I returned from an extended Eid holiday last week. We stayed in Khartoum for the first day of Eid, sharing in Sudanese culture marking the end of Ramadan. After that we left for two weeks holiday in Europe, where I had the opportunity to re-immerse in my own culture. Cultures are important. They are the core of our beings as individuals and as communities. Learning to value the culture of others, as we appreciate our own, is not always easy but is at the heart of peaceful co-existence.
In Europe I enjoyed two cultural highlights:
The first was a visit to the Neues Museum in Berlin to see the Sudanese collection. The museum building itself has been wonderfully reconstructed by the British architect David Chipperfield. He preserved what remained from the old building that was badly damaged during the Second World War and rebuilt the rest in a related, simple, functional style. It is hugely effective.
Inside is the wonderful Egyptian and Sudan collection. The Sudanese collection includes a series of technically very fine and beautiful pots, the earliest of which pre-date Egyptian civilisation. It also includes some of the gold jewellery taken from the pyramids in Meroe. If ever anyone needed reminding of Sudan’s distinguished history and achievements this is a good place to start. I was not surprised to discover from the very distinguished curator who showed us the collection that most senior Sudanese visitors to Berlin put the Neues Museum on their “must see” list. The British Council is planning a major festival here next year to celebrate Sudan’s cultural heritage.
The other highlight was a week in Bayreuth to see the series of operas, called the Ring of the Nibelungen, written by Richard Wagner in the nineteenth century. Opera is part of the classic Western tradition, and for me is a rich art form which can communicate some universal human truths through the power of music and drama. With the Ring Wagner wrote a new type of opera, modelled on ancient Greek drama with a more balanced relationship between words and music. He built a theatre specifically to perform his operas, which is where the festival still takes place. The music is fantastic. The story was reworked by Wagner from German mythology. So there’s a lot of nonsense about magic, dragons and the like. But the underlying themes are still relevant. They are about power, about the legitimacy of rulers, the requirement of those in power to respect the laws and institutions by which they govern, and the corrupting influence of ambition and greed.
The story of the Ring ends with the waters of the river Rhine rising to flood the world, cleansing it for life to begin again. For me this was particularly ironic, for at the same time Khartoum and other parts of Sudan were being hit by the floods which have caused so much damage. I want to extend my sympathies to the relatives of the (mercifully few) fatalities and to all those who have suffered material loss. They include a number of staff in this embassy. I have been hugely impressed by the response of ordinary Sudanese people to the damage and suffering caused by the floods. They have gathered together, organised, and helped each other. This is culture too: The Sudanese tradition of Nafeer is as old as the artifacts that I saw in Berlin; and more powerful than any opera. I salute the efforts of ordinary Sudanese citizens who helped each other in their time of need.
Thank you for all your comments. As you say in different ways: culture is for everyone; it is about today and the future, not just the past; it is about the way we live our lives and is not confined to museums and opera houses.
Your Excellency Ambassador Dr. Tibber
am very proud of your article, really the culture is very important and it’s good to every one to know other culture and I hope you visit the sites of Sudan to know more about value cultures especial South Kordofan.
Thanks your Excellency for your caring about the Sudanese common issues .
Dear Mr. Ambassador
I do appreciate very much three points in this valuable essay.
1-That we received it in our E.M.as a serious consideration and appreciation.
2-The point that talking about:
(Cultures are important. They are the core of our beings as individuals and as communities. Learning to value the culture of others, as we appreciate our own, is not always easy but is at the heart of peaceful co-existence)
3-Tat the British council is planning to celebrate the Sudanese cultural legacy in the coming year. This great idea have a specially importance in identifying nations, and enhancing the cultural humanitarian links between them.
We are ready to cooperate.
Dear Your Excellency Ambassador Dr. Tibber
I have to say that I really enjoyed your wonderful article which sheds the light on our ancient and magnificent Sudanese Nubian culture. And I was really touched by your kind and warm words on the miseries caused by the recent floods in our beloved Sudan. Thank you so much Your Excellency for these kind words, and I think the role played by the British excavations and archeologists in the north of Sudan was hugely significant, and I; as a Sudanese citizen, I hope this role continues in the far future and extends for other domains in the same field, such as training programmes, scholarships, and so on.
Very interesting that Nafeer is included in the article. I loved this phrase :
“The Sudanese tradition of Nafeer is as old as the artifacts that I saw in Berlin; and more powerful than any opera. I salute the efforts of ordinary Sudanese citizens who helped each other in their time of need.”.
Thank you, indeed.
