Hoshna Sudan

Hoshnɑ - 'Our Courtyard' - is a people's platform to celebrate and protect Sudanese heritage. Open and accessible to all. We don't have words for the suffering of our people, but we are still proud who we are. And we want to save, share and celebrate our beautiful and diverse cultures.

Vast tracts of priceless intangible heritage are disappearing in Sudan due to climate, conflict and demographic changes. Even before the current war over 45 language groups were severely or critically endangered. (UNESCO, Endangered Languages Project). Traditional ethnographic approaches to collection are critical, but cannot respond at scale.

Join us by sharing and celebrating songs, stories, recipes and other intangible cultural heritage. Your posts remain yours and you can remove them whenever you wish.

Download our APP and get involved.

Explore and Share - Explore archives going back to 1964, and share and celebrate your cultural heritage from across Sudanese cultures

Document and celebrate your heritage - Post video, audio, and images of your heritage. Define and categorise your posts the way you (or your Grandma) thinks is right.

Far from home? Your post location is GPS tagged but you also add a 'cultural location' like your home area. Toggle between the two on map view.

No network, no problem, our APP will store your posts until you get connected.

Report, Bookmark, Share - Save and share your favourite posts and report anything you think will cause harm. We take a zero-risk approach to hate speech.

In addition to the principles of decentralisation, Do No Harm, inclusivity, handing over control, and complementarity, we fully endorse and are continually guided by the UNESCO twelve ethical principles for safeguarding intangible cultural heritage (Decision 10.COM 15.a).

We are proud of what we've achieved so far - but already planning our improvements. Restored archive content will be added in the coming months, such as adding social and story features, partnering with existing archives and community organisations on new campaigns, and - of course - making it easier for you to contribute. If you like the project, want to open a channel on the APP, or have suggestions or lessons, please get in touch!