1963: The Barth era

The close collaboration with the University of Khartoum is the University of Bergen’s longest standing collaboration with a non-Western university.  The close ties between academics in Bergen and Sudan were first established in 1963 when world renowned anthropologist and UiB professor Fredrik Barth was a UNESCO visiting professor at UofK. While staying there, he was asked by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) to do a study of human resources in Jebel Marra in Darfur. For this study he recruited Gunnar Håland as his research assistant. Håland came to be a trailblazer and central figure in the Bergen-Sudan cooperation. His work in Darfur, particularly on ethnic shifts and boundaries, was groundbreaking. In 1980, he joined CMI as the first social anthropologist, before becoming professor in development anthropology at UiB in 1985.

 

1965: The early beginnings of archaeology at the University of Khartoum

Gunnar Håland’s FAO consultancy in Darfur opened doors and in 1965 he and his wife Randi Håland moved to Khartoum, bringing their two small children with them. Randi Håland came to play a crucial role in building archaeology studies at UofK. She started as a lecturer at the newly established Department of Archaeology at UofK in 1972. A whole new syllabus and courses were established. She taught at UofK until 1975, and many Sudan scholars benefitted from her supervision. Several of her Sudanese students also took on positions in Sudan, either teaching at the UofK or at the Sudan National Museum: Ali Tigani el Mahi, Anwar Magid Osman, Mahmoud Beshir, and Habab Idriss.

All those years working within a Sudanese institution on local salaries gave the Hålands a unique opportunity to build strong networks of researchers in Sudan, with international connections. In 1988, Randi Håland was appointed professor of African archaeology, as the first female archaeology professor in Norway and the first professor of African archaeology in Scandinavia, an achievement largely based on her work in Sudan. A long-term partner in this work has been Professor Intisar El-Zein Soughayroun, who amongst others was part of the Nile Basin Research Programme (2005-2011). In 2019 she was appointed Minister of Higher Education for the transitional government.

1970: Establishing student exchange

Barth’s stay in Khartoum inspired him to establish a student exchange agreement between UiB and UofK. In 1970, Gunnar M. Sørbø, former director and now emeritus at CMI, was the first UiB student to head for Khartoum. Travelling in the opposite direction was Abdel Ghaffar M. Ahmed, an anthropology student at UofK. They developed a strong bond as colleagues and friends and came to play a central role in the history of the Bergen-Sudan cooperation.

1970s: Sudanese studies in the History Department

In 1971, Rex Seán O’Fahey joined the History Department at UiB, being recruited from Khartoum, and started a tradition of Sudanese historical studies. The first PhD was completed by Anders Bjørkelo in 1984, and the first Sudanese PhD student Ali Salih Karrar was awarded his degree in 1985. The journal Sudanic Africa was published from the History Department from 1990. Since the 1980s, numerous MA- and PhD students have completed their degrees, often based on the very substantial source collections established by O’Fahey and his successors. Rex Seán O’Fahey became the most prominent scholar in the world on the history of Darfur which is an area as large as France.

In 1993, Endre Stiansen successfully defended his PhD thesis ‘Overture to imperialism: European trade and economic change in the Sudan in the nineteenth century’ at UiB. He is currently Norway’s Ambassador to Sudan.

Historian Fadwa Taha who has been actively involved in several projects and publications originating from the Bergen-Sudan cooperation became the first female Vice Chancellor at UofK. In 2004, she received an honorary doctorate at UiB. In 2008, Taha was opponent to Elena Vezzadini’s PhD thesis. Vezzadini is currently PI for one of the few ERC grants with a Sudan focus.

