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Amid a Sudan's dark history, saturated with conflicts and tragic current events, lies a culture with deep roots, going back as far as 8000 BC. With several hundred ethnic groups and languages, Sudan is one of the world's most diverse countries.Learn how these cultures have blended and collided throughout the centuries, and examine how traditions and customs are kept alive today. Religious beliefs, social customs, arts, literature, and cuisine are among the topics discussed in this volume, which is ideal for high school and undergraduate students.

Chapters include coverage on historical background, religions and worldviews, literature and media, art and architecture, cuisine and traditional dress, gender roles, marriage, and family, social customs, and music and dance.

A timeline of key events and bibliographical essay including print and nonprint sources supplement the work.

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Histories written in the aftermath of empire have often featured conquerors and peasant rebels but have said little about the vast staffs of locally recruited clerks, technicians, teachers, and medics who made colonialism work day-to-day. Even as these workers maintained the colonial state, they dreamed of displacing imperial power. This book examines the history of the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan (1898-1956) and the Republic of Sudan that followed in order to understand how colonialism worked on the ground, affected local cultures, influenced the rise of nationalism, and shaped the postcolonial nation-state.

Relying on a rich cache of Sudanese Arabic literary sources, including poetry, essays, and memoirs, as well as on colonial documents and photographs, this perceptive study examines colonialism from the viewpoint of those who lived and worked in its midst. By integrating the case of Sudan with material on other countries, particularly India, Sharkey gives her book broad comparative appeal. She shows that colonial legacies--such as inflexible borders, atomized multi-ethnic populations, and autocratic governing structures--have persisted, hobbling postcolonial nation-states. Thus countries like Sudan are still living with colonialism, struggling to achieve consensus and stability within borders that a fallen empire has left behind. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Insightful and well argued
It's been a while since I read this book, but I remember it being insightful and well argued.Contributes to our understanding about conflicts in this region.

Powerful insights into an elites failure of imagination
An eye opening book. Details how the British ruled the colonial Sudan by helping create and educated, at the Gordon Memorial College (present day University of Khartoum), a technocratic class of lower level clerks and minor civil servants. This literate class collaborated with the Empire in ways that allowed a handful of British bureaucrats to rule the vast area of Sudan. But in many ways there was ambivalence and suspicion of each others motives, and feelings of frustrated ambition on the side of the Sudanese. The British used their own racial and imperial prejudices in selecting Arabic speaking groups and families to draw into this class and excluded Southerners and others they termed "detribalized blacks". In doing so they influencing the class's ideas of itself and their environment, and shaped their very narrow vision of the future post colonial nation. A national vision that proved to be as elitist, statist and unable toincorporate the reality of a diverse and complex Sudan. It is this central lack of vision that lies at the heart of the Sudan's failure to build an inclusive nation. It is a sad commentary that the same elite still sees itself as a conduit for propagating western civilization, in the form of such alien ideologies as "secularism", to an essentially savage nation.

As a product of this class I am amazed to realize just how narrow this class has remained. Again and again I recognized the actors in this book as being the grandparents of my colleges and friends. In the mid-eighties my educated parents convinced me to withdraw from an English university and return to matriculate at The University of Khartoum. It has been one of the most profound decisions I have ever made. ... Read more

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Examines the geography, history, government, economy, and culture of the war-torn country where the African and Arab worlds mingle. ... Read more

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Strongly recommended
I am slowly forming a collection of books on Sudan (children's, photography, tourism and literary) and by far this is my favorite. I thought the book was comprehensive and I particularly appreciate how it covers the vast and diverse regions of the entire country. I saw many tribes and many cultural practices being mentioned. Although the description of the book recommends it for 9th grade, I thought the reading level was much simpler (perhaps it would be more appropriate for a younger age group) and not thorough/detailed enough for an older age.
I am also a big fan of Michael Freeman's "Sudan, the land and the people". It's a wonderful family read. It covers most (if not ALL) of Sudan's HISTORY and shares an amazing artistic perspective of its people. However, Michael Freeman's book is short on photography of the Northern regions of Sudan and the Northern people.
All in all, I think "Sudan: Cultures of the World" is a wonderful additional to your library at home.

A wonderful pleasure read and educational tool!
I was very impressed with the volume of SUDAN from this series.The series as a whole is wonderful, and the SUDAN text is no exception.It's difficult to find good, recent resources about this country; this is a true find.I teach ESL and my adult students from Sudan were VERY impressed by this book.I'm actually ordering copies for a few of them for their homes! ... Read more

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In this second edition of the highly regarded original, five Muslim women and their families from the town of Sennar, Central Sudan, update their life stories. Halima, the hairdresser; Fatima, the market woman; Zachara, the midwife; Bitt al-Jamil, the faith healer; and Naiema, leader of tombura zâr spirit possession, each look back on their lives, their families, and their work in accounts that now span more than twenty years. The women’s own voices provide insight into how ordinary individuals deal with the challenges of making a living, raising a family, and leading a good life in twentieth-century Sudan while Kenyon situates the narratives in the larger historical and ethnographic context. The ongoing strengths and stability of local community and family life, as well as the surprisingly independent views of the women themselves, are vividly illustrated against a background of rapid urbanization, economic constraints, and the introduction of Islamic law and an Islamist government. ... Read more

