Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-4rdpn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-15T04:34:28.775Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

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

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 March 2005

M.C. Jedrej
M.C. Jedrej
Affiliation:
University of Edinburgh
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

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.

Type
Research Article
Information
Comparative Studies in Society and History , Volume 46 , Issue 4 , October 2004 , pp. 709 - 729
Copyright
© 2004 Society for Comparative Study of Society and History

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Abrams P 1988 Notes on the Difficulty of Studying the State Journal of Historical Sociology 1 58 89Google Scholar
al Shahi Ahmed 1972 Proverbs and Social Values in a Northern Sudanese Village I. Cunnison and Wendy James Essays in Sudan Ethnography London Hurst
Beltrame G 1882 Il Sennaar e lo Sciangallah Verona C. Kayser
Bonte Pierre 1994 Manière de dire ou manière de faire: Peut-on parler d'un marriage ’Arab'? P. Bonte Épouser au plus proche; Inceste, prohibitions et strategies matrimoniale autour de la Méditerranée Paris Éditions de L'École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales
Bruce James 1790 Travels to Discover the Source of the Nile in the Years 1768, 1769, 1770, 1771, 1772 and 1773 Vol. 4 Printed for G. and J. Robinson J. Edinburgh Ruthven
Bruce James 1804 Travels to Discover the Source of the Nile in the years 1768, 1769, 1770, 1771, 1772 and 1773. Vol. 4. Edinburgh Constable and Co
Cailliaud Frédéric 1826 Voyage a Méroé, au Fleuve Blanc, au-delà de Fazoql dans le Midi du Royaume de Sennar Paris L'Imprimerie Royale
Chataway J.D.P 1930 Notes on the History of the Fung Sudan Notes & Records 13 247–58Google Scholar
Delmet C 1974 Notes sur les populations du Djebel Guli (Southern Dar Fung, Soudan) L'Homme 14 119–34Google Scholar
Delmet C 1981 Islamization and the Traditional Society and Culture of Jebel Gule Sudan Notes & Records 62 25 46Google Scholar
Delmet C 1991 Société dominante et cultures locales: Violence et intégration au Dar Funj H. Bleuchot, C. Delmet, and D. Hopwood Sudan: History, Identity, Ideology Reading, Pa Ithaca Press
Disney A.W.M 1945 The Coronation of the Funj King of Fazoghli Sudan Notes & Records 26 37 42Google Scholar
Ecsedy C. E. 1973 An Unknown People of the Sudan The New Hungarian Quarterly 14 143–50Google Scholar
el Hassan Idris 1993 Religion in Society Khartoum Khartoum University Press
Evans-Pritchard E. E. 1927 A Preliminary Account of the Ingassana Tribe in Fung Province Sudan Notes & Records 10 69 83Google Scholar
Evans-Pritchard E. E. 1932 Ethnological Observations in Dar Fung Sudan Notes & Records 15 1 61Google Scholar
Ewald J 1988 Speaking, Writing and Authority: Explorations in and from the Kingdom of Tagali Comparative Studies in Society and History 30 199 224Google Scholar
Ewald J 1990 Soldiers, Traders and Slaves. State Formation and Economic Transformation in the Greater Nile Valley 1700–1885 Madison University of Wisconsin Press
Fanthorpe R 1998 Limba ’Deep Rural' Strategies Journal of African History 39 15 38Google Scholar
Fluehr-Lobban C 1987 Islamic Law and Society in the Sudan London Frank Cass
Hasan Yusuf fadl 1977 Some Aspects of the Arab Slave Trade from the Sudan, 7th—19th Centuries Sudan Notes & Records 58 85 106Google Scholar
Hill R 1959 Egypt in the Sudan 1820–1881 London Oxford University Press
Holt P. M. 1970 The Nilotic Sudan P. M. Holt, Ann K. S. Lambton, and Bernard Lewis The Cambridge History of Islam Vol. 2A Cambridge Cambridge University Press
James W 1970 Why the Uduk Won't Pay Bridewealth Sudan Notes & Records 51 75 82Google Scholar
James W 1971 Social Assimilation and Changing Identity in the Southern Funj Yusuf Fadl Hasan Sudan in Africa Khartoum Khartoum University Press
James W 1977 The Funj Mystique: Approaches to a Problem of Sudan History Ravindra K. Jain Text and Context: The Social Anthropology of Tradition Philadelphia ISHI
