Research Note: Hassan al-Turabi,Osama bin Laden,and Al Qaeda in Sudan

This research note explores the events and circumstances surrounding Osama bin Laden's stay in Sudan from 1991 to 1996. In particular, it discusses the role that the Sudanese politician, Hassan al-Turabi may have played in the development of bin Laden and al Qaeda. It draws particular attention to the role of the Popular Arab and Islamic Congress (PAIC) in the emergence of a distinctive form of Radical Islam and offers a preliminary discussion of the emergence of particular qualities of al Qaeda ideology.     

SA‐EU‐chile: Pioneers in north‐south relations

A look at the many plans, processes, agreements and disagreements that have led the Congo to its current transition phase.     

Protracted Refugee Situations: Parallel Health Systems and Planning for the Integration of Services

The international community typically responds to refugee situationsby establishing ‘care and maintenance’ programmesspecifically for refugees. Limited resources may also be directedto hosting communities, but donors often channel the bulk offunding through UNHCR and its implementing partner NGOs, whoin turn create service delivery structures that are operatedin parallel to local structures. Although there may be causefor this approach in a short-term emergency phase, particularlyif the host country systems are very weak, this eventually becomesfinancially problematic if refugees continue to live in exilefor years at a time. In the short term, it can also engenderan inequitable and inefficient use of scarce resources. Thispaper traces the evolution and impact of implementing refugeehealth services in parallel to local systems using observationsfrom Uganda, and offers Quality Design as a model for planningthe local integration of services.     

The Fallacy of the ‘Failed State’

This article examines the origins and evolution of the concepts of ‘failed’ and ‘failing’ states, arguing that the terms have come to be used in such widely divergent and problematic ways that they have lost any utility. The article details six serious problems with the term ‘state failure’ and related terms like ‘fragile’ or ‘troubled’ states, concluding that analysts should abandon these terms. It concludes with a modest attempt to develop alternative concepts and principles for thinking about diverse states that pose varied challenges for academic analysis and policy makers.     

Book Reviews

Throughout the twentieth century, the city of Khartoum was the subject of analyses and knowledge produced by diverse actors, such as scholars, urban planners, government agents and institutions, urban dwellers and, more recently, actors from the humanitarian and private sectors. The aim of this article is to offer a critical analysis of Sudan urban studies from the 1970s onwards, and to illustrate their strengths and shortcomings. A revisitation of the work of anthropologist Richard Lobban on Tuti Island, where I recently conducted ethnographic fieldwork, will allow me to comment on Marxist anthropology as the theoretical framework used by Sudanist scholars in the early decades of urban studies, to focus on methodological strategies for data collection, and to analyse the use of concepts such as “urbanisation” and “community”. These reflections will be used to suggest a research agenda for urban studies in Sudan, as well as recent academic approaches to the treatment of the urban question.     

Government Policy and Economic Dualism in South Africa

This article offers a critical reflection on the field of Sudan Studies in light of the partition of Sudan into two states in 2011. It charts the emergence of Sudan Studies as a distinct research field, emphasising the temporal gap between the beginning of scholarly writing on Sudan and the moment when the labels “Sudan Studies” and “dirāsāt sūdāniyya” appeared. The current relevance of a “transnational” field of Sudan Studies is questioned, leading the author to suggest various criteria that may legitimise the existence of a distinct -if not unified- “Sudanist” field. Finally, the article envisions the future evolution of the historical scholarship on the two Sudans, both in the new political and ideological context that has been taking shape since 2011, and from a more specifically historiographical perspective.     

Joel Gregory Prize/Prix Joël Gregory 1989

In Sudan the pastoral groups of nomad origin constitute an important component of that society. Nevertheless, these groups have been the object of a constant “invisibalisation” (symbolic and material) and of a “setting of otherness” contrasting them with other social categories in the country. This article offers a reflection on the contribution of a “pastoral perspective” as a critique of the reductionist trends of a complex of dichotomisation of the categories to consider the two Sudans and their populations. In expanding on the view of several timely ethnographies on the work of various researchers on Sudanese shepherds, as well as on the official “treatment” of these groups in national censuses or development plans, the article proposes avenues for reconsidering Sudanese studies beyond a persistent categorisation of “nomad pastoralism”, which contributes to an accentuation of the differences between the social components at the heart of each of the Sudans as well as between the current two Sudans.     

Contemporary youth movements and the role of social media in Sudan

Youth activism in the last decade has become increasingly associated with new media technologies. The “Arab Spring”, it can be argued, prompted much interest among academics, policymakers and others on the intersection between youth, activism and social media. Although oftentimes seen as threats to authoritarian states, youths have become agents of change in the eyes of international foreign policy developers who claim to be keen on progressive and inclusive governance. This paper reflects on the role of social media in the recent (2011–2013) activism of Sudanese youth, who have taken centre stage at demonstrations calling for regime change, and adopting mechanisms similar to their counterparts in the Middle East/North Africa. While political forms of activism may have been more prominent in the Arab Spring, this paper argues that social media plays a key role in both political and community engagements of contemporary urban Sudanese youth, perhaps pointing to future possibilities.