{"id":46862,"date":"2025-04-21T10:49:56","date_gmt":"2025-04-21T07:49:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/?p=46862"},"modified":"2025-04-21T10:49:56","modified_gmt":"2025-04-21T07:49:56","slug":"the-ruins-of-the-sudan-national-museum-madness-has-its-methods","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/2025\/04\/21\/the-ruins-of-the-sudan-national-museum-madness-has-its-methods\/","title":{"rendered":"The Ruins of the Sudan National Museum: Madness Has Its Methods"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Abdullah Ali Ibrahim<\/strong><\/p>\n

Summary<\/p>\n

The destruction of the Sudan National Museum is madness\u2014if you will. And madness, as Shakespeare said, has its methods, which we attempt to uncover here.<\/p>\n

If the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) claim the Sudan National Museum is “Nubian and pagan,” then why did they also destroy a site that embodies their own Arab-Islamic identity\u2014the Khalifa Abdullah House Museum, which commemorates the Mahdi of Sudan\u2019s successor? They even stripped it of all its possessions, including \u201cEmir Osman Digna’s prayer beads and Emir Abu Girja\u2019s sword.\u201d<\/p>\n

After the RSF occupied the Sudan National Museum in June 2023, a soldier appeared in a video pointing to its ancient \u201cpagan\u201d statues from pre-Christian eras, saying, \u201cThese statues don\u2019t represent me. I don\u2019t belong to them. What represents me is not here.\u201d
\nThe video became something of a dark comedy when the soldier pointed to the mummies and said, \u201cThese are victims of the remnants. They killed their enemies and hid them here.\u201d Comical or not, the video reignited the unresolved debate about Sudanese identity in relation to the country\u2019s cultural diversity\u2014an issue we\u2019ll explore in this piece.<\/p>\n

Another video, released after the Sudanese Armed Forces recently recaptured the museum, showed a museum almost entirely emptied of its over 100,000 artifacts, save for some heavy stone statues. The so-called “secure room” was destroyed, and its stored golden artifacts were looted entirely. The looting was facilitated by the fact that most of the museum\u2019s contents were already boxed up for scheduled renovations. Mummies dating back to 2500 BCE were dragged from their preservation coffins and discarded in the exhibition hall. As the narrator put it, \u201cThey smashed artifacts they saw no value in and burned others.\u201d<\/p>\n

A French archaeological team, using satellite imagery, tracked the artifacts being loaded onto three trucks, which then drove out of Sudan, with South Sudan mentioned by name as a destination. Soon after, artifacts attributed to Sudan began appearing on online marketplaces like eBay, though authentication was lacking. Experts note, however, that it\u2019s unlikely such stolen antiquities will enter the market quickly. European archaeologists and two other organizations have since begun monitoring for looted Sudanese artifacts and working to preserve Sudan\u2019s heritage digitally.<\/p>\n

Fortunately, international laws offer some protection. The UNESCO 1970 Convention prohibits illicit trafficking in cultural property. The International Council of Museums\u2019 \u201cRed List\u201d protects endangered cultural property, and looted items are entered into Interpol\u2019s art crime database. Recently, UNESCO\u2019s executive board pledged comprehensive support to Sudan in culture and media, and cooperation with Interpol to recover stolen artifacts. There is precedent\u2014UN Security Council Resolution 2099 (2000) banned trade in Iraqi and Syrian artifacts, prompting several nations to return stolen items.<\/p>\n

One observer called the museum\u2019s destruction \u201can attack on Sudan\u2019s collective memory.\u201d True\u2014but the idea of a “collective” Sudanese memory has long been contentious, fueling political strife for decades. Destroying the museum is a form of madness\u2014but, again, as Shakespeare said, madness has its methods. The RSF soldier\u2019s remark about the absence of Arab-Muslim identity in the museum reflects those methods, justifying their destruction of the museum as irrelevant to their own cultural narrative.<\/p>\n

Another RSF supporter mocked critics of the museum\u2019s destruction, arguing that \u201cthese artifacts are from ancient Nubians on the Nile and have nothing to do with us. We are Arabs descended from Junayd, the forefather of the Baggara people of Kordofan, Darfur, and Chad\u201d\u2014a group widely seen as the RSF\u2019s base. He declared they would instead erect a statue of Junayd in downtown Khartoum. As for the statue of the Nubian King Taharqa, \u201cit\u2019s gone to Chad forever,\u201d he claimed.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s striking is that these RSF forces who destroyed the \u201cNubian pagan\u201d temple also looted a museum dedicated specifically to their own Arab-Islamic identity\u2014the Khalifa Abdullah House Museum. The voice in the video of its destruction said even Emir Osman Digna\u2019s prayer beads and Emir Abu Girja\u2019s sword were stolen. \u201cThis museum,\u201d the voice added, \u201cwas built by the British in 1928, the same British who killed the Khalifa and crushed his state in Omdurman.\u201d<\/p>\n