Thanks for your very thoughtful words Yr Excellency
I have been to the Berlin museum and still remember the splendour of the display.We are very proud of our history and thankful that British Archaeologists were in the forefront of excavations.On the 9 th of September the British Museum continues the tradition of Sudanese studies with a lecture about The Egyptians in Kush by Vivian Davies.On 3 July the Tate Modern held a retrospective Exhibition for Ibrahim ElSalahi whose paintings and drawings show that there is no contradiction between our Nubian past and out Islamic present.I believe that I saw either you (or your twin!)at the opening ceremony.
An aspect of Sudanese culture older than the pots the Ambassador saw in the Neues Museum is pastoralism. This way of life distinctive to the eastern Sahara region seems to have developed between 7000 and 5000 BCE with animals being domesticated and herded from lake to lake – a way of life that continues in Sudan today with important economic benefits for both Sudanese and South Sudanese.
On a different note, Concordis International has just finished a project (directed by Taghreed Elsanhouri and implemented with partners Nasaq Journalism Institute) in which Sudanese filmmakers have been trained in Atbara, Khartoum, Kosti and Port Sudan and have then produced documentary films highlighting aspects of contemporary Sudanese culture. The 8 films look at the influence of cinema, railway and the Red Sea on Sudanese life and follow individual stories relating to the separation of South Sudan, child labour, disability, divorce and schooling. Their purpose is to promote discussion about aspects of Sudanese contemporary culture and generate conversations that can produce healing of divisions in Sudanese society.
Yes culture is important and the wonder of Europe is that through the ages and up to the present Culture has been preserved and documented. culture becomes a living and restorative force when there is the freedom to excavate and to critically engage with it. In every society that critical engagement is the job if the artist. in Sudan in order to liberate culture from mere decoration we have to stop trying to control which aspects of culture to present to the world and which to brush under the carpet. Our culture belongs to all of us and silence and fear are oppressive and hold us back.
Mr. Ambassador Thank you very your good things in the right culture and civilization of Sudan is one of the oldest civilizations in the world and we are right now living the era of cultures and look where they complement our humanity and unite consciousness and lead us in the end to peace and acceptance of the other, and we hope you continue in our civilization and help keep them from extinction
Thank you
I would like to thank the ambassador for this wonderful subject and his continuances concern for the Sudan , he though of the Sudanese ancient nation compared to the Sudan of today . He expressed himself as a profficienal diplomatic man and you can feel his true felling towards the people of the NGO ,Nafeer and their fantastic way of helping people during and after flood ,I also admire the way of telling his story and how he spent a wonderful vacations visiting musium , enjoying nice Opera ,when you read this you feel as if you were with him enjoying that wonderful vacation ,I hope Mr.Peter you continue this diloge with people in Sudan and I will have the honor to be one of them.Thank you.
For some time now water scarcity and rarely its overabundance have impacted the Sudanese in many different ways. The tens of Sudanese youth who have recently drowned while illegally travelling from Indonesia to Australia attest to yet another aspect even deeper than the seawater that brought that end. Culture and suffering are two facets of human existence; the latter can only produce very few masterpieces while affluence leaves behind far greater monuments and fine arts.
Days ago Americans marked Martin Luther King’s historical speech, “I have a dream”. Why not make it more of a “global dream”? Let’s dream of a better Mother Africa where super powers lend the upper hand to assist to fire-fight conflicts, corruption and bad governance that, along with other issues, cause young people’s individual dreams to vanish into the blues (of sadness, seas and oceans).
Dear
Peter Tibber
G’day
It is my honour to contact you…diversity of the cultures of the peoples are the most enjoyable things that I love to sail..In the year 20003 and during my studies at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, I live near the British Museum, and I was a frequent visitor to the museum every day and enjoy its contents..Sudan’s rich human and historical heritage but documenting this heritage is a big problem..overall I would like to thank you for this article..Bregards
Dr.Daffalla A’lam Elhuda
Academy of Health Sciences
Federal Ministry of health
Khartoum / Sudan
Dear Peter,
Thank you for reminding us of the importance of culture; and of our ignorance of our own Sudanese cultural heritage. It was also a pleasure to have met you at the opening reception of Al Salahi’s exhibition at the Tate Modern on 2 July.
I am glad to note that you are also a ‘cultural ambassador’. That’s what we need in Sudan to help us disentangle our own cultural dilemmas. I hope to meet you soon to tell about the efforts we are exerting to digitize and archive Sudanese cultural heritage.
Nureldin