By Alex Mackworth Gee for CNN
LONDON, England (CNN) -- Today Sudan presents the picture of an Islamic government at odds with the rest of the world.
The United Nations says about 50,000 people have been killed in Darfur and about 1.4 million people have been forced to flee their homes since rebellion broke out in the western region in February 2003.
But the largest country in Africa was not always like this. It was for thousands of years the point of contact between central Africa and the Mediterranean world.
This is the emphasis of a new theme of talks, "Sudan: past and present," which the British Museum is hosting on subjects including religion, culture, ethnicity in modern Sudan as well as the history of the region.
A long-planned archaeological exhibition, running until January 9 2005, "Sudan: Ancient Treasures," also traces the history of Northern and Central Sudan from 200,000 years BC to the end of 19th Century -- running through Egyptian rule and defeat, the Romans, Christianization, Islamification and up to joint Anglo-Egyptian rule.
It was originally hoped that this exhibition would coincide with the signing of a peace accord between the north and south of Sudan. Instead it has come at a time when a tragedy is unfolding in Sudan's western region of Darfur, as tens of thousands die in clashes between ethnic Arab Sudanese and black Africans.
The exhibition shows us that Sudanese history is not only a history of conflict. It is also about a richness in diversity, about the way people from Arab and African ethnic backgrounds have cooperated, intermarried and lived together for many centuries.
"There is a complicated history of co-operation and conflict in Sudan. Both reach back deeply into the country's history", Dr. James Brennan of the School of Oriental and African Studies told CNN.
David Welsby, the exhibition's curator, said: "Most people don't know anything except the bad news about Sudan. We want to show the other side of the story. This is a country of rich history and vast potential. We wanted to give a sense of the complexity of cultures which have gone to make up present day Sudan."
A full-sized statue of the Kushite ruler Anlamani, which reflects Sudan's position on the cusp of the Arab world and Africa, welcomes visitors. Anlamani stands in a classically Egyptian pose but has unmistakably African features.
The exhibition contains important examples of cooperation between cultures such as a tenth century jeweler's mould. It was found at a Christian site but was used for casting Koranic inscriptions.
"We've got Christian sites where there are clearly Muslims living as part of the resident population. We have Muslim tombstones found adjacent to ones inscribed in Greek, old Nubian and Coptic" Derek Welsby said.
The exhibition, which runs until January 9, 2005, would have normally had an admission charge but in response to the current situation in Sudan, the British Museum has made admission free and is instead asking for donations to be made to work in the region by Oxfam and Save the Children.
Many of the 320 objects on show, loaned from the National Museum in Khartoum, have never been seen in public before let alone outside the country.
The British Museum has a long engagement in Sudan: 100 years ago, it played a part in the foundation of Sudan's first museum.
The museum has been involved in putting together international teams to rescue archaeological sites before the damming of the Fourth Cataract of the Nile and the subsequent flooding in 2008.
"This area is extremely rich archeologically. We are finding new sites all the time. There are major monuments in the flood zone", said the exhibition's curator Welsby.
Hopefully, if anything, this exhibition will alert the world to this archeological race against time.
http://edition.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/africa/11/05/sudan.exhibition/
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