I am a diasporan Armenian from London. I studied History (BA) and Security Studies (MSc) at University College London, focusing on diasporas and their relationships with ‘host’ and ‘homeland’ societies. My Mother is from the Armenian community in Sudan. Her grandparents migrated to Sudan from the Armenian Highlands as a result of the Genocide of the Armenians and other ethnic groups by the Ottoman Empire that formally started in 1915. Despite adapting to life in Sudan, my family maintained their Armenian way of life, speaking Armenian, attending church, and preserving cultural traditions from the homeland that were passed down and shaped through generations.

The stories I heard of the community painted a picture of a cosmopolitan Khartoum, where Armenians lived harmoniously among other cultures and thrived in commerce, centering their community life at the Armenian Church and the Armenian Club. However, as Sudan transitioned through British colonial rule, independence, political upheavals, revolution and civil war, the circumstances for the community changed with most Armenians emigrating to the Global North from approximately 1970 onward.

The Sudanese-Armenian community is little known about and often overlooked in narratives about the Middle Eastern Armenian diaspora. On many occasions when Sudanese-Armenians tell people they are “Sudanahye” (Sudanese-Armenian), the response is often one of surprise: “Sudan! Hon al hye ga?” (Sudan! There are Armenians there too?).

As the years pass, the stories of this community fade from memory and risk being lost forever. With the onset of the war and humanitarian crisis in Sudan in 2023, this project was conceived of to document the history of the community and contribute to the wider mission of preserving Sudanese and Armenian cultural heritage respectively.

sudanahye is a multimedia research project, utilising different mediums to be accessible to all. Furthermore, it aims to document the social and cultural history of the community, to reflect the communities Sudanese and Armenian elements how closely intertwined a diaspora community’s life is to the host country.

By harnessing the memory of a more harmonious and pluralist past, this project seeks to re-imagine the Sudanese-Armenian community within contemporary Sudanese social and cultural contexts and foster positive narratives for Sudan’s future via artistic mediums.

We would love to hear from you! If you’d like to contribute, learn more or discuss this project, please get in touch.