James W 1979 Kwanim Pa: The Making of the Uduk People: An Ethnographic Study of Survival in the Sudan-Ethiopian Borderlands Oxford Clarendon Press
James W 1988 The Listening Ebony. Moral Knowledge, Religion, and Power among the Uduk of Sudan Oxford Clarendon Press
James W 1994 War and Ethnic Visibility: The Uduk on the Sudan-Ethiopia Border Katsuyoshi Fukui and J. Markakis Ethnicity and Conflict in the Horn of Africa London James Currey
James W. 1996 Jan Maria Schuver's Travels in North East Africa 1880–1883 G. Baumann, and D. Johnson London The Hakluyt Society
Jedrej M. C. 1995 Ingessana. The Religious Institutions of a People of the Sudan-Ethiopian Borderland Leiden E. J. Brill
Jedrej M. C. 2000 Ingessana and the Legacy of the Funj Sultanate Africa 70 278–97Google Scholar
Johnson D 1986 The Historical Approach to the Studies of Societies and Their Environment in the Eastern Upper Nile Plain Cahiers d'études Africaines 26 131–44Google Scholar
Johnson D 1994 Nuer Prophets. A History of Prophecy from the Upper Nile in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries. Oxford Clarendon Press
Last M 1979 Some Economic Aspects of Conversion in Hausaland N. Levitzion Conversion to Islam New York Homes and Meier
Last M 1993 History as Religion: De-Constructing the Magians ’Maguzawa' of Nigerian Hausaland J-P Chrétien L'Invention religieuse en Afrique: Histoire et religion en Afrique noire Paris Kharthala
Lattimore O 1962 Studies in Frontier History Paris Mouton
Lobban R. A. 1982 Class and Kinship in Sudanese Urban Communities Africa 52 51 75Google Scholar
Mabogunje A. L. Richards P. 1985 The People and Land of West Africa J.F.A. Ajayi and M. Crowder History of West Africa London Longman
Makris G 1996 Slavery, Possession and History: The Construction of the Self among Slave Descendants in the Sudan Africa 66 159–82Google Scholar
Makris G 2000 Changing Masters: Spirit Possession and Identity Construction among Slave Descendants and other Subordinates in the Sudan Evanston, Ill Northwestern University Press
Marno E 1872 Reisen in Hoch-Sennar Petermann's Mitteilungen 18 450–56Google Scholar
Marno E 1874 Reisen im gebiete des blauen und weissen Nil, im Egyptische Sudan Vienna Carl Gesold's Sohn
Mitchell T 1999 Society, Economy and the State Effect Steinmetz, G. State/Culture: State Formation after the Cultural Turn Ithaca Cornell University Press
Nalder L. F. 1931 Tales from the Fung Province Sudan Notes & Records 14 67 86Google Scholar
O'Fahey R. S. J. Spaulding 1974 Kingdoms of the Sudan London Methuen
Okazaki A 1992 A Gamk anti-’Dingi' Ritual: The Imagination of Power among a ’Pre-Nilotic' People Journal of Religion in Africa 22 66 77Google Scholar
Robertson J. W. 1934 Fung Origins Sudan Notes & Records 17 260–65Google Scholar
Spaulding J 1985 The Heroic Age in Sennar Committee on North East African Studies, Ethiopian Series Monograph No. 15 East Lansing African Studies Center, Michigan State University
Spaulding J 1998 Early Kordofan E. Stiansen and M. Kevane Kordofan Invaded: Peripheral Incorporation and Social Transformation in Islamic Africa Leiden E. J. Brill
Taylor C 1997 Nationalism and Modernity R. McKim and J. McMahan The Morality of Nationalism Oxford Oxford University Press
Theis J 1983 Hunting, Beer and Kinship: Sketches of Inter-Ethnic Relations in the Yabus Valley (Southern Funj Region) F. Kramer and B. Streck Zwischenberichte des Sudan projekts Berlin Institut fur Ethnologie der Freien Universitat
Theis J 1995 Nach der Razzia, ethnographie und geschichte der Koma Munchen Trickster Verlag
Triulzi A 1981 Salt, Gold and Legitimacy. Prelude to the History of a No-Man's Land, Bela Shangul, Wallagga, Ethiopia (ca. 1800–1898) Naples Instituto Universitario Orientale, Seminario di Studi Africani
Tsing A 1993 In the Realm of the Diamond Queen Princeton Princeton University Press
Tsing A 1994 From the Margins. Cultural Anthropology 9 279–97Google Scholar
Zoppritz K 1877 E de Pruyssenaere's reisen und forschungen im gebiete des weissen und blauen nil Petermann's Mittheilungen Erganzungsheft No. 51 23Google Scholar