War and Slavery in Sudan (The Ethnography of Political Violence)

Rating:
Summary: biased, poorly presented
Review: ...Of the half-dozen books I've read on Sudan, this is my favorite. Although it is not a general work on the country, it does focus on two of its most well-known issues: the ongoing civil war and slavery.

Jok Madut Jok is a South Sudanese historian based in the United States. His educational background and interviews with countless South Sudanese about their experiences with Arab slave raids makes this a scholarly book, while his perspective as a South Sudanese gives it an edge not usually associated with scholarship. He clearly is pained by what is happening in Sudan, and does not attempt to give a balanced account here. But whatever the book loses in objectivity, it more than makes up for in passion.

"War and Slavery in Sudan" is well-written and its concepts clear -- with one major exception. I'm unsure what the author means when he talks about the role racism plays in the conflict and how racial ideology is the foundation of the slave trade in Sudan. He appears to mean that the cultural arrogance of the Arabs in the north -- many of whom are black -- allows them to enslave and make war against some of the non-Muslim tribes in the south, but I'm not entirely clear on this point. Despite this major lapse, however, this is still an excellent book for anyone interested in Sudan.

Rating:
Summary: A Great Book, But Confusing on the Issue of Racism
Review: ...Of the half-dozen books I've read on Sudan, this is my favorite. Although it is not a general work on the country, it does focus on two of its most well-known issues: the ongoing civil war and slavery.

Jok Madut Jok is a South Sudanese historian based in the United States. His educational background and interviews with countless South Sudanese about their experiences with Arab slave raids makes this a scholarly book, while his perspective as a South Sudanese gives it an edge not usually associated with scholarship. He clearly is pained by what is happening in Sudan, and does not attempt to give a balanced account here. But whatever the book loses in objectivity, it more than makes up for in passion.

"War and Slavery in Sudan" is well-written and its concepts clear -- with one major exception. I'm unsure what the author means when he talks about the role racism plays in the conflict and how racial ideology is the foundation of the slave trade in Sudan. He appears to mean that the cultural arrogance of the Arabs in the north -- many of whom are black -- allows them to enslave and make war against some of the non-Muslim tribes in the south, but I'm not entirely clear on this point. Despite this major lapse, however, this is still an excellent book for anyone interested in Sudan.

Rating:
Summary: biased, poorly presented
Review: As the previous reviewer states, this book makes little attempt at objectivity, since it is written by a South Sudanese (Dinka) living in America. Unlike him/her, however, I feel that as a result of the subjectivity, I am still relatively uneducated about the civil war in Sudan. Concessions to SPLA brutality are fleeting and apologetic, and there is, I believe, no mention at all of the actual war between Khartoum and the SPLA-- a major drawback for me, considering the book's title. The vast majority of the text deals with slavery. Jok attributes quotes to various Northern politicians, then admits in the footnotes that he has "no documentation as to when this statement was made," but rather attributes them to "popular political discourse." The most interesting parts for me were discussions of the roots of the North/South conflict in the Turco-Egyptian, Mahdist and Anglo-Egyptian occupations (especially the latter), but again these were frustratingly brief. In response to the previous reviewer's confusion, I believe that the contention is that Arabic, Muslim northerners have historically looked down upon African (though they're all African), Christian/animist southerners, the roots of which sentiment seem to be age old. It is understandable, however, that one would be fuzzy on the exact argument. The causes all seem to blend together; indeed, the entire book struck me as being rather poorly organized. Many terms or events were redundantly recounted/defined three or fours times in different chapters, the same points are made repeatedly, and the conclusion chapter is really a digression on the redemption program. Lastly, the actual writing could have used a thorough editing. Many sentences came off as rather awkward, and it seemed as though footnotes were often missing where they should have been. I suggest that one seek out a more objective account, at least as an introduction to the Sudanese conflict.

Rating:
Summary: A great insight
Review: This wonderful account blends modern day events with the burden of the past to explain the ongoing genocide in the Sudan and the issue of race and slavery in the conflict. Here we learn not only of the roots of Slavery in the Sudan where the Arab Muslim north has been enslaving the African south for more then a thousand years but we also learn of the role of race in the conflict as well as the more interesting role of the English in denying slavery. One chapter in particular shows how the English, sent to abolish slavery, actually upheld it by reclassifying household slaves as 'domestic servants'. Thus slavery was never legally abolished in the Sudan the way it was in Egypt and the Ottoman empire. Rather the average person today in the Sudan sees nothing morally wrong with owning slaves or raping slave girls.

This book is an impassioned plea to the world to wake up to the reality of the Sudanese genocide, the racist fascist civil war that has gone on for 40 years. Yet one knows the track record of the world, of humanity, when it comes to stopping genocide. That record is 0-4(Rwanda, Cambodia, The Holocaust, the Sudan). In fact the Sudan was recently picked by the U.N to head the human rights commission. This is why books like this are so important, to perhaps help one ignorant person realize that horror, genocide, slavery and racism are not just what one reads in the history books, rather they are happening today and have a burden of history attached to them. An important book, the best book on the Sudanese civil war.

Seth J. Frantzman