Art, Politics, and Cultural Identification in Sudan

Art, Politics, and Cultural Identification in Sudan

Author: Mohamed A. Abusabib

Publisher:

Published: 2004

Total Pages: 244

ISBN-13:

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

"It is now widely acknowledged that the issue of Sudan's cultural and political identity is one of the root causes of the Sudanese crisis that has crippled the country since its independence in 1956 and plunged it into a civil war regarded as the longest in Africa. Nevertheless, this issue continues to be a grossly neglected topic in scholarship concerning Sudan. On the other hand, the politics of intellectual and artistic production have been inseparable from the pivotal issue of identity ever since the advent of Sudanese nationalism in the 1920s. But there has yet been no publication dedicated to the topic of identity as one of the major concerns in modern Sudanese artistic production. This study thus undertakes a critical examination of key discourses concerning the cultural basis of modern Sudanese literature, visual art, music, and dance, and it attempts to highlight their underlying political and ideological orientations. The terms Arabism, Afro-Arabism, Africanism, Islamism, and Sudanism have developed within these discourses as defining concepts describing the country's ethnic and cultural origins, thereby serving as identity constructs. The study also examines the relation between the political and the artistic institutions as well as the policy of the ""Islamization of the Arts"" launched by the present Islamist regime and its outcome. The study may also be viewed as an endeavor to ""discover"" within the aesthetic field the missing ""Sudanese"" collective memory. Stated otherwise, this is an effort to redeem the lost ""Sudanese"" pedigree that has long been deliberately mystified, misconceived, and misconstrued for the for the sake of certain political and cultural strategies. Another aim of the study is to introduce Sudanese arts and the specific Sudanese aesthetic/political debate concerning the topics of culture and identity to both the general reader and specialists as well as to Africanists in general and scholars of African arts and literature in particular."


Book Synopsis Art, Politics, and Cultural Identification in Sudan by : Mohamed A. Abusabib

Download or read book Art, Politics, and Cultural Identification in Sudan written by Mohamed A. Abusabib and published by . This book was released on 2004 with total page 244 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "It is now widely acknowledged that the issue of Sudan's cultural and political identity is one of the root causes of the Sudanese crisis that has crippled the country since its independence in 1956 and plunged it into a civil war regarded as the longest in Africa. Nevertheless, this issue continues to be a grossly neglected topic in scholarship concerning Sudan. On the other hand, the politics of intellectual and artistic production have been inseparable from the pivotal issue of identity ever since the advent of Sudanese nationalism in the 1920s. But there has yet been no publication dedicated to the topic of identity as one of the major concerns in modern Sudanese artistic production. This study thus undertakes a critical examination of key discourses concerning the cultural basis of modern Sudanese literature, visual art, music, and dance, and it attempts to highlight their underlying political and ideological orientations. The terms Arabism, Afro-Arabism, Africanism, Islamism, and Sudanism have developed within these discourses as defining concepts describing the country's ethnic and cultural origins, thereby serving as identity constructs. The study also examines the relation between the political and the artistic institutions as well as the policy of the ""Islamization of the Arts"" launched by the present Islamist regime and its outcome. The study may also be viewed as an endeavor to ""discover"" within the aesthetic field the missing ""Sudanese"" collective memory. Stated otherwise, this is an effort to redeem the lost ""Sudanese"" pedigree that has long been deliberately mystified, misconceived, and misconstrued for the for the sake of certain political and cultural strategies. Another aim of the study is to introduce Sudanese arts and the specific Sudanese aesthetic/political debate concerning the topics of culture and identity to both the general reader and specialists as well as to Africanists in general and scholars of African arts and literature in particular."


