Social Science Research Council

Thoughts on the future of Sudan from an unlikely source: Winston Churchill in his book ‘The River War‘.

“It might seem at first a great advantage that the people of the Soudan, instead of being a multitude of wild, discordant tribes, should unite of their own accord into one strong community, living under fixed laws, [...]

During 2010, two important centenaries in the history of Sudanese nationalism occur—dates when armies from Darfur resisted colonial occupation. But, these anniversaries have never been commemorated before, and the historical significance of the dates may pass without mention.
The dates in question are two battles in which Darfurian armies fought against colonial invaders. In one battle, [...]

Professor Mamdani in his Saviors and Survivors. Darfur, Politics and the War on Terror (NY: Pantheon Books, 2009) has written a powerful attack on the Save Darfur Coalition and the political climate and debate in America around the Darfur issue. In general, I find much to agree with in Mamdani’s analysis, illuminating as it does [...]

A review posted separately of Mahmood Mamdani’s Saviors and Survivors is long enough without further comment on two positions that, however, misapprehend or exaggerate the role that Darfur played in British administrative thinking during the colonial period. These are the centrality of Darfur to the fortunes of the Mahdist cult and its importance in the [...]

Someday – if this has not been done already – someone will add up the number of works on Darfur published since, say, 2003 and compare it with the number published in the thousand years before then. The result is unlikely to surprise Mahmood Mamdani, one of whose themes in Saviors and Survivors is the [...]

There has been a flood on the Web of confusing and confused discussions about the “Arab”/”African” divide in Darfur recently. Perhaps a little historical background will help to clarify the issue.
The population of Darfur is approximately 2/3 to 3/4 “African” and 1/3 to 1/4 “Arab”; here I am basing myself on the 1955-56 Census. All [...]