictionary material were Hillelson (1930), Awn Alsharif Qasim’s (1977) Arabic-Arabic dictionary, and the vocabulary at the end of Persson and Persson (1980). 

I subsequently returned to Sudan to do linguistic fieldwork in 1985 and 1986, and was able to check dictionary material with a friend of mine Ali Al-Rashid Al-Amin and other Sudanese who kindly helped me. The dictionary then lay dormant for many years, until I was able to revive it in the early 2000s when I was a lecturer at the University of Durham. During this period, I was able to transfer the dictionary material from a very large magnetic tape, via the University of Durham computer system to an Excel file, the format which it is still in today. I was then able to start adding further material to the dictionary. 

In 2005, I was able to return to work on the dictionary more seriously, and in 2005 and 2006, working with a linguistic consultant, Elrayah Abdelgadir – then a lecturer in Arabic at the University of Marseilles – we were able to revise the entire dictionary. Since then, I have continued to work on the dictionary, and following my recent retirement, I hope to further develop it. I welcome collaboration with any other researchers who would like to join me in this project. 

2. Outline of the dictionary and linguistic research resource 

This is a downloadable Arabic-English – and, by extension English-Arabic – Sudanese Arabic dictionary and linguistic research resource. I will, for brevity, subsequently simply refer to it as Sudanese Arabic dictionary (or just ‘dictionary’, where this is appropriate). The dictionary is in Excel format and covers principally what I have elsewhere referred to as Central Urban Sudanese (e.g. Dickins 2023), i.e. the dialect of Khartoum and other urban areas of central Sudan. The information given in the Sudanese Arabic dictionary goes beyond traditional dictionary material, including, for example, also searchable and sortable morphological and semantic-field analyses. The dictionary can accordingly be used as a resource for linguistic research. 

I thank the following, in particular, for their work on this project: Elrayah Abdelgadir (dictionary consultant, 2005 and 2007), Ali Al-Rashid Al-Amin (dictionary consultant, 1985, 1986), Ashraf Abdelhay, Asjad Saeed Awad Alhassan, Mohammed El Shazali, Taj Kandoura, Tarig Rahma, Yousif Elhindi, and Abd El Matallab Fahal. Many other people, not named here, have also contributed, and I thank them also. This is a work in progress, and , as noted, I intend to continue adding further to the dictionary. 

If you have any comments on the dictionary or would like to contribute to it (by correcting errors, providing new words and phrases, etc.), or if you would like to discuss how to do linguistic research using the dictionary as a resource, please contact me on email: J.Dickins.leeds@outlook.com. You are also welcome to use the dictionary as a linguistic resource without contacting me. If you use this dictionary in your research, please reference it as:  

Dickins, James. 2025. Sudanese Arabic dictionary and linguistic research resource. https://www.phil.muni.cz/linguistica/dickins/ 

3. Downloadable documents 

All the downloadable documents are available from the following site: https://www.phil.muni.cz/linguistica/dickins/. They are as follows: 

1. The Sudanese Arabic dictionary 

2. The details of the transliteration system and other symbols (the ‘coding’) used for the dictionary. 

3. The semantic-field classification adapted from the McArthur Lexicon of Contemporary English, used for the dictionary. 

4. Extended Version of Rank Frequency List: Spoken English, from Frequencies in Spoken and Written English (Leech, Rayson and Wilson 2001) with semantic-field categories added for all entries. 

 All these documents are discussed in more detail in subsequent sections. 

4. Sudanese Arabic dictionary 

The dictionary attempts to cover the basic vocabulary of Sudanese Arabic by including Sudanese Arabic equivalents for almost all the vocabulary items found in Rank frequency list: spoken English from Word frequencies in written and spoken English (Leech, Rayson and Wilson 2001: 144-180). It also includes many other Sudanese Arabic words and phrases. As noted in Section 2, the dictionary can be downloaded from: https://www.phil.muni.cz/linguistica/dickins/ 

The dictionary is in Excel spreadsheet format, presented as an Arabic-English dictionary, ordered according to the traditional root system for Arabic dictionaries. For readers not familiar with the root system of Arabic, the following provides information: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semitic_root 

Reflecting the fact that this is a work in progress, there is some repetition of material in the dictionary. At various points, too, question marks have been added to reflect the fact that some of the information (e.g. some English equivalents of Arabic entries) needs to be checked further. 

