In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

Reviewed by:
  • Facing Genocide: The Nuba of Sudan
  • Samuel Totten
African Rights, Facing Genocide: The Nuba of Sudan. London: African Rights, 1995. Pp. 252, paper. US$14.95.

It is unusual to review a book that is more than two or three years old, but Facing Genocide: The Nuba of Sudan is, unfortunately, timely in its own way. Despite the significant differences between the attacks by the government of Sudan (GoS) against the Nuba in South Kordofan from 1985 through the 1990s and those against black Africans in Darfur in the early 2000s, there are many stunning similarities. That said, whereas international attention has focused on the ongoing crisis in Darfur, the genocidal action in the Nuba Mountains was largely ignored—not least because the GoS systematically and calculatingly sealed off the Nuba Mountains from the outside world for some six years.

Facing Genocide: The Nuba of Sudan constitutes the first detailed study of the genocidal activities of the GoS in the Nuba Mountains—a study that the authors assert is “the first exposure of the crimes being committed there by the Sudan Government: all-out assault on the rural Nuba” (v). The investigation carried out by African Rights produced clear and abundant evidence that the GoS was intent on wiping out Nuba society and culture.

Facing Genocide is composed of the following parts: “Summary” which (includes a section titled “Components of Genocide in the Nuba Mountains”); “The Nuba in Sudan: A People Pushed to the Margins”; “War in the Nuba Mountains”; “The Nuba Today: Genocide by Attrition”; “Attack on Christianity; Attack on Islam”; “The SPLA Record”; and “Conclusions.” The book provides a solid overview of the history of the war in the Nuba Mountains and, in doing so, offers a cogent analysis of the causes of the war; the actions of the GoS, including its scorched-earth policy, which is similar in many ways to its later actions in Darfur; the actions and reactions of the Nuba; and the ramifications of the war.

The civil war in the Nuba Mountains, which began during the summer of 1985, resulted from two related events. First, the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) carried out a raid on a cattle camp of Baggara Arab nomads, located near the north–south “internal boundary.” In response, the Sudanese government hired the Baggara as a militia to help fight the SPLA and to punish any civilians believed to be “sympathetic” to the SPLA. The authors assert that,

while the SPLA was not present in force [in the Nuba Mountains] until 1989, militia attacks became routine and an army crackdown became intense.. . . The first stage of the war was marked by militia raids, to loot cattle, kill and occasionally to burn villages. In areas where SPLA units penetrated, the army also undertook mass reprisals, always targeted at villages and civilians.. . . The war intensified with the arrival of the SPLA . . . in 1989. It quickly overran large areas of the Nuba Mountains and unleashed a ferocious response from the militia and army. Between 1989 and 1991 scores of villages were burned and thousands of villagers killed in joint army and militia assaults.

(7) [End Page 135]

It is important to understand—and the authors do an excellent job of emphasizing this point—that “the Nuba” do not constitute a monolithic group. In fact, the Nuba comprise more than fifty tribal groups that reside in the Nuba Mountains. It is thought that the Nuba may “represent the remnants of indigenous populations that once lived far more widely across Sudan” (15). Furthermore, as the authors point out, “the term ‘Nuba’ refers to two very different sets of connotations” (5). First, for the Nuba people themselves, the term “refers to the myriad cultures and traditions of the more than fifty different tribal groups in the Nuba Mountains” (5). Second, “for the dominant class in Sudan, and in particular the ruling National Islamic Front, ‘Nuba’ refers to second class citizens—‘primitive’ black people, servants and labourers” (5). If this sounds familiar to those conversant with the current crisis in Darfur, it is for good reason; in fact, most, if not all, of those living in the so-called peripheries of Sudan (that...

pdf

Share