A new version of the Sudan Open Archive is now available on an external hard drive. SOA 3.0 offers free digital access to over three thousand books and documents and articles about all regions of Sudan. It includes two…
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A report from the Open Society Initiative for Eastern Africa (OSIEA), and the Africa Governance Monitoring and Advocacy Project (AfriMAP) investigates the vexed question of nationality in the two Sudans. Bronwen Manby’s The Right to a Nationality and the…
Week by week RVI Fellow Magdi el-Gizouli’s blog, Still Sudan, offers a trenchant analysis of political developments in the two Sudans. Recently, his self-described ‘notes on a fluid situation’ have argued against international intervention in the new civil war…
RVI Fellow Douglas Johnson discussed South Sudan’s history, historiography, and sense of identity in the context of the new nation's first anniversary. Speaking at the ninth International South Sudan and Sudan Studies Conference in Bonn, he describing South Sudan…
Sudan Looks East, co-edited by Dan Large and Luke A. Patey analyses the 'look east' policy adopted by Khartoum from the mid-1990s onwards. The book examines the rise of China, Malaysia and India and their significance in Sudan and…
South Sudan's second bookshop is now open at the Roots Project, Nimra Talata, in Juba town. Leaves bookshop is the brainchild of Awak Bior, an official at the Juba office of the European Union. The RVI, along with other…
In a blog for the London Review of Books, RVI Fellow Jérôme Tubiana describes a year of research in Sudan and South Sudan on arms flows in Sudan. ‘Tracing their origin,’ he writes, ‘might make it easier to put…
Sudan’s big grain producers are struggling to find sufficient labour to manage their fields, writes RVI Fellow Magdi El Gizouli. The problem is particularly bad in the central Gezira region, in the eastern Gedaref State, and in North Darfur….
On Friday March 9, RVI founding Fellows Jok Madut Jok and John Ryle gave a talk on the current situation in the Sudans at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), in Washington DC. The event marked the…
Compromising with Evil: An archival history of greater Sudan, 2007-2012 is the unequivocal title of Eric Reeves' account of the role of the Government of Sudan in Sudan's internal wars. The book comes with accolades from scholars such as…
Recent Publications

Enhancing the Role of Borderland Communities in Ethiopia’s Foreign Policy
October 15, 2025
Ethiopia’s borderland communities (BLCs) have historically influenced the country’s relations with its neighbours. These peripheral regions often serve as hubs for cross-border trade, repositories of natural resources and, at times, flashpoints of conflict. Surrounded by six neighbouring countries – Djibouti,

Women in the Social Sciences and Humanities in Ethiopia: The case of Addis Ababa University
October 10, 2025
This preliminary assessment is part of the launch exercise of the Ethiopian Women Researchers’ Network (EWNET). Focusing on Addis Ababa University as a pioneering higher institution in the country, the study looks into the status of women within these disciplines
Iddir in Contemporary Social Science and Humanities Research in Ethiopia: Historicizing and theorizing local infrastructures of care
October 3, 2025
The second Ethiopian Women Researchers Network (EWNET) seminar was delivered by Desalegn Amsalu, Anteneh Tesfaye, Yasmin Bushra and Helen Zeru on 3 July 2025 at Addis Ababa University’s Alle School of Fine Arts & Design. EWNET SEMINAR SERIES REPORT The