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Deux mois après la chute d’Omar el-Bechir, Roland Marchal répond à nos questions sur la situation au Soudan. Propos recueillis par Corinne Deloy.

In recent years, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner forRefugees (UNHCR) has become one of the most important actors in the field of refugeestatus determination (RSD). Faced with the resurgence of such a categorization function,the organization tries to harmonize the practices of its agents in its 70 offices involvedin RSD activities. Despite these maneuvers of systemizing administrative procedures—organized from Geneva in cooperation with local offices, the RSD practices, as observedfrom the UNHCR-Cairo RSD structure, are characterized by their impossible standardization.On the one hand, the political, economic, and social contexts, in which they takeplace, and in which the policies of the host countries’ governments play a significant role,force to amend the rules coming from Geneva in a direction politically consistent withlocal configurations. On the other hand, UNHCR’s eligibility officers—theoreticallyengaged in a humanitarian mission but subject to actual administrative work—often usetheir discretionary power to make their RSD work more consistent with their particularcommitment. Thus, after highlighting the issues specific to the ethnography of an administrativepractice within a transnational bureaucracy, the articles analyzes the meansused by the UNHCR to standardize its administrative procedures, with the goal of improvingboth the efficiency and speed of the asylum application process. Finally, these rationalizationattempts come up against the discretionary power inherent in the “asylumwindow,” related to the global and local challenges that the UNHCR has to tackle simultaneously,and to the humanitarian engagement of its agents.; Le Haut Commissariat des Nations unies pour les réfugiés (HCR) est devenu cesdernières années un des acteurs les plus importants des procédures de détermination dustatut de réfugié (DSR). Face à la recrudescence de cette action de catégorisation, l’organisationtente d’harmoniser les pratiques de ses agents dans ses 70 bureaux impliquésdans des activités de DSR. En dépit de ces manoeuvres de systématisation des procéduresadministratives, effectuées à partir de Genève en coopération avec les bureaux locaux,les pratiques de DSR, telles qu’observées depuis le bureau du HCR-Caire, se caractérisentpar leur impossible standardisation. D’une part, les contextes politiques, économiqueset sociaux dans lesquels elles prennent place et au sein desquels les politiques desgouvernements des pays hôtes jouent un rôle conséquent, contraignent à amender lesrègles établies à Genève dans un sens politiquement conforme aux configurations locales.D’autre part, les agents d’éligibilité du HCR – théoriquement engagés dans une mission« humanitaire » mais astreints à un travail très administratif – jouent souvent de leurpouvoir discrétionnaire pour rendre leur travail de DSR plus conforme à leur engagementparticulier. Ainsi, après avoir souligné les enjeux propres à l’ethnographie d’une pratiqueadministrative au sein d’une bureaucratie transnationale, il s’agira de discuter desmoyens utilisés par le HCR pour normaliser ses procédures administratives, dans laperspective d’améliorer à la fois l’efficacité et la rapidité du traitement des demandesd’asile. Ces tentatives de rationalisation seront enfin analysées à l’aune du pouvoir discrétionnaireinhérent au « guichet de l’asile », relatif aux enjeux globaux et locaux auxquelsle HCR doit faire face simultanément, tout comme à l’engagement humanitaire deses agents.

Depuis le 19 décembre 2018, la population soudanaise se mobilise pour un changement de régime, qui a résulté en la destitution d’Omar el-Béchir le 11 avril dernier. La mise en place d’un Conseil de transition par les militaires continue de mobiliser les manifestants qui réclament la démocratie. Quelles sont les perspectives politiques du Soudan ? Quelles répercussions régionales ? Éclairage par Pauline Brücker, doctorante au CERI et au CEDEJ.

The Sudanese are claiming the return to a civilian and democratic government. What is at stake is whether despite the diversity of the human fabric, a common will and capacity of running the country can assert itself., Les Soudanais revendiquent le retour à un gouvernement civil et démocratique. La question est de savoir si malgré la diversité, il existe une volonté et une capacité communes de diriger le pays

International audience; Historique de la crise du Darfour, de 2002 à 2008, depuis la rébellion armée jusqu'à la contre-insurrection à l'aide des milices tribales et des mitraillages et bombardements aériens contre la population, avant un rappel des données géographiques et historiques du sultanat du Darfour depuis le XVIème siècle.Suit un bilan de l'intervention humanitaire, depuis les échecs de l'aide au développement à la prise en compte de la question foncière comme clé centrale d'explication du conflit, avec le rôle des élites de Khartoum dans le pillage des ressources agro-pastorales. Enfin, une analyse de l'action humanitaire, qui n'intervient que pour masquer l'inaction de la communauté internationale. Elle laisse également place à des mobilisations opportunistes de l'opinion publique qui détournent à leur profit l'émotion du public. Finalement, cette intervention humanitaire à laquelle l'auteur a assisté sur place, lors de la famine de 1984-85, puis comme enquêteur de Médecins sans Frontières en 2004 et enfin comme Coordinateur du groupe d'experts du Conseil de sécurité de l'ONU pour le Darfour, en 2006, n'a pas eu d'effet sur les acteurs politiques et diplomatiques, ni sur la cessation des hostilités ou le retour des personnes déplacées dans leur foyer. A ce titre, elle ne suscite d'incompréhension et rancœur auprès de la population.