Sudanese Intellectuals in the Global Milieu

Sudanese Intellectuals in the Global Milieu

Author: Gada Kadoda

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield

Published: 2022-03-28

Total Pages: 343

ISBN-13: 1793622779

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Sudanese Intellectuals in the Global Milieu: Capturing Cultural Capital propels Sudanese intellectuals into the global intellectual milieu and argues for their place in world intellectual history. The contributors posit that Sudan is currently in its most uncertain and perhaps most generative period, as the unrest, conflicts, and upheavals of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries threw Sudanese intellectuals and activists into identity, economic, environmental, religious, and existential crises. Despite these crises, the unrest has created a period of knowledge production and cultural production in Sudan. The contributors to the collection are Sudanese intellectuals who explore the history and evolution of knowledge production, thought, and cultural capital in Sudan.


Book Synopsis Sudanese Intellectuals in the Global Milieu by : Gada Kadoda

Download or read book Sudanese Intellectuals in the Global Milieu written by Gada Kadoda and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2022-03-28 with total page 343 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Sudanese Intellectuals in the Global Milieu: Capturing Cultural Capital propels Sudanese intellectuals into the global intellectual milieu and argues for their place in world intellectual history. The contributors posit that Sudan is currently in its most uncertain and perhaps most generative period, as the unrest, conflicts, and upheavals of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries threw Sudanese intellectuals and activists into identity, economic, environmental, religious, and existential crises. Despite these crises, the unrest has created a period of knowledge production and cultural production in Sudan. The contributors to the collection are Sudanese intellectuals who explore the history and evolution of knowledge production, thought, and cultural capital in Sudan.


Sudan: The Rise of Closed Districts' Natives

Sudan: The Rise of Closed Districts' Natives

Author: Omer Shurkian

Publisher: Austin Macauley Publishers

Published: 2021-02-26

Total Pages: 474

ISBN-13: 1528971760

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Sudan has been pitted by the most brutal civil wars in Africa, which began just prior to its independence in 1956. The root causes of these wars are too many, notably the forcible Islamisation and Arabisation of diverse peoples by all successive governments. These two contentious policies are always a cloak for racism against the indigenous population of the country, have adversely contributed to schism between secularists and Islamists, fuelled identity crisis and caused unimaginable human rights violations. The book discusses the early signs of conflict in the former Closed Districts and the harbinger of unforeseen crisis, which was predicted by a sagacious politician amid the stubbornness of Northern elites and the leaders of sectarian parties. In spite of the looming crises, these pre- and post-independence politicians were jockeying for power that was left over by the departing colonialists. This work also focuses on the conflict in each region of what was once classified as a Closed District and the brutal crackdown by the Khartoum regimes against defenceless civilians. The ferocity of civil war in every war-torn area caused the loss of lives and property, created thousands of internally displaced persons and drove thousands more into neighbouring countries as refugees eking out a frugal living in refugee camps. The thesis also discusses peace initiatives, the stumbling blocks, their outcomes and failures to materialise into a concrete accord; it proposes how the crisis of governance in Sudan can be settled politically and peacefully once and for all.


Book Synopsis Sudan: The Rise of Closed Districts' Natives by : Omer Shurkian

Download or read book Sudan: The Rise of Closed Districts' Natives written by Omer Shurkian and published by Austin Macauley Publishers. This book was released on 2021-02-26 with total page 474 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Sudan has been pitted by the most brutal civil wars in Africa, which began just prior to its independence in 1956. The root causes of these wars are too many, notably the forcible Islamisation and Arabisation of diverse peoples by all successive governments. These two contentious policies are always a cloak for racism against the indigenous population of the country, have adversely contributed to schism between secularists and Islamists, fuelled identity crisis and caused unimaginable human rights violations. The book discusses the early signs of conflict in the former Closed Districts and the harbinger of unforeseen crisis, which was predicted by a sagacious politician amid the stubbornness of Northern elites and the leaders of sectarian parties. In spite of the looming crises, these pre- and post-independence politicians were jockeying for power that was left over by the departing colonialists. This work also focuses on the conflict in each region of what was once classified as a Closed District and the brutal crackdown by the Khartoum regimes against defenceless civilians. The ferocity of civil war in every war-torn area caused the loss of lives and property, created thousands of internally displaced persons and drove thousands more into neighbouring countries as refugees eking out a frugal living in refugee camps. The thesis also discusses peace initiatives, the stumbling blocks, their outcomes and failures to materialise into a concrete accord; it proposes how the crisis of governance in Sudan can be settled politically and peacefully once and for all.


