War and Slavery in Sudan - Antropologias

230 Pages·2010·1.45 MB·English

War and Slavery in
Sudan
Jok Madut Jok
UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA
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War and Slavery in Sudan
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Y TheEthnographyof PoliticalViolence
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N War and Slavery in Sudan
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1    
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Y Copyright©2001UniversityofPennsylvaniaPress
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80 LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData
62 Jok,JokMadut.
WarandslaveryinSudan/JokMadutJok.
p. cm.—(Theethnographyofpoliticalviolence)
Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex.
ISBN0-8122-3595-9(cloth:alk.paper)—
ISBN0-8122-1762-4(pbk.:alk.paper)
1.Slavery—Sudan. 2.Sudan—History—CivilWar,1983–
3.Racism—Sudan. I.Title. II.Series.
HT1381.J65 2001
305.8'009624—dc21 00-052774

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Preface vii
Introduction SlaveryinSudan:DefinitionsandOutlines 1
PartI TheNewSlaveryinSudan
1 TheRevivalofSlaveryDuringtheCivilWar:Factsand
Testimonies 21
2 SlaveryintheShadowoftheCivilWar:ProblemsintheStudyof
SudaneseSlavery 42
3 TheSufferingoftheSouthintheNorth-SouthConflict 66
PartII UnderlyingCausesoftheRevivalofSlaveryinSudan
4 TheLegacyofRace 87
5 TheSouth-NorthPopulationDisplacement 107
6 ThePolitical-EconomicConflict 131
Conclusion HasNoOneHeardUsCallforHelp?Sudanese
SlaveryandInternationalOpinion 153
Notes 181
Bibliography 197
Index 201
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TheMurahileenchainpeople
asthefishermanchainshiscatchwitharope
TheMurahileentakeusintoservitudeintheirland
TheMurahileendragusonthesurfaceofourland
butwewillnotletgoofourland
Sudanisourland
This verse is from a Dinka song that describes the experience of the
peopleofSouthSudanandtheNubaofcentralSudanwiththerecently
revivedslaveryandslavetrade.ItwasinsomewaysinevitablethatIwould
focus on this area of study. I am a South Sudanese anthropologist who
has been studying Sudan all my academic life. I now teach at a univer-
sityintheUnitedStates.MycareerasaSudanist,withoutadoubt,began
withtheknowledgeIacquiredfrompersonalexperienceasanativeson.
But this knowledge became more specialized after 1993 when I under-
tookfieldstudyinSouthSudanformydoctorateattheUniversityofCali-
fornia, Los Angeles.That research project examined the impact of the
unresolvedNorth-Southcivilwaronthefamily,genderrelations,andre-
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productive health in northern Bahr el-Ghazal in southwestern Sudan.
Moreover, while I was in Bahr el-Ghazal conducting research, I also
worked for a humanitarian relief agency, and this role enabled me to
travelextensivelyintheareasthathavenowbecomethesubjectofthis
book.
Having been seriously understudied due to war, which made travel
in the region difficult, South Sudan presents an ambitious researcher
with the temptation to do it all. Therefore, while I was documenting

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D ingmyfirstperiodoffieldwork,myresearchextendedintomoreissues

