The Southern Funj of the Sudan as a Frontier Society, 1820-1980

Datos Bibliográficos

ID2108293
AutoresM C Jedrej (University of Edinburgh, autor de correspondencia)
Año2004
Volumen46
Número4
Páginas709-729
Fecha de publicación2004-10-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaComparative Studies in Society and History (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0010-4175 • E-ISSN: 1475-2999
EditorialCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s0010417504000337
OpenAlexW2145014205
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas8
Referencias citadas31

The long civil war in the Sudan between the government and the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) is usually simply described as a war between 'the Arab North' and 'the African South.' Equally simply, it is understood as a continuation, by new means and in new circumstances, of nineteenth-century and earlier inequalities between free people and unfree people, and of hostilities between slavers and those they preyed upon. In the twentieth century these asymmetries came to be represented by a religious distinction between Muslims and non-Muslims. However, these apparent distinctions between free and unfree, and between Muslim and non-Muslim begin to blur when we ask who is making them. Likewise, at closer inspection, the division into 'the Arab North' and 'the African South' begins to fragment and reconstitute into a complexity of alliances and interest groups. These complexities become more evident as engagement moves from hostile encounters in the remote vastness of the Sudan to peace negotiations and press conferences in hotels and offices in capital cities. In the latter settings marginalized populations can be heard. Of special here interest are the three culturally 'southern' populations whose homelands are in the geo-political North: Abyei, the Nuba Mountains, and South Blue Nile. In January 2003, a public statement, headed 'Let us not be denied the right to decide on our future,' was delivered to the North-South peace conference in Kenya by a local NGO, the Relief Organisation of Fazugli (ROOF), on behalf of 'the people of South Blue Nile.' It demanded that their representatives, along with those of the Nuba Mountains and Abyei be included in the current peace negotiations

Ancient history · Capital (architecture · Frontier · Geography · Government (linguistics · Negotiation · Political science · Politics · Spanish Civil War · African studies and sociopolitical issues · Colonialism, slavery, and trade · History · Law · Race, History, and American Society