In Darfur, JEM and the Khalil Ibrahim Story, the reader is offered a vivid portrait of the President of the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) of the Sudan. The author unobtrusively facilitates the encounter, withdrawing to leave the reader in direct engagement with Khalil in the narration of his life. As this account of Khalil s childhood shows, he was destined to endure his fortune and grow up in an environment that was rife with poverty, disease, famine and thirst. Having lost his father in infancy, Khalil s guardians arrived at a survival strategy whereby Khalil was to remain illiterate and take to herding animals, affording his siblings the chance to attend school. Little did the family know that Khalil was endowed with a tremendous ability to transform even the most piteous chance into a promising opportunity. Following derogatory comments by some of his contemporaries about his illiteracy, Khalil decided, without informing his family, to attempt enrolment in school. His gamble paid off and he left the herding world behind. Khalil joined the primary school with virtually no knowledge of