The Sudan

The Sudan

Author: John Obert Voll

Publisher: Routledge Library Editions: Sudan

Published: 2018-03-27

Total Pages: 194

ISBN-13: 9781138212084

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Little known in the United States and Western Europe, the Sudan is nevertheless a country of major importance in international affairs. This analytic introduction to the modern Sudan, first published in 1985, provides a summary of the basic dynamics of the country¿s political, social, cultural, and economic life, as well as a general framework for interpreting the modern Sudanese experience. The authors present a clear picture of the Sudan as a distinctive entity with an identity all its own, revealing, however, that almost paradoxically one of the most significant aspects of that identity is the place of the Sudan as a special link between different cultural patterns and socio-political styles. The Sudan is both a bridge and a melting pot, and this provides the foundation of its unique character.


Book Synopsis The Sudan by : John Obert Voll

Download or read book The Sudan written by John Obert Voll and published by Routledge Library Editions: Sudan. This book was released on 2018-03-27 with total page 194 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Little known in the United States and Western Europe, the Sudan is nevertheless a country of major importance in international affairs. This analytic introduction to the modern Sudan, first published in 1985, provides a summary of the basic dynamics of the country¿s political, social, cultural, and economic life, as well as a general framework for interpreting the modern Sudanese experience. The authors present a clear picture of the Sudan as a distinctive entity with an identity all its own, revealing, however, that almost paradoxically one of the most significant aspects of that identity is the place of the Sudan as a special link between different cultural patterns and socio-political styles. The Sudan is both a bridge and a melting pot, and this provides the foundation of its unique character.


Saviors and Survivors

Saviors and Survivors

Author: Mahmood Mamdani

Publisher: Crown

Published: 2010-05-25

Total Pages: 418

ISBN-13: 0307591182

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

From the author of Good Muslim, Bad Muslim comes an important book, unlike any other, that looks at the crisis in Darfur within the context of the history of Sudan and examines the world’s response to that crisis. In Saviors and Survivors, Mahmood Mamdani explains how the conflict in Darfur began as a civil war (1987—89) between nomadic and peasant tribes over fertile land in the south, triggered by a severe drought that had expanded the Sahara Desert by more than sixty miles in forty years; how British colonial officials had artificially tribalized Darfur, dividing its population into “native” and “settler” tribes and creating homelands for the former at the expense of the latter; how the war intensified in the 1990s when the Sudanese government tried unsuccessfully to address the problem by creating homelands for tribes without any. The involvement of opposition parties gave rise in 2003 to two rebel movements, leading to a brutal insurgency and a horrific counterinsurgency–but not to genocide, as the West has declared. Mamdani also explains how the Cold War exacerbated the twenty-year civil war in neighboring Chad, creating a confrontation between Libya’s Muammar al-Qaddafi (with Soviet support) and the Reagan administration (allied with France and Israel) that spilled over into Darfur and militarized the fighting. By 2003, the war involved national, regional, and global forces, including the powerful Western lobby, who now saw it as part of the War on Terror and called for a military invasion dressed up as “humanitarian intervention.” Incisive and authoritative, Saviors and Survivors will radically alter our understanding of the crisis in Darfur.