The Excel format of the dictionary allows the reader to order the material in various ways (alphabetically on English entries, alphabetically on Arabic entries, by root, etc.). It also makes it possible for the reader to extract information of significance for linguistic research into Sudanese Arabic, e.g. morphological information or semantic-field information, and to cross-classify different kinds of information.  

The dictionary contains the following information fields (columns):  

Column A: Basic line number 
Column B: English entry  
Column C: Arabic entry 1 - basic 
Column D: Arabic entry 2 - secondary  
Column E: Word class (basic syntax, etc.)  
Column F: Verb morphology 
Column G: Non-verbal and deverbal morphology 
Column H: Plural noun/adjective morphology 
Column I: Style and regional usage 
Column J: Semantic field 
Column K: Root - 1: according to the traditional Arabic root system 
Column L: Root - 2: roots with root letters converted to numbers, for sorting 

These categories are discussed further in the next section. 

5. Dictionary ‘coding’: transliteration system and other symbols 

As noted in Section 2, the details of the transliteration system for Sudanese Arabic and the other ‘coding’ used in the dictionary can be downloaded from: https://www.phil.muni.cz/linguistica/dickins/ Note that spelling adopted for Sudanese Arabic forms is roughly a transliteration from Arabic rather than a transcription – i.e. the English forms correspond to Sudanese Arabic spellings (as normally found in dialect writing), rather than corresponding more directly to the phonology or phonetics of Sudanese Arabic. 

The fact that I started working on this project on a VAX mainframe computer (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VAX) in 1984, which had rather limited options in terms of line-length, column-length and available symbols explains some of the annotation decisions which I took. 

6. Semantic-field categories  

The semantic-field classification used for the dictionary (Column J) is adapted from the McArthur Lexicon of Contemporary English (McArthur 1991), and as noted in Section 2 can be downloaded from: https://www.phil.muni.cz/linguistica/dickins/. The Excel format of the semantic-field categorisation allows for sorting and extraction of information according to the following categories:  

Column A: Primary category 
Column B: Secondary category 
Column C: Tertiary category 
Column D: Coding of category 
Column E: Word class   

7. Extended Version of Rank Frequency List: Spoken English  

This is a basic English vocabulary list taken from Frequencies in Spoken and Written English (Leech, Rayson and Wilson 2001), with the semantic-field categories in the McArthur Lexicon of contemporary English added for all list entries. It was used to try and cover the basic vocabulary of Sudanese Arabic in the dictionary. This list is based on the British National Corpus. Information about the corpus and electronic versions of frequency lists derived from it can be found at: http://ucrel.lancs.ac.uk/bncfreq/  As noted in Section 2, the Extended version of the rank frequency list: spoken English can be downloaded from: https://www.phil.muni.cz/linguistica/dickins/ 

The Excel format of the Extended version of the rank frequency list: spoken English allows for sorting and extraction of information according to the following categories:   

Column A: Rank frequency order 
Column B: Non-lemmatized head [as given in Leech, Rayson and Wilson 2001] 
Column C: Lemmatized headword [i.e. standard dictionary-type headword] 
Column D: McArthur category 
Column E: Word-class 
Column F: Rounded word frequency (per million word tokens) in speech 
Column G: Log likelihood 
Column H: Rounded word frequency (per million word tokens in writing) 
Column I: Source of information (given throughout as WoFreSpoWriEng)  

I thank Geoffrey Leech, Paul Rayson and Andrew Wilson, copyright holders of Word frequencies in spoken and written English, for permission to reproduce their material. 

8. Using the Sudanese Arabic dictionary as an Arabic-English dictionary 

The Sudanese Arabic dictionary can be used as an Arabic-English dictionary in two ways. 

