Egyptian secret societies, 1911

Abstract

The Sudanese factor was indeed a primary factor for the settlement of the Anglo-Egyptian dispute over the Sudan and the conclusion of the 12 February 1953 Agreement. Based on British primary sources as well as Egyptian and Sudanese literature, this article discusses the role of this factor, tracing its development and showing how the new military leaders in Egypt reckoned on it to support their stand during the negotiations held with the British Government between November 1952 and February 1953. The article analyses the political agreements signed between the Egyptian Government and the Sudanese political parties. It goes further to discuss the dominance of the Sudanese factor during the transitional period that preceded the declaration of independence on 1 January 1956.     

Border battle line

ABSTRACT

The demarcation of a North–South boundary in the Sudan opens up the possibility of the creation of a new international border in Africa, following the outcome of the Southern Sudanese and Abyei Area referenda in 2011. The line of the proposed boundary runs through the grazing areas of numerous pastoralist peoples, and it is these peoples who will be most directly affected if the new border becomes the frontline between two states. In fact, pastoralists were mobilised to fight on either side of the boundary during both of Sudan's civil wars. This article looks at select areas of the North–South borderlands, particularly areas of shared rights, to analyse the potential impact of the new boundary. It looks at how overlapping rights claims were managed in the past, and goes on to analyse various peace-making efforts between border pastoralist peoples from the Condominium period until today. The article looks at the way the border issue has been dealt with in the Comprehensive Peace Agreement, including the Abyei arbitration process, as an indicator of whether this border region will become the focus of continued conflict, whatever the 2011 referendum result.     

The Comprehensive Peace Agreement and the questions of identity,territory and political destiny of the indigenous Nuba of the Sudan

ABSTRACT

The Sudan Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) of 2005 was successful in ending the longest war in contemporary Africa. However, its implementation has been below the expectations of several communities, particularly in the war-torn regions of the Nuba Mountains, the Southern Blue Nile and the Abyei Area, widely referred to as ‘contested’, ‘marginalised’, ‘transitional’ areas or ‘border territories’. While many interwoven causes were behind the eruption of the protracted civil wars in the Sudan (Elnur 2009; Johnson 2006; Khalid 1987), the political question of sub-national identities and their intrinsic link with specific territories (Murphy 1991; William and Smith 1993) is hypothesised here as a prime factor in extending the civil war into these three areas. Taking the Nuba and their claimed territory of the Nuba Mountains as an example, this article will, first, trace the political striving of the Nuba people and their shift from peaceful political movement to armed struggle; second, it will examine their political status during the peace negotiation process; and third, it will analyse their political responses to the outcome of the CPA and its impact on their future political choices in view of the April 2010 election results, and the projected right to self-determination for the people of Southern Sudan, to be exercised through the referenda in 2011.     

Seyyid Bey and the Abolition of the Caliphate

The Gentile Zionists: A Study in Anglo‐Zionist Diplomacy, 1929–1939 by N. A. Rose. London, Frank Cass. Pp 242, £3.75

The Egyptian Economy, 1952–1972 by Robert Mabro, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1974, pp. xii + 254, Bibliography, index, £1.50.

From Encroachment to Involvement: A Documentary Study of Soviet Policy in the Middle East, 1945 – 1973 by Yaacov Ro'i. John Wiley and Sons New York, Toronto. Israel Universities Press, Jerusalem. 1974. Pp. xxxix + 616

Oil and World Power by Peter Odell. Harmondsworth, Penguin, Pp. 233, 95p.

The Western European Energy Economy: Challenges and Opportunities (Stamp Memorial Lecture) by Peter Odell. London, Athlone Press, Pp. 40, 90p.

The Mahdist State of the Sudan, 1881–1898, by P.M. Holt, Second Edition. Pp. xvi + 295. Maps. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1970. £2.75.

Iraq and Syria 1941 by Geoffrey Warner. London: Davis‐Poynter, 1974; Pp. 180, map, bibliography, index; £3.50     

Colonial education and the shaping of Islamism in Sudan, 1946–1956

Abstract

This article assesses the role of British colonial education in Condominium Sudan in shaping the mindsets of Sudan’s first generation of Islamists between 1946 and 1956. Drawing on post-colonial theorists such as Nandy and Bhabha, it contends that the experiences of the pioneers of Sudan’s Islamic movement at institutions such as Gordon Memorial College and Hantoub Secondary School moulded their understandings of both ‘modernity’ and ‘tradition’. As a result of their colonial education, Islamists deployed discourses concerning both ‘progress’ and ‘cultural authenticity’ that bore remarkable parallels with colonial essentialism, even as they announced a decisive break with the colonial past. Much like the conventional nationalists, they used the space created by the colonial educational institutions to establish an ideological community that transcended the narrow ethnic and regional divides previously fostered by the British. At the same time, Islamists and colonialists alike shared a contempt for Marxists and ‘deculturated’ effendis, and Muslim Brothers’ aspirations to escape the ‘English jahiliyya’, however counter-intuitive this may seem, bore similarities with the worldviews of colonial officials concerned with preventing what they saw to be the excessive impact of urbanization and modern education on Sudan.     

