Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-nr4z6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-06-11T11:18:11.594Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Class and kinship in Sudanese urban communities

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 December 2011

Richard A. Lobban Jr
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

This article represents some of the results of three field research studies of urbanization in the Sudan. The research has focussed on two urban communities in the Khartoum area, those known as Tuti Island1 and Burn al Manas. The first study was conducted as doctoral research in 1970–72; a brief re-study took place in 1975, and most recently research was conducted in 1979–80. This ten-year period was a time during which major economic and demographic change occurred in the urban Sudan. A recent study in the capital city area of the Sudan by urban planners has concluded that ‘any sociologist or social anthropologist who approaches the problems of urbanization in Africa today has the privilege of witnessing a social transformation on a grand scale’ (MEFIT, 1974: I). I have already reported on some aspects of change in class structure, marriage, kinship and the family (Lobban, 1971, 1975, 1979), but these earlier articles have relied chiefly on earlier fieldwork. Among studies of culture change in general, and urbanization in particular, it is unfortunately uncommon to have data from replicated, longitudinal studies. In this respect this article may make an especially useful contribution.

Résumé

Dans cet article on traite certains aspects de revolution culturelle dans le contexte de l'urbanisation dans le Soudan. Les donnees sont tirées de travaux pratiques faits au cours de la décennie 1970-80, quand l'urbanisation soudanaise a été déclarée. En faisant mention des Mahas, groupe nubien important dans les ‘Trois Villes’ du Soudan, on examine et explique plusieurs hypotheses relatives à des thèmes généraux dans l'étude de l'urbanisation. Les Mahas n'ont pas tardé à jouer un rôle central dans la formation de la vie urbaine et de l'Islamisation du Soudan central. Les hypothèses traitent initialement des questions de continuité et d'évolution dans le contexte de la formation des classes sociales et de la stratification socio-économique. Correspondants aux changements dans la structure sociale urbaine sont des changements dans le mariage, dans les liens de parenté et dans la famille. Tout d'abord on concentre son attention sur la coutume unique du mariage korah et sur des systémes de manages de préférence et de lignages endogames qui sont différenciés en partie selon la classe sociale des époux. Des conclusions sont tirees qui ont rapport à des tendances plus répandues et à des adaptations à la vie urbaine en Afrique et dans des pays en voie de développement.

Type
Research Article
Information
Africa , Volume 52 , Issue 2 , April 1982 , pp. 51 - 76
Copyright
Copyright © International African Institute 1982

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

‘Amar Mahjoiib Mohammad Zaki, ‘Abdel Wadood’ Ali Ahmed, Mohammad Yousef El Tayib and Salah Babiker 'Asmali. 1979. The Possibility of the Development of Tuti Island Under the Current Social and Economic Conditions, Institute of Statistics, Khartoum.Google Scholar
Khalifa, Amin Mustafa. 1970. Marriage in Tuti Island (published by author in Arabic, Khartoum).Google Scholar
Obeid, Amina. 1974. ‘The history of settlements in Tuti’, unpublished B.Sc. Thesis, University of Khartoum, Sudan.Google Scholar
Barclay, Harold B. 1964. Burri al Lamaab: A Suburban Village in the Sudan, Cornell University Press, Ithaca N.Y.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bonine, Michael E. 1979. ‘The morphogenesis of Iranian cities’, Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 69(2): 208–24.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Costello, V. F. 1977. Urbanization in the Middle East, Cambridge University Press: New York.Google Scholar
Gulick, John. 1969. Village and city: cultural continuities in twentieth century Middle Eastern cultures, in Lapidus, I. M. (ed.), Middle Eastern Cities, 122–58, University of California Press: Berkeley, California.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dafallah, Hassan. 1975. The Nubian Exodus, Khartoum University Press, Khartoum.Google Scholar
Hill, Lewis. 1965. The Tuti Community, Sudan Society, 3: 1–20.Google Scholar
Rahim, Izz el Din Ahmed Avdel. 1975. ‘The future problem of settlements in Tuti’, fourth year paper, Department of Geography, University of Khartoum.Google Scholar
Kennedy, John G. 1977. Struggle for Change in a Nubian Community, Mayfield Publishing Co., Palo Alto, California.Google Scholar
Lapidus, I. M. (ed.) 1969. Middle Eastern Cities, University of California Press, Los Angeles, California.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lobban, Richard A. 1971. ‘The historical role of the Mahas in the urbanization of the Sudan's Three Towns’, African Urban Notes, 24–38, Special Issue on Sudan Urban Studies (S. & Hale, G., eds.).Google Scholar
Lobban, Richard A. 1975. ‘Alienation, urbanization, and social networks in the urban Sudan’, Journal of Modern African Studies, XII(2): 491–500.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lobban, Richard A. 1979. ‘Class, endogamy, and urbanization in the Three Towns of the Sudan’, African Studies Review, XXII(3): 99–114.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lobban, Richard A. 1981. ‘A Genealogical and Historical Study of the Mahas of the “Three Towns”, Sudan’, paper presented at the IVth International Conference of Nile Valley Countries, University of Khartoum.Google Scholar
MEFIT, September 1974. ‘Regional Plan of Khartoum and Master Plan for the Three Towns’, Vol. 1, Phase 1.Google Scholar
MEFIT, September 1974. ‘Regional Plan of Khartoum and Master Plan for the Three Towns’, Vol. 2, Phase 1.Google Scholar
MEFIT, September 1974. ‘Regional Plan of Khartoum and Master Plan for the Three Towns’, Phase 1, Survey of Household Heads (raw computer printout).Google Scholar
MEFIT, May 1975. ‘Regional Plan of Khartoum and Master Plan for the Three Towns’, General Report, Vol. 1, Phase 2.Google Scholar
MEFIT, May 1975. ‘Regional Plan of Khartoum and Master Plan for the Three Towns’, General Report, Vol. 2, Phase 2.Google Scholar
Magid, Mohammad Hassan Abdal. n.d. ‘Settlement in Tuti Island’, Geography Department, University of Khartoum (unpublished B.Sc. Thesis).Google Scholar
Hassan, Omar Beshir al. 1964. ‘Agriculture in Tuti Island’, Geography Department, University of Khartoum (unpublished B.Sc. Thesis).Google Scholar
Pickthall, Mohammad Marmaduke. 1922. The Meaning of the Glorious Koran. Mentor Religious Classics, New York.Google Scholar
Republic of the Sudan. 1955-1956. First Population Census of the Sudan, Final Report, Town Planners Supplement, Vol. 1, Department of Statistics.Google Scholar
Republic of the Sudan. 1964-1965. Population and Housing Survey (Khartoum City), Department of Statistics.Google Scholar
Republic of the Sudan. 1964-1966. Population and Housing Survey (Urban Areas), Khartoum Province, Department of Statistics.Google Scholar
Republic of the Sudan. 1964-1966. Population and Housing Survey (General Survey of the Urban Areas), all Sudan, Department of Statistics.Google Scholar
Taha, Salah Ali. 1978. ‘Household food consumption in five villages in the Sudan’ Ecology of Food and Nutrition, 7(3): 137–42.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Taha, Salah Ali. 1979. ‘Ecological factors underlying protein-calorie malnutrition in an irrigated area of the Sudan’ Ecology of Food and Nutrition, 7(4): 193–201.CrossRefGoogle Scholar