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Sudanic Africa, 11, 2000, 153-159

KORDOFAN INVADED

Kordofan Invaded: Peripheral Incorporation and SocialTransformation in Islamic Africa, ed. by Endre Stiansen andMichael Kevane. Leiden: E.J. Brill (Social, Economic andPolitical Studies of the Middle East and Asia) 1998. xiv, 303pp. ISBN 90-04011049-6

At a time when several African states, Sudan among them,

seem on the verge of dissolution, it is important to re-examinehow nations are formed. Understandably, most scholarshipplaces state structures as the central focus of analysis. But asthe co-editors of this volume argue, this tends to naturalisethe state as an element of society, to make it seem inevitable,necessary and sufficient (p. 9). Taking a different approach,Endre Stiansen and Michael Kevane present a multifacetedstudy of Kordofan, one of the largest peripheries of Islamic

Africa (p. 10), examining the many ways that periphery andcentre, province and state, have interacted over the centuries.In eleven well-written and unusually complementary essays,focusing on such things as tribes, arqas, unions, tradediasporas and ethnic identities, the authors describe thecomplex and dynamic processes that have shaped Kordofanspast and Sudans present.

The editors carefully-crafted introduction situates

these studies in the contemporary scholarship on Africa andSudan before turning to the invasions that have transformedKordofan over the last roughly four centuries. The first ofthese, the military invasions, begins with the eighteenth-century contest for Kordofan by the rival Keira and Funjstates and continues through periods of Turco-Egyptian,Mahdist, Anglo-Egyptian, post-independent and Islamist rule;pacification of the Nuba Mountains figures especiallyprominently here. The tripartite cultural invasion is next

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considered, examining the ways religion, state and tribe havealtered identities and pulled Kordofan into Nile Valleyculture. Islam is here represented by the arqas and their

transcendence of the local (p. 23), while the editors under-line the dynamic between religious practice, state interests andcompetition for resources. The states role in cultural invasi-ons is seen is its insistence upon an uncontested politicalcommunity (often, an Islamic community) and its instituti-ons (for example, Gordon College) that have promoted asense of the modern. The role of tribes in altering identityand government manipulation of this identityis a theme

well-developed in several of the essays. Here the editorssuccinctly review the reprocessing of ethnic identity (p. 31)with a fascinating account of the Shanabla/Hamar during theMahdiyya and Condominium. Finally, the editors considerthe market invasion of Kordofan, critiquing the dominantparadigms of economic analysis and arguing for an economycharacterized more by continuities than dislocations. Centralto their discussion is the Kordofan gum trade of the

nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Closing the introduction,the editors show how Sudans institutional instability andaccompanying economic stagnation have affected Kordofan,citing as examples the fiasco of Islamicized banking and thedeleterious effects of national identity expressed at the locallevel. A final, sombre assessment of Sudans possibilitiesleads to the essays themselves, which describe in differentways how invasions from the centre have shaped Kordofans

society; but also, importantly, how Kordofan has contributedto the creation of Sudan.Essays by Jay Spaulding and Kurt Beck serve as the

bookends of this collection. Spauldings Early Kordofantraces the history from ancient times to the collapse of Keirarule (1821), drawing on linguistic and archaeologicalevidence as well as documentary sources. The central themeof the essaythe socio-economic and political changes initia-ted by the rise of middle-class traders in the eighteenth and

nineteenth centurieswill be familiar to any reader of the

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Spaulding uvre. Here it is rehearsed with admirable clarityand confident style. Kurt Becks Struggle over a properlifestyle continues the theme raised by Spaulding (and deve-

loped by others), detailing how a Nile Valley culturalhegemony has come to attain its state of near-complete incor-poration of Kordofan. After reviewing the cultural legacies ofTurco-Egyptian jallba and Mahdist social policies, Beckdescribes in fascinating detail the civilising project of thepresent NIF-backed regime: an Islamisation of everyday life(p. 257) that encompasses matters of dress, speech, eating,personal habits, and so on. Considering the economic cost of

resisting this process, as well as the success of the NIF incouching nationalist discourse in the language of Islam, one isleft supposing that the success of this process is all but ensu-red.