Letters to the editor

The Future of India. Part III of the Report on the Constitutional Problem in India submitted to the Warden and Fellows of Nuffield College, Oxford. By R. Coupland, C.I.E., M.A., Hony. D.Litt. (Durham), Fellow of All Souls and Nuffield College, Beit Professor of Colonial History in the University of Oxford. 8/1/2>” x 5/1/2>”. Pp. 207. 6 Maps. Oxford University Press. Price 6s. 6d.

Allenby in Egypt. Being Volume II of Allenby: A Study in Greatness. By Field‐Marshal Viscount Wavell of Cyrenaica and Winchester, G.C.B., C.M.G., M.C., Viceroy of India, Ios. 6d.

Generals and Geographers : the Twilight of Geopolitics. By Hans W. Weigert. Pp. 259. Oxford University Press (New York). $3.00.

Judæa Lives Again. By Norman Bentwich. Pp. 189. Gollancz. 8s. 6d.

Desert. Journey. By George Rodgers. Pp. 151. 44 photographs. Cresset Press. 15s.

Jordan's Tunis Diary. By Philip Jordan. Pp. 256. London: Collins. 1943. 10s. 6d.

Persia in the Early Days of the Pahlavi Régime. By D. Bourke‐Borrowes.

Return to Happiness. By Jonas Lied. Pp. xi+217. 8/3/4>” x 6”. Macmillan. 18s.

Jenghiz Khan. By Squadron‐Leader C. C. Walker. 10” x 6/1/2>”. Pp.216. 7 Maps. Published by Luzac, London. 1940. 17s. 6d.

Tibetan Sentences. By Sir Basil Gould and H. E. Richardson.

India Today and Tomorrow. By Sir Geoffrey de Montmorency. Signpost Booklet. Price 6d.

The Burmese Scene. By Maurice Collis. 7” x 5”. Pp. 60. John Crowther. 5s.

Government by Assassination. By Hugh Byas. George Allen and Unwin. 10s. 6d.

Survey of the Anglo‐Egyptian Sudan, 1898–1941. By K. D. D. Henderson. Kassala at War. By B. Kennedy‐Cooke.

Advisory council for the Northern Sudan: a broadcast     

Institutional reform and political party engagement: Challenges to democratic transformation in post-CPA Sudan

ABSTRACT

This article looks at the role of institutions and political parties as main agents of the democratisation process in the Sudan, following the signing the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA). A review of the historic weaknesses of intermittent democratic rule in the Sudan, since its independence in 1956 and through to the signing of the CPA, is offered. Those elements of the CPA critical to institutional reform and democratisation are identified and their implementation assessed, including the results of the CPA-mandated elections held in April 2010. The four principal political parties and their capacities to contribute to democratic transformation are analysed.     

Making Sense of North Korea: Pyongyang and Comparative Communism

Abstract

Highly repressive, heavily militarized, strongly resistant to reform, and ruled by a dynastic dictatorship that adheres to a hybrid ideology, North Korea might be “the strangest political system in existence.” While distinctive, North Korea is an orthodox communist party-state best classified as an eroding totalitarian regime. Although weakening, Pyongyang remains durable and could survive for many more years. Absent “regime change,” North Korea is unlikely to demilitarize—including relinquishing its nuclear program—and will continue to reject thoroughgoing economic reform, cling to ideology for legitimacy, and make every effort to engineer a successful dynastic succession.     

SPLM–NCP asymmetrical power relations jeopardise the implementation of the CPA and the future of the Sudan

ABSTRACT

The political instability that has characterised Sudanese politics since independence is attributable to political exclusion, economic neglect and marginalisation. Discrimination based on religion, language and culture has constituted the main contradictions between the masses of the Sudanese people (periphery) and the politically dominant Arabised Nubians (centre) in all the different politico-ideological hues experienced by the nation. Attempts to resolve this contradiction have left the structural imbalances inherited from the colonial administration of the Sudan intact. This explains the resurgence of war, particularly in Southern Sudan. The recent peace agreements between the National Congress Party (NCP), namely the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) with the Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A); the Darfur Peace Agreement with the Sudanese Liberation Movement (SLM) (Minawi); the Cairo Agreement with the National Democratic Alliance and the Eastern Sudan Peace Agreement with the Eastern Sudan Front, have left the NCP still in firm control of the oppressive state machinery. The CPA power-sharing protocol awarded the NCP a majority which institutionalises a power asymmetry that the NCP utilises to obstruct implementation of the CPA and delay the process of democratic transformation.