1973: First PhD at the Faculty of Social Sciences

When Abdel Ghaffar M. Ahmed completed his PhD studies with his thesis ‘Shaykhs and Followers: Political struggle in the Rufa’a al-Hoi Nazirate in the Sudan’ in 1973, he became the first person ever to get a PhD at the Faculty of Social Sciences at UiB. Also his wife Samia al-Nagar, who herself has been an invaluable partner for Sudan scholars in Bergen for decades, also relocated to Bergen. Their first son was born here, cementing the strong relationship/s they have in and to the city. During his career, Abdel Ghaffar M. Ahmed has been e.g. professor at King Saud University in Riyadh and executive director of the Organisation of Social Science Research in Eastern and Southern Africa (OSSREA), as well as Visiting Professor at the Department of Social Anthropology in Bergen and an affiliated Senior Scholar for several years at CMI.

A driving force of the Bergen-Sudan cooperation (in 2022 a new meeting room in Bergen Global was named after him), he has been central in several of the large cooperative research projects that have materialised from the close links between UiB, UofK, and CMI. Following in his footsteps were social anthropologists Sharif Harir (PhD in 1987) and Munzoul Assal (PhD in 2003), both influential figures throughout the Bergen-Sudan cooperation and both having been active far beyond the academic scope of the Bergen-Sudan research focus. Assal is a widely used commentator, by news media in both countries, on politics and developments in Sudan. Harir was for many years actively engaged in the struggle to correct human rights wrongs in Darfur.

Several Sudanese students got their MPhil from the Department of social anthropology at UiB throughout the cooperation: Salah Elshazali Ibrahim, Ghefari Elsayed, Adil Awadelseed and more recently Tamer Abd Elkareem and Mai Azzam.

Mid-70s: Cementing the Bergen–Sudan ties

The Hålands were not the only Norwegians hired in positions locally at UofK. In the mid-70s, also Gunnar M. Sørbø who already had experience from Sudan through his days as a student at the UofK, and Rex Seán O’ Fahey who became an internationally renowned capacity on the region, and Else and Arvid Kleppe (Archaeology and English) held positions at UofK, strongly contributing to cement the close ties between Bergen and Sudan, and developing the international research network on Sudan.

With their backgrounds in social anthropology, history and archaeology respectively, these scholars contributed to a steady recruitment of both Sudanese and Norwegian scholars who have come to play a central role in research in and on Sudan.

1975: Institutionalizing the collaboration

The collaboration between Bergen and Sudan was formally institutionalised with the Savannah project in 1975. The project was funded by Norad and aimed to boost development research in the social sciences and to strengthen interdisciplinary research, to foster cooperation between researchers in Norway and Sudan, and to generate data relevant to development planning. The Savannah project was led by Gunnar Håland and Abdel Ghaffar M. Ahmed and left a lasting legacy on the Bergen – Sudan collaboration. People like Leif Manger, who did work in Kordofan in several rounds of the Savannah project, and Frode Storaas, who got involved in the Sudan collaboration documenting his work through photography and later came to do innovative work within the genre of anthropological film, remained at UiB continuing to contribute to the Sudan studies in Bergen.  Several of the students who were part of the Savannah project came to be central figures in the later Red Sea Area Programme (RESAP).

1976: CMI gets onboard

Just Faaland, former director and economist at CMI, was invited by the International Labour Organization (ILO) in consultation with the government of Sudan, to lead a comprehensive study of the Sudan economy finding a strategy to maximise employment while realizing economic growth. Faaland’s report for ILO was widely praised and proved central for CMI’s engagement in Sudan. It was a first step towards what came later to be a long-term commitment and partnership with universities in Sudan. A less known fact is that Ole David Koht Norbye, one of the first economists to work at CMI, got an assignment as financial adviser for the Sudanese government the same year. He lived in Khartoum for a year.

Early 80s: Dentistry becomes part of the collaboration

The collaboration within dentistry was established in the early eighties and is still active. The purpose was originally competence building in clinical dentistry and research collaboration with staff from UoK staying for several months at UiB, and researchers from UiB visiting UoK. Professor and then Dean at the Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry Nils Skaug was a driving force in the early phase. He was awarded an honorary doctorate at the Faculty of Dentistry at the University of Science and Technology in Omdurman. His great contributions towards establishing the library played a particular role in the appointment.

