Based on fieldwork largely collected during the CPA interim period by Sudanese and European researchers, this volume sheds light on the dynamics of change and the relationship between microscale and macroscale processes which took place in Sudan between the 1980s and the independence of South Sudan in 2011. Contributors’ various disciplinary approaches—socio-anthropological, geographical, political, historical, linguistic—focus on the general issue of “access to resources.” The book analyzes major transformations which affected Sudan in the framework of globalization, including land and urban issues; water management; “new” actors and “new conflicts”; and language, identity, and ideology.

The Routledge Handbook of the Horn of Africa provides a comprehensive, interdisciplinary survey of contemporary research related to the Horn of Africa. Situated at the junction of the Sahel-Saharan strip and the Arabian Peninsula, the Horn of Africa is growing in global importance due to demographic growth and the strategic importance of the Suez Canal. Divided into sections on authoritarianism and resistance, religion and politics, migration, economic integration, the military, and regimes and liberation, the contributors provide up-to-date, authoritative knowledge on the region in light of contemporary strategic concerns. The handbook investigates how political, economic, and security innovations have been implemented, sometimes with violence, by use of force or by negotiation – including ‘ethnic federalism’ in Ethiopia, independence in Eritrea and South Sudan, integration of the traditional authorities in the (neo)patrimonial administrations, Somalian Islamic Courts, the Sudanese Islamist regime, people’s movements, multilateral operations, and the construction of an architecture for regional peace and security. Accessibly written, this handbook is an essential read for scholars, students, and policy professionals interested in the contemporary politics in the Horn of Africa.

Anthropology of Law in Muslim Sudan analyses the hybridity of law systems and the plurality of legal practices in rural and urban contexts of contemporary Sudan, shedding light on the complex relation between Islam and society. It is the outcome of the international research program ANDROMAQUE (Anthropologie du Droit dans les Mondes Musulmans Africains et Asiatiques), funded by the French ANR (Agence National de la Recherche) between 2011 and 2014. Crossing two disciplinary perspectives, anthropology and law, the present volume contains original fieldwork data on contemporary urban and rural Sudan. Focusing on two major domains, land property and courts, several case studies demonstrate the relevance of an approach based on “legal practices” to underline, first, the plurality and hybridity of law systems and the relative role of the Islamic reference in Sudanese society, and, secondly, the reshaping of legal behaviors and norms after the breaking point of South Sudan's independence in 2011. Contributors are: Zahir M. Abdal-Kareem; Azza A. Abdel Aziz; Musa A. Abdul-Jalil; Munzoul M.A. Assal; Mohamed A. Babiker; Yazid Ben Hounet; Barbara Casciarri; Baudoin Dupret; Philippe Gout; Enrico Ille.

Focusing on Greater Khartoum following South Sudanese independence in 2011, In-Betweenness in Greater Khartoum explores the impact on society of major political events in areas that are neither urban nor rural, public nor private. This volume uses these in-between spaces as a lens to analyze how these events, in combination with other processes, such as globalization and economic neo-liberalization, impact communities across the region. Drawing on original fieldwork and empirical data, the authors uncover the reshaping of new categories of people that reinforce old dichotomies and in doing so underscore a common Sudanese identity.

Data deficiencies contribute to state fragility and exacerbate fragile states’ already limited capacity to provide basic services, public security and rule of law. The lack of robust, good quality data can also have a disabling effect on government efforts to manage political conflict, and indeed can worsen conflict, since violent settings pose substantial challenges to knowledge generation, capture and application. In short, in fragile contexts the need for reliable evidence at all levels is perhaps greater than anywhere else. The development of sustainable and professional ‘data-literate’ stakeholders who are able to produce and increase the quality and accessibility of official statistics can contribute to improved development outcomes. Good quality and reliable statistics are also required to track the progress of development policies through the monitoring of performance indicators and targets and to ensure that public resources are achieving results. While data alone cannot have a transformative effect without the right contextual incentives it is an essential and necessary prerequisite for greater accountability and more efficient decision-making. This volume explores methods and insights for data collection and use in fragile contexts, with a focus on Sudan. It begins by posing several questions on the political economy of data, and then sets out a framework for assessing the validity, reliability, and potential impact of data on decision-making in a fragile country. It also sets out insights on challenges associated with fragile states, derived from recent data collected in Sudan: the 2014/2015 DFID Sudan household survey. This includes data-driven analysis of topics including female genital mutilation, public service delivery, and the interplay of governance, service quality, and state legitimacy.

