Description
Book SynopsisThe conflict in the Nuba Mountains in central Sudan illustrates how state policies concerning the control of land can cause local conflicts to escalate into large scale wars, which become increasingly difficult to manage or resolve. The conventional perspective on Sudan's recent civil war (1983-2005) - one of the longest and most complex conflicts in Africa - emphasises ethnicity as the main cause. This study, on the contrary, identifies the land factor as aroot cause that is central to understanding Sudan's local conflicts and large-scale wars. Land rights are about relationships between and among persons, pertaining to different economic and ritual activities. Rights toland are intimately tied to membership in specific communities, from the family to the nation-state. Control over land in Africa has been, and still is, used as a means of defining identity and belonging, an instrument to control, and a source of, political power. Membership of these communities is contested, negotiable, and changeable over time. For national governments land is a national economic resource for public and private development, but the interests and rights of rural majorities and their sedentary or nomadic subsistence forms of life are often difficult to harmonise with land policies pursued by national governments. The state's exclusionary land policies and politicsof limiting or denying communities their land rights play a crucial role in causing local conflicts that then can escalate into large-scale wars. Land issues increase the complexity of a conflict, thereby reducing the possibilityof managing, resolving, or ultimately transforming it. The conflict in the Nuba Mountains in central Sudan, the regional focus in this study, is living proof of this transformation. Guma Kunda Komey is Assistant Professor of Human Geography, Juba University, Sudan.
Trade ReviewThe book represents a strong effort to place land, property, and territory at the centre of analysis of Sudan's social and political conflicts. * JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL ANTHROPOLOGICAL INSTITUTE *
Can claim to be the most comprehensive modern account available of the region. [...] It stands as an authoritative testimony to the political history, basic human integrity, and current predicaments of the Nuba people. * SUDAN STUDIES *
Table of ContentsIntroduction: National Context, Key Questions & Arguments PART I BACKGROUND The Nuba Mountains Region as Social World: A Synthesis State Land Policies, Politics & Rights in Sudan PART II THE WAR, CAUSES & IMPACT The War: Root Causes & Ramifications in the Region Baqqara-Nuba Relations in a War Situation PART III PEACE & POST- CONFLICT DYNAMICS The CPA & the Nuba Questions of Land, Identity & Political Destiny Territory, Ethnic Identity & Boundary Making Contested Communal Lands, Identity Politics & Conflicts Conclusion