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SU than I had planned. Such topics as household decision making regard-
N ing pregnancy, abortion, sexuality and sexual violence, sexually trans-
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Y mitted diseases, childbirth, care for the young, and other reproductive
VER healthissuestookthecenterstageofmydissertationresearch.2Yet,the
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L temptationtodocumentothertragediessuchasgovernmentmilitiaraid-
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D ing, displacement, loss of assets, preemptive migration, and the dismal
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A futureofthefamilywasfartoogreattoresist.By1995,abouttwelveyears
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A after the second round of the civil war began, South Sudan had lost a
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ok neighboringcountries.Sufferingaboundedandtherewasanimmediate
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needtounderstandit.Basicserviceswerealmostcompletelynonexistent
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2 andmortalityrateswereextremelyhigh.Thetraditionalstructureofthe
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familywassoreconfiguredthattheindividualpersonwasleftwithoutthe
carethatthesocietyhadalwaysprovidedintimesofneed.Peoplewere
inastateofalmosttotaldespair,andtherewasnoendtothismiseryin
sight.Thereisstillnone.
IreturnedtoCaliforniain1995withloadsofnotebooksonvariedtop-
icsaftertwoyearsofdissertationresearch.IwentbacktoSouthSudan
everysummerthereafter.Thetopicforthepresentstudybecameclearin
mymindin1998becauseofmyowninterestinquestionsofethnicnation-
alismandnationbuildingandtheneedtoexposethetragichumanrights
situationinSudan.
This book chronicles the current wave of slavery in Sudan.The his-
tory of slavery in Sudan goes as far back as the earliest alien encroach-
ment,butthecurrentrevivalbeganin1983withthebeginningofthesec-
ond round of North-South conflict. Northern Sudanese Arabs capture
and sell (or exploit in other ways) large numbers of African Sudanese,
primarily the Dinka, Nuer, and Nuba of central Sudan.The Arab slave
raiders,althoughtraditionallyhostiletoNuerandDinka,arecurrently
engagedinslavetakingforslightlydifferentreasonsthanbeforethecivil
war.Sincethebeginningofthewar,successivegovernmentsinKhartoum
havesoughtdifferentmeanstoexploitthetraditionalanimositybetween
the Dinka and the Arabs and have supported the Arab side in order to
fight the war by proxy.These cattle-herding Arab tribesmen, known as
theBaggara,wererecruitedasalow-costcounterinsurgencymilitiaand
deployedagainstthesouthernoppositionforce,theSudanPeoples’Lib-
eration Army (SPLA). However, instead of confronting the SPLA, the
militiaforcewagedwaragainstthecivilianpopulationofnorthernBahr
el-Ghazal, which the Sudanese government considers the support base
fortheSPLA.Soonaftertheinitiationofthemilitiasystem,theBaggara
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SU desertingtheirhomes.Butmeresuppressionofthesouthernrevoltonly
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Y assistance.Itwasmorelucrativetocapturelargenumbersofwomen,chil-
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VE dren, and any able-bodied men they could subdue and take them into
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L slaveryintheirnorthernprovincesofDarfurandKordofan.Inaddition
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A mentresources.Thisbookexplainstheintricaciesandnuancesofhowa
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ok The problem with writing this book is that its topic is controversial.
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Whenonewritesfromtheperspectiveofone’sownpeopleandwhenone
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ofambivalenceinvolved.ThereisnodoubtthatIwillbeseenasfocus-
ingontheconcernsofSoutherners,butif Idonotfocusonthevictims
ofthecrisisIamstudyingIcouldalsobeblamedfortryingtomargin-
alizetheverypeoplewhoseagonyIamtryingtoexpose.Iamconscious
ofthepossibilitythatmyhavingonlyworkedintheSouthcouldbiasmy
views. But I have made an equally conscious attempt to be objective in
presentation.WhilenoonewritingonSudan’stumultuousandtragichis-
torycanclaimabsoluteneutrality,Ihavetriedtoexpresstheconcernsof
Southernerswithoutbeinganti-North.
Many South Sudanese living under the Sudan government’s oppres-
sionhaveaskedandencouragedmetowriteabouttheirsufferingandits
history.Theylongforavoice,andIhaveagreedtolendthemmine.An
academicfactorthatstronglyinfluencedmydecisiontowritethisbook
wastheexistenceofanexcellentbodyofanthropological,historical,and
journalisticmaterialonimportantaspectsof howthewarhastriggered
therevivalofslavery.RobertCollinshaswrittenextensivelyandpercep-
tivelyonthehistoryofslaveryandtheslavetradeontheUpperNile,the
roleofthecurrentwaronthereemergenceofslavery,andrelationsbe-
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tweenArabNorthernersandAfricanSoutherners. Hehasalsorecently
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authoredaninsightfulanalysisofwhytheBaggararaidtheDinka.
TheDinkahistorian,thelateDamazoDutMajak,anativeofnorthern
Bahr el-Ghazal from the Malwal section, conducted a historical survey
throughouttheregioninthe1980sandwroteacompellingdissertation
andnumerousarticlesonthehistoryofalienencroachmentinhishome
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region. Hisworkprovidesadetailedethnographicandhistoricalanaly-
sis of the arrival of Arab traders who later became the slave traders in
Bahr el-Ghazal, and is complete with genealogies and maximal family
systems.Hegivesexamplesofthefamiliesthatwereattheforefrontof
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