John Ryle of the School of Oriental & African Studies at London University, who is currently the visiting professor of anthropology and human rights at Bard College, gave a lecture at Hamilton on March 9 titled "War and Peace in Sudan: History, Ethnicity and Hip-Hop." Ryle, whose academic background is in both English literature and anthropology, has extensive experience in human rights and aid work in Sudan. He is the chair of the Rift Valley Institute, which is a non-profit research and training organization which works in Eastern Africa, particularly in Sudan. Hamilton Assistant Professor of English Gillian Gane, who introduced Ryle, called him "an inspiration" for
his passionate commitment to human rights.
Ryle began his lecture by noting that Sudan has had increased attention from the West in recent years for various "gloomy reasons" including war, genocide, slavery and famine. Sudan is the largest country in Africa, covering 13% of the continent's landmass. Its
borders were created over time by various occupying powers, including the Ottomans, British, Belgian and Ethiopian empires. Ryle described it as a somewhat "implausible country" in that it straddles various ethnic, religious, and environmental boundaries. Sudan's environmental resources namely the water of the Nile River and the oil of the vast clay Nile plane are focused in the central part of the country, and the nation is controlled by the ruling elites of that central region,which is largely Arab Muslim. These ruling elites are not a majority of the Sudanese population, but they have ruled the nation over the objections of peripheral groups. This situation is the structural
cause of both the recently settled north-south civil war, as well as the ongoing conflict in the region of Darfur, Ryle said.
It is difficult to easily describe what these conflicts are about,Ryle said, and characterizations of them as "African vs. Arab" or "Islam vs. Christianity" are oversimplified. If anything, he argued, they are more about the north-south division of the country and the unequal allocation of resources to the center and the periphery. The violence against southern Sudanese Christians, for example, did not begin so much because they are Christians but rather because they are southerners, Ryle said. He did say, however, that the conflicts have come to be more entrenched in ethnic and religious divisions over time, partly because the warring parties wanted to find outside allies in Africa, the Islamic world, and the West. Foreign powers have become involved in Sudanese conflict, as shown by the brokering of the north-south peace accord by the US, Britain and Norway. The peace accord has brought the southern Sudanese People's
Liberation Army into the government in Khartoum, and set plans in motion for a referendum in six years time on dividing the country.
The intervention of the US and Britain in Sudan has been somewhat paradoxical, Ryle said. There is a "bizarre simultaneous condemnation and courtship of its leaders," because of the dual interests of securing human rights and pursuing counterterrorism, showing the conflict between humanitarianism and realpolitik. US involvement in Sudanese conflict was largely spurred by what Ryle called "an unprecedented convergence of interest between Christian evangelicals and African-Americans in Congress." Based on evidence of government-sponsored tribal militias taking captives as slaves, these groups created a domestic uproar about what was portrayed as the enslavement of black Christians by Arab Muslims, Ryle said. Under this pressure, President Bush appointed a special envoy to Sudan, and the US has been greatly involved in Sudanese affairs since then. However, the counterterrorism objectives of the US and British governments make them reluctant to alienate the Sudanese government, despite their many human rights abuses.
Ryle then discussed the work of Emmanuel Jal, a southern Sudanese hip-hop artist who has recently released an album with Abdel Gadir Salim, a northern Sudanese traditional musician. Displaying some of the lyrics from "Gua," a track from the album which has gained popularity in Europe, Ryle explained that Jal's music represents the desires of Sudanese people for peace and freedom, and shows a bridging of the gap
between northern and southern Sudanese for this purpose. In the lyrics, Jal speaks of his dreams for a Sudan in which there is no "tribalism, nepotism, and racism," where there is the ability to plant crops freely, and an end to violence against women as a strategy of war. Ryle said that huge numbers of Sudanese people hold similar dreams for a normal life, which they have not had for 20-25 years, and these feelings of the Sudanese people are a great source of hope for outside actors trying to bring peace to the nation.
Ryle's lecture was sponsored by the Department of Africana Studies.
-- by Caroline Russell O'Shea '07
his passionate commitment to human rights.
Ryle began his lecture by noting that Sudan has had increased attention from the West in recent years for various "gloomy reasons" including war, genocide, slavery and famine. Sudan is the largest country in Africa, covering 13% of the continent's landmass. Its
borders were created over time by various occupying powers, including the Ottomans, British, Belgian and Ethiopian empires. Ryle described it as a somewhat "implausible country" in that it straddles various ethnic, religious, and environmental boundaries. Sudan's environmental resources namely the water of the Nile River and the oil of the vast clay Nile plane are focused in the central part of the country, and the nation is controlled by the ruling elites of that central region,which is largely Arab Muslim. These ruling elites are not a majority of the Sudanese population, but they have ruled the nation over the objections of peripheral groups. This situation is the structural
cause of both the recently settled north-south civil war, as well as the ongoing conflict in the region of Darfur, Ryle said.
It is difficult to easily describe what these conflicts are about,Ryle said, and characterizations of them as "African vs. Arab" or "Islam vs. Christianity" are oversimplified. If anything, he argued, they are more about the north-south division of the country and the unequal allocation of resources to the center and the periphery. The violence against southern Sudanese Christians, for example, did not begin so much because they are Christians but rather because they are southerners, Ryle said. He did say, however, that the conflicts have come to be more entrenched in ethnic and religious divisions over time, partly because the warring parties wanted to find outside allies in Africa, the Islamic world, and the West. Foreign powers have become involved in Sudanese conflict, as shown by the brokering of the north-south peace accord by the US, Britain and Norway. The peace accord has brought the southern Sudanese People's
Liberation Army into the government in Khartoum, and set plans in motion for a referendum in six years time on dividing the country.
The intervention of the US and Britain in Sudan has been somewhat paradoxical, Ryle said. There is a "bizarre simultaneous condemnation and courtship of its leaders," because of the dual interests of securing human rights and pursuing counterterrorism, showing the conflict between humanitarianism and realpolitik. US involvement in Sudanese conflict was largely spurred by what Ryle called "an unprecedented convergence of interest between Christian evangelicals and African-Americans in Congress." Based on evidence of government-sponsored tribal militias taking captives as slaves, these groups created a domestic uproar about what was portrayed as the enslavement of black Christians by Arab Muslims, Ryle said. Under this pressure, President Bush appointed a special envoy to Sudan, and the US has been greatly involved in Sudanese affairs since then. However, the counterterrorism objectives of the US and British governments make them reluctant to alienate the Sudanese government, despite their many human rights abuses.
Ryle then discussed the work of Emmanuel Jal, a southern Sudanese hip-hop artist who has recently released an album with Abdel Gadir Salim, a northern Sudanese traditional musician. Displaying some of the lyrics from "Gua," a track from the album which has gained popularity in Europe, Ryle explained that Jal's music represents the desires of Sudanese people for peace and freedom, and shows a bridging of the gap
between northern and southern Sudanese for this purpose. In the lyrics, Jal speaks of his dreams for a Sudan in which there is no "tribalism, nepotism, and racism," where there is the ability to plant crops freely, and an end to violence against women as a strategy of war. Ryle said that huge numbers of Sudanese people hold similar dreams for a normal life, which they have not had for 20-25 years, and these feelings of the Sudanese people are a great source of hope for outside actors trying to bring peace to the nation.
Ryle's lecture was sponsored by the Department of Africana Studies.
-- by Caroline Russell O'Shea '07