8.1 – by using the Arabic root to find Arabic headwords 

If you know the root of the Arabic word, you can search on Column K ROOT -1: according to the traditional Arabic root system using the ‘text filter’ function, to look up this root. (For details of how to search on Excel using ‘text filter’, see: https://www.exceldemy.com/text-filter-in-excel/.)  For the root <sm9, for example, this gives the following results: 

8.2 – by using an individual Arabic word to find relevant Arabic entries 

If you know the word simi9, for example, and want to find out its meanings, you can use Column C Arabic entry 1 to search for this word. This gives the following results: 

Searching for a specific word in Column C may, as in this case, give some results in which the root listed in Column K, (ROOT -1: according to the traditional Arabic root system) is not the same as the root of the word which is searched for.

9 – Using the Sudanese Arabic dictionary as an English-Arabic dictionary 

The simplest way to use the Sudanese Arabic dictionary as an English-Arabic dictionary is to search on Column B English entry. So, for example, searching on Column B for all entries which contain obey gives the following results: 

Sometimes, however, this approach yields many irrelevant results. Take the case of looking for Sudanese Arabic equivalents of English hear. Searching on Column B for all entries which contain ‘hear’ (i.e. this string of letters) yields numerous results, the first twelve of which are: 

None of these initial results are relevant; they all, in fact, involve heart, rather than hear (the string of letters ‘hear’ is, of course, found in heart as well as hear). There are various ways to get round this. One is to identify the major cause of the problem – in this case the word heart – and remove this from the search items by doing a search on Column B for all entries which contains hear but do not contain heart. This yields the following results: 

This list is not without its problems. For instance, it includes the irrelevant words shear and shears. However, in the main the words in the list involve hear, and the relevant information can be easily found. 

 Another way of getting round having too many irrelevant results from searching for words which contain a string of letters, e.g. ‘hear’, in Column B English entry is to do this search first and then within it, do a second search in Column I Semantic field. So, if we first do a search on Column B English entry for all the entries which contain ‘hear’ and we then do a further search on Column I Semantic field for the McArthur Lexicon of contemporary English category [F272] hearing and listening, we get the following results, all of which are relevant: 

10. Using the Sudanese Arabic dictionary as a thesaurus 

To find words belonging to a particular semantic field, search in Column J Semantic field using the relevant McArthur Lexicon of contemporary English category. Thus, for example, the McArthur category [K055] amplifiers and microphones gives the following results: 

11. Using the Sudanese Arabic dictionary as a research resource 

There are many ways in which the Sudanese Arabic dictionary can be used as a research resource. I will consider one example in relation to the morphological pattern fa9laan. This is encoded in Column G Non-verbal and deverbal morphology as [401  ]. A search on Column G for this gives numerous results, of which the following are examples: 

The standard plural for words on the fa9laan pattern in Sudanese Arabic is -iyn, notated as [f  ] in Column H Plural noun/adjective morphology; talfaan ‘worthless’,  plural  talfaaniyn. There are some fa9laan words, however, which also have the plural fa9aala, notated as [061 ] in Column H. An example is ta9baan ‘tired, weary, exhausted’, plural ta9baaniyn or ta9aaba. Having searched for [401 ] in  Column G Non-verbal and deverbal morphology, all the fa9laan form having the plural fa9aala can be found by then searching for [061 ] in Column H. This yields the following list: 

In fact fa9aala plurals of fa9laan forms all seem to have a generalised and relatively abstract meaning. Thus ta9aaba people are not simply people who are tired, but those who have been worn down by life. sakaara (plural of sakraan ‘drunk’) are not simply drunk people but drunkards. kasaala (plural of kaslaan ‘lazy’) are people who are habitually lazy. (This information is not included in the current version of the dictionary, but I hope to include it in a later one.) 