An important factor for further collaboration between the two universities was the establishment of the Quota Program in 1991. This program enabled a high number of dental students from UofK, but also from the University of Science and Technology in Omdurman to get their degree from UiB. Topics for research varied, but there was a special focus on the use of toombak, a locally produced snuff that may cause oral cancer. This led to the establishment of the Toombak Research Center at UofK, with professors Ali Idris (UofK) and Rune Nilsen (UiB) in leading roles.

The collaboration between the dentists in Bergen and Sudan continues to be fruitful and active both in terms of events and scholarly outputs. Professor Raouf Ali at UiB has organised annual open conferences at the University of Science and Technology with lecturers from UiB. Professor Ahmed Suleiman, former rector at UofK, and Anne Christine Johannessen, emerita at UiB, have also been central in this vibrant collaboration.

23 PhD candidates and 12 master’s students from Sudan have taken their degree at UiB. This has been important for building knowledge on oral health in Sudan, but the research collaboration has also been important for UiB, focusing on the global perspective of oral diseases. The quota programme closed in 2014, making funding more challenging. From 2019, the collaboration has been supported by the NORPART project ‘Establishment of joint research-based education in dentistry in Norway and East Africa’, focusing on student exchange and research, in addition to digital courses on global oral health.

1983: Formal agreement

After 20 years of an already well-established and close collaboration, the University of Bergen and the University of Khartoum signed a formal General Agreement. The agreement covered issues like cooperation in research and post-graduate training, staff exchanges, joint research projects and mutual learning. This agreement was the first of its kind and became a model for many other similar UiB agreements with universities all over the world. During the mid-1980s, UiB was widely regarded as the world’s largest center for Sudan research outside Sudan itself.

1986: The new Sudan programme

In 1986, a new four-year Sudan programme financed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs saw the light of day. With a wide disciplinary scope involving history, archaeology and botany, the project was administered by the newly established Centre for Development Studies at UiB, and the management of the project was placed with the departmental leaders of all the involved UiB departments.

The main goal of the programme was to contribute to competence and capacity building within the aforementioned disciplines, and UofK, the National Records Office (NRO) and UiB worked closely together through joint research and training activities.

1987: Applied research focus on the Red Sea area

The Red Sea Area Programme (RESAP) was established in 1987 and had a clear focus on applied research. It originated in Norway’s efforts to assist in the rehabilitation process after the devastating drought that hit many countries in the Sahel region hard in the early 80s. As part of Norwegian development assistance, the former Norwegian Ministry of Development Cooperation launched a call for policy relevant research on the region. Building on years of already existing cooperation, researchers from UiB and UofK joined forces. For both universities, this included the departments of geography, social anthropology and botany, hence expanding the number of disciplines that took part in the Bergen-Sudan cooperation. Students from all these departments were also involved, and the RESAP programme spawned several master’s theses and PhD theses on Sudan.

It was led by Leif Manger and Sharif Harir as well as other colleagues on the Sudan side. Manger had carried out research in Sudan since 1976 and became a central figure in the cooperation. On an overall level, RESAP aimed to improve food security and develop sustainable systems for food production. On the specific research level, the aim was to build competencies at local research institutions, to provide research that would be of direct relevance to NGOs working in the area, and to strengthen Norwegian research competencies on the region. The programme’s final report was published as a book in 1996: “Survival on Meagre Resources”.

The establishment of a pollen analytical/vegetation historical laboratory at UofK under the Sudan Programme (1986-1993) is also part of this history. Knut Krzywinski, who first got involved in the Sudan cooperation through Randi Håland, co-supervised her student Anwar Magid. Together, Krzywinski and Magid pioneered research on botanical material from Sudanese archaeological sites, leading to Magid’s PhD. In addition to the establishment of a pollen analytical laboratory at the Department of Botany at UofK, pollen analysis became part of the curriculum, taught by Gamal Elgazali (Pollen flora of Sudan) and Dafalla Ibrahim (master’s degree on vegetation history of Dinder).

