Capturing Empire Through the Lens: Colonial Narratives and Power Structures in Henry Wellcome’s Expedition to Jebel Moya, Sudan

Afr Archaeol Rev https://doi.org/10.1007/s10437-024-09609-1 ORIGINAL ARTICLE Capturing Empire Through the Lens: Colonial Narratives and Power Structures in Henry Wellcome’s Expedition to Jebel Moya, Sudan Isabelle Vella Gregory · Angela Saward · Ahmed Hussein Abdelrahman Adam Accepted: 16 December 2024 © The Author(s) 2025 Abstract This paper explores the relationship between archaeology, photography, and colonialism at the site of Jebel Moya (Site 100), Sudan. We consider technical aspects of the photographic archive, the role of photographers, the manipulation of images to convey specific narratives, and the dispersal and reclassification of the Jebel Moya materials across various institutions. When Site 100 was first excavated by Henry Wellcome (1911–1914), Sudan had a Condominium government, rendering the country a British colony in all but name. Our work acknowledges the racial legacies of colonial rule and as such it engages with the community whose past is under discussion, emphasizing how photography served as an agent of Western colonial authority. It re-situates Jebel Moya and related archives in the Sudanese context, providing an enriched understanding of the site’s history, the workers who excavated it, and the various I. Vella Gregory (*) Institute of Archaeology, University College London, London, UK e-mail: A. Saward Wellcome Collection, London, UK A. H. A. Adam University of Khartoum, Khartoum, Sudan colonial power dynamics involved. Additionally, our current fieldwork recognizes that as a discipline, archaeology is deeply rooted in European colonialism and as such we extend inquiry beyond sites and artifacts and focus on colonial practices and representational encounters, pronounced power imbalances, and imperial values rooted in white dominance and superiority. Consequently, this study contributes to the reframing of Sudanese history and a more inclusive understanding of the past. Résumé Cet article explore la relation entre l’archéologie, la photographie et le colonialisme sur le site de Jebel Moya (Site 100), Soudan. Nous examinons les aspects techniques des archives photographiques, le rôle des photographes, la manipulation des images pour véhiculer des récits spécifiques, ainsi que la dispersion et la reclassification des documents de Jebel Moya dans diverses institutions. Lorsque le site 100 a été fouillé pour la première fois par Henry Wellcome (1911–14), le Soudan avait un gouvernement de type condominium, ce qui faisait du pays une colonie britannique dans tous les sens du terme. Notre travail reconnaît l’héritage racial de la domination coloniale et, en tant que tel, il s’engage avec la communauté dont le passé est discuté, en soulignant comment la photographie a servi d’agent de l’autorité coloniale occidentale. Il replace Jebel Moya et les archives qui s’y rapportent dans le contexte soudanais, ce qui permet Vol.: (0123456789) Afr Archaeol Rev de mieux comprendre l’histoire du site, les travailleurs qui l’ont fouillé et les diverses dynamiques de pouvoir coloniales impliquées. En present, les travaux reconnaît qu’en tant que discipline, l’archéologie est profondément enracinée dans le colonialisme européen et, par conséquent, étend la recherche au-delà des sites et des artefacts. Nous concentrons sur les pratiques coloniales et les rencontres de représentation, les déséquilibres de pouvoir prononcés et les valeurs impériales enracinées dans la domination et la supériorité des blancs. Par conséquent, cette étude contribue à recadrer l’histoire du Soudan et à une compréhension plus inclusive du passé. Keywords Sudan · Archaeology · Photography · Colonialism · Power Introduction The practice of archaeology is deeply rooted in European colonialism (González-Ruibal, 2010) and archaeology is entangled with archives, the creation and maintenance of which is not a neutral act (Lucas, 2010). How do we approach these relationships and take into account a photographic archive that is as vast as it is problematic? This paper examines these issues vis-à-vis Jebel Moya, Sudan, from the perspective that photography is an agent of western colonizing authority and the photographic archive is a place where we can continuously engage with cultural memory work (sensu Sealy, 2018: 2, 107–8). In thinking about Sudan, we need to foreground our thinking in racial legacies of colonial rule. Therefore, any approach has to ultimately engage the community whose past is under discussion. Parallel to this is the broader debate on decolonizing archaeology. In any field project, archaeologists need to ask whose labor and knowledge are being foregrounded and recognized (see the “Colonial Displays of Power” section), but for archaeology to be decolonial, it also needs to question itself. As Atalay (2010) notes, if archaeology defines itself as studying a lost past, one which is distanced from the present by time and culture, then we need to acknowledge a level of othering. This is not to revisit the well-worn arguments on, for example, the use of analogy (see for example Wylie, 1985)—what Atalay (2010) is correctly pointing out is that when Westerners gained Vol:. (1234567890) power through colonization, they also gained the power to study those distant from themselves in terms of time and culture. In the process, they have utilized western epistemologies, with knowledge produced for the benefit of western audiences. This paper highlights the latter and shifts perspectives to the communities of Jebel Moya, past and present. Specifically, it takes a photographic archive produced during the colonial period as a means of considering the ways in which the past was constructed and distorted. First, we describe the site and the main archaeological features. This is followed by a description of the archives as relating to Jebel Moya. The photographic archive is situated in its broader context. Overall, our project is grounded within various cross-sections of the Sudanese community (see the “Sudan and Archives” section), and in considering photographs, we deployed the same community engagement. Images were studied and shared with a wide cross-section of the Jebel Moya community. This part of the project was brutally disrupted by war (see Vella Gregory, 2025). Broadly speaking, the photographs depict the site, labor, and colonial displays of power. Each of these is discussed in turn. In reconstructing how the archive was formed, we note that photographs of archaeological remains are not tantamount to archaeological photographs (Riggs 2020, see the “The Jebel Moya Photographic Archive” section). Labor and colonial displays of power are examined from the lens of local dynamics. Community engagement, both with the inhabitants of Jebel Moya and Sudanese scholars, has shaped the corrective demonstration of presence (“Colonial Displays of Power” section). Jebel Moya is a village and mountain in the province of Sennar, Sudan (Fig. 1). The village lies between the Blue and Whit (...truncated)