Title Details
218 Pages
22.8 x 15.2 cm
Series: Rochester Studies in African History and the Diaspora
Series Vol. Number:
17
Imprint: University of Rochester Press
Sudan's Blood Memory
The Legacy of War, Ethnicity, and Slavery in South Sudan
- Description
- Contents
- Reviews
A history of Southern Sudan, from pre-colonial times to the present.
Many societies worldwide possess oral histories and long memories, reaching back many centuries, particularly of wars and events of great trauma. Labeling them "blood memories" in this book, Stephanie Beswick presents a pre-colonial history of Southern Sudan, a region that, according to some, "has no history." Beginning in the fourteenth century, the book follows the region's largest ethnic group today, the Dinka, from their original homelands in the central Sudanese Gezira between the Blue and White Niles, into their more recently adopted homelands in Southern Sudan. Beswick demonstrates how early pre-colonial stresses play a critical role in modern-day South Sudan, in what has since become the world's longest civil war, fought externally against the fundamentalist Islamic Northern Sudanese government as well as internally within the South itself.
Stephanie Beswick is professor of history at Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana. She was born in Khartoum, Sudan.
Many societies worldwide possess oral histories and long memories, reaching back many centuries, particularly of wars and events of great trauma. Labeling them "blood memories" in this book, Stephanie Beswick presents a pre-colonial history of Southern Sudan, a region that, according to some, "has no history." Beginning in the fourteenth century, the book follows the region's largest ethnic group today, the Dinka, from their original homelands in the central Sudanese Gezira between the Blue and White Niles, into their more recently adopted homelands in Southern Sudan. Beswick demonstrates how early pre-colonial stresses play a critical role in modern-day South Sudan, in what has since become the world's longest civil war, fought externally against the fundamentalist Islamic Northern Sudanese government as well as internally within the South itself.
Stephanie Beswick is professor of history at Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana. She was born in Khartoum, Sudan.
Introduction
Geography and Brief History of Sudan
The Changing Nilotic Frontier
Slave Raids, Wars, and Migrations
Communities of the Sobat/Nile Confluence: The Padang
Communities of the Eastern Nile: The Bor
Communities in the Southwest: The Southern Bahr el-Ghazal
Communities in the Northwest: The Northern Bahr el-Ghazal
Grain, Cattle, and Economic Power
Totemic Religion
Human Sacrifice, Virgins, and River Spirits
Priests, Politics, and Land
Ethnic Expansion by Marriage
Sovereign Nations within the Dinka
Eighteenth-Century Slavers and Traders
Nilotic Chaos: Dinka, Nuer, Atwot, and Anyuak
Politics and Stratification among Stateless Peoples
Summary and History
Legacy of the Precolonial Era
Geography and Brief History of Sudan
The Changing Nilotic Frontier
Slave Raids, Wars, and Migrations
Communities of the Sobat/Nile Confluence: The Padang
Communities of the Eastern Nile: The Bor
Communities in the Southwest: The Southern Bahr el-Ghazal
Communities in the Northwest: The Northern Bahr el-Ghazal
Grain, Cattle, and Economic Power
Totemic Religion
Human Sacrifice, Virgins, and River Spirits
Priests, Politics, and Land
Ethnic Expansion by Marriage
Sovereign Nations within the Dinka
Eighteenth-Century Slavers and Traders
Nilotic Chaos: Dinka, Nuer, Atwot, and Anyuak
Politics and Stratification among Stateless Peoples
Summary and History
Legacy of the Precolonial Era
"Broad in scope, and based on rigorous research and extensive fieldwork, [Beswick's] book makes a lasting contribution to Sudanese studies and will appeal broadly to scholars of African oral history and migration." INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF AFRICAN STUDIES
"This book is full of big ideas and detailed commentary, resulting in a satisfying intellectual experience. Highly recommended." CHOICE
"This book is a remarkable achievement that establishes a definitive standard for all future Dinka studies, a foundation of clarity, comprehension, and creativity. It should be required reading in all government, nongovernment, and humanitarian agencies whose employees work with the Dinka." AMERICAN HISTORICAL REVIEW
"Clearly an important and original contribution to the study of the history of Sudan and of Dinka history in particular." MODERN AFRICAN STUDIES
Paperback
9781580462310
January 2006
£28.99 / $36.95
Ebook (EPDF)
9781580466271
January 2004
£24.99 / $29.95
Title Details
218 Pages
2.28 x 1.52 cm
Series: Rochester Studies in African History and the Diaspora
Series Vol. Number:
17
Imprint: University of Rochester Press
- Related Titles
- More by Author
- More in Series
No books found...