1989: The Sudan Peace Meeting

The first peace meeting on Sudan in Norway was held in Bergen in February 1989, as a joint effort between UiB (Centre for Development Studies) and UofK. It brought together politicians from the main parties as well as senior Sudanese academics. The proceedings were published in English and Arabic (“Management of the Crisis in Khartoum”, edited by Abdel Ghaffar M. Ahmed and Gunnar M. Sørbø). During the 1990s and early 2000s, there were different types of involvement by staff in Bergen (UiB and CMI) in order to help build peace in Sudan, mostly instigated or supported by the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. 

1994: Nile valley borderlands

The RESAP project made it apparent that a historical and cultural dimension was needed in the landscape studies in the Eastern Sudan. Due to the difficult political situation in Sudan the official cooperation with UofK was frozen and cooperation was continued on a personal level. Together with Richard H. Pierce and Anwar Magid, Knut Krzywinski led the project “Cultural landscape development of the Nile Valley borderland”, funded by the Norwegian Research Council. This south-south cooperation also including Cairo University and Mansoura University, documented a cultural continuity in the Red Sea Hills for more than 5000 years.

Richard H. Pierce, late Professor in Egyptology at UiB, started his career in Sudan already in 1963 and was a visiting professor at UofK in 1976. After joining UiB he became a mentor for several Sudanese PhD students in Bergen. Pierce and his wife Wenche Pierce were the only Bergen scholars participating in the Aswan High Dam Campaign of the 1960s. During his career in Bergen, he was a central figure in the compilation of the Fontes Historiae Nubiorum, the most used reference for sources pertaining to ancient Sudan.

1995: Broadening the geographical scope

In the early 1990s, NUFU (the Norwegian Programme for Development, Research and Education) funding was made available through an agreement between the Council for Norwegian Universities and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The East African Drylands Programme was established as a joint effort between the Department of Social Anthropology at UiB (Leif Manger) and the Organisation of Social Science Research in Eastern and Southern African (OSSREA). Through OSSREA, which at the time had Professor Abdel Ghaffar M. Ahmed as director, the UofK joined forces with Addis Ababa University, Makerere University and the University of Dar es Salaam. Through a CMI-led programme which aimed at building anthropology as a new discipline at Addis Ababa University (funded by Norad), several Sudanese professors and lecturers were also hired to teach courses in Ethiopia. Johan Helland from CMI played a crucial role in this process.

2004: Broadening the institutional scope

In 2004, the disciplinary scope of the Bergen-Sudan collaboration got even wider. Having worked with the application of remote sensing for managing water resources, Mohamed Babiker pursued a master’s degree at UiB in 1999. In his PhD work he continued to focus on the pivotal subject of water resources in the arid Red Sea area, which also happens to be his home area. He attained his PhD degree in 2004, with the thesis ‘From Tectonics to Surface Water: A Hydrogeological, Hydrological and Tectonics Reconnaissance in the Red Sea Hills, Sudan’. Since attaining his PhD degree, he has worked at the Nansen Environmental and Remote Sensing Center, thereby contributing to broaden the scope of institutions that can be said to be part of the Bergen-Sudan collaboration.

2005: Peacebuilding in Sudan: Micro–Macro Issues

Following the Comprehensive Peace Agreement between the Sudan government and the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement in 2005, CMI in cooperation with UofK, and Ahfad University for Women initiated the research and monitoring programme ‘Peacebuilding in Sudan: Micro-Macro Issues’. The programme was funded by the Norwegian Embassy in Sudan and had a duration of seven years. It addressed main challenges to building lasting peace in Sudan, and focused on the political economy of the transition, and the role of third-party engagement. Aligned with the overarching idea and tradition of the Bergen-Sudan cooperation, mutual learning and policy relevant research was at the very heart of the programme. An international publication – ‘Sudan Divided: Continuing Conflict in a Contested State’ – was published at the end of the programme. Azza Mustafa Babiker, now a postdoctoral researcher at the Institute for Humanities (HUMA) at the University of Cape Town, is one of the students who started her academic career as a master’s student in this project.

