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Ingessana and the Legacy of the Funj Sultanate: The Consequences of Turkish Conquest on the Blue Nile

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 March 2011

M. C. Jędrej
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Abstract

From a perspective based in ethnographic research this article reviews the historical evidence relating to the social organisation of the southern Funj in the Sudan during the nineteenth century. It goes beyond a characterisation of the region as one of pagan ‘tribes’ more or less successful in resisting subordination by a sophisticated Islamic state to discern a complexity of varied political relations radiating from an elite in a few regional centres and traversing all the communities of the region. The appearance of distinct ethnic groups under the colonial regime of the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan was preceded by a transitional geo-political division of the population into defiant highlanders and variously servile lowlanders under the Turco-Egyptian government which succeeded the Funj sultanate in the region.

Résumé

Cet article étudie d’un point de vue ethnographique les éléments historiques se rapportant à l’organisation sociale de royaume de Funj dans le sud du Soudan au cours du dix-neuvième siècle. Il va plus loin qu’une simple caractérisation de cette région comme l’une des «tribus» païennes ayant plus ou moins bien réussi à résister à la subordination exercée par un état islamique élaboré, pour discerner une complexité des relations politiques variées émanant d’une élite dans quelques centres régionaux et traversant toutes les communautés de la région. L’apparition de groups ethniques distincts sous le régime colonial du Soudan anglo-égyptien fut précédée, sous le gouvernement turco-égyptien qui succéda au sultanat de Funj dans la région, par une division géopolitique transitoire de la population entre les réfracteraires des montagnes et les populations diversement serviles de la plaine.

Type
Research Article
Information
Africa , Volume 70 , Issue 2 , May 2000 , pp. 278 - 297
Copyright
Copyright © International African Institute 2000

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