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Anthropological Reflections on the Breakup of Sudan

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 April 2012

Leif Manger*
Affiliation:
Department of Social Anthropology, University of Bergen, Bergen, Norway; e-mail: leif.manger@sosantr.uib.no

Extract

The division of Sudan into two countries on 9 July 2011 following the self-determination referendum of 9 January represents a rare development in Africa. Few examples exist of new state formations in the continent after the end of the colonial period. Answering the call of the IJMES editor to reflect on what this event will mean for our understanding of Sudan might take us in several directions. Let me use this opportunity to comment on two themes that have concerned me lately: the role of the state and the possibility that multiple national identities will evolve in North and South Sudan.

Type
Roundtable
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2012

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References

NOTES

1 Kapferer, Bruce and Bertelsen, Bjørn, eds., Crisis of the State: War and Social Upheaval (New York: Berghahn Books, 2009)Google Scholar.

2 Jakob Rigi, “Post-Soviet Formation of the Russian State and the War in Chechnya: Exploring the Chaotic Form of Sovereignty,” in Kapferer and Bertelsen, Crisis of the State.

3 Keating, Michael, Plurinational Democracy. Stateless Nations in a Post-Sovereignty Era (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.