Book Synopsis Saviors and Survivors by : Mahmood Mamdani

Download or read book Saviors and Survivors written by Mahmood Mamdani and published by Crown. This book was released on 2010-05-25 with total page 418 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the author of Good Muslim, Bad Muslim comes an important book, unlike any other, that looks at the crisis in Darfur within the context of the history of Sudan and examines the world’s response to that crisis. In Saviors and Survivors, Mahmood Mamdani explains how the conflict in Darfur began as a civil war (1987—89) between nomadic and peasant tribes over fertile land in the south, triggered by a severe drought that had expanded the Sahara Desert by more than sixty miles in forty years; how British colonial officials had artificially tribalized Darfur, dividing its population into “native” and “settler” tribes and creating homelands for the former at the expense of the latter; how the war intensified in the 1990s when the Sudanese government tried unsuccessfully to address the problem by creating homelands for tribes without any. The involvement of opposition parties gave rise in 2003 to two rebel movements, leading to a brutal insurgency and a horrific counterinsurgency–but not to genocide, as the West has declared. Mamdani also explains how the Cold War exacerbated the twenty-year civil war in neighboring Chad, creating a confrontation between Libya’s Muammar al-Qaddafi (with Soviet support) and the Reagan administration (allied with France and Israel) that spilled over into Darfur and militarized the fighting. By 2003, the war involved national, regional, and global forces, including the powerful Western lobby, who now saw it as part of the War on Terror and called for a military invasion dressed up as “humanitarian intervention.” Incisive and authoritative, Saviors and Survivors will radically alter our understanding of the crisis in Darfur.


Saviours and Survivors

Saviours and Survivors

Author: Mahmood Mamdani

Publisher: Verso Books

Published: 2020-05-05

Total Pages: 349

ISBN-13: 1789604478

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Saviours and Survivors is the first account of the Darfur crisis to consider recent events within the broad context of Sudan's history, and to examine the efficacy of the world's response to the ongoing violence. Illuminating the deeply rooted causes of the current conflict, Mamdani works from its colonial and Cold War origins to the war's intensification from the 1990s to the present day. Examining how the conflict has drawn in national, regional, and global forces, Mamdani deconstructs the powerful Western lobby's persistent calls for a military response dressed up as "humanitarian intervention". Incisive and authoritative, Saviours and Survivors will radically alter our understanding of the crisis in Darfur.


Book Synopsis Saviours and Survivors by : Mahmood Mamdani

Download or read book Saviours and Survivors written by Mahmood Mamdani and published by Verso Books. This book was released on 2020-05-05 with total page 349 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Saviours and Survivors is the first account of the Darfur crisis to consider recent events within the broad context of Sudan's history, and to examine the efficacy of the world's response to the ongoing violence. Illuminating the deeply rooted causes of the current conflict, Mamdani works from its colonial and Cold War origins to the war's intensification from the 1990s to the present day. Examining how the conflict has drawn in national, regional, and global forces, Mamdani deconstructs the powerful Western lobby's persistent calls for a military response dressed up as "humanitarian intervention". Incisive and authoritative, Saviours and Survivors will radically alter our understanding of the crisis in Darfur.


Message in a Mobile

Message in a Mobile

Author: Siri Lamoureaux

Publisher: African Books Collective

Published: 2011

Total Pages: 198

ISBN-13: 9956726893

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

This detailed, meticulous ethnographic study on mobile phone use among Nuba students at the University of Khartoum in Sudan, distinguishes itself from other studies by taking a focused look at the linguistic content of mobile phone interactions via text-messaging, portraying it as a site for the expression of personalized and affective language. While men and women appear to be equally aggressive consumers and producers of text-message poetry, women are formally discouraged in using the phone for relations that go beyond the publicly acceptable norms of "keeping in touch" and making arrangements. Nonetheless, women use it for such purposes and many manage it discreetly, showing how this technology can serve to subvert discursive norms on gender and marriage. The mobile phone in Sudan enhances individual autonomy over interactions, making possible the extension and creation of social spaces. It simultaneously enlarges private space and trespasses into public space. Poetic themes and language, previously limited to elite producers - those both more literate and who had control over mass media domains, radio and newspapers - are exposed to anonymous recipients, who draw from, copy or forward them in continuous circulation, thereby staking a claim in the public sphere. Similarly, the mobile phone serves as a site for the exercise of several layers of identity in negotiation, and reflects or creates alternative identities and the contestation of existing discourses, communities in physical space and notions of belonging.