This article analyses the asymmetry in the NCP–SPLM partnership and power relationship. It assumes that the tragic death of Dr. John Garang de Mabior is a major cause of the political weakness demonstrated by the SPLM since 2005. This power imbalance jeopardises the CPA implementation and the future of the Sudan as a state.     

Economic Interdependence and Security on the Korean Peninsula: The Impact of North Korean Special Economic Zones

Abstract

Given North Korea’s desire to maintain nuclear weapons—and barring its unexpected collapse—how can the US and its allies establish and maintain a peaceful Northeast Asia? Current US policy alternatives do not offer an effective means for removing North Korean nuclear weapons without creating many more serious problems that jeopardize a stable future for Northeast Asia. However, by engaging in foreign direct investment (FDI) through North Korea’s special economic zones, the United States and other nations can engage North Koreans at all levels of society and build a future environment of cooperation and stability. Such a long-term engagement policy will prove more successful than isolation, sanctions, or military force, and will bolster regional actors’ efforts to develop additional stability-inducing policies.     

“Seoul will become a sea of fire…”

Abstract

Seoul, 19 March 1994: People watching the evening news are terrified. The network stations repeatedly show Park Yong Soo, the North Korean representative at the eighth working-level meeting between North and South Korea at Panmunjom, retorting angrily to Song Yong Dae, his South Korean counterpart. “Seoul is not far from here,” he declares, “If there is a war, it will become a sea of fire.” The next day disturbing headlines splash across the morning and evening newspapers: “Seoul will become a sea of fire.”     

The regional outcome of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement five years down the road: Are external forces playing a progressive role?

ABSTRACT

The Sudan's Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) of January 2005 is the outcome of regional and international mediation led by the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD)1 and the IGAD Partners’ Forum broadened to include the United States of America, Norway, the Netherlands, Canada, Italy and the United Nations. Five years into its implementation the peace agreement appears to have transformed the war between North and South Sudan into a series of engagements of conflicting nature. Numerous contradictory actions by both the Sudanese People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) and the National Congress Party (NCP) (the main political forces behind the CPA) have been noted during the ongoing implementation process (Grawert forthcoming 2010; Grawert and El-Battahani 2005; Wassara 2008). Although internal Sudanese forces are the key actors in implementing the CPA, external forces are critical in providing the support and pressure needed for a complete realisation of the peace deal. The New Regionalism Approach (NRA), as advanced by Grant and Soderbäum (2003), is instrumental in understanding this dynamic. This article is based on the result of a study that seeks to examine why positive engagements of external forces are needed for a timely implementation of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement.     

Pleading for a place in modern Egypt: negotiating poverty and patriarchy, 1908–1913

ABSTRACT

This paper examines the petitions of a poor woman, Jalila Sa?d, who sought educational opportunities and property from the Egyptian government between 1908 and 1913. Her interest in procuring a ‘place’ for her sons and her family in modernizing Egypt reflects the ways in which non-elites were able to participate in and move within the major physical and discursive public spaces of the era. This study argues that even those at the very edges of society were not categorically marginalized; rather, they were negotiating the dominant spatial hierarchies of their time in attempts to better their circumstances. This ability to navigate and participate in the prevailing discussions and institutions of the time demonstrates that even the most marginalized elements of Egyptian society were quite integrated into the project of ‘modern Egypt’, even if they did not always reap its benefits.     

Celal Nuri's concepts of Westernization and religion

The Great Church in Captivity: A Study of the Patriarchate of Constantinople from the Eve of the Turkish Conquest to the Greek War of Independence. By Steven Runciman. Pp. x, 455. London: Cambridge University Press, £3.

L'Islam dans le Miroir de l'Occident. By Jean‐Jacques Waardenburg. Third edition, revised; pp. xi, 381. The Hague: Mouton. 45 Guilders.

Idéologie et Renaissance Nationale: l'Egypte Moderne. By Anouar Abdel‐Malek. Paris: Editions Anthropos.

Egypt and Cromer: A Study in Anglo‐Egyptian Relations. By Afaf Lutfi al Sayyid. Pp. 256. London: John Murray. £2.25.

The Modern History of Egypt .By P. J. Vatikiotis. Pp. 528. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson. £3.15.