The remaining nine essays are presented in roughchronological order. Stiansens Gum arabic trade in Kordo-fan examines changes in gum production and marketing inthe nineteenth century, carefully distinguishing between

Egyptian government and private merchant exploitation(called here formal and informal types of imperialism).This essay, like others in the volume, is especially attentive tothe complexities of land tenure. A companion piece isMustafa Babikers study of the early twentieth century,entitled Land-tenure in Kordofan: conflict between thecommunalism of colonial administrators and the individualismof the Hamar. Critiquing academic theories of colonial land

tenure, Babiker provides two case studies that illustrate therealities of settlement, organization and gum production inDr Hamar. Similar to Dalys contribution, this essay containsgems on British racial ideas and the colonial penchant forinventing tradition.

David F. Deckers Females and the state in MahdistKordofan concerns state intervention in Kordofans socialstructure. Most interesting is a Mahdist attempt to reclassifywomens legal status (as chattel, captive free mayram, and

Anr wives), illustrated by an incident in 1890 when the

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Khalifa apparently included freeborn women in the statesshare of booty (khums) to be distributed to the Anr inOmdurman. This, in any case, was the Khalifas intention:

was the order ever executed? Likewise Decker states that theKhalifa dictated not only at the individual level who couldmarry, but also at a mass level who would be divorced andremarried (p. 99). Moderating this argument is the recollec-tion of Babikr Bedri (Memoirs, I, 213-14) that the Khalifasought to classify Jafilyn women as booty after the 1897Matamma massacre, but abandoned the idea in light of itspolitical dangerousness. Elsewhere, this reviewer has written

about the Khalifas failed attempt to intermarry segments ofthe riverain and western Sudanese communities. It is perhapsthe sheer volume of official Mahdist correspondence concer-ning the affairs of ordinary people that suggests greater actualcontrol by the Khalifa than may have obtained. It should alsobe noted that while the Khalifa strategically settled many ofhis western followers in the Nile Valley, Kordofani commu-nities were recreating themselves in the ayys of Omdurman,

sustaining old social ties even across ethnic and religiouslines. These comments notwithstanding, Deckers essaycontains a subtle appreciation of social and legal status andfirmly situates Mahdist policy in its deeper sudanic context.

M.W. Dalys Great White Chief: H.A. MacMichaeland the tribes of Kordofan conclusively lays to rest the ideaof an exclusive and fixed Sudanese tribe. Through a closereading of MacMichaels two major works, The Tribes of

Northern and Central Kordofan (1912) andA History of theArabs in the Sudan (1922), Daly explains how Kordofanstribes have always been in a state of flux, an argumentsupported by other contributors to this volume. Perhaps moreinterestingly, he describes the ironic value of MacMichaelsworks, which were used by proponents of Indirect Rule tojustify a policy of empowering established Sudanese tribes!MacMichaels works, Daly writes, were warmly received,deeply misunderstood, and probably little read (p. 110).

Revealing of British social and racial attitudes during the

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Condominium, this is one of the few scholarly essays onewishes to read aloud.

The remaining five essays touch upon the issue of

identity in a variety of contexts. Ahmed Ibrahim Abu ShouksKordofan: From tribes to narates is a study of the politicsand process of Indirect Rule, highlighting the conflictbetween Kordofans tribal leaders and the Khartoumaffandiyya. The fluid nature of Kordofans tribes is illustratedby the Hamar and Bidayriyya in the eighteenth and nine-teenth centuries, but the essays chief contribution is itsdetailed discussion of the use of Native Administration by a

succession of regimes from Condominium to post-indepen-dence. Elsewhere, Kordofans integration into riverain cultureand a market-oriented society is the subject of Awad al-Sidal-Karsanis Religion, ethnicity and class: The role of theTijniyya order in al-Nahd town. The only contribution tofocus on a Sufi arqa, this essay discusses how the Tijniyyacame to control the economy of western Kordofan and theconsequence of its failure to evolve a national organization.

