The Sudan-Contested National Identities (Middle East Studies) - Softcover

Lesch, Ann Mosely

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0253212278 ISBN 13: 9780253212276

Publisher: Indiana University Press, 1999

Synopsis

"This highly informative work digs into the intricate history of Sudanese politics. Lesch brings a welcome clarity to Sudan's tangle of political, ethnic, and religious problems by concentrating on the country's central dilemma: the inability of its leaders to negotiate a common definition of nationhood." ―Foreign Affairs

"... the first correct account of what took place... after independence." ―Robert O. Collins

The Sudan is torn by ethnic and religious conflict, centered on the struggle over the definition of the Sudanese nation-state. Is the Sudan primarily Arab or African by culture and ethnicity? Should the political system privilege Islamic legal codes or accord equal citizenship to persons of all faiths? Ann Mosely Lesch provides a comprehensive and even-handed analysis of the unresolved struggle for a stable political system and a unified national identity.

About this title

About the Author:

Ann Mosely Lesch is Professor of Political Science at Villanova University, coauthor (with Mark Tessler) of Israel, Egypt, and the Palestinians, and principal author of Transition to Palestinian Self-Government: Practical Steps toward Israeli-Palestinian Peace.

Review:

It is crisply and clearly written, with excellent footnotes and bibliography, and should be read not only by those seeking to understand Muslim-Christian conflicts but by all with a concern for refugees, for the victims of human rights' abuses and even more general concerns about the instability of Africa. No specialist knowledge is required. THEOLOGICAL BOOK REVIEW The emphasis here is on the years since the second civil war began in 1983, and as this is the period for Sudan as a whole on which less has been produced than the earlier war and the Addis Ababa agreement, the book is to be welcomed ... Students of Sudanese studies will be grateful to Ann Lesch for pulling so much material together in this book. - Peter Woodward in JOURNAL OF MODERN AFRICAN STUDIES This is a refreshingly straightforward political history of the Sudan which aims primarily to clarify and elucidate what has become of one of the most intractable civil wars in Africa. The study's approach is limpid: the author attempts to explain in detail how the country has suffered from an absence of political consensus... Mosley Lesch confirms what is widely suspected about the Sudan: namely that the Arabic speaking Muslim political elite have found it difficult, if not downright impossible, to give proper expression to the cultural and political demands of the southern peoples. - Patrick Chabal in INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS

About this edition

• Publisher: Indiana University Press
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 0253212278
• ISBN 13: 9780253212276
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 316