Jewish Population Studies, 1961–1968. Edited by U. O. Schmelz and P. Glikson. Pp. 174. Jerusalem: Institute of Contemporary Jewry; London: Institute of Jewish Affairs, £1·05.

Cotton and the Egyptian Economy, 1820–1914: A Study in Trade and Development. By E. R. J. Owen. Pp. xxvi, 416, appendices, bibliography, glossary, index. London: Clarendon Press: Oxford University Press, £4.20.

David's Sling: The Arming of Israel. By Simon Peres. Pp. 320. London: Weiden‐feld &; Nicolson, £3.

Asian and African Studies. Vol. 3. Edited by Gabriel Baer. Pp. 166. The Israel Oriental Society.     

Antithesis – the reconstruction of the African Union for a viable and sustainable solution for the unity of Africans

ABSTRACT

Franz Fanon, the Algerian revolutionary of African descent, once declared: ‘Each generation must, out of relative obscurity, discover its mission, fulfil it or betray it.’ The challenge confronting African researchers on matters related to the Afro-Arab borderlands – regions spanning Tchad, Niger, Mali, Mauritania and the Sudan where the African and Arab worlds meet – centre on resolving, reversing and undoing historical denials and inaccuracies. This article critically reviews the falsification of history in this part of Africa, in the Sudan in particular, and the role of the Arab League, the Organisation of the Islamic Conference, the Organisation of African Unity and its successor the African Union, in addressing the plight of its inhabitants. The article concludes with the recommendation of the creation of a new, culturally based Pan-African organisation able to fill a void and offer redress.     

A Geo-Economic Object or an Object of Geo-Political Absorption? Competing Visions of North Korea in South Korean Politics

Abstract

The so-called Sunshine Policy launched by the liberal regime of South Korea brought about a significant transformation in its visions of North Korea. Through it, North Korea became an “object of development.” This was something different from the previous idea of North Korea as a politico-military target. However, to conservatives, North Korea remains within the politico-military realm as an object of territorial and ideological absorption. As a result, political conflicts in South Korea in the conception of North Korea – between a geo-economic object and an object of geo-political absorption – entail competitive appropriation of the discourse of “China’s colonisation of North Korea” and affect the way North Korean territory is produced.     

A failed 'nationalist' endeavor: Egyptian-Sudanese textile trade, 1935-1945

This article examines the attempts of Egypt's nationalist elite to develop economic ties with the Sudan in the hope of strengthening their argument for sovereignty over Sudanese regions. While reviewing Egyptian 'claims' of a culturally, historically, linguistically, and religiously united Nile valley, I examine what scholars of nationalism have theorized are essential conditions and objectives in successful nationalist movements--emphasizing the virtually irrelevant position accorded economic bonds typically. The bulk of the article is an analysis of Egyptian-Sudanese textile trade between 1935 and 1945. This analysis includes an examination of the institutional means established to foster trade with the Sudan, a brief statistical assessment of the textile trade, and an explanation of the causes of failure in these endeavors. Finally, the conclusion links this case study to the question of whether or not economic development, as a nationalist activity binding regions together, can occur prior to state formation.     

India and Vietnam compared: Family planning and everyda ylife

Abstract

In India and Vietnam, as in North America, the term “family planning” refers mainly to birth control. There is, however, a broader sense in which this term may be used, namely governmental planning for the welfare and happiness of families, and for democracy and social justice among their members. In this sense family planning is very prominent in Vietnam, but largely absent in India. It is in this sense that I prefer to use the term, although I will first discuss birth control in the overall context of planning for the size of families, as well as for the nation's population growth.     

‘Reading the ads in al-Daʿwa magazine: commercialism and Islamist activism in al-Sadat’s Egypt’

ABSTRACT

This article probes the return of the Muslim Brotherhood to prominence in 1970s Egypt through a systematic analysis of advertisements in the organization’s flagship periodical, al-Da?wa (The Call). In every issue of the magazine, which was published between June 1976 and October 1981, entreaties to proper conduct and appeals to Islamic solidarity appeared alongside advertisements for everything from Pepsi to breakfast biscuits to automobiles. We utilize the methodological insights of social and cultural historians to the value of advertisements to cast new light on the reconstruction of the Brotherhood, its relationship with the diverse institutions comprising the Egyptian state, and on how the Muslim Brotherhood’s vision of piety both reflected and challenged a changing economic reality. Moving beyond a story of the Brotherhood’s return as a product of independent Islamist enterprise that had emerged due to both the Gulf oil boom and Egypt’s economic liberalization programme, significant public sector advertising in al-Da?wa, especially prominent across the most valuable advertising real estate, underscores both internal divisions within the Egyptian state as well as the tangible ways that various state institutions were patrons of religious change.