Postcards from Khartoum and Omdurman

Above, sweeping view of The Great Mosque, Khartoum.

This week I offer a selection of late colonial to pre-independence postcard scenes of Khartoum and Omdurman. I am very grateful to Yass Khogaly and his team at DO YOU REMEMBER SUDAN? for allowing me to reproduce these fascinating historical glimpses of life in the capital and its landmarks. DO YOU REMEMBER SUDAN is a wonderful resource for anyone who has connections with and affection for a country now suffering such tragic events. As war ravages Khartoum, the beautiful photographs below take on an added poignancy.

See too Historical Sketches – People and Places Sketches from Sudan

Inevitably the images below are the product of a non-Sudanese colonial eye. “A critical appreciation of these early non-Sudanese photographers and their interest in exotic images of Sudan is expressed in the following quote by Danish researcher Elsa Yvanez” (Sudanese Clothing through the Modern Lens):

In Sudan, many photographs have been produced by British citizens posted in Khartoum and elsewhere during the Anglo-Egyptian condominium (1899-1956). As thousands of other Europeans through the colonial empires, the British directed their cameras to the “typical scenes” of Sudanese life: open-air markets, views of the Nile, fishing scenes, wild and natural landscapes and, above all else, the Sudanese people themselves. Many of these photographs where then edited as postcards (notably by the Gordon Stationary and Bookstores in Khartoum). Circulating through the colonies, Europe, and America, these pictures form an evocative, exotic and fascinating portrait of the Sudanese people.

Photography in Sudan