This book starts from the premise that the study of "exceptionally normal" women and men - as conceived by microhistory - has radical implications for understanding history and politics, and applies this notion to Sudan. Against a historiography dominated by elite actors and international agents, it examines both how ordinary people have brought about the most important political shifts in the country's history (including the recent revolution in 2019) and how they have played a role in maintaining authoritarian regimes. It also explores how men and women have led their daily lives through a web of ordinary worries, desires and passions. The book includes contributions by historians, anthropologists, and political scientists who often have a dual commitment to Middle Eastern and African studies. While focusing on the complexity and nuances of Sudanese local lives in both the past and the present, it also connects Sudan and South Sudan with broader regional, global, and imperial trends. The book is divided into two volumes and six parts, ordered thematically. The first part tackles the entanglement between archives, social history, and power. The second focuses on women's agency in history and politics from the Funj era to the recent 2018-2019 revolution. Part 3 includes contributions on the history and global connections of the Sudanese armed forces. In the second volume, part 4 intersects the themes of urban life, leisure, and colonial attitudes with queerness. In part 5, labour identities, practices, and institutions are discussed both in urban milieus and against the background of war and expropriation in rural areas. Finally, part 6 studies the construction of social consent under various self-styled Islamic regimes, as well as the emergence of alternative imaginaries and acts of citizenship in times of political openness.

This book offers a historically sensitive ethnography of the zār ṭumbura spirit possession cult, associated with descendants of African slaves who live mainly in the area of Greater Khartoum, Sudan. It considers the history and transformations of ṭumbura, from the 19th-century slaving era to the present post-Islamist autocracy. The chapters examine the ṭumbura spiritual universe and ceremonial life, its relation to the more popular female cult of zār borē and to other now extinct forms of celebrating the zār spirit(s), as well as ṭumbura’s combination of possession, sorcery, ancestor worship and ṣūfī piety. Based on long-term fieldwork, the study shows how successive generations of subaltern cult devotees construct a positive self-identity based on an alternative reading of Sudanese history. The author explores the edges of Sudanese Islamic religiosity and probes the limits of anthropological classifications concerning religious experience. Situating ṭumbura in its wider context, the book discusses subaltern modes of historicity in their articulation with dominant conceptions of history, traces the legacy of slavery and the role of memory and invites comparisons with Middle Eastern, Sahelian and even New World societies regarding stigmatised identities, slavery, race, memory and history. It will be of interest to scholars of anthropology, history, religious studies, Islamic studies and African studies.

In a world gripped by an ever-worsening ecological crisis there are present and increasing genocidal pressures on many culturally distinct social groups, such as indigenous peoples. This is where the genocide-ecocide nexus presents itself. The destruction of ecosystems, ecocide, can be a method of genocide if, for example, environmental destruction results in conditions of life that fundamentally threaten a social group's cultural and/or physical existence. Given the looming threat of runaway climate change, the attendant rapid extinction of species, destruction of habitats, ecological collapse and the self-evident dependency of the human race on our bio-sphere, ecocide (both "natural" and "manmade") will become a primary driver of genocide. Through nine chapters of cutting-edge research, this book examines specific case studies in geographical settings such as Iraq, Sudan, Nigeria and Brazil, to highlight and analyse the crucial connections and vectors of the genocide-ecocide nexus. This book will be of great value to scholars, students and researchers interested in the ecological crisis, Environmental Justice, the political economy of genocide and ecocide as well as environmental human rights. The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of The Journal of Genocide Research.

This book gives a compelling analysis and explanation of shifts in China’s non-intervention policy in Africa. Systematically connecting the neoclassical realist theoretical logic with an empirical analysis of China’s intervention in African civil wars, the volume highlights a methodical interlink between theoretical and empirical analysis that takes into consideration the changing status of rising powers in the global system and its effect on their intervention behaviour. Based on field research and expert interviews, it provides a rigorous analysis of China’s emergent intervention behaviour in some key African conflicts in Libya, South Sudan and Mali and broadens the study of external interventions in civil wars to include the intervention behaviour of non-Western rising powers. Obert Hodzi is Visiting Researcher at the African Studies Center, Boston University, USA, and Postdoctoral Researcher at the University of Helsinki, Finland.

Trade connections and cultural exchange between Africa and the rest of the global South have existed for centuries. Since the end of the Cold War, these connections have expanded and diversified dramatically, with emerging economies such as China, India, and Brazil becoming increasingly important both as sources of trade and as a destination for African migrants. But while these trends have attracted growing scholarly attention, there has so far been little appreciation of the sheer breadth and variety of this exchange, or of its deeper social impact. This collection brings together a wide array of scholarly perspectives to explore the movement of people, commodities, and ideas between Africa and the wider global South, with rich empirical case studies ranging from Senegalese migrants in Argentina to Lebanese traders in Nigeria. The contributors argue that this exchange represents a form of ‘globalization from below’ which defies many of the prevailing Western assumptions about migration and development, and which can only be understood if we consider the full range and complexity of migrant experiences. Multidisciplinary in scope, Mobility between Africa, Asia and Latin America is essential reading for students and scholars across the social sciences interested in the interconnected economic and social make-up of the global South.