International audience; Board games in antiquity are characterized by their continuity in both shape and playing practice when crossing socio-political borders and centuries of time. But as much as these games appear similar throughout the archaeological record, traces of integration and appropriation are found in aspects not necessarily affecting rules of play or configurations of boards. Recently uncovered examples of the game of Duodecim scripta in Egypt and Sudan point to changes in board design or, at least, in design preference when compared to those found elsewhere in the Roman Empire. The presence of game boards in grave contexts further illustrates the extent of the appropriation that may have taken place. Egypt and Sudan in Greco-Roman times are on and across the border of the Roman world and provide ideal contexts for the understanding of the cultural appropriation process of board games in antiquity.; Les jeux de plateau dans l’Antiquité se caractérisent par leur continuité au niveau de la morphologie et des pratiques ludiques à travers les frontières socio-politiques et les siècles. Cependant, bien que ces jeux puissent paraître similaires sur le plan archéologique, des éléments d’intégration et d’appropriation se manifestent dans des aspects qui n’influencent pas nécessairement les règles ou la structure du plateau. Des exemples du jeu de Duodecim scripta découverts récemment en Égypte et au Soudan témoignent de changements dans la structure du plateau, ou du moins dans le choix du type par comparaison avec d’autres exemples mis au jour dans le reste de l’empire romain. La présence de plateaux de jeu en contexte funéraire illustre aussi l’étendue du processus d’appropriation qui s’est effectué. L’Égypte et le Soudan à l’époque gréco-romaine se situent aux limites et au-delà des frontières du monde romain, ce qui fournit des contextes exemplaires pour la compréhension des processus d’appropriation culturelle des jeux de plateau dans l’Antiquité.

International audience; races of appropriation: Roman board games in Egypt and SudanBoard games in antiquity are characterized by their continuity in both shape and playing practice when crossing socio-political borders and centuries of time. But as much as these games appear similar throughout the archaeological record, traces of integration and appropriation are found in aspects not necessarily affecting rules of play or configurations of boards.Recently uncovered examples of the game of Duodecim scripta in Egypt and Sudan point to changes in board design or, at least, in design preference when compared to those found elsewhere in the Roman Empire. The presence of game boards in grave contexts further illustrates the extent of the appropriation that may have taken place.Egypt and Sudan in Greco-Roman times are on and across the border of the Roman world and provide ideal contexts for the understanding of the cultural appropriation process of board games in antiquity.; Témoignages d’appropriations : jeux de plateau romains en Égypte et au SoudanLes jeux de plateau dans l’Antiquité se caractérisent par leur continuité au niveau de la morphologie et des pratiques ludiques à travers les frontières socio-politiques et les siècles. Cependant, bien que ces jeux démontrent une homogénéité au sein du matériel archéologique, des éléments d’intégration et d’appropriation se manifestent par certains aspects qui n’influencent pas nécessairement les règles ou les configurations des plateaux.Des exemples du jeu de Duodecim scripta découverts récemment en Égypte et au Soudan, indiquent des changements dans la conception du plateau, ou du moins, dans le choix du modèle par comparaison avec d’autres exemples mis au jour dans le reste de l’empire romain. De plus, la présence de plateaux de jeu en contexte funéraire illustre l’importance du processus d’appropriation qui s’est déroulé.L’Égypte et le Soudan à l’époque gréco-romaine se situent à la fois à cheval et au-delà des frontières du monde romain ce qui fournit des contextes exemplaires pour la compréhension des processus d’appropriation culturelle des jeux de plateau dans l’Antiquité.

International audience; From the different local languages spoken in antiquity in Nubia and central Sudan, only one, Meroitic, is well documented, although it is not yet fully deciphered. It was actually the only language of Nubia endowed with a specific script, but only in its latest stages, from the 3rd century BC on. Other languages such as those of the Medjay people, the Blemmyes and the Nobas, are known only through traces in the Egyptian and Meroitic texts, which can nevertheless be compared with their medieval (Old Nubian) or modern (Bedja) offshoots. These languages belong to two phyla (or linguistic superfamilies) still present in the region today, namely Afro-Asiatic and Nilo-Saharan, which appeared in early Neolithic times at the latest.

