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Spaces of Longing: A Visual Mapping of Resemblances between Cairo and Sudanese Cities in the Memories of Sudanese Refugees

Spaces of Longing: A Visual Mapping of Resemblances between Cairo
and Sudanese Cities in the Memories of Sudanese Refugees

 

Date: Wednesday 4th February, 2026
Time: 2 pm – 4 pm (Cairo Time)

Speaker: Rania Hassan Mohamed

 

This study explores how Sudanese refugees in Cairo reconstruct their relationship to place through memory under conditions of prolonged refuge following the outbreak of the 2023 war in Sudan. Rather than understanding memory as a static recollection of the homeland, the research approaches it as an active, sensory, and spatial practice through which refugees negotiate belonging within a new urban environment. Adopting a visual anthropological methodology, the study combines in-depth semi-structured interviews, participant-produced mental maps, and photographic materials generated by participants and the researcher. The findings reveal that spatial memory in exile operates through fragmented and provisional forms of familiarity that allow refugees to inhabit Cairo as a survivable, though temporary, city. Markets, cafés, streets, and the Nile emerge as key sites where sensory cues reactivate memories of Sudan and sustain fragile continuities of identity. The study argues that memory among Sudanese refugee’s functions as a daily practice of reconstituting belonging, transforming the host city into a liminal space shaped by longing, resilience, and ongoing negotiation between loss and presence.

 

About the Speaker

Rania Hassan Mohamed is a Sudanese anthropologist and cultural heritage researcher based in Cairo. Her work focuses on memory, displacement, and everyday urban experience among Sudanese refugees, with a particular interest in visual and embodied forms of remembering. She has worked on several community-based research and documentation projects related to intangible cultural heritage, women’s memory, and exile. Rania’s current research explores how familiar urban rhythms—movement, streets, and shared spaces—become sites where memories of Sudan are reactivated and reimagined in Cairo.

 


OpenEdition vous propose de citer ce billet de la manière suivante :
cedejsudan (29 janvier 2026). Spaces of Longing: A Visual Mapping of Resemblances between Cairo and Sudanese Cities in the Memories of Sudanese Refugees. Researching Sudan - A perspective on contemporary Sudan. Consulté le 12 février 2026 à l’adresse https://doi.org/10.58079/15l8s


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