Book Synopsis Message in a Mobile by : Siri Lamoureaux

Download or read book Message in a Mobile written by Siri Lamoureaux and published by African Books Collective. This book was released on 2011 with total page 198 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This detailed, meticulous ethnographic study on mobile phone use among Nuba students at the University of Khartoum in Sudan, distinguishes itself from other studies by taking a focused look at the linguistic content of mobile phone interactions via text-messaging, portraying it as a site for the expression of personalized and affective language. While men and women appear to be equally aggressive consumers and producers of text-message poetry, women are formally discouraged in using the phone for relations that go beyond the publicly acceptable norms of "keeping in touch" and making arrangements. Nonetheless, women use it for such purposes and many manage it discreetly, showing how this technology can serve to subvert discursive norms on gender and marriage. The mobile phone in Sudan enhances individual autonomy over interactions, making possible the extension and creation of social spaces. It simultaneously enlarges private space and trespasses into public space. Poetic themes and language, previously limited to elite producers - those both more literate and who had control over mass media domains, radio and newspapers - are exposed to anonymous recipients, who draw from, copy or forward them in continuous circulation, thereby staking a claim in the public sphere. Similarly, the mobile phone serves as a site for the exercise of several layers of identity in negotiation, and reflects or creates alternative identities and the contestation of existing discourses, communities in physical space and notions of belonging.


University Governance in (Post-)Conflict Southern Sudan 2005–2011

University Governance in (Post-)Conflict Southern Sudan 2005–2011

Author: Akiiki Babyesiza

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2014-11-24

Total Pages: 204

ISBN-13: 3658081457

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Few studies have looked into the governance of universities in societies affected by armed conflicts, because they are either meant for practitioners or focused on the role of universities for peace and development. Akiiki Babyesiza offers an in-depth analysis of the relationship between state, higher education, and society in a multicultural and multi-religious post-conflict setting and uses empirical data to question university governance concepts. She explores the role that civil wars played in university development and governance in Sudan with a particular focus on Southern Sudan after the peace agreement of 2005 and before its secession in 2011.


Book Synopsis University Governance in (Post-)Conflict Southern Sudan 2005–2011 by : Akiiki Babyesiza

Download or read book University Governance in (Post-)Conflict Southern Sudan 2005–2011 written by Akiiki Babyesiza and published by Springer. This book was released on 2014-11-24 with total page 204 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Few studies have looked into the governance of universities in societies affected by armed conflicts, because they are either meant for practitioners or focused on the role of universities for peace and development. Akiiki Babyesiza offers an in-depth analysis of the relationship between state, higher education, and society in a multicultural and multi-religious post-conflict setting and uses empirical data to question university governance concepts. She explores the role that civil wars played in university development and governance in Sudan with a particular focus on Southern Sudan after the peace agreement of 2005 and before its secession in 2011.


For Love of the Prophet

For Love of the Prophet

Author: Noah Salomon

Publisher: Princeton University Press

Published: 2016-10-25

Total Pages: 264

ISBN-13: 1400884292

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

For some, the idea of an Islamic state serves to fulfill aspirations for cultural sovereignty and new forms of ethical political practice. For others, it violates the proper domains of both religion and politics. Yet, while there has been much discussion of the idea and ideals of the Islamic state, its possibilities and impossibilities, surprisingly little has been written about how this political formation is lived. For Love of the Prophet looks at the Republic of Sudan's twenty-five-year experiment with Islamic statehood. Focusing not on state institutions, but rather on the daily life that goes on in their shadows, Noah Salomon’s careful ethnography examines the lasting effects of state Islamization on Sudanese society through a study of the individuals and organizations working in its midst. Salomon investigates Sudan at a crucial moment in its history—balanced between unity and partition, secular and religious politics, peace and war—when those who desired an Islamic state were rethinking the political form under which they had lived for nearly a generation. Countering the dominant discourse, Salomon depicts contemporary Islamic politics not as a response to secularism and Westernization but as a node in a much longer conversation within Islamic thought, augmented and reappropriated as state projects of Islamic reform became objects of debate and controversy. Among the first books to delve into the making of the modern Islamic state, For Love of the Prophet reveals both novel political ideals and new articulations of Islam as it is rethought through the lens of the nation.


