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 Periodical article |
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| Title: | Tribe and Religion in the Sudan |
| Author: | Zain, Mahmud El |
| Year: | 1996 |
| Periodical: | Review of African Political Economy |
| Volume: | 23 |
| Issue: | 70 |
| Period: | December |
| Pages: | 523-529 |
| Language: | English |
| Geographic term: | Sudan |
| Subjects: | Dar Hamid ethnicity political conditions Peoples of Africa (Ethnic Groups) Religion and Witchcraft Politics and Government |
| External link: | https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/03056249608704220 |
| Abstract: | This article depicts a process of 'tribal' reproduction and describes the manifestation of this phenomenon in the current political system of Sudan. A 'tribal' logic has pervaded political practice in Sudan since the Turkish invasion in 1821, and politics in this country seems unworkable without the 'tribal' factor. Colonial rule with its peculiar politics, independence rule with its nation-building ideology, and now Islamic fundamentalism with a universalist ideology, have all preserved in one way or another the 'tribal' element as an essential component of the political system. The article examines the shifts in the nature of the 'tribal' in the colonial and postcolonial contexts, and shows how it has become involved in the present regime's strategy of mobilization. It also describes how this factor mediates relations of domination/subordination, both at the national level - North versus South - and the local level. Finally, a case study of the Dar Hamid tribe is used to illustrate the manner in which the 'tribal' has dominated the ethnic politics of the present Sudanese regime. The thesis of the article is that 'tribalism' in many instances hides behind a secular facade, and in others it appears in a religious guise. Bibliogr., sum. |
