Vahe Boghosian Preserves Sudanese-Armenian Community History, Boosts Sudanese Image

· April 1, 2026

One of the images from the lecture “Armenian Life in Colonial Sudan” at Yale

University on March 2, 2026 (photo courtesy Vahe Boghosian)

By Satenig Kouyoumdjian

The Armenian Mirror-Spectator

YEREVAN — Vahe Boghosian is the founder of the first multimedia project on Sudanese-Armenian history, called sudanahye (Armenian for Sudanese Armenian), which documents and preserves the unique history and rich culture of the Sudanese-Armenian community. He has been touring various countries, giving lectures and organizing exhibitions of the archival materials, starting last year in London, Amsterdam and Berlin, and this year in the US at New Haven (Yale University), Boston (Harvard University and several other venues), and New York City.

Vahe Boghosian (photo Aram Arkun)

“I don‘t think I have a particular skill. I only have love – love for my family, my culture and our history,” Boghosian said in Western Armenian, whilst sitting on the steps of the Matenadaran in Yerevan, the largest center of Armenian manuscripts in existence.Born and raised in London, Boghosian got his his bachelor’s degree in history and his MSc. in security studies. On his mother’s side he is Sudanese-Armenian.

The majority of the Sudanese-Armenian community fled genocide from the Ottoman Empire and resettled in Sudan, not only surviving the genocide, but preserving their Armenian identity and creating a unique Sudanese-Armenian culture.

More specifically, many Sudanese-Armenians are indigenous to Arabkir, a town located near Malatya in the eastern Ottoman Empire, today’s Turkey. Arabkir was described as “extremely culturally advanced,” and the Armenian population there was skilled in crafts, trade and business, according to a book about the town prepared by Antranig Poladian (1969). Fleeing the Hamidian (1894-1897) and Adana (1909) massacres, Arabkir Armenians resettled in Sudan and helped each other building their lives and businesses which were often connected to larger trading networks, such as in Egypt.

Presentation and panel discussion with Bayan Abubakr and Ameen Mekki titled “Sudanese-Armenian History and the Colonial Legacy in Sudan” organized by Sudanahye and Sudan Solidarity Collective at Barzakh Café in NYC on March 10, 2026 (photo courtesy Vahe Boghosian)

Sarkis Melikian is said to be the first Armenian in the modern period coming to Sudan, where he arrived in the 1840s and successfully set up a trading business between Sudan and Egypt.

An example of a later prominent family of immigrants is the Kurkjian brothers, who founded the Kurkjian Brothers Company which supplied the Sudanese government with food. This company later expanded and began trading with Europe. It turned into an infrastructure and ports company, making roads, bridges and railway lines, according to sudanahye.com. The family was also the main sponsor which funded the building of the Armenian church St. Krikor Lusavorich in Khartoum and was considered as one of the most successful families of the Sudanese-Armenian community.

Boghosian says that in general, Sudanese-Armenians secured themselves an enviable economic position in Sudan, utilizing their entrepreneurial mindset to set up businesses like the examples given above.

Vahe Boghosian at his exhibition “Armenian Life in Colonial Sudan”- at AGBU headquarters, New York City, March 11, 2026 (photo courtesy Vahe Boghosian)

Overall the modern immigration of Armenians to Sudan can be summed up as three major waves, with the first wave being during the Turco-Egyptian rule (about 1820-1880) of Sudan. The second wave came after the Hamidian and Adana massacres in the end of the 19th century/beginning of the 20th century and the third wave after the Armenian Genocide starting in 1915.

“It is a culture of a certain serenity and graciousness” is how Boghosian characterizes the Sudanese-Armenian identity, in part “coming from the Sudanese culture, which is perceived as very hospitable in the Arab world.”

Unlike the big Armenian diasporan communities in Syria, Lebanon or Egypt, the Sudanese Armenians did not have Armenian political parties, Boghosian explains. However, that doesn’t mean that Armenian culture was less valued or passed on in the Sudanese-Armenian community.

Crises and Reaction

Since 2023, one of the biggest humanitarian crises in the world has been unfolding in Sudan, with more than 150,000 victims and about 12 million people who have become refugees seeking safety (BBC). The civil war broke out as a result of a struggle for power between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary group Rapid Support Forces (RSF). (See “A simple guide to what is happening in Sudan,” Natasha Booty, Farouk Chothia, Wedaeli Chibelushi- BBC https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cjel2nn22z9o 11/13/2025.)

Unfortunately, today the Armenian community in Sudan is almost non-existent, and the Armenian church has also been damaged during the war.

In this regard, Boghosian remarked: “I don’t think any human has more of a responsibility than others to do something. If we have a common humanity, then we all have a shared responsibility to care about injustice everywhere. Justice is a universal not national concept. I think as a people who have seen Genocide, have been refugees in multiple countries, and continue to experience injustice today we should strive to be aware of injustice, oppression and genocides elsewhere. In those countries where we have a shared history with a diaspora community it’s understandable we would be more in touch with current affairs there.”

After war broke out in Sudan, Boghosian chose not to lose hope but instead started the sudanahye project in January 2025. It aims to preserve the Sudanese-Armenian culture despite the events of war and destruction, but also intends to be a means to change the narrative about Sudan, which currently connotes war, destruction and instability.

In the past, Sudan has served as a safe harbor for Armenians, where they were welcomed and had the chance to build prosperous lives. Their success made them become a people the Sudanese appreciated.

For Boghosian, a key point is that we should not forget that we were refugees in their countries long before they became refugees in ours. Unfolding the successful stories of Armenians in Sudan is therefore also an attempt to give the country a chance to break free from the shackles the narrative of war is currently imposing.

Boghosian is now living in Armenia. While he is researching and publishing, he also finds himself on a path of discovering his own connection to Armenia as a “spyurkahye” (Armenian for diasporan Armenian).

The sudanahye project is supported by the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation. If you are interested in the project, you can follow his journey through the Instagram page @sudanahye or his blog www.sudanahye.com.