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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:Who Are the Darfurians? Arab and African Identities, Violence and External Engagement
Author:De Waal, AlexISNI
Year:2005
Periodical:African Affairs: The Journal of the Royal African Society
Volume:104
Issue:415
Period:April
Pages:181-205
Language:English
Geographic term:Sudan
Subjects:identity
Darfur polity
history
Ethnic and Race Relations
Peoples of Africa (Ethnic Groups)
History and Exploration
External link:https://www.jstor.org/stable/3518441
Abstract:This article examines processes of identity formation in Darfur, now part of the Republic of Sudan, over the last four centuries. The basic story is of four overlapping processes of identity formation, each of them primarily associated with a different period in the region's history: namely, the 'Sudanic identities' associated with the Dar Fur sultanate, Islamic identities, the administrative tribalism associated with the twentieth-century Sudanese State, and the recent polarization of 'Arab' and 'African' identities, associated with new forms of external intrusion and internal violence. It is a story that emphasizes the much-neglected east-west axis of Sudanese identity, arguably as important as the north-south axis, and redeems the neglect of Darfur as a separate and important locus for State formation in northern Sudan, paralleling and competing with the Nile Valley States. It focuses on the incapacity of both the modern Sudanese State and international actors to comprehend the singularities of Darfur, accusing much Sudanese historiography of 'Nilocentrism', that is, the use of analytical terms derived from the experience of the Nile Valley to apply to Darfur. Bibliogr., notes, ref., sum. [Journal abstract]
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