Golden Parades and Razed Graves: The Politics of Heritage Destruction and Grassroots Revival in Egypt Today
In April 2021, the Egyptian state staged the extravagant “Pharaohs’ Golden Parade,” transferring twenty-two royal mummies to the newly built National Museum of Egyptian Civilization. Framed as a celebration of national pride and a tourism-boosting initiative amid economic crisis, this performance masked another reality: the state-led destruction of key heritage sites in historic Cairo. Under the banner of infrastructure development and urban modernization, neighborhoods in Islamic Cairo—such as the “City of the Dead”—have been razed, including historic cemeteries, mosques, and houses. This talk explores how concerned citizens, architects, and cultural heritage practitioners navigate the contradictions of heritage preservation amid increasing state appropriation, surveillance, and erasure. It highlights the emergence of grassroots initiatives—from walking tours to the adaptive reuse of historic buildings—as subtle yet significant forms of political expression and accountability in a post-2013 landscape of repression and civil society shutdown. By examining which sites are protected and which are destroyed, this presentation interrogates how heritage politics reflect broader struggles over identity, memory, and governance in contemporary Egypt. It argues that heritage has become a key terrain for negotiating belonging, resisting authoritarian control, and reimagining civic participation from below.
Nada El-Kouny is a sociocultural anthropologist whose work explores rural politics, transnational migration, and heritage in Egypt. She is an associated EUME Fellow (2024–25) at the Forum Transregionale Studien, where she is developing her book manuscript, An Egyptian Village Between Two Revolutions: From Socialist Foundation to a Declaration of Independence. Nada received her Ph.D. from Rutgers University, supported by grants from the NSF and Wenner-Gren Foundation. She previously worked on the project Traces of Mobility, Violence, and Solidarity: Reconceptualizing Cultural Heritage through the lens of Migration. Her writing appears in Citizenship Studies, Mondes Arabes, Jadaliyya, and Ahram Online. She has also taught at Rutgers University, Princeton University, and the American University in Cairo, and has a background in journalism and documentary film production.
Sudanese Heritage and Identity in Times of War: The Role of Sudanese Collections in Germany
Sudan possesses one of the richest cultural heritages in Africa and the Nile Valley, with a legacy that stretches from prehistoric times through the Kingdoms of Kush and the Islamic Sultanates. This heritage is not only a source of national pride but also a cornerstone of Sudanese identity. However, since the outbreak of the war in April 2023, Sudan’s cultural institutions and museums have faced unprecedented risks, including destruction, looting, and neglect. This research explores the significance of Sudanese heritage in shaping national identity, with a particular focus on Sudanese archaeological and ethnographic objects housed in museums and academic institutions in Germany. These collections are found in many European institutions, including museums in Berlin, Munich and Leipzig, and they offer valuable material for understanding Sudan’s diverse cultural history. They play a crucial role in preserving and promoting Sudanese heritage during times of crisis. By providing accessible representations of Sudan’s cultural wealth, they offer opportunities for education, cultural diplomacy, and academic collaboration. Furthermore, the research argues for increased cooperation between Sudanese and German institutions to digitize, interpret, and share these collections more widely. Ultimately, Sudanese heritage abroad must be seen not only as a record of the past but also as a resource for imagining a post-conflict future rooted in shared history and resilient identity.
Ahmed Adam is Associate Professor of Archaeology at the University of Khartoum. He has previously been the Head of the Directorate of University Museums and the Head of the Department of Archaeology at University of Khartoum. He has directed and co-directed several archaeological fieldwork projects in Sudan: among others, the Red Sea Project for Archaeological, Cultural, and Environmental Studies, and the UCL UofK Expedition to central Sudan. Ahmed is coordinator and board member of the General Union of Arab Archaeologists, and has received Fellowships and grants, for example, at the University della Svizzera italiana, Lugano, and at the Forum Transregionale Studien in 2015/16 in the framework of the research program Art Histories and Aesthetic Practices, and has been Honorary Associate at University of Exeter. He has published several articles within the field of archaeology in regional and international magazines. In the academic year 2023/26, Ahmed is a EUME Fellow at the Forum Transregionale Studien and is affiliated with the German Archaeological Institute and the Egyptian Museum in Berlin.
Wendy Doyon is a historian of archaeology in modern Egypt and Sudan. She received her PhD in Middle East History from the University of Pennsylvania in 2021 and was a postdoctoral research fellow at the American Research Center in Egypt from 2022 to 2024. She is currently a EUME Fellow at the Forum Transregionale Studien working on two book projects, one on the relationship between archaeology, labor, and state-building in nineteenth-century Egypt; and another on the language and social relations of archaeological production in Egypt, Sudan, and the Middle East through Arabic excavation diaries and archives.
Pleaser register in advance via eume(at)trafo-berlin.de. Depending on approval by the speaker(s), the Berliner Seminar will be recorded. All audio recordings of the Berliner Seminar are available on SoundCloud.
