Books

Two books, 2011 and 2013

Both grow out of the doctoral research in Helsinki. The first is a study of religion and culture among the Nilotic peoples; the second, of the constitutional struggle over Sudan's identity. The 2011 book can be read in full without charge.

Conflict of National Identity in Sudan

Kuel Jok, Conflict of National Identity in Sudan (Peter Lang 2013). European University Studies, vol. 453. 313 pages. ISBN 978-3-631-64772-1.

Sudan's contemporary struggle is between two visions of the nation. Islamic nationalism wants a constitution grounded in Sharia and Arabic as the language of instruction. Customary secularism wants secular government rooted in customary legal traditions and multilingual education.

The book documents how the imposition of the Islamic-Arab model provoked armed resistance, a declared jihad and a humanitarian catastrophe, and draws on a survey of 500 students at five Sudanese universities to test theories of how plural nation-states accommodate religious and ethnic difference.

Publisher page, doi:10.3726/978-3-653-03596-4

Cover of Conflict of National Identity in Sudan, in the blue and white of the European University Studies series — Peter Lang, Frankfurt am Main, 2013.

Animism of the Nilotics and Discourses of Islamic Fundamentalism in Sudan

Kuel Maluil Jok, Animism of the Nilotics and Discourses of Islamic Fundamentalism in Sudan (Sidestone Press 2011). 142 pages. ISBN 978-90-8890-054-9. Open access.

A study of animism as both religion and culture among the Nilotic peoples of the Upper Nile in what is now South Sudan, and of the part the ritual performances of divine chief-priests play in resolving conflict. Where these communities once resisted conversion, contact with Christianity and Islam has produced hybrid identities, Animist-Christians and Animist-Muslims, that hold traditional belief together with the new faiths.

The book sets this gradable, accommodating culture against the Islamic fundamentalism spreading through Sudan, which rejects religious compatibility, labels the Nilotics heathens and apostates, and demands strict implementation of Sharia.

Read the book (PDF, open access)
Publisher page

Cover of Animism of the Nilotics: people in silhouette on the bank of the Nile at sunset — Sidestone Press, Leiden, 2011. The site's colours are taken from this cover.

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