A civil society deferred : the tertiary grip of violence in the Sudan / Abdullahi A. Gallab.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Gallab, Abdullahi A.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Violence--Sudan.

Violence.

Sudan--Politics and government.

Sudan.

Politics and government.

Physical Description:

xxi, 239 pages ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Gainesville : University Press of Florida, [2011]

Summary:

The Sudan is old enough to have been mentioned in ancient Greek and biblical sources; but because of ongoing violence, it has yet to develop a stable political or civil society.

Abdullahi Gallab chronicles the sociopolitical history and development of violence in the Sudan and explores how it has crippled the state, retarded the development of a national identity, and ravaged the social and material life of its citizens.

Beginning with the development of colonial states in the Sudan, Gallab establishes a solid base of discussion through an assessment of the country under Turko-Egyptian (1821-75) and then Anglo-Egyptian (1898-1956) rule, examining institutional features, inherent violence, and the remnants of those legacies today. He extends his investigation into the postcolonial period by examining social and political hierarchies-and the decades-long clashes between the Islamists and their opponents, who include the Sudanese political parties, the Sudan Liberation Movement, and other armed movements.

Gallab defines three forms of violence that have shaped the course of the country's history: decentralized (individual actors using targets as a means to express a particular grievance), centralized (violence enacted illegitimately by state actors), and "home-brewed" (violence among local actors toward other local actors). He reveals how each successive regime took these forms of violence to new extremes, ever deferring the emergence of a stable nation.

In explaining the impact of violence on modern Sudanese national identity, stability, and people, A Civil Society Deferred draws upon academic, archival, and a variety of oral and written material, as well as the author's personal experiences. This provocative volume illuminates the factors that continue to hamper the Sudan's ability to develop into a civil society and create a unified and accepted national identity. Book jacket.

Contents:

The sociopolitical construction of a country

Constructing new identities

The malignant tumor of the colonial state : the antibodies

A tale of three cities : Khartoum

A tale of three cities : Omdurman

A tale of three cities : Cairo

The creation of the center

The creation of the margin.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780813036885

0813036887

OCLC:

666240003