Rethinking Sudan Studies: a Post-2011 Manifesto

Abstract

International audienceThis essay appraises “Sudan Studies” following the 2011 secession of South Sudan. It asks two questions. First, what has Sudan Studies been as a colonial and postcolonial field of academic inquiry and how should or must it change? Second, should we continue to write about a single arena of Sudan Studies now that Sudan has split apart? The authors advance a “manifesto” for Sudan Studies by urging scholars to map out more intellectual terrain by attending to non-elite actors and women; grass-roots and local history; the environment and the arts; oral sources; and interdisciplinary studies of culture, politics, and society. They propose that scholars can transcend the changing boundaries of the nation-state, and recognize connections forged through past and present migrations and contacts, by studying the Sudan as a zone rather than a fixed country. Finally, in their introduction to this bilingual special issue, they highlight the increasing relevance of French scholarship to the endeavor of rethinking Sudan Studies

Ordering the land beyond the Sixth Cataract: Imperial policy, archaeology and the role of Henry Wellcome

“…Sudan's uncertain status very much outlived the colonial period. As Sharkey et al (2015, 3) note, Sudan ‘not only fell on the margins, but between the cracks’. Arguing for a rethinking of Sudan studies, they ask scholars to feature the agency of non-elite actors and examine societies at the grassroots.…”

Response: Religion, Gender, and the Question of Nation

“…However, the reality of such publications should not be read as a testament that Sudan Studies does not have room to grow regarding research and coverage of Sudanese women's history. In their 2015 article “Rethinking Sudan Studies: a Post‐2011 Manifesto,” Sharkey—along with Elena Vezzadini and Iris Seri‐Hersch—noted that women's absence in historical accounts had hitherto been “especially flagrant” and that “researchers in Sudan Studies have only slowly become attentive to roles of women in society and history, thereby helping to mitigate the androcentrism of past scholarship.” (Sharkey et al 2015).…”

“…In their 2015 article "Rethinking Sudan Studies: a Post-2011 Manifesto," Sharkey-along with Elena Vezzadini and Iris Seri-Hersch-noted that women's absence in historical accounts had hitherto been "especially flagrant" and that "researchers in Sudan Studies have only slowly become attentive to roles of women in society and history, thereby helping to mitigate the androcentrism of past scholarship." (Sharkey et al 2015).…”

‘An Uphill Job Demanding Limitless Patience’. The Establishment of Trade Unions and the Conflicts of Development in Sudan, 1946–1952

“…Because Sudan studies have long suffered from insularity (Sharkey et al, 2015), I shall begin this chapter by inscribing development conflicts related to labour in Sudan into two entangled international stories, although narrated very sketchily: first, that of how British imperial development policy fostered the creation of trade unions in the colonies; second, the story of circulation and mutual learning among radical labour movements, and in particular between those in Egypt and those in Sudan.…”