The rise of Asian powers in 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 in international politics. Dan Large is Deputy Director of Studies on the RVI Sudan Course and […]
A Bookshop for South Sudan
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 individual and institutional supporters, is contributing to the initial stock, with copies of two recent RVI […]
Who arms Sudan?
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 pressure on the states and companies delivering arms to the warring parties, often in violation of […]
Land, labour, and politics in Sudan’s farmlands
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. Writing on his StillSudan blog, El Gizouli notes that the biggest reason for the labour shortfall […]
Digital edition of RVI Sudan Handbook: Launch in Washington DC Friday 9 March
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 publication of the digital edition of The Sudan Handbook, now available for free download from www.riftvalley.net.
Eric Reeves on Darfur
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 Douglas H. Johnson, writers and activists such as Alhag Warrag and Omer Ismail, and luminaries such […]
From Khartoum to Texas
Faisal Goes West is a tragicomic drama about a Sudanese family's adjustment to life in the United States. The film is directed by Bentley Brown and produced by Rani Birchfield with a largely Sudanese and American production team and cast featuring several up-and-coming Sudanese actors and musicians. The film-makers are seeking funding for post-production through […]
Juba University Lecture Series
A two-day series of lectures was held in Juba on 2 and 3 June 2011, in the run-up to the independence celebrations in South Sudan. The theme of the lectures – the second in an annual series – was culture and nationhood. The event was organised by the Rift Valley Institute in collaboration with the […]
Sudanese arts and literature: Taghreed el-Sanhouri and Isam Babiker
Taghreed el-Sanhouri’s documentary Our Beloved Sudan (2011) portrays Sudan from independence in 1956 to partition in 2011. Expanding on some of the themes of Taghreed's earlier All About Darfur (2005) the new film includes interviews with prominent northern and southern Sudanese and explores what partition means for one family of mixed heritage. Isam Babiker’s novel […]
Border war in the Sudans?
The new hostilities between Sudan and South Sudan have generated renewed interest in two RVI publications: Douglas Johnson's When Boundaries Become Borders and Eddie Thomas' The Kafia Kingi Enclave. The books offer the most detailed available account of border communities in the Sudans, their shared resources and disputed boundaries. Meanwhile Douglas Johnson has published a […]