We can also look at fa9laan forms in terms of their semantic fields. The easiest way to do this is (having searched for all the fa9laan forms in Column G) to use Sort A-Z on Column J Semantic field. This shows that fa9laan forms have senses belonging to a number of semantic fields. For instance, the following fall under McArthur’s category [B096] Bodily states and associated activities - not showing energy: 

The following fa9laan forms fall under McArthur’s category [F104] angry and annoyed: 

The following fall under McArthur’s category [L173] ending things: 

It would also be possible to investigate further aspects of fa9laan forms.  For example, most of them have related fi9il verbs as can be seen by comparing them with verbs from the same roots (fi9il verbs are notated as [01i  ] in Column G Verb morphology). It would also be possible to investigate the syntax of fa9laan forms by analysing the information for them in Column E Word class (basic syntax, etc.). I am happy to discuss possible research avenues with any researcher who would like to make use of this dictionary. 

References 

Dickins, J. 2023. ‘Definiteness, pronoun suffixes, genitives and two types of syntax in Sudanese Arabic’. In Journal of Semitic Studies. 68:2, pp.  679-712.  https://doi.org/10.1093/jss/fgac035
Hillelson, S. 1930. Sudan Arabic: An English-Arabic vocabulary. London: Sudan Government. 
Leech, G., Rayson, P., and Wilson, A. 2001. Frequencies in spoken and written English (Longman, 2001) 
McArthur, T. 1991. Longman lexicon of contemporary English. London: Longman. 
Persson, Andrew, and Persson, Janet P. with Hussein, Ahmad. [1979] 1980.  Sudanese colloquial Arabic for beginnners. Horselys Green: Summer Institute of Linguistics. 
Qasim, Awn Alsharif. 1977. qāmūs al-lahja l-ʕāmmiyya fi-s-sūdān (2n. Cairo: al-maktab al-miṣrī al-ḥadīṯ. (قاسم، عون الشريف. 1985. قاموس اللهجة العامية في السودان. القاهرة: المكتب المصري الحديث) 

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James Dickins was Professor of Arabic at the University of Leeds, UK until he retired in Sept. 2023. He has a BA in Arabic and Turkish from the Univer sity of Cambridge (1980) and a PhD in Arabic Linguistics from Heriot-Watt University (1990). He taught English at a government secondary school in Sudan from 1980 to 1982, and lived in Yemen between 2000 and 2001, and Oman between 2024 and 2025. He has taught Arabic and Arabic>English translation at the University of Cambridge, Heriot Watt University, and the universities of St. Andrews, Durham, Salford and Leeds. His publications in clude Extended Axiomatic Linguistics (1998), Standard Arabic: An Advanced Course (1999, with Janet Watson), Thinking Arabic Translation (2002; 2nd edition 2016, with Sandor Hervey and Ian Higgins), Sudanese Arabic: Phonematics and Syllable Structure (2007), and Thematic Structure and Para-syntax: Arabic as a Case Study (2020); and Sudanese Arabic Dictionary and Linguistic Resource: https://www.phil. muni.cz/linguistica/dickins/, Sudan Revolution Archive: Songs, Chants and Poems of the 2018-19 Sudanese Revolution (2024): https://sudanarchives.wordpress.com/, as well as. He is currently finishing off a book entitled Decline and Fall of the Case System and Construct State in Arabic.

This article, the Dictionary itself and related linguistic resources are also all available at Linguistica.

Second statement on the war in Sudan

Readers will need no reminder that the war has now been raging in Sudan for two years. Like many we made a plea at Eid two years ago that the combatants draw back from disaster and end the war. This Eid, with great sadness, we urgently repeat our plea. Those risks we identified in 2023 - of countless lives lost, of critical infrastructure destroyed and heritage institutions damaged and looted - all these have come to pass in almost every region of the country. The war is also now destabilising neighbouring countries, such as South Sudan, millions have been displaced from their homes, a growing famine threatens further devastation, and a generation's education and promise of a fulfilling future is at risk.

What we could not fully anticipate in 2023 was the resilience and bravery of extraordinary ordinary civilians in communities across the country who have taken on the duties of responsibilities of the state themselves, feeding the hungry, healing the wounded and the sick, and teaching the children. We pay tribute to all those working and sacrificing for others amidst all the danger and destruction and equally underscore the need for their protection from harm. Together they represent a precious victory for humanity that will be remembered for generations.