Cucumber vein yellowing virus (CVYV) is emerging throughout the Mediterranean Basin, where it causes important damages on cucumber and melon crops. It has been suggested that CVYV originated from the Middle East and has spread only recently to other areas. In this work, an isolate from Sudan was characterized and surveys performed in that country between 1992 and 2012 revealed a long‐term presence of CVYV with a high molecular variability, showing that the virus has long been endemic in Sub‐Saharan Africa. Comparison of the full‐length sequences of 11 CVYV isolates from different geographic origins revealed recombination events in CVYV populations from the Mediterranean Basin and the Middle East, and evidence for different selection pressures along the genome. These results shed a new light on the evolution of CVYV.

International audience

Après la Seconde Guerre mondiale et sa dénazification, la cinéaste allemande Leni Riefenstahl s’est rendue en Afrique, plus particulièrement au Soudan parmi les Nouba. Dans les années soixante-dix, en tant que photographe, elle a publié quelques albums en hommage à cette population d’Afrique de l’est. Le présent article explique le lien entre l’artiste et le continent, mais analyse aussi la vision qu’elle en avait.

International audience

This paper analyses how the Italian settlers in the French protectorate of Tunisia reacted to the Libyan war and to WWI. The case of this Italian community between 1911 and 1915 is particularly interesting regarding its position in terms of migration, nation-building, and colonialism. Between the end of the 19th century and the beginning of 20th century, the Kingdom of Italy experienced mass migration of its workers to foreign countries and, at the same time, it aspired to colonial expansion in Africa. Nationalists wanted to make Italian migrants a tool for national imperialism. According to them, the large number of Italians living in foreign colonial possessions, as in the case of French Maghreb, justified colonialist claims towards Libya. Italian migrants were mobilised by homeland institutions and by the nationalist upper-class in order to take part in a wider national project that involved expatriate communities. The Libyan war and the Great War exacerbated social tensions in the Tunisian society and affected the living conditions of the Italians. Living under French colonial rule, some Italian settlers considered the Libyan conquest as an opportunity for social improvement of their migrant working-class status. After the declaration of war of Italy in 1915, the community was directly involved in the war effort, sending soldiers and money to the motherland. A kind of welfare system was created in order to provide aid to the poorest members of the community, strengthening the migrants’ nationalist feeling. Ultimately, this paper emphasises the community-building function of the war effort, highlighting how social classes and colonial dynamics are intertwined in the Italian nation-building process in Tunisia.

The article discusses the pre-war period, the war, and its aftermath in the larger regional context of the Middle East and the Horn of Africa. The main premise is that new movements emerged in the decades prior to the war in this area. They redefined societies and politics, and did so in terms that would later herald modern nationalism in various forms. Some of these movements were led by newly educated young generation; some were of more traditional and of more religious nature. After discussing the military stages of the war in this arena, the article presents the diplomatic dimensions of the war. In general, the two rival European camps developed diplomatic dialogues with these various local movements. Commitments and promises, which turned out to be important in shaping the post-War history of the Middle East and the Horn of Africa, were made. The pre-War movements went from ideas to reality, and the new League of Nations was involved in this transformation. The case of Ethiopia was somewhat different. The Christian empire was independent before the war, and no foreign army invaded her. Yet the developments during the war affected Ethiopian history and the entire Horn. Moreover, in the longer run, post-WWI Ethiopia had a profound impact on global history. It was the only entity in the area in question to enter the League of Nations as an independent state. It was the beginning of a long story that culminated in the 1935 Fascists invasion of Ethiopia, the ensuing destruction of the League of Nations, and the global deterioration towards World War II.

The Libyan war of 1911-1912 and the Great War in general were marked by a political deployment of religion. During the conflict, not only the Ottoman Empire – who called for a global ğihād against the Allied powers – but also the European powers and Muslim elites in the Mediterranean and Red Sea regions claimed legitimisation of their political positions with an appeal to the authenticity of the Islamic faith. This paper focuses on the agency of one of these actors, the Ḫatmīya Islamic brotherhood, and looks at its role at a transnational level. It considers the discourses that were mobilised within the framework of the rivalry among transnational Sufi orders. While the Sanūsiya tackled the pan-Islamic positions associated with the Ottoman Empire and led a ğihād against the European colonial powers, notably in Egypt and Libya, one of its rival orders, the Ḫatmīya, supported the war against the “Turks,” whom they accused of being the illegitimate heirs of the caliphate and “false Muslims.”The political position of the Ḫatmīya was pursued through a series of actions, including a call to Muslims to enroll in European armies and diplomatic and intermediation activities with other political and religious authorities in the Red Sea region. The involvement of both the order’s representatives and affiliated members was finally rewarded in the post-war period. Indeed, thanks in part to their military service in the European armies; its affiliated members became leading actors in the colonial economy in Eritrea and Sudan.

