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Periodical article | Leiden University catalogue | WorldCat |
Title: | When North Winds Blow: A Note on Small Towns and Social Transformation in the Nilotic Sudan |
Author: | Burton, John W. |
Year: | 1988 |
Periodical: | African Studies Review |
Volume: | 31 |
Issue: | 3 |
Period: | December |
Pages: | 49-60 |
Language: | English |
Geographic term: | Sudan |
Subjects: | urban history small towns History and Exploration |
External link: | https://www.jstor.org/stable/524072 |
Abstract: | This essay outlines the social of small towns and their role in transforming the social and physical environment of the pastoral Nilotes of the southern Sudan. The embryonic loci of small towns in the southern Sudan were the 'zeribas' or trading stations created in the 19th century. The first permanent trading stations were established along the banks of the White Nile and its tributaries, in easy access to the resources required by riverine expeditions. The British polity that 'recaptured' the Sudan from the Mahdist regime in 1898 transformed the former slaving stations into headquarters for military and civil administration. From these reoccupied zeribas the British began a process of entrenchment by forcing the local population to clear forests along the ironstone plateau for road building. By the 1940s, when it became clear that in order to protect their political and economic interests, it was essential to participate in town-oriented affairs, the local population began effectively to 'accept' the towns. Bibliogr., notes, ref. |