About the Center

The Sudanese Studies Center is an independent, non-profit research and intellectual institution concerned with democracy, peace, development and enlightenment. Its aims are:

• To carry out research and studies on democracy, the civil state and cultural diversity.
• To publish writing about Sudan, and to encourage Sudanese people to write, in place of the oral tradition that characterises Sudanese culture.
• To develop training programmes for young people, women and marginalised groups, building capacities and skills to advance human development.
• To develop Sudanese creativity by encouraging the visual, audio and audiovisual arts (cinema, theatre, music and folklore), with a focus on the diversity and plurality of cultures.

History of the Center

The idea began in the United Arab Emirates with Dr. Haidar Ibrahim Ali, the Center's founder, but it did not come to fruition until he was a university lecturer in Morocco after the 1989 coup. In the beginning there was no office and no legal registration: the Center distributed its few publications from the shoulder bag of Dr. Salah El-Zein, now living in the United States, who played a key role in founding it. Eventually the Center obtained premises, a room and a small hall on Champollion Street in Cairo, which soon became a hive of activity. Our motto was "Be realistic, demand the impossible", borrowed from the youth revolts in Europe at the end of the 1960s.

Under that motto the Center achieved much that it is proud of. Its journal Kitabat Sudaniya (Sudanese Writings) passed its fiftieth issue, a number no other Sudanese journal has ever reached; most appear for a year or two and then stop. The Center has published more than 220 books across intellectual and creative fields, twelve editions of the Sudanese Strategic Report over twelve years, and the proceedings of many major symposia. Its output became an indispensable source for writers, researchers and dissertations. The Center also insisted on quality: it never lent its name to work that did not deserve it, choosing solely on the basis of substance and creativity, and it published new authors who later became well known.

The Center spoke about diversity and practised it: it translated the works of Francis Deng and published the first novel by Abakar Adam Ismail, approved for publication by the renowned writer Sonallah Ibrahim during a visit to the Center in Khartoum. It championed women, children and the visual arts, and contributed to Hussein Shariffe's documentary work.

The Center is also proud of the cultural, artistic and intellectual festival it organised for the fiftieth anniversary of Sudan's independence, widely covered in the press. It brought Mahmoud Darwish, Marcel Khalife, Naseer Shamma, Mohammed Afifi Matar, Farida al-Naqqash, Tayeb Tizini, Ali Harb and others, all leading figures in their fields. That same year Khartoum had been named Capital of Arab Culture, and the government set aside a huge budget and a dedicated body for events, yet failed to hold a single one.

What helped the Center most in its early stages was its symbolic capital: the warm, fraternal relationships it had with many prominent figures, thinkers and opinion leaders in Egypt, who gave it every support and expertise. The Center's first symposium, in 1993, was held at the Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies, where Al-Sayed Yassin welcomed it and chaired the session, and later promised a further major symposium in the time of Dr. Abdel Moneim Said. There are many more examples: a symposium on culture and development honouring Tayeb Salih, held with the help of Dr. Gaber Asfour at the Supreme Council of Culture in Cairo; events with the Center for Political Studies at the Faculty of Economics and Political Science under Dr. Ali El-Din Hilal and Nazli Moawad; important early support from Helmi Sharawy, founder and director of the Arab and African Research Center; and help with the Center's legal establishment from our friend, media professor Dr. Mohamed Shoman.

The Center was closed by the Sudanese regime in December 2012. It reopened after the homeland's return.

This page is a machine translation of the Arabic "About the Center" page.