For a long time now it has been common understanding that Africa played only a marginal role in the First World War. Its reduced theatre of operations appeared irrelevant to the strategic balance of the major powers. This volume is a contribution to the growing body of historical literature that explores the global and social history of the First World War. It questions the supposedly marginal role of Africa during the Great War with a special focus on Northeast Africa. In fact, between 1911 and 1924 a series of influential political and social upheavals took place in the vast expanse between Tripoli and Addis Ababa. The First World War was to profoundly change the local balance of power. This volume consists of fifteen chapters divided into three sections. The essays examine the social, political and operational course of the war and assess its consequences in a region straddling Africa and the Middle East. The relationship between local events and global processes is explored, together with the regional protagonists and their agency. Contrary to the myth still prevailing, the First World War did have both immediate and long-term effects on the region. This book highlights some of the significant aspects associated with it.

This article provides a general overview of the military events around Djibouti during the First World War. It then details Ethio-French relations at the beginning of the 20th century, before turning to the study of three concrete events within this territory when strategic and very local rationalities interfered. After the War, conflicting memories are an occasion to validate new conceptions of this territory. Beyond the available literature, this study is based mostly on French colonial archives in order to explain territorial conceptions.

On 18 November 1914, Abubakar Garbai, the Shehu of Borno, sent a letter to Frederick Lugard, the Governor General of Nigeria, announcing that the Bornoans would fight alongside the British despite the fact that they were fighting against the Ottomans. This article uses the letter sent by Shehu Garbai to analyse the global, trans-Saharan and trans-Sahelian layers of conflicts in the Lake Chad region at the beginning of the First World War. This document is a perfect illustration of the pragmatic alliance formed by the British colonial officers and the elite of Borno (Nigeria) to defeat the German troops in Northern Cameroon. This article concludes that it is impossible to write the history of the First World War in central Africa without understanding the long term and localised conflicts in the Lake Chad area.

This article explores the motivations behind the Italian occupation of Tripolitania and Cyrenaica in 1911-1912, a conflict which, some scholars claim, ignited a chain of events that eventually led to the outbreak of the war in Europe at the end of July 1914. It illustrates the attitude of the political forces in Italy but also the international context in which the war was decided and took place, and it confronts the question of whether, from a military point of view, the war was modern or not.

From 1912 to 1920, Yemen echoed the European imperial competition by suffering from continuous blockades by the Italians and by the British, leading to a dispersion of powers and deep political tension. This article, which is based on the analysis of the chronicle of Ismā'īl b. Muḥammad al-Washalī (1867/1868-1937), explores the idea of an extended social and political affirmation of the Yemeni local elite, namely the sayyid-s (local Hashemites), on the ground of the local context of World War I. More than a simple witness, this Shāfi'ī scholar of the Tihāma uses his historical work to assert the position and status of the social group he belongs to. This can be seen as a performative means allowing him to ensure his own shift away from Ottoman allegiance in favour of the Hashemite order that seems to settle in the region through the growing influence of the key figures such as the Emir al-Idrīsī, the sharif of Mecca or the Imam Yaḥyā. Al-Washalī defends the old local social order threatened by the overwhelming development of modern liberalism as the perspective of the Ottoman defeat becomes clearer, namely after the launching of the Great Arab revolt by Sharif Ḥusayn in 1916, using moral arguments on the effects of the war over the populations, and very particular explanations of the facts and events. This chronicle can help explain how the Shāfi’ī elite participated in the handover of the Ottoman power, first to Emir al-Idrīsī’s state and then to the Zaydī Imam Yaḥyā.

After the First World War, a nationalist movement quickly gained momentum in Sudan, eventually leading to the outburst of the 1924 Revolution. While the peculiar status of Sudan as an Anglo-Egyptian Condominium and the political struggle between Egypt and Great Britain have often been seen as the main reasons behind the uprising, this article seeks to reinterpret the international factors leading to the Revolution, first by connecting it to the transnational diffusion of both ideas and techniques of protest that went well beyond Egypt and Great Britain, and second by analysing it in light of that peculiar global moment which occurred in many sites of the colonial world during and after the Great War. Moreover, contrary to the tendency of global history to focus mostly on transnational elites, the case of Sudan has the merit of showing the impact of international diffusion on local political cultures “from below.” Various aspects of this “transnationalism from below” will be explored: the role of international news and the press in feeding the 1924 Revolution and the way in which the activists “wrote back” to reach an international audience; the creation of secret societies in Sudan, another highly transnational structure of protest; but also how this era of mass protests caused the transformation of the structure of secret societies so that they would become tools to mobilise the masses.