Where did the RSF learn these \u201cmethods of madness\u201d used to destroy temples and sacred sites? Who inspired them?<\/p>\n

This leads us to a long-running discourse around Sudanese identity\u2014a conversation that has unfolded not just over decades, but often under the shadow of violence. Since 1956, the central government in Khartoum, especially during the Islamist \u201cSalvation State\u201d (1989\u20132019), imposed a dominant Arab-Islamic identity on the nation, marginalizing other identities. Complaints have ranged from the dominance of Arabic in education and media, despite Sudan\u2019s 100+ languages, to favoring ties with Egypt over Chad. The government\u2019s commitment to the Palestinian cause was seen by some as irrelevant to Sudanese citizens.<\/p>\n

Even the school textbook for primary reading features the Northern camel\u2014a bizarre creature to children in camel-less regions of Sudan. People have even protested why palm trees dominate Khartoum\u2019s cityscape while many other native trees are ignored.<\/p>\n

This cultural imposition bred resentment in the periphery and contributed to Sudan\u2019s ongoing conflicts. Researcher Chouhary Mohamed Mahmoud argued that Sudan\u2019s cultural diversity should be understood not as mere plurality, but as a form of grievance\u2014a consciousness of wasted abundance. If this grievance were properly channeled, it could guide political vision. But it was instead exploited by Arab-Muslim left-liberal elites at the center, as noted by researcher Abeer Mohamed Khair in her PhD thesis \u201cThe Politicization of Ethnicities and Its Impact on National Security\u201d (1989\u20132020).<\/p>\n

Of course, addressing marginalization inevitably involves politics. But there is a difference between politicizing grievances and opportunistically exploiting them for temporary gains. Abeer rightly blamed this exploitation on elite failures to build institutions that could address identity conflicts. Stripped of their traditional political arenas, these elites sought refuge in identity grievances\u2014not as awareness, but as a tool to confront regimes.<\/p>\n

They also embraced critical race theory, emphasizing minority identities oppressed by a dominant majority. While beneficial for marginalized groups, this approach often sidelined shared history and aspirations for unity. One American philosopher lamented that liberalism failed to offer a hopeful vision for national unity, retreating instead into identity silos. As he put it, liberals \u201cburrowed into caves they dug for themselves, when they could\u2019ve stood atop a great mountain\u201d\u2014the nation itself.<\/p>\n

Ironically, this identity-driven agenda resembles the colonial-era British \u201cClosed Districts\u201d policy, which isolated Southern Sudan, the Nuba Mountains, and the Blue Nile to prevent their \u201ccontamination\u201d by Arab-Islamic culture. The British feared these regions would be culturally \u201cviolated\u201d like Northern Sudan, and instead promoted Christian missionary traditions and local customs. Much of today\u2019s marginalization stems from those very colonial policies.<\/p>\n

Scholar Kamal Osman Salih noted how Nuba youth lost military advancement opportunities due to British fears of Arabization through military service. The British banned them from the army and denied them national competition\u2014not out of concern for their progress, but to protect them from Arabization.<\/p>\n

The Sudan National Museum is the \u201cgreat mountain\u201d to which the cave-dwelling soldier brought his resentment\u2014resentment that failed to rise to an awareness of the mountain, or the desire to hang his own cultural banner alongside others. No agreement between Sudan\u2019s center and its peripheries has ever avoided the tension between the mountain and the caves. Even the 2020 Juba Peace Agreement, between the transitional government and Darfuri armed groups, featured demands to appoint their representatives to govern Khartoum itself\u2014as if the capital belonged to them alone, regardless of democracy.<\/p>\n

Perhaps the ultimate \u201ccave-without-a-mountain\u201d moment is Abdulaziz al-Hilu\u2019s quasi-state in Kauda, Nuba Mountains, established in 2011. In his view, either the mountain accepts secularism\u2014or he abandons it entirely.<\/p>\n

The destruction of the Sudan National Museum is, indeed, madness\u2014if you choose to see it that way. And, as Shakespeare said, \u201cThough this be madness, yet there is method in\u2019t.\u201d We have tried here to uncover that method.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Abdullah Ali Ibrahim Summary The destruction of the Sudan National Museum is madness\u2014if you will. And madness, as Shakespeare said, has its methods, which we attempt to uncover here. If the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) claim the Sudan National Museum is “Nubian and pagan,” then why did they also destroy a site that embodies …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":13023,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-46862","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-opinion"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46862","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46862"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46862\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":46863,"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46862\/revisions\/46863"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13023"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46862"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46862"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46862"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}