Drawing on the Sudan Memory project, the report explores how digitisation can inform efforts for safeguarding cultural heritage from areas of conflict.
The report, Digital heritage preservation for vulnerable collections: Reflections on the Sudan Memory project history and inventory, was authored by Dr Laura Gibson, Senior Lecturer in Digital Content Management Education at King's, alongside Sara El-Nager, Independent Researcher and Editor, and Dr Hannah Ishmael, Lecturer in Digital Culture & Race. It draws on 14 interviews conducted by Sara El-Nager with contributors to the Sudan Memory project, the first mass digitisation project ever undertaken in Sudan.
Since 2013, Sudan Memory has digitised around 148,000 items of Sudanese cultural heritage, including photographs, manuscripts, museum objects, audio and film, and a 3D interactive model of the historic Suakin Island. Led by Professor Marilyn Deegan, Department of Digital Humanities-KCL, alongside Sudanese and international partner institutions, Sudan Memory has received funding over the years from the British Council, Aliph Foundation, and, most recently, from the Arcadia Fund. The project has taken on new significance since war broke out in Sudan in April 2023, with looting and destruction affecting institutions including the National Museum and Khalifa House Museum.
This project was so important to us to work on because, at a time when growing international conflict and the accelerating impacts of climate change are placing cultural heritage at increasing risk, the experiences of Sudan Memory offer important insights into how digitisation projects can help protect vulnerable collections, knowledge, and memory for future generations. For Sara, as a Sudanese citizen, there is also a deeply personal commitment to keeping these memories alive for her family, friends, and fellow Sudanese people.
Report authors - Dr Laura Gibson, Sara El-Nager and Dr Hannah Ishmael
The report sets out five key recommendations for institutions undertaking digitisation in crisis contexts: foregrounding training and mentoring so that local capacity outlasts funding cycles; building trust with collection holders from the outset, particularly around ownership and access; designing projects to be flexible, mobile and decentralised in anticipation of instability; capturing oral histories and contextual metadata alongside tangible objects; and adopting a 'good enough' standard of digitisation shaped by context rather than idealised technical benchmarks.
Given Sudan's current situation, with destruction and loss of historical sites, digitisation has become even more critical. If our physical collections are lost, at least we will have digital records to rebuild from.
Dr Ikram Madani Ahmed, Director of the Natural History Museum, University of Khartoum
Documentation is not just about objects. It's about people, places, and everyday life that might disappear.
Issam Hafeiz, Photographer and Private Collection Owner
The research was funded by the Thematic Impact Fund, part of the AHRC Impact Acceleration Account at King's.
It's great to see the AHRC Impact Acceleration Account being used to preserve history and culture for future generations - accounts that would otherwise be lost to war. This project brings together expertise from within and outside the university to show how expertise from the digital humanities, conservation, history and lived experience can be brought together to protect vulnerable and important heritage artefacts and accounts.
Professor Elizabeth Scott-Baumann, Pro-Vice Dean (Research Impact & Knowledge Exchange, Faculty of Arts and Humanities)
The authors hope the report's recommendations, grounded in the Sudan Memory experience, will support cultural heritage institutions and agencies working with at-risk collections in other conflict and crisis settings, and contribute to future efforts at transitional justice and post-conflict reconstruction.
You can read the full report, Digital heritage preservation for vulnerable collections: Reflections on the Sudan Memory project history and inventory, and find out more about the Sudan Memory project, at sudanmemory.org.
Sudan Memory
The Sudan Memory project is a collaboration between King's College London and conservation associations and seeks to conserve and promote valuable cultural materials from and about Sudan through digitisation and via an online platform.