The Horn of Africa was deeply affected by WWI. Thousands of askaris were sent to the Libyan front while on the Red Sea trade and traffics were disrupted by the confrontation between the Allied and the Ottomans forces. The impact of war was felt by the population that had to confront a steep increase in prices and food shortages. Eritrea was asked to provide to the Italian army some twelve million cans of meat, an exorbitant request that was met only through the use of quotas, the introduction of controlled prices and requisitions. Once the Eritrean livestock was exhausted, the Italians turned to the Ethiopian and Yemeni markets, from where cattle started to be imported and processed in the “Torrigiani Cannery” based in Asmara. The story of canned meat production during the WWI is an interesting example of how the maelstrom of WWI was felt across the Horn of Africa. Eritrea, although largely untouched by combats, was deeply affected by the war, which had a profound impact on the country’s productive and social system.

As the First World War went global, both Britain and Germany pursued similar strategies in the Red Sea, trying to stir up revolts and policy changes among each other’s allies and interests on opposite sides of the Red Sea, Britain to the east, Germany to the west. The British succeeded, almost by accident, in organising the Arab revolt in mid-1916, ultimately destroying the Ottoman Empire. Germany and the Ottomans, after failing in their attempt to attack Egypt directly, also failed in their attempt to ally with Ethiopia and use it to threaten British Somaliland or Eritrea and the route to India. The effort to lure Ethiopia to their side and counteract British influence in the lower Red Sea revolved around the young, uncrowned Emperor, Lij Iyasu, who had his own plans to break the power of the traditional ruling Christian Amhara nobility and involve the peripheral Muslim peoples of the empire, i.e. Somalis, Afars and Oromos, more centrally in government, aiming to create a more inclusive imperial administration. Together with the moves of the Ottoman Empire against Aden, this posed the possibility of a real threat to the British route to India. The successful putsch against Lij Iyasu in September 1916, welcomed by the allied powers, meant this threat disappeared; it also laid the basis for the long rule of Emperor Haile Selassie.

The aim of this paper is to shed some light on the way WWI was experienced by colonial subjects living in Eritrea or abroad. The attempt is to offer a glimpse of the gaze of colonial subjects on this global and dramatic turmoil, resorting to novels, poetry, and correspondence written in Tigrinya by colonial subjects living in Eritrea or abroad. These materials provide a rare opportunity to check alternative narratives that go beyond the conventional colonial representations of the conflict. This is even more significant as the literature dealing with original African voices talking about the First World War remains scanty. The material I will discuss is composed of correspondence among Eritreans living abroad and their relatives and friends at home as well as abroad. They are mainly original archival materials which I have collected during research in Italian and Swedish archives.

Between January and February 1915 an Ottoman army of 25,000 men tried in vain to invade Egypt. Subsequently the Ottoman Empire gave a hand to any Senussi military activity in neighbouring Cyrenaica (in particular the oases inland of the Libyan-Egyptian border and along the Mediterranean coast). Italy had been at arms with the Senussi resistance since as early as 1914 and had actually been dragged into the world war in Libya way earlier than the official date of 24 May 1915. In light of this, the recruitment policy of Italy and its political and military decisions in the face of war become extremely interesting. This article explores a few key issues: the increased number of soldiers from the Horn of Africa sent to Libya; the Libyan troops sent to Sicily between summer 1915 and spring 1916; and the debate over the use of African troops on the Italo-Austrian front.

This article begins by tracing Ethiopia’s recognition as a member of the “family of nations,” the community of (Western) states in international law. It then analyses Ethiopia’s position under international law during the First World War, when the ruling elite decided not to join the war on either side. A number of sources, however, suggest that conflicting parties within the Ethiopian elite were divided on whether to take part in the war or not. While one side considered the war as a means to gain access to the Red Sea, others, with the fall of the Crown Prince Lij Iyasu, wished to support the Allies in their struggle against the Ottoman rule in the area. When a small group of Germans left Addis Ababa and attempted to break the Allied blockade of the Red Sea, the Allied consuls charged Ethiopia with a violation of neutrality. Nevertheless, considering the sources on the international law of neutrality, such violation did not take place.

General. Made with Scribble Maps. The idea that WWI was a global conflict is now accepted by the academic community, and it constitutes a real leitmotif for most recent literature on this topic. As a consequence of this development, some scholars have started investigating the impact of WWI on Africa, Asia, the Middle East and Latin America. The Great War, to name it by its other name, deserves to be remembered not just by Europeans, but also by the peoples of the rest of the world whose dest...

