In 2006, New York-based freelance photographer Tim McKulka took a job with the U.N. Mission in Sudan based in the southern capital of Juba. "At the time, I had only read about Sudan from a distance, and knew some vague things about it," he says. "I certainly wasn't an analyst by any stretch." Once there, McKulka discovered that his U.N. affiliation gave him a unique freedom of movement in a country whose government is often chary about foreign journalists. After a few years he had amassed a formidable archive of images, and started thinking about what use they might serve to Africa's largest country at a moment when it was coming apart at the seams.
The result is We'll Make Our Homes Here: Sudan at the Referendum, a U.N.-published book that joins McKulka's photographs with reflections on Sudanese identity from 17 Sudanese writers, spanning everything from political analysis and journalism to fiction and poetry. (The book is being published in a limited print run by the U.N. Mission in Sudan, and will soon be available in digital form as a free iPad app.) "I had originally envisioned it as a kind of peace-building tool, to foster dialogue to let people hear other perspectives, or at least have them out there," McKulka says.
We'll Make Our Homes Here is the first book to include photography from all 25 Sudanese states -- and, thanks to South Sudan's decision in January to secede on July 9, also the last. But as Sudan splits apart and descends into a fresh round of violence between the government in Khartoum and the hinterlands, McKulka believes, it's more important than ever for the fractured country's residents to remember their shared history. "Whatever happens, [the North and the South] are going to be linked: linked by culture, linked by migration, linked economically," he says. "It's not about promoting unity -- that's an irrelevance now. It's about understanding what led to this, and what the history was."
Above, an elderly woman displaced from the town of Abyei stands on an airstrip in nearby Agok during an emergency food distribution by the World Food Program in May 2008. The fighting in Abyei between the Sudanese military and the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) killed over 100 people, displaced 50,000 from their homes, and left the town in ruins.
Tim McKulka/UN Photo
(9)
HIDE COMMENTS LOGIN OR REGISTER REPORT ABUSE
MARKVERMOUH
6:41 PM ET
July 10, 2011
Excellents shots
Some fabulous photography here
KASEMAN
9:00 AM ET
July 11, 2011
South Sudan: already a failed state
Sudan was failed state, a non nation right from the beginnnig. An area the size of EU 15, 2.5 million sq km, a mini empire cobbled together by four Brit imperial proconsuls in the 1890s. Before that an expression, like Arabia or Middle East. .Google it
First as a colony of Egypt then a direct colony of the UK. 200 hundred ethnic groups, many hostile to their neighbors, many languages.
Move it 5000 km north and it would stretch from Russian border to Holland, from Denmark to Sicily to Crimea to Belarus. Now what has been the record of war and peace there among these "civilized" white Christian Europeans? Especially 1913-47
So why expect peace an prosperity in either Sudans.....
FALOURMAMA
9:23 AM ET
July 11, 2011
very High Quality pics !
Thanks for these awsome pics . I always thought sudan was a rich country but i was totally wrong after reading this article .
P.S . If you are looking for an online tool to make awesome retouch like in the photograph above , check out PHP and Jquery Tutorials
MOHAMD YAGS
3:17 AM ET
July 17, 2011
Sudan The wounded heart country
think no body knows better than Sudanese themselves, even they lying under stupidity of the politicians, In spite of they raised from the same community, they always offer thinking in a different way,which reflected negatively on life for all Sudanese, this idea keeps repeating since independence that gained in 1956, so what I am saying we need -as a Sudanese - to be treated as the Chinese says: ( Don't offer me fish, Just teach me how fishing).
HIDROCIL SP
2:11 PM ET
July 18, 2011
Very nice photography from
Very nice photography from Tim McKulka. He do a very nice job like always. I woud like to ask him what he think about a photography of a TRUCK from Desentupidora and that a designer make a job to slice to stick on the site. But, You know...a good photography came from the angle, colors and all stuff like that.
Nice photography. Thanks!
HAWAII_WEB_DESIGNER
6:44 AM ET
August 4, 2011
Amazing Photography
Needless is to say that my congratulations goes to the Photographer that has such a great vision to create this kind of images.
Im an fan of Photography and got tons to learn but this images are very motivating on keep on learning.
JESS BAKER
2:32 AM ET
August 5, 2011
Photography of Sudan
Stunning pictures of the Sudanese people. I simply love the first photo above of the elderly woman and also boy with the toy gun was a great pic. I think photography that captures people's natural life situations and experiences tells a story that can be very haunting.
BCOBB107
4:07 PM ET
August 5, 2011
From Khartoum to Juba
Images of Sudan and its people on the eve of the country's division. Thanks for these awsome pics . I always thought sudan was a rich country but i was totally wrong after reading this article . P.S . If you are looking for an online tool to make awesome retouch like in the photograph above , check out PHP and Jquery Tutorials bandwidth monitor Very nice photography from Tim McKulka. He do a very nice job like always. I woud like to ask him what he think about a photography of a TRUCK from Desentupidora and that a designer make a job to slice to stick on the site. But, You know...a good photography came from the angle, colors and all stuff like that. Nice photography. Thanks!.
DOUGIEL
11:22 AM ET
August 10, 2011
A picture of lonliness
Sudan is a small country that is a third world country. If only we knew what these guys have to go through to survive. So much violence and extreme poverty. This photo by Tim depicts it all. A homeless man standing. We need to help countries like this whether it's sponsoring a child, helping a student through uni through student loan consolidation, through telling their story through social media marketing, through petitions and through tv and radio.