SSSUK is a non-governmental charitable organisation with a Sudanese, South Sudanese and international membership; our members seek to make the history and culture of Sudan and South Sudan better known and understood. Our Society continues to stand back from engagement in politics, but we again take this moment of Eid to encourage belligerents to pause and look for political solutions; only these will end this war and create a sustainable peace. Recent developments on the ground seem to trend toward more clearly demarcated zones of military control. A resultant breathing space from the fighting may ensue, and in which case we strongly urge each side to seize the moment to engage with the civilian organisations who have sustained Sudan’s citizens through the long war, and set out a pathway towards civilian rule that offers hope to a nation and its friends abroad. 

Sudan has a rich history and diverse and resilient cultural traditions that have and can again sustain peace in disturbed times. As we celebrate Eid we ask you to pray for peacemakers and for peace.

Eid Mubarak.

SSSUK members visit the British Museum

On Wednesday 19 February 2025, thirteen members of the Society were treated to a tour of the British Museum’s Sudanese collections by Dr Zoe Cormack, Curator (Africa), and Dr Loretta Kilroe, Project Curator (Sudan and Nubia). Our two knowledgeable and gracious hosts brought members to library and collections rooms where they were able to examine Nubian, South Sudanese and Darfurian materials that are not on public display.

A stunning example of what they showed us was a Kerma beaker made of smoke-fired clay around 1500 BC and excavated near Dongola.

Kerma ware pottery jar, black-topped with everted rim, 1750BC-1450BC (Classic Kerma period) (EA55426) © The Trustees of the British Museum. Shared under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) licence.

Another exquisite item was made by the Azande at some time before 1867: a leaf-shaped, delicately incised woman's iron and copper knife, intended to be worn on the arm.

Woman's knife worn on arm, currency (?) made of iron, copper, 1867 (or earlier) (Af.4460) © The Trustees of the British Museum. Shared under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) licence.

Some of the most interesting materials were not necessarily the most beautiful or interesting to look at; only when one knows their purpose and backstory can one appreciate their significance. For example, Zoe showed the group what she called one of her own favourite objects from South Sudan: a divination stone or rainmaking pebble, made by the Bari people some time before 1905.

Other humble, everyday objects included a clay coffeepot or jubbana from northern Sudan, dating from the mid-nineteenth century — one of many such coffeepots in the British Museum’s collections.

Coffee pot with handle; made of red earthenware. Incised decorations around the neck, 1867 (or earlier) (Af.4432) © The Trustees of the British Museum. Shared under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) licence.

Loretta explained the significance of a striking Meroitic pot, from the kingdom of Kush (c.570 BC–AD550), which has a pattern of giraffes incised in the clay. She recently published an article about such giraffe motifs in the Journal of African Archaeology. Since giraffe imagery does not seem to have been prevalent in the “high” or elite culture of ancient Egypt and Nubia, she suggests that this pot and others like it may have reflected a popular religious culture that prevailed among Kushite women especially.

Black burnished jar from Faras with impressed giraffe decoration, c.570 BC–AD 550 (Meroitic) (EA51502) © The Trustees of the British Museum. Shared under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) licence.

Also displayed was a woollen loin-cloth dating from between 600 and 850 CE and excavated from a burial at Kulubnarti, an island in the Nile about 100 miles south of the Egyptian border. In that period, the Nubian community at Kulubnarti was part of the Christian kingdom of Makuria.

Woven loin-cloth made of natural undyed wool, light tan in colour, excavated at Kulubnarti, Sudan, 600 × 950 CE (Early Christian Period). Originally, this was a fine garment with very even spinning and weaving. (EA77321) © The Trustees of the British Museum. Shared under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) licence.

Several visitors later spoke about how inspiring the day was: “Brilliant! I came away energized and bursting with ideas;” “very interesting and useful”. We send our deep thanks to Loretta and to Zoe for giving so much of their time and expertise during the visit.