For France, the Côte Française des Somalis represented a sea port of call on the way to the more prestigious colonies of the Indian Ocean or the Far East. Thanks to the railway from Djibouti to Addis Ababa, it also became a major route of the Ethiopian foreign trade. When the Great War broke out, it nonetheless found itself threatened by the Turkish presence on the shores of Yemen, the uncertainties regarding the position of Ethiopia in the conflict, and the rebellion in the name of Islam in Somaliland and Ogaden. The French authorities first tried to watch the populations of the small territory by reinforcing the security of the colony. But they also tried to mobilise the population for the war effort. The most visible part of this effort was the enlisting of over 2,000 men in the colonial army to go to war in France.How can the stability of this colony during the world conflict be explained? How to account for the fact that hundreds of young men enlisted in a foreign army so easily? The article proposes to answer these questions using the study of the individual records of the recruits, which reveal these young men’s individual strategies in a fragile political, social and ecological context.

International audience

Kadruka 18 (KDK18), a Neolithic burial site from Upper Nubia, located within a large archaeological context, has benefited from a reexamination,both archaeological and biological (of the archaeological data and archives, of the plans and drawing of the burials, of the archaeologicalmaterial, as well as the human remains, including bones and teeth), long after the first excavations and analyses by J. Reinold and C. Simon in the1980’s and 1990’s. Our results include : initial analysis of present age groups within the burial ground, suggesting a distinct selection among them, reassessment of the sex estimation of individuals (utilizing a more accurate method), revealing a rather more egalitarian relationship between the two sexes. The taphonomic study of the disposal of the dead, of grave-goods and the spatial analysis of the cemetery provide an improved understanding of the way in which it functioned as an ensemble. These results are part of a larger and ongoing project, which aims to expand our understanding of several sites from the Kadruka area, as they relate to one another (KDK18, KDK1, KDK2, KDK21 et KDK23)., Kadruka 18 (KDK18), un site funéraire néolithique de Haute-Nubie appartenant à un vaste ensemble archéologique, a été réétudié d’unpoint de vue archéologique et biologique (reprise de la documentation archéologique, des relevés de sépulture, des plans, du matériel archéologique et des restes humains osseux et dentaires), après sa fouille et une première étude par J. Reinold et C. Simon dans les années 1980-1990. Nos résultats concernent : un début d’analyse du « recrutement » révisé de cet ensemble, qui souligne une sélection de la population inhumée, de nouvelles estimations du sexe des sujets adultes par une méthode plus fiable (tendant vers une position équilibrée des deux sexes), une analyse taphonomique de l’évolution du cadavre et de la tombe, un examen du mobilier funéraire et l’analyse spatiale du cimetière, ce qui ouvre de nouvelles perspectives sur le fonctionnement du site. Ces résultats s’inscrivent dans un projet plus vaste en cours, se faisant dans la perspective éventuelle de contribuer à une compréhension approfondie de plusieurs sites de la concession de Kadruka (KDK18, KDK1, KDK2, KDK21 et KDK23), les uns en relation avec les autres.

International audience; The last decade has witnessed the proliferation of discourses on globalization, both by critics and apologists, in political, economic and academic forums all over the world. In Arabic-speaking countries, intellectuals and writers have engaged in journalistic and scholarly debates about what is perceived as an unfolding, inevitable process, carrying a range of challenges and opportunities. Often considered a periphery in the Arab world, the Sudan has not remained outside these discussions on ʿawlama (Arabic term for globalization). Drawing upon Frederick Cooper's heuristic distinction between indigenous categories and analytical categories, this article investigates how Sudanese scholars of education and state officials have used and conceptualized globalization in recent academic research and publications by government bodies, including the National Center for Curriculum and Educational Research and the Ministry of General Education. What does ʿawlama refer to and what functions does it fulfil in Sudanese public debates? The study shall highlight connections between globalization and colonialism (istiʿmār), two important discursive resources that have been mobilized to support state policies and promote educational reforms. At first sight, their ideological use looks very similar, insofar as both terms are central to discourses denouncing, or warning against, foreign threats and cultural invasion. However, a closer enquiry shows that intellectual assessments of developments labelled as colonialism or globalization are much more ambivalent. History textbooks for secondary grades quite inconsistently depict colonialism at once as an abstract "abominable" phenomenon and as a set of concrete British policies whose overall impact was not entirely negative. Moreover, the adjective "imperialist" serves to discredit European countries that are also referred to as "advanced nations" in other instances. Globalization is alternatively or simultaneously conceived as a mixture of technological revolution, cultural imposition and economic competition, an ongoing process which currently challenges the Sudanese educational system and Sudanese society as a whole. Some scholars stress the secularization aspect of globalization, seeing it as a threat to Sudanese culture, whereas others address the "global" issue of human rights, advocating new pedagogic initiatives in this field. The latest information and communication technologies are frequently praised by enthusiastic proponents of curricula Islamization. In contrast with recent studies on the Sudanese educational system and discourse, this research seeks to explore the multiplicity of perspectives, the educational dilemmas and the ideological contradictions within scholarly works and history schoolbooks produced in the Sudan during the last decade. The state's authoritarian character and the "Islamist" orientation of the current ruling elite do not automatically entail a single, unified, "pro-NIF" discourse in the educational sphere. In addition, the actual impact of textbook contents as "weapons of mass instruction" should be relativized in the light of increased access to other sources of information and knowledge, such as radio broadcasts, television programs, and the World Wide Web. It is all the more crucial to point out at the plurality of Northern Sudanese voices at this critical juncture in Sudanese history, when fierce "wars of visions" and harsh competition for political and economic resources may well translate into a regional reconfiguration of power with the establishment of two separate Sudanese states after 2011.