Book Synopsis For Love of the Prophet by : Noah Salomon

Download or read book For Love of the Prophet written by Noah Salomon and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2016-10-25 with total page 264 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For some, the idea of an Islamic state serves to fulfill aspirations for cultural sovereignty and new forms of ethical political practice. For others, it violates the proper domains of both religion and politics. Yet, while there has been much discussion of the idea and ideals of the Islamic state, its possibilities and impossibilities, surprisingly little has been written about how this political formation is lived. For Love of the Prophet looks at the Republic of Sudan's twenty-five-year experiment with Islamic statehood. Focusing not on state institutions, but rather on the daily life that goes on in their shadows, Noah Salomon’s careful ethnography examines the lasting effects of state Islamization on Sudanese society through a study of the individuals and organizations working in its midst. Salomon investigates Sudan at a crucial moment in its history—balanced between unity and partition, secular and religious politics, peace and war—when those who desired an Islamic state were rethinking the political form under which they had lived for nearly a generation. Countering the dominant discourse, Salomon depicts contemporary Islamic politics not as a response to secularism and Westernization but as a node in a much longer conversation within Islamic thought, augmented and reappropriated as state projects of Islamic reform became objects of debate and controversy. Among the first books to delve into the making of the modern Islamic state, For Love of the Prophet reveals both novel political ideals and new articulations of Islam as it is rethought through the lens of the nation.


National Museums in Africa

National Museums in Africa

Author: Raymond Silverman

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2021-08-31

Total Pages: 284

ISBN-13: 1000428648

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

National Museums in Africa brings the voices of African museum professionals into dialogue with scholars and, by so doing, is able to consider the state of African national museums from fresh perspectives. Covering all regions of the continent, the volume’s thirteen chapters allow for a deep and nuanced understanding of the intricate interplay between past and present in contemporary Africa. Taking stock of the shifting museum landscape in Africa, with new players like China and South Korea challenging the conditions of cultural exchange, the book demonstrates that national museums are being rediscovered as important sites of political engagement and cultural negotiation. This is the first book to critically examine the roles national museums in Africa have played in the societies in which they are situated, but it is also the first to consider the roles that national museums might play in current debates concerning the restitution and repatriation of cultural patrimony taken from Africa during the colonial era. Informed by a comparative and interdisciplinary perspective, this ground-breaking book will appeal to anyone interested in museums in Africa. It will be particularly useful to scholars and students working in the areas of museum and heritage studies, African studies, anthropology, archaeology, history, art history and cultural studies.


Book Synopsis National Museums in Africa by : Raymond Silverman

Download or read book National Museums in Africa written by Raymond Silverman and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2021-08-31 with total page 284 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: National Museums in Africa brings the voices of African museum professionals into dialogue with scholars and, by so doing, is able to consider the state of African national museums from fresh perspectives. Covering all regions of the continent, the volume’s thirteen chapters allow for a deep and nuanced understanding of the intricate interplay between past and present in contemporary Africa. Taking stock of the shifting museum landscape in Africa, with new players like China and South Korea challenging the conditions of cultural exchange, the book demonstrates that national museums are being rediscovered as important sites of political engagement and cultural negotiation. This is the first book to critically examine the roles national museums in Africa have played in the societies in which they are situated, but it is also the first to consider the roles that national museums might play in current debates concerning the restitution and repatriation of cultural patrimony taken from Africa during the colonial era. Informed by a comparative and interdisciplinary perspective, this ground-breaking book will appeal to anyone interested in museums in Africa. It will be particularly useful to scholars and students working in the areas of museum and heritage studies, African studies, anthropology, archaeology, history, art history and cultural studies.