We hope to be arranging more such visits to Sudanese collections for members so please keep an ear out for any new updates.

'The Evolution of Modern Medicine in the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan 1924-1956', by Dr Tarik Elhadd

A full recording of the event at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), where Dr Tarik Elhadd's book was launched, on 9 December 2023.

Dr Elhadd’s book is about the evolution of modern medical practices in the Sudan including curative medicine, public health, medical research, and education. It covers an important era from 1924, when the first medical school in the country was inaugurated, up until the Independence of Sudan in 1956. The Sudan, known during this period as the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan was not officially a British colony. The British came during zenith of the 'Great Scramble for Africa' and Kitchener's appeal for the Gordon Memorial College set the platform for modern education in the Sudan, and following his demise, his call to establish a medical school in the country was heeded. The medical school inaugurated in 1924 became the third of its kind in Africa, which helped the mesh of expanding the service to remote parts of the country. The author and translator of more than seven books on the history of Sudanese medicine walks us through a comprehensive and authoritative description of the formative years of the Kitchener School of Medicine, events, dates, progress, and role in the foundation of almost all healthcare institutions. In addition, the book analyses the evolution of Sudan's medical services, teaching, training, and research. - Professor Ahmed El Safi, Sudan Medical Heritage Foundation

From Christian missionaries working within the colonial project of civilizing the natives, to the training of doctors, nurses and midwives who came after them, the author, a medical doctor himself, offers a coherent narrative supported by detailed historical events, and punctuated by gripping life histories of both pioneer European and Sudanese doctors.

2023 Symposium

The 2023 SSSUK Symposium and AGM took place at the Brunei Lecture Theatre, SOAS, London, on Saturday 16th September.  See details of the programme here.  Thank you to all our speakers and participants, as well as the SOAS Centre for African Studies! Here are the presentations given on the day.

Justice after Serious Violations and International Crimes Committed in the War in Sudan

Dr Mohamed Abdelsalam Babiker and Dr Lutz Oette

Elections in South Sudan: a pathway out of Transition?

Dr Jan Pospisil

Panel:

Politics in the Sudan

The Changing Political Map in Sudan: the case of the ‘mainstream’ parties, the Umma and the DUP

Dr Abdelsalam Sidahmed

Political Parties and the Quest for a National Project

Ali Abdel Latif

Prof. Peter Woodward, Discussant

The Making of South Sudan’s Borders.

Featuring Dr Leben Moro and the late Dr Leonard Logo Mulukwat. A film by Florence Miettaux.

South Sudanese Women’s Traditional Roles and Empowerment in History.

A film by Florence Miettaux.

Abiol Deng, Discussant

Academics or Researchers at Risk in Sudan

If you are an academic or researcher now at risk due to the fighting in Sudan the following two support schemes may be useful:

• Council for At-Risk Academics https://www.cara.ngo

• Institute of International Education https://www.iie.org/crisis-response/

Statement on the war in Sudan

The Society for the Study of the Sudans UK (SSSUK) notes with sadness and alarm the ongoing extreme violence in Sudan, where infighting between military factions has caused the death of many innocent civilians and threatens the destruction of the cultural heritage and institutions throughout the country, including desperately needed healthcare facilities.

SSSUK is a non-governmental charitable organisation with a Sudanese, South Sudanese and international membership; our members seek to make the history and rich culture of Sudan and South Sudan better known and understood.

Our Society stands back from engagement in politics, but the combatants’ complete disregard for the lives and property of civilians across Sudan and the real threat of the war spreading further demand a concerted international response. Therefore, we join the United Nations and peaceful Sudanese people around the world in calling for an immediate ceasefire to enable a return to civilian government of the country. This is a time to unite to remember all that is good about Sudan and to hope, work and pray for a better future.

Eid Mubarak.

'River Spirit', by Leila Aboulela. Book launch, with Lutz Oette and Fergus Nicoll

Monday, 5.00-6.30 on 6 March 2023 at DLT, Main Building, SOAS. Free admission.