À l'instar de nombreux pays sahéliens, le Soudan connaît depuis dix ans un véritable boom minier principalement alimenté par une production artisanale, bien que le gouvernement cherche plutôt à encourager le secteur industriel sur le modèle du secteur pétrolier. Contrairement à ce dernier et son économie très enclavée, le nouveau secteur minier qui se développe présente d'importants enjeux territoriaux du fait de la localisation des gisements dans les différentes régions du Soudan et de leur exploitation artisanale par un grand nombre d'individus. Cette contribution analyse ces enjeux en étudiant la façon dont sont gouvernées localement les mines. Elle montre quelles négociations s'opèrent localement entre les orpailleurs, les populations, l'État et ses différents échelons, leur variabilité et la façon dont elles participent à un mode de gouvernement des mines à la fois autoritaire et fluide.

International audience; Alors que les combats de la Seconde Guerre mondiale achevaient de dissoudre le mythe de la supériorité de l’homme blanc, le Soudan était disputé par ses deux maîtres officiels, la Grande-Bretagne et l’Égypte. Le territoire s’acheminait-il vers l’indépendance ou une union politique avec son voisin méditerranéen ? La rivalité anglo-égyptienne, couplée à un impérialisme britannique soucieux de « préparer » les sociétés africaines à la souveraineté nationale, déboucha sur l’unification hâtive du Nord et du Sud-Soudan en 1947. Parvenues à des positions de pouvoir une décennie avant l’indépendance (1956), les élites du Nord s’attachèrent à faire du Soudan, pays à forte pluralité ethnolinguistique et religieuse, un État-nation arabe et musulman.Dans ce contexte, un nouvel enseignement d’histoire fut élaboré pour les écoles élémentaires soudanaises. Quels en étaient les acteurs, les récits, les pratiques ? Cet ouvrage décortique les représentations, les apprentissages et les rapports sociaux sous-tendant la production et l’usage de manuels en langue arabe dans le Soudan colonial tardif. L’auteure propose également un éclairage comparatif sur l’histoire enseignée dans d’autres territoires de l’empire britannique en voie d’émiettement.Ce livre offre de nouvelles clés de compréhension d’une séquence charnière dans l’histoire du monde contemporain. Au regard de l’actualité plus récente, il montre quel rôle l’histoire scolaire a pu jouer dans l’éclatement du cadre national soudanais après 1956, aboutissant à la scission du Soudan en deux États en 2011.

