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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:Hukm: The Creolization of Authority in Condominium Sudan
Author:Willis, JustinISNI
Year:2005
Periodical:The Journal of African History
Volume:46
Issue:1
Period:March
Pages:29-50
Language:English
Geographic terms:Sudan
Great Britain
Subjects:colonialism
customary law
chieftaincy
courts
History and Exploration
Peoples of Africa (Ethnic Groups)
External link:https://www.jstor.org/stable/4100828
Abstract:Recent scholarship on 'neo-traditionalism' and colonial governance in Africa has challenged assumptions about the 'invention of tradition' and the ability of the colonial State to create wholly innovative kinds of local authority. This article explores one episode in the development of the authority of Ali el Tom, probably the most famous 'traditional' ruler in Condominium Sudan. In considering Ali el Tom's 'hukm', a complex bundle of judicial practices associated with 'native administration' which, at its most basic, meant the ability to punish through a government-recognized court, it suggests that Ali el Tom's authority was a creole product, which drew on local moral codes and colonial forms of authority, but was not fully part of either. The willingness of his people to accept this sometimes abusive authority relied on a partly illusory sense that it was familiar; but this willingness was not unlimited, and on occasion actions from below set limits to the invention of authority and tradition. Notes, ref., sum. [Journal abstract]
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