Leila Aboulela, hailed as “a versatile prose stylist” (New York Times) has also been praised by J.M. Coetzee, Ali Smith, and Ben Okri, among others, for her rich and nuanced novels depicting Islamic spiritual and political life. Her new novel is an enchanting narrative of the years leading up to the British conquest of Sudan in 1898, and a deeply human look at the tensions between Britain and Sudan, Christianity and Islam, colonizer and colonized. In River Spirit, Aboulela gives us the unforgettable story of a people who - against the odds and for a brief time - gained independence from foreign rule through their willpower, subterfuge, and sacrifice.

When Akuany and her brother Bol are orphaned in a village raid in South Sudan, they’re taken in by a young merchant Yaseen who promises to care for them, a vow that tethers him to Akuany through their adulthood. As a revolutionary leader rises to power - the self-proclaimed Mahdi, prophesied redeemer of Islam - Sudan begins to slip from the grasp of Ottoman rule, and everyone must choose a side. A scholar of the Qur’an, Yaseen feels beholden to stand against this false Mahdi, even as his choice splinters his family. Meanwhile, Akuany moves through her young adulthood and across the country alone, sold and traded from house to house, with Yaseen as her inconsistent lifeline. Everything each of them is striving for - love, freedom, safety – is all on the line in the fight for Sudan.

Through the voices of seven men and women whose fates grow inextricably linked, Aboulela’s latest novel illuminates a fraught and bloody reckoning with the history of a people caught in the crosshairs of imperialism. River Spirit is a powerful tale of corruption, coming of age, and unshakeable devotion – to a cause, to one’s faith, and to the people who become family.

Revolution! Sudan's Struggle for Lasting Democracy

On 5th May 2020, SSSUK hosted an online event covering the 2018 Sudanese revolution and the prospects for lasting democracy in the country.  The event featured Dr Magdi El-Gizouli, Mr Ali Abdel Latif, Prof Jok Madut Jok and Dr Willow Berridge. It was moderated by Dr Abdel Azim Al Hassan.

The SSSUK Symposium 2019: a video record

SSSUK's 2019 Annual Symposium took place on 7th September in the Brunei Lecture Theatre, at SOAS, London. Many of the presentations were about the 19th December revolution in Sudan. Here are video recordings. (Video by Moniem Ibrahim.)

Welcome from the SSSUK Chairperson, Gill Lusk.

The role of the Sudanese diaspora in UK in the 19th December revolution: reflections, challenges and the way forward.  Dr Amira Osman, Research Fellow, University College London; Sudanese Women’s Union UK and Ireland. Introduced by Charlotte Martin, Editor of Sudan Studies.

Panel:

Health

Chaired by Dr Rebecca Bradshaw, Archaeologist, Member of SSSUK Committee

Health outbreaks in Sudan: social injustice that led to political change. 

Dr Sara Ibrahim Abdelgalil, consultant paediatrician; President, Sudan Doctors' Union (SDU) UK; UK Spokesperson, Sudan Professionals' Association (SPA).

Silence in Blue: Campaign against sexual violence used in Sudan to crack down on women’s resistance. 

Dr Sara Beleil, consultant psychiatrist; SDU UK Academic Secretary.

Sudan revolution art: a project by the SDU UK to promote healing after the Khartoum massacre. 

Dr Nada Kamal: consultant microbiologist; Deputy Academic Secretary, SDU UK.

Panel:

The state of higher education in Sudan post-30 June 1989

Chaired by Dr Fergus Nicoll, Mahdiya historian and BBC World Service

The state of higher education in Sudan post-30 June 1989.

Selma Elrayah (Masters in Life Long Learning, London University; worked in London public libraries for over 20 years).

The state of higher education in Sudan post-30 June 1989.

Asim Salem, Committee, Khartoum University Alumni Association UK.

Introduction of SSSUK's new President, the novelist Leila Aboulela.

Sudanese women's aspirations and challenges for effective political participation.

