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Local politics in the time of Turabi's revolution: gender, class and ethnicity in western Sudan

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 December 2011

Michael Kevane  and
Leslie Gray
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Extract

In one small village in western Sudan local political struggles over power and resources are enmeshed in discursive struggles over representations of gender, ethnicity, class and community. Analysis of two specific conflicts illustrates this point. In one conflict over control of a village grain co-operative some villagers sought to exclude women, West African immigrants and the poor from participating in political decision-making. In a second conflict over a roadside market these same villagers, empowered by the divisive rhetoric and policies of the National Islamic Front regime, again mobilised dominant representations of class, gender and ethnicity in an attempt to prevent marginal groups from gaining economic advantage. In both cases, villagers translated national discourses in different ways, refracting ideology to meet their specific local interests. These conflicts and fractured discourses epitomise the process of civil breakdown that has marked the tenure of the NIF regime.

Résumé

Dans un petit village à l'ouest du Soudan, les luttes politiques pour le pouvoir et les ressources sont emmélées dans des luttes discursives pour les représentations de sexe, d'ethnicité, de classe et de la communauté. L'analyse de deux conflits spécifiques illustrent ce point. Lors d'un conflit pour le contrôle de la coopérative de grains du village, certains villageois ont cherché à exclure les femmes, les immigrants de l'Afrique de l'ouest, et les pauvres de la participation à la prise de décision politique. Lors d'un deuxième conflit concernant un marché au bord de la route, ces mêmes villageois, ayant été donnes pleins pouvoirs par la rhétorique et la politique du Front National Islamique qui séme le désaccord, ont une fois de plus mobilisé les représentations dominantes du sexe, de classe et d'ethnicité dans un effort d'empêcher les groupes marginaux d'obtenir des avantages économiques. Dans les deux cas, les villageois ont interprété les discours nationaux de façons differentes, réfractant l'idéologie qui pourrait servir à leurs interêts locaux specifiques. Ces conflits et ces discours fracturés résument le processus d'effondrement civil qui a marqué le mandat du régime du NIF.

Type
Islam and women in Sudanese micro-politics
Information
Africa , Volume 65 , Issue 2 , April 1995 , pp. 271 - 296
Copyright
Copyright © International African Institute 1995

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