Across Four Continents: Sudanese Refugee Stories

Across Four Continents tells the story of the Sudanese refugee diaspora on four continents through individual lives. It starts with Matthew Kongo, a Sudanese refugee. Despite his previous position as a C.E.O. of an export company in eastern Africa, Sudanese refugee Matthew Kongo works on his feet during his 12-hour night shifts at Spencer Press, outside of Portland, Maine. The sudanese refugee is 65 years old and has lingering pain from injuries he sustained while being tortured by the Sudanese government. In addition to the difficult hours that he works, Sudanese refugge Kongo devotes much of his free time to leading the Sudanese refugee community in Portland.

Multiple conflicts in Sudan over the past five decades in South Sudan and Darfur have forced individuals and families to flee their homes in search of safety and security. Many of these displaced people then register with the United Nations to become official refugees. Significant populations of Sudanese refugees live on four far-flung continents: Africa, Australia, Europe, and North America. Across Four Continents, a collaborative project between photographer Anna M Weaver and writer Kyle Boelte, documents Sudanese refugee life on these four continents to draw attention to the significant social concerns of refugee issues, international migration, and the ongoing conflicts in Sudan, Suth Sudan and Darfur. This is a documentary photogray project.

The genocide in the Darfur region of Sudan continues daily while a tenuous peace agreement holds in the South. Refugees from both of these regions are in various states of transition. Refugee camps in neighboring Chad hold 250,000 displaced people and are overflowing with new arrivals; 30,000 Sudanese refugees live in Cairo, Egypt awaiting emigration to Western countries; and thousands are building new lives in cities like London, Melbourne, and Portland, Maine. We are spending time in countries both large and small, in cities with both established and budding Sudanese communities, and in developed and lesser-developed countries. While Sudanese refugees the world over share many common experiences, each place holds a different set of obstacles, offers different opportunities, and has different stories to tell. By focusing on four continents, Across Four Continents shows the global reach of the Sudanese conflicts, captures varying stages of transition, and illustrates the immense variety of refugee life

This documentary photography project is funded by institutional, foundational, and individual donations. If you would like to suport Across Four Continents, you can make a donation on our “Contact” page.