Sudanâ (Tm)S Wars and Peace Agreements (Hardback) | Released: 01 Sep 2010

Originating from the 2008 27th annual conference of the Sudan Studies Association (SSA) of the same title, these essays document and analyze Sudan's chronic history of conflict since independence in 1956 as well as its own and international efforts to bring an end to these conflicts. As the country moves toward what some see as the inevitable separation of South Sudan in 2011 honoring the principle of self-determination long fought for by southerners, the lessons of six decades of a history of war and peace agreements is both telling and compelling. This analysis is offered by the real experts on Sudan rather than the usual story offered by journalists and pundits. In addition to an Introduction by the editors, all founders or current or past presidents of the SSA, the essays by Sudanese and non-Sudanese explore the often bitter history of North-South relations and loss of life leading to the consideration of a range of options from a continuation of national unity under revised terms, to federation or redivision, to full separation of the South and the constitution of a new African state. The role of the Khartoum government's pursuit of policies of Islamization and Islamism for a quarter of a century across multiple regimes is also treated. The central question of constructing a sustainable peace, irrespective of the outcome in 2011, is detailed along with the essential consideration of women and gender perspectives to sustain any peace negotiated. This book is must reading in advance of, or in response to, the crucial events as they unfold in Sudan in 2011 and beyond.
About the Author: Jay Spaulding is a medievalist by training who writes frequently about precolonial northeast Africa. His books include Kingdoms of the Sudan (with R. S. O'Fahey), After the Millennium, An Islamic Alliance and Een Kennismaking met de Afrikaanse Geschiedenis (with Lidwien Kapteijns), Public Documents from Sinnare (with M. I. Abu Salim) and The Heroic Age in Sinnar. Stephanie Beswick is an historian of South Sudan and has published numerous articles and recently a monograph-Sudan's Blood Memory-on the history of the Dinka. She is the President of the Sudan Studies Association and the Director of African Studies at Ball State University, Indiana, USA. Carolyn Fluehr-Lobban is Professor of Anthropology and African Studies at Rhode Island College, USA. With relevance to Sudan she is the author of Islamic Law and Society in the Sudan and the forthcoming book Shari'a and Islamism in Sudan: Conflcit, Law and Social Transformation, and she is a co-author of the Historical Dictionary of the Sudan and co-editor of Race and Identity in the Nile Valley. Richard A. Lobban, Jr. is Professor Emeritus and former Chair of Anthropology, Rhode Island College, USA, where he was also the Director of African and African-American Studies. Presently he is Adjunct Professor of African Studies at the Naval War College, while serving as the Executive Director of the Sudan Studies Association. He is co-author of the Historical Dictionary of Sudan and of a recently released book on Sudan Security supported, in part, by a grant from the Office of Naval Research studying conflict in Sudan.