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Paper short abstract

Images circulated from Sudan’s war act as forms of witnessing, conveying atrocities, violence, and displacement. This paper examines how anthropologists navigate mediated witnessing from afar, the ethical tensions involved, and the co-production of solidarity through visual testimony.

Paper long abstract

Anthropologists are increasingly confronted with the transformation of their research fields into zones of conflict. This raises challenges for producing and conveying knowledge under highly polarized conditions, as well as for engaging with violence through mediated forms of witnessing from afar.

According to the United Nations, the war in Sudan currently constitutes the world’s largest humanitarian crisis, yet it receives comparatively little media attention. In response, those affected by violence and displacement circulate images of loss and destruction on social media in order to generate visibility and evidence of atrocities. Since the outbreak of the violent conflict in 2023, Sudanese journalists, artists, and activists—both inside Sudan and in the diaspora—have shared photographs and videos documenting the war. These images depict the violent destruction of cities, mass killings, forced displacement, and memories of home before the war.

These visual materials do more than testifying war and violence; they convey affects such as loss, trauma, and grief, but also hope for renewal in exile. By mobilizing affects, these circulated images contribute both to emotional processing among artists and activists and to a sense of urgency in the distant witnesses. Taking mediated witnessing from afar as a starting point, I examine the tensions anthropologists face between the felt obligation to draw attention to violence and the risk of reproducing violent or victimizing discourses. These frictions reveal both the possibilities and the limits of anthropological engagement in the co-production of witnessing through collaborative interventions that seek to foster networks of solidarity.