Dr Suad Musa, PhD Peace Studies, Bradford University, researcher and activist in development and gender. Chair: Mawan Muortat, South Sudan political analyst; SSSUK Deputy Chairperson.

Panel:

Politics

Chaired by Gill Lusk, SSSUK Chairperson, writer on Sudan.

Challenges facing the new transitional government.

Dr Rosalind Marsden.

Sudan's future: The rationale and regulation of militias and the political process.

Dr Mohamed Elansari Ali, Head of UK Chapter, National Umma Party; Head of Foreign Affairs, Sudan Call UK office.

The Sudanese revolution: The way forward. 

Rashid Sidahmed Elsheikh: Political Activist, Sudanese Communist Party; researcher in Cultural Policy; Poet.

A Perspective from the diaspora.

Afia Abusham, British-Sudanese actress recently returned from Sudan.

The revolution will be televised, versified, sung, chanted, worn and painted: art as mobilisation in the 2019 Sudanese revolution.

Dr James Dickins, English teacher, Sudan, 1980-82; Professor of Arabic, Leeds University.

Introduced by Dr Abdel Azim El-Hassan, journalist, economist, SSSUK Committee.

Tribute to Dr Amin Mekki Medani

Dr Amin Mekki, the respected lawyer and human rights campaigner, passed away on 31st August 2018. We post here video clips of tributes paid to him at SSSUK's Annual Symposium held at SOAS, London, on 22nd September.

Introduction and tribute by Lutz Oette.

Tribute by Najlaa el Khalifa.

Data Privacy Policy

See SSSUK's new Data Privacy Policy, complying with the UK's General Data Protection Regulation.

Return of Carlo Acefalo

Work by SSSUK member Ricardo Preve led to the return to Italy of a submariner's remains, in a ceremony at Port Sudan on 19th April 2018. Carlo Acefalo died in 1940 on the barren Red Sea island of Barra Musa Khebir after escaping from a sinking submarine with fellow crew members (see Sudan Studies No. 53).

A moment during the excavation and filming on Barra Musa Khebir, October 2017

"Tomba Carlo Acefalo" - The grave of Carlo Acefalo on Barra Musa Khebir (Sudan) with (left to right ) Dr Matteo Borrini (forensic anthropologist), Ricardo Preve (expedition leader and producer of the documentary "Coming Home"), Dr Cosimo Giachetti (archeologist). The remains are in the box in the foreground, covered by the flag of the Italian Navy.

Turning over the remains of Carlo Acefalo to the Red Sea State. Preve and Borrini at the hand over of the remains to the Governor of the Red Sea State on October 9, 2017, Port Sudan.

Italian Ambassador in Sudan Fabrizio Lobasso receives the remains of Italian sailor Carlo Acefalo, who died on the island of Barra Musa Khebir in the wreck of the submarine "Macalle" in 1940, from the Red Sea State Governor at a ceremony in Port Sudan, April 19, 2018. Society member Ricardo Preve led the 4-year process of identifying and recovering the remains.

'Abroma to Ziziphus and Beyond' by Mary L. Keenan

SSSUK member Mary Keenan's new book is now out: Abroma to Ziziphus and Beyond: Forests, Surveys, Rivers and Roads of the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan 1899-1956. Mary writes: 'The book took six years of research into hundreds of Official Documents, Government Reports, Intelligence Reports, Sudan Gazettes, Staff Lists, Forestry Reports, Expeditions, Diaries, and much more'. For further details see the flyer.

Reports on Sudan/South Sudan Seminar Series 2015/16

The Sudan/South Sudan Seminar Series 2015/16 was run jointly by SSSUK and the Centre for African Studies (CAS) at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), London. Reports are now available on each of the seminars:

• Monday 16th November 2015: Arms and the men: Who sells weapons, who uses them, who is killed by them

• Monday 7th December 2015: Agricultural potential in the Sudans: Past experience and future outlook

• Monday 11th January 2016: Telling the story their way: The arts and social action in the Sudans

• Monday 15th February 2016: The use of law as an instrument of power in Sudan and South Sudan

The general flyer for the series is here.