The Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC)

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From the author of the acclaimed Good Muslim, Bad Muslim, this is the first analysis of the crisis in Darfur to consider the events of the last few years within the context of Sudans history, and to critically examine the efficacy of the worlds response to the crisis.

Illuminating the deeply rooted causes of the current conflict, Mahmood Mamdani explains how British colonialism tribalised Darfur, dividing its population into so-called native and settler tribes, and creating homelands for the former at the expense of the latter. A severe drought triggered a civil war between these groupings in 198789, and the conflict reignited in the 1990s when the government tried unsuccessfully to tackle the issue of land allocation. The effects of the Cold War in exacerbating the 40-year civil war in Chad, and how this impacted on Darfur, are analysed.

In 2003, the rise of two rebel movements led to a brutal insurgency and counter-insurgency campaign. By then, the conflict involved national, regional and global forces, including a powerful western lobby dressed up as humanitarian intervention and calling for military involvement in Darfur.

Incisive and authoritative, Saviours and Survivors radically alters our understanding of the crisis in Darfur and inspires readers to look beneath the media hype that often accompanies reporting on Africa. Mamdani cautions against drawing simple caricatures of conflict in Africa and encourages us to look more deeply into the causes of conflict in order to be able to address it effectively.

Co-published with Pantheon Books, New York

Open Access

Product information

Format : 210mm x 148mm (Soft Cover)
Pages : 416
ISBN 10 : 0-7969-2252-7
ISBN 13 : 978-07969-2252-6
Publish Year : 2009
Rights : Southern Africa Rights Only

Acknowledgments
Map
Introduction
Part I: The Save Darfur Movement and the Global War on Terror
1 Globalizing Darfur
2 The Politics of the Movement to Save Darfur

Part II: Darfur in Context
3 Writing Race into History
4 Sudan and the Sultanate of Dar Fur
5 A Colonial Map of Race and Tribe: Making Settlers and Natives
6 Building Nation and State in Independent Sudan
7 The Cold War and Its Aftermath

Part III: Rethinking the Darfur Crisis
8 Civil War, Rebellion, and Repression
Conclusion: Responsibility to Protect or Right to Punish?
Notes
Select Bibliography
Index

In this first segment of a five-part podcast package, the HSRC’s Suren Pillay introduces Professor Mahmood Mamdani, who looks at divergent claims on the number of people killed in the conflict.

Duration: 4 min 25 sec

Mahmood Mamdani is Herbert Lehman Professor of Government, and a member of the Anthropology and Political Science departments and the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University. He was previously the Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences at Makerere University and the founding director of the Centre for Basic Research in Kampala. He has also taught at the University of Dar es Salaam and the University of Cape Town. Mamdani is a past president of the Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA). His previous books include Citizen and Subject (recognised as one of Africas 100 best books of the 20th century in Cape Town 2001 and awarded the Herskovitz Prize of the African Studies Association of USA for the best book on Africa published in the English language in 1996), When Victims Become Killers, Scholars in the Marketplace and Good Muslim, Bad Muslim. He lives in New York City and Kampala.

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