2006: The Mahmoud Salih collection arrives in Bergen

In 2006, the Bergen Global library was extended with the Mahmoud Salih collection. The rich collection of books, historical documents, prints, maps and photos is a treasure chest for anyone interested in Sudan’s history.

Salih was a businessman and philanthropist with a deeply rooted love both for his country and books, and his collection quickly reached an impressive volume. His original plan was to move the compilation to the Abdel Karim Mirghani Library & Cultural Centre which he founded in his hometown Omdurman, but this turned out to be difficult. Inspired by his close friendship with Sudan scholar and historian Anders Bjørkelo and well aware of the vibrant Sudan studies in Bergen, he asked that his collection be deposited here.

Bergen is also home to the well-stocked Rex Seán O’Fahey collection. When O’Fahey retired in 2013, he left his rare collection of books and material collected over his long research career to the University of Bergen Library. The SNAC project is now supporting the Special collections at the University of Bergen Library in digitalising this collection. Researchers in Bergen have also played a crucial role in preserving other parts of Sudanese history for future Sudan scholars. Headed by Bjørkelo, and in cooperation with the Sudanese Department of Information, the TV archives of the Sudanese broadcasting company SNBC, were digitalised in a three-year project completed in 2016. The digitalisation project was funded by the Norwegian Embassy in Khartoum.

The Sudan collection at the University of Bergen Library encompasses a vast archive of photos and archival materials collected by Sudan scholars involved in the Bergen-Sudan collaboration ever since the start in 1963. Parallel to the documentation of Sudan’s rich history through photos and documents, librarians and Sudan scholars have done a mammoth effort building and extending the library’s collection of books on Sudan. The collected material gives unique insights into both Sudan and the long-standing cooperation between academics in Bergen and Sudan, and is available to the public through the University of Bergen Library website.

2007: First female Sudanese PhD student from UofB

When Howaida Faisal Abd El Rahman handed in her thesis on the molecular taxonomy of acacia trees in the Red Sea Hills of Sudan and Egypt, she became the first female Sudanese student to get a PhD degree from UiB. She was supervised by one of the early pioneers of Sudan studies in Bergen, Knut Krzywinski. The data she collected for her PhD, during two periods of fieldwork, required her to wander and camp in the desert for several weeks. She also got her master’s degree in oral health from UiB under the supervision of the late Professor Nils Skaug whom at the time recently had taken initiative to the Bergen-Sudan collaboration in dentistry. In many ways exemplifying in person the multi-disciplinarity of the Bergen-Sudan collaboration and the vast networks that have grown out of it, she is now the administrative coordinator for the Bergen Summer Research School.

2008: Participation in the Merowe Dam Archaeological Salvage Project

In connection with the building of the Merowe dam, the Sudanese government launched an appeal for salvage archaeological campaigns.  The then PhD student of Randi Håland, Henriette Hafsaas, participated in the campaign as a member of the Sudan Archaeological Research Society (based at the British Museum in London) expedition. Together with Alexandros Tsakos, head of the Manuscript and Rare book collections at the University of Bergen Library and responsible for the Sudan archive at UiB, they initiated the Greek-Norwegian Archaeological Mission on Sai Island, the last archaeological project in Sudanese Nubia launched from UiB. In this project focusing on the medieval past of Sai, they collaborated closely with Sami el Amin, the guards of various sites with relevance for the medieval past, as well as representatives from the villages on the island, so that their archaeological activities became of direct relevance to the local communities.

2010: ARUS in Eastern Sudan

Assisting Regional Universities in Sudan (ARUS) was run jointly by the Department of Social Anthropology at UiB, Ahfad University for Women and UofK in partnership with three regional universities in Eastern Sudan: Gedarif, Kassala and Red Sea. The programme was initiated and led by Leif Manger and Abdel Ghaffar M. Ahmed, and was financed by the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs as a Norwegian contribution to the peace agreement for Eastern Sudan from 2006. It aimed to assist regional universities in the production of knowledge of high importance to reconstruction after civil war. The programme included both staff and students at all participating universities in Sudan.

