Rethinking Sudan Studies: A Post-2011 Manifesto

Abstract This essay appraises “Sudan Studies” following the 2011 secession of South Sudan. It asks two questions. First, what has Sudan Studies been as a colonial and postcolonial field of academic inquiry and how should or must it change? Second, should we continue to write about a single arena of Sudan Studies now that Sudan has split apart? The authors advance a “manifesto” for Sudan Studies by urging scholars to map out more intellectual terrain by attending to non-elite actors and women; grass-roots and local history; the environment and the arts; oral sources; and interdisciplinary studies of culture, politics, and society. They propose that scholars can transcend the changing boundaries of the nation-state, and recognize connections forged through past and present migrations and contacts, by studying the Sudan as a zone rather than a fixed country. Finally, in their introduction to this bilingual special issue, they highlight the increasing relevance of French scholarship to the endeavor of rethinking Sudan Studies. Résumé Cet essai évalue la situation des « études soudanaises » après la sécession du Soudan du Sud. Il pose deux questions. La première : En quoi ont consisté les études soudanaises en tant que domaine colonial et postcolonial de recherche universitaire et dans quelle mesure doivent-elles changer, si tant est qu\u27elles doivent changer ? La seconde : Devrions-nous continuer à baser nos écrits sur un domaine unique d\u27études soudanaises maintenant que le Soudan est divisé ? Les auteurs proposent un « manifeste » pour les études soudanaises en exhortant les experts à cartographier un terrain intellectuel élargi en s\u27intéressant aux acteurs ne faisant pas partie des élites et des femmes ; à l\u27histoire de la base populaire et locale ; à l\u27environnement et à l\u27art ; aux sources orales ; et aux études interdisciplinaires portant sur la culture, la politique et la société. Ils avancent que les chercheurs peuvent aller au-delà des frontières en mutation de l\u27État-nation et reconnaitre les connexions établies grâce aux migrations et aux contacts passés et présents en étudiant le Soudan comme zone plutôt que comme un pays fixe. Enfin, dans leur introduction à ce numéro bilingue spécial, ils mettent en relief la pertinence croissance des travaux universitaires français dans le cadre de l\u27initiative visant à repenser les études soudanaises

Boko Haram: Religion and Violence in the 21st Century

Boko Haram in Nigeria provides an important example of the combination of religion and violence in the conditions of the twenty-first century. It is both a movement in the pattern of religiously-justified violence and a significant representative of the emergence of new types of modern terrorism in recent years. This article examines both of these aspects of Boko Haram as an example of religious violence. In the general development of religiously justified violence, Boko Haram is the heir to a long jihad tradition in West Africa. Its emergence follows well-established patterns of older militant Muslim groups, but it also departs significantly from those patterns as it shapes itself as a movement in the patterns of contemporary, twenty-first century modes of religious violence. Boko Haram is also identified, in twenty-first century terms, as a religious terrorist organization. As a religious terrorist group, it fits the pattern of what David Rapoport calls the fourth wave—the religious wave—of modern terrorism. However, in the second decade of the twenty-first century, Boko Haram exhibits characteristics of a new style of religious terrorism that is more like the so-called Islamic State than the older type of terrorist organization of al-Qa’idah