Of central importance is the Tijniyyas creation of a supra-ethnic identity (p. 192) incorporating a variety of groups,including the West African Falla. Because the story is acompelling one, readers may wish to know more about howthree otherwise anonymous merchants emerged as Admini-strative Presidents of the order and controlled its internal andexternal affairs in western Sudan (p. 185). Included is anexcellent summary of the history of the Tijniyya in Kordo-

fan. The experiences of two non-Arab peoples of Kordofanare the subject of contributions by Stephanie Beswick andMartha Saavedra. The formers essay, The Ngok: Emer-gence and destruction of a Nilotic protostate in southwestKordofan, explains the conditions under which a statelesssociety consolidated politically in the nineteenth and twentiethcenturies. The use of oral sources, itself worthy of notice, isparticularly evident as Beswick reviews the complex relations

between the Dinka and their Baqqra neighbours. An impor-

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tant contribution is the claim of Dinka origin for the Mahdiswife Maqbla, mother of Sayyid fiAbd al-Ramn al-Mahd,who has long been regarded (by other than the Ngok) as of

Fr lineage. Beswick states that this belief is universalamong the Ngok (p. 153); it may be, but one imagines thatmost Anr, including the Sayyids family, would takevehement exception. (Curiously, Francis Deng does notappear to have made this claim in any of his works.) Whilehistorical certainty is unlikely to be reached on the subject, theensuing debate should be interesting.

Martha Saavedras essay, Ethnicity, resources, and the

central state: Politics in the Nuba mountains, 1950-1990s,explores the meaning of being Nuba within the context ofnational politics and agricultural production. Noteworthy isSaavedras discussion of the history of Nuba ethnic identityand its shaping through contact with the Hawazma Baqqraand jallba farmers. Nuba political activity since the lateCondominium is succinctly reviewed, and the author underli-nes the effects of regimes from the May Revolution to the

Bashr junta on the political economy of the region. A sombreconclusion addresses the dangers of hardening identities forNuba Mountains peace and development.

Heather J. Sharkeys essay, Arabic literature and thenationalist imagination in Kordofan, stands apart from othercontributions in that it concerns the place of Kordofan (orrather, the place of the idea of Kordofan) in the creation of aSudanese national identity. Focusing on the works of four

influential twentieth-century authors, Sharkey describes theliterary incorporation of Kordofan into Sudan (p. 166), andthe ways that Kordofans idealized Arab heritage and roman-ticized landscape came to enhance Nile Valley culture. It isinteresting to learn that one does not have to be a khawja towrite: There I discovered a new world of enchantment.Among those simple nomads I came to know purity, beauty,and nobility (asan Najla,Malmi min al-mujtamafi al-sdn, 1964, 305). Not surprisingly, the Kordofanis them-

selves did not share these sentiments.

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In this extremely well-edited volume there are a fewflaws. The three illustrationsinteresting but not veryhelpfulshould either have been dispensed with or supple-

mented. Likewise, a more detailed map with physical featureswas needed. Typographical errors are hard to excuse, but thisis the fault of the press. Some readers may notice a few errorsof fact: for example, the Mahdi did not establish Omdurmanas his capital (p. 18) and General fiAbbd was only 58 yearsold, hardly elderly, when he assumed power (p. 238). Noneof this detracts from the value of the book, however, which isa veritable primer on the all-important issue of identity and a

model for collections of regional studies. It should be requiredreading for all Sudanists and of great interest to many otherscholars. One hopes that it is translated into Arabic and distri-buted in Sudan, where encouraging discourses aboutinvasions is most needed.

Robert S. Kramer