2010: Acacia project in Eastern Sudan

The Acacia project was an international research project funded by the Norwegian Research Council, headed by Gidske L. Andersen, one of Knut Krzywinski’s PhD students. During this project, that studied land use, traditional knowledge and long-term dynamics of arid ecosystems, a close collaboration was established with the Red Sea University. This revitalized the botanical and geographical research in the Bergen - Sudan cooperation that was initiated by Krzywinski and Turid Hammer (Dep. of Geography) already during RESAP. Since then, the link to RSU has been strengthened and fostered several joint publications in international journals as well as new cooperation.

2011: Paving the way for political science

When Liv Tønnessen defended her PhD in 2011 with Atta al-Battahani at UofK as her mentor, she was the first and only political scientist at UiB to write her doctoral thesis on Sudan. Through various CMI research projects funded among others by the Research Council of Norway, the Carnegie Foundation, and the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs she has researched gender and politics in Sudan working closely with Sudanese partners throughout the years, and especially independent researcher Samia al-Nagar. Al-Nagar is a renowned feminist activist, and has a network reaching far beyond academia, having worked for the UNDP and cooperated with several NGOs.

The projects have involved academic collaboration with the regional Institute for Gender, Diversity and Rights at Ahfad University for Women, and the Development and Research Institute at the University of Khartoum. Several scholars have their background in these projects which have included master and PhD scholarships in Sudan, among them Reem Abbas and Lamya Badri.

2013: ARUSS in Sudan and South Sudan

Peacebuilding in Sudan: Micro-Macro Issues and ARUS were merged into ARUSS, including both Sudan and South Sudan It was an academic collaboration between CMI, the Department of Social Anthropology at UiB, Ahfad University for Women, UofK and nine regional universities in Sudan and South Sudan. These were: Gedarif, Kassala, Red Sea, Nyala, Dilling and Blue Nile in Sudan and Bahrel-Ghazal, Rumbek and Malakal in South Sudan. The academic collaboration between universities and academic institutions was seen as an important avenue for maintaining and strengthening positive relationships and building competencies. The aim was to produce new knowledge of relevance for building sustainable peace in and between Sudan and South Sudan. It was funded by the Royal Norwegian Embassy in Khartoum 2013-2018. It was headed by Gunnar M. Sørbø, Leif Manger and Abdel Ghaffar M. Ahmed. With an overarching vision of expanding and strengthening competencies, the programme included 10 master scholarships at Ahfad to female students from marginalised areas of Sudan.

2013: Researching borderland dynamics

In 2013 the universities of Bergen, Khartoum, Addis Ababa, and Makerere, and CMI embarked on a new joint effort. The project was funded by Norad through their NORHED (Norwegian Programme for Capacity Development in Higher Education and Research for Development) programme and led by the Department of Social Anthropology at UofK. The ‘Borderlands dynamics: anthropological competence building in East African universities’ project focused on borderland topics like land disputes, natural resource conflicts and trafficking, hence responding to a growing need for more knowledge about issues that were becoming increasingly prominent in the region. The project aimed to strengthen both research and teaching capacities in the anthropology departments in Addis Ababa, Khartoum and at Makerere. Empowering borderland communities in Ethiopia, Sudan and Uganda to voice their concerns towards policy makers was also at the heart of the project.

The project provided scholarships for postdoctoral researchers, PhD, and MA students in Khartoum, Addis Ababa and Makerere, and the scholars involved published extensively from the project. The project was coordinated by Leif Manger and Munzoul Assal. 