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A comprehensive survey of Sudanese ancient cultures, the history of archaeology in Sudan, current work and recent trends. The Sudan is the largest country in Africa. For millennia it has been the zone of contact between the peoples of Central Africa and those emanating from the Mediterranean world. The National Museum in Khartoum houses one of the finest collections of antiquities from the Nile Valley and is of international importance; however, the vast quantity of material is in store and has rarely if ever been seen by the public. This exhibition will seek to display some of the finest objects produced during all phases of human settlement from the Palaeolithic through to the Islamic period. A large number of these beautiful treasures will be on public display for the first time outside the Sudan and most are recent discoveries. Key items will seek to highlight the contrast between the world views of many Sudanese cultures: from the demonstrations of worldly power of the Kerma kings accompanied to their deaths by 400 sacrificed persons, to the humble graves of Christian rulers; from the grandiose temples built by the Egyptian Pharaohs to the churches and mosques of later periods. ... Read more

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An examination of the evolution of the colonial city of Port Sudan. ... Read more

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Sudan has recently come to the attention to global strategic planners.This report puts these executives on the fast track.Ten chapters provide: an overview of how to strategically access this important market, a discussion on economic fundamentals, marketing & distribution options, export and direct investment options, and full risk assessments (political, cultural, legal, human resources).Ample statistical benchmarks and comparative graphs are given. ... Read more

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New Sudan is a concept for radically reforming Sudan s governance system by addressing the national identity crisis that has been responsible for the wars, the instability and the failure of the national building project that have afflicted the country since independence. The gist of the crisis is that the dominant Arab group, which is in fact an African Arab hybrid and a minority, perceives the country in its image as an Arab-Islamic nation. This inevitably discriminates against the non-Arab and non-Moslem populations in the South and even against the other groups in the peripheral regions of the North, who even though are predominantly Moslem, are however not Arabs. The South, one third of the country in territory and population, was the first to rebel against this discriminatory framework in August 1955, only a few months before independence on the January 1, 1956. That rebellion which escalated into a 17 year war was separatist, but was resolved in 1972 by a compromise that granted the South regional autonomy. The abrogation of that accord in 1983 led to the resumption of the second rebellion by the Sudan People s Liberation Movement and Army (SPLM/A) that called for the unity of the country in the framework of a New Sudan in which there would be full equality of citizenship, without any discrimination based on race, ethnicity, religion, culture or gender. Over time, this vision began to appeal to the non-Arab northern groups and other liberal minded northerners. The Nuba and the Ingassana (Funj) were the first to join the SPLM/A in the struggle in the mid 1980s. The Beja in the East joined later. And the Darfurians, after having their first attempt at rebellion crushed in 1992, again staged a rebellion in 2003, triggering the atrocious war that is still raging and which some international observers have determined to be genocide. The vision of the New Sudan was largely that of Dr. John Garang de Mabior, a man who was a scholar, a soldier, and a statesman. When he arrived in Khartoum to be sworn in as First Vice President of the Government of National Unity and President of the Government of Southern Sudan, in accordance with the Comprehensive Peace Agreement of January 9, 2005, he was met by a rallying crowd estimated in the millions, clear evidence that the New Sudan was in sight. Tragically, two weeks later, Garang died in a helicopter crash. To some, the vision of the New Sudan died with him. To others, his legacy, including the New Sudan Vision, has been ironically rejuvenated, particularly in the North. But will it be realized or will it remain a dream and an elusive goal? That is the very essence of the question mark in the title of this book. ... Read more

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Sudan After Nimeiri emphasizes the extent of the country's current predicament and explains the difficulty and interrelationships of potential solutions. Among the issues discussed are environmental and ecological problems, economic collapse, famine, debt, refugees, the role of Islam in Sudanese politics, Nimeiri's downfall and the administrative problems facing the transitional and present governments. ... Read more

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This digital document is an article from Countries and Their Cultures, brought to you by Gale®, a part of Cengage Learning, a world leader in e-research and educational publishing for libraries, schools and businesses.The length of the article is 2794 words.The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase.You can view it with any web browser.Covers the broad range of popular religious culture of the United States at the close of the twentieth century. Beliefs, practices, symbols, traditions, movements, organizations, and leaders from the many traditions in the pluralistic American community are represented. Also includes cults and phenomena that drew followers, such as Heaven's Gale and UFOs. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Why Does Anthropology Matter?Read MICE ARE MEN.

MICE ARE MEN: LANGUAGE AND SOCIETY AMONG THE MURLE OF SUDAN, is authored by Jonathan E. Arensen, an SIL anthropologist with a doctorate from Oxford University. He has lived in East Africa for most of the last 50 years. His book is fascinating. In relation to the question some anthropology students typically raise each semester--"Why does anthropology matter and when are we ever going to use this?"--I think pp.105-141 of Arensen's book addresses that topic beautifully. (Maybe should be required reading?) Those 36 pages point out how linguistic analysis failed miserably until the analyst looked at the language through the framework of cultural categories. It summarizes Lakoff's material on the Dyirbal of Australia and then describes the analyzing-grammar-through-culture process in the Murle language in Sudan.

This book relates myth and cultural norms to language in a striking way. Good linguistic analysis doesn't occur in a vacuum--language can only be understood within the context of culture. So not only do you need linguistics to do a good translation, but you need anthropology to do good linguistics. (Reviewed by Rachelle Wenger on 10/2/97, raywenger@juno.com) ... Read more