En 1989, un coup d’État mené par une coalition d’islamistes et d’officiers militaires instaure un nouveau régime autoritaire au Soudan. Les théories existantes de la résilience de l’autoritarisme peinent à expliquer pourquoi ce régime, caractérisé par son instabilité interne, est encore en place vingt-huit ans plus tard. Son utilisation d’un haut degré de violence et ses échecs répétés en matière de développement représentent, en particulier, des énigmes pour ces théories. En analysant la mise en oeuvre d’une politique de développement participatif dans la province du Nord Kordofan, la thèse démontre que le développement peut entretenir l’autoritarisme non pas par ses résultats, mais à travers ses discours et sa mise en oeuvre en pratique. Lancée en 2013, la Renaissance du Nord Kordofan s’appuie sur des dispositifs participatifs qui permettent aux autorités locales d’étendre leur pouvoir sur la population, tout en s’inscrivant dans un discours dépolitisant qui donne au programme les apparences du consensus. Ce discours dissimule les processus de musèlement des voix dissidentes ainsi que les luttes d’intérêts qui se jouent au sein des différents projets. Il permet en particulier d’écarter la responsabilité de l’État central dans la situation économique de la province, alors même qu’il est un acteur à part entière de la Renaissance. En effet, la participation de la population est utilisée par les autorités locales pour pousser le gouvernement fédéral à contribuer financièrement à l’initiative. Ce faisant, une relation gagnant/gagnant se met en place, la participation constituant également une politique de pacification de la population à moindre coût. La thèse démontre donc que cette politique de développement locale contribue à entretenir le régime et attire l’attention sur la multi-dimensionalité du pouvoir autoritaire, qui n’est ni exercé ni vécu de la même façon dans partout dans le pays., In 1989, a coup launched by a coalition of Islamists and military officers implemented a new authoritarian regime in Sudan. Existing theories of authoritarian resilience are unable to fully explain why this regime, which is characterized by its internal instability, has endured for twenty-eight years. The pervasiveness of repression and the repeated failures of the regime in terms of development are especially puzzling. By analyzing the implementation of a policy of participatory development in the province of North Kordofan, the dissertation demonstrates that development does not contribute to authoritarian resilience only when it bears results, but also through its discourses and practices. Launched in 2013, the Renaissance of North Kordofan is based on participatory devices that enable local authorities to extend their power upon the population, while using simultaneously a depoliticizing discourse that portrays the initiative as consensual. This discourse conceals how dissenting voices are silenced and how various vested interests are at play within the projects. It especially makes it possible to avoid talking about the central government’s responsibility in the current economic situation of North Kordofan, even though the government is indeed taking part in the Renaissance. Popular participation is channeled by local authorities to push the central state to fund the initiative. Through this mechanism, a win/win relationship between the two governance levels is implemented, since participation is also a pacification strategy, mitigating the potential threat of popular insatisfaction. The dissertation thus demonstrate that this local development policy contributes to entrench the authoritarian regime. In doing so, it brings new insights about the multidimensional aspect of authoritarian power, which is not exercised nor experienced the same way in all the areas that are subjected to it., Réalisé avec le soutien financier et logistique du Centre d’études et de documentation économiques, juridiques et sociales au Soudan

Si jusqu’à récemment, les migrant·es soudanais·es étaient peu visibles en France, leur nombre a aujourd’hui augmenté dans le quartier de la Chapelle ou encore à Calais. Cette situation est notamment due aux changements des politiques d’accueil dans des pays tiers, tels qu’Israël ou l’Egypte. Cet article met en lumière les mécanismes de construction de la « désirablité » des exilé·e·s en fonction de leur pays d’origine, et la façon dont les Soudanais·es sont ainsi tributaires, dans leur quête d’asile, de l’évolution de la représentation du Soudan sur la scène internationale. Cette fluctuation de leur (in)désirabilité conditionne alors leurs parcours migratoires et les contraint à une « mise en mobilité » permanente et souvent circulaire, que facilitent notamment des politiques d’expulsion.

Rien ne doit limiter le débit du Nil en amont du lac Nasser selon l’Égypte. Elle a, toutefois, concédé, par les accords de 1929 et de 1959, la construction de barrages au Soudan. En 2010, l’Éthiopie a lancé un plan directeur de construction de grandes retenues, notamment le Grand barrage de la Renaissance éthiopienne sur le Nil bleu. Or, ce dernier (86 % du débit à Assouan) prend sa source sur le territoire de l’Éthiopie dont la population dépasse maintenant celle de l’Égypte ! Le président Morsi a menacé de bombarder le chantier. Mais au mépris des traités, le Soudan prévoit la construction de nouveaux barrages en amont d’Assouan. Depuis la signature de l’accord de Khartoum du 23 mars 2015 entre l’Éthiopie, le Soudan et l’Égypte la menace d’une guerre de l’eau sur le Nil s’est éloignée. According to Egyptians, nothing should limit the flow of the Nile upstream from Lake Nasser. However, by the 1929 and 1959 agreements they had admitted that Sudan should construct dams on the Nile. Since 2010, Ethiopia has launched the 25-year Master Plan in order to build huge reservoirs, in particular the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam on the Nile. Whereas the Blue Nile (86% of the flow at Aswan) has its source in Ethiopia (the population of which now exceeds that of Egypt!), Egyptian president Morsi threatened to bomb the building site. But, in disregard for treaties, Sudan has launched the construction of new dams upstream from Aswan. Since Ethiopia, Sudan and Egypt reached an agreement on March 23, 2015 in Khartoum, the threat of a war of water on the Nile has receded.

International audience

Cet article décrit et analyse les ruées vers l'or qui ont affecté le Sahel et le Sahara au cours des dernières années. Il s'intéresse d'abord aux facteurs et aux formes de l'orpaillage, puis aux atermoiements des politiques étatiques : les gouvernements sont en effet partagés entre la tentation d'interdire ces formes d'exploitation minière artisanale, notamment pour des raisons de sécurité, et l'intérêt de les contrôler afin de les intégrer dans leurs stratégies de recherche de rente. Le texte questionne alors les implications territoriales des tentatives d'organisation étatique de cette activité mobile. L'analyse se fonde notamment sur des études de cas fournies par des recherches de terrain des auteurs au Soudan, au Tchad et en Mauritanie.