2018: Offering trauma psychology

One of the long-standing partners of the Bergen-Sudan cooperation, the Ahfad University for Women, has a long tradition of providing mental health and psychosocial support care and capacity development, and also has a trauma centre that focuses on populations exposed to emergencies and trauma. Since 2018, the Ahfad Trauma Clinic Centre and Crisis Psychology at UiB have been co-operating to strengthen the response to mental health and psychosocial needs in Sudan, partnering with PLAN Norway and the Children and War Foundation. Shahla Eltayeb at Ahfad, Ragnhild Dybdahl and Unni Heltne from UiB have been driving forces behind the collaboration that has included various joint studies and capacity development. Over the past years there have been workshops on numerous topics, such as research ethics, early childhood development, trauma reactions and interventions, sexual violence, global mental health, scalable interventions, self-care for helpers, psychological first aid, and education and mental health jointly organised by Ahfad and CCP and partners.

The need for mental health and psychosocial support services in Sudan has far exceeded the services that are available. This has been addressed by a focus on low-threshold interventions, where support for children has been made available in local communities and local services through task sharing. Teaching Recovery Techniques (TRT) have been widely promoted through numerous workshops and trainings.

2018: ARUS in marginalized areas of Sudan

The third phase of ARUS was an academic collaboration between CMI, UiB and national and regional universities in Sudan. The project produced collaborative research and developed training resources on development challenges deemed important by partners in marginalised areas in Sudan with the aim to influence policy and practice. As part of the project, research was carried out on a range of topics including women’s empowerment, youth mobilization, refugees, border control and human trafficking, food security and urbanisation. Hosted by Ahfad University for Women and in close collaboration with UofK, the project included academic collaboration with seven regional universities. These were Gedarif, Kassala, Red Sea, Nyala, Dilling, Blue Nile and Sennar. The project was funded by the Royal Norwegian Embassy in Khartoum 2018-2022. It was headed by Liv Tønnessen and Abdel Ghaffar M. Ahmed. Again, a project based on the close links between Bergen and Sudan yielded several academic degrees. The project included five master scholarships at Ahfad university for Women to students from marginalised areas of Sudan and two scholarships to master students at Kassala University.

The ARUS programme had tangible effects reaching beyond the programme. Thus e.g. long-time member of the ARUS team, Ibtisam El Jack, was appointed the first female Vice Chancellor ever at Gedarif University. She explicitly emphasised ARUS and the experience she got through the programme as a key factor in growing her career.

2021: Expanding to Juba

In 2021, another NORHED project started, involving the four universities which participated in NORHED I, and in addition a new partner: the University of Juba in South Sudan. This second project ‘Refugees on the move: South Sudanese refugees in Ethiopia, Sudan, and Uganda’ sought to understand the regional aspects of the flow of refugees from the war-torn new nation state of South Sudan. It had a two-fold aim: To strengthen research and teaching capacities in order to contribute high quality research on the field of refugee studies, and to contribute to a better foundation for sustainable policy making.  The project was coordinated by Munzoul Assal.

The two NORHED projects not only cemented the ties between Bergen and Khartoum, but also brought in new partnerships and strengthened South-South cooperation and partnerships.

Strengthening library services at the University of Juba was also part of the picture in this period. Through the Juba University Library Automation Project (JULAP), the University of Bergen Library contributed to establishing a library service with fully trained staff in Juba offering relevant literature for research and education.

2023: SNAC (Sudan–Norway Academic Cooperation)

The current Sudan-Norway Academic Cooperation (SNAC) builds on the 60 years of close cooperation and partnership between scholars and research institutions in Sudan and Bergen. It is a collaboration between CMI, UiB, UofK and seven regional universities, including Gedarif, Kassala, Red Sea, Dilling, Blue Nile, Sennar and Nyala. The project is co-headed by Liv Tønnessen and Munzoul Assal.

This project has a particular focus on bringing Sudanese scholars to the forefront of national and international academic and policy discourses about Sudan. As the project was about to start, war broke out and all higher research institutions in the country closed. With many of our Sudanese colleagues at risk and many having fled the country, we are working hard to readjust the project in ways where we can stand in solidarity with our colleagues. What the future will bring is still unclear. Yet, we are hopeful that we can carry out the project as envisioned and above all for the slogan of the Sudanese people’s December revolution ‘Freedom, peace and justice’ to become reality at last.