Sudanese community curates exhibition at city museum

The Sudanese community in Portsmouth has helped curate an exhibition about the country's history and culture.

Ancient Sudan: Enduring Heritage opened at Portsmouth Museum & Art Gallery on Saturday and will run until Sunday 11 May.

Maza Mattar, who is Sudanese but was born and raised in Portsmouth, helped curate the exhibition and said it was "extremely exciting".

"As a community we all came together," she said. "It's a big thing... I was overwhelmed."

The exhibition features artefacts from the ancient Kushite Kingdom, on loan from the British Museum, as well as those from more modern Sudan.

Ms Mattar said she was "shocked" when she was asked to help.

"Imagine someone like me, minding my own business, going to uni, going to work, going home, and you're getting told 'oh, the museum wants to do an exhibition in Portsmouth and they want to do a room for the Sudanese community," she said.

She said that, growing up, a lot of people had not even heard of Sudan when they asked where she was from, and now the focus was very much on the war.

"It's not about the culture, its not about our people," she said.

She said she hoped the exhibition would change that.

"Everyone was just happy... it was extremely exciting," she added.

Loretta Kilroe, British Museum curator for Sudan and Nubia, said she was "thrilled" more people would get to see the artefacts, and she wanted to reach people who did not know much about ancient Sudan.

"Sudan, particularly the kingdom of Kush, was one of the greatest empires of the ancient world but people never think about that," she said.

She said the war going on in Sudan made the exhibition even more pertinent.

"Today, Sudan faces a significant threat, particularly to its cultural heritage but also to huge numbers of its people," she said.

"We hope that this will shine a spotlight on Sudanese heritage and particularly our Sudanese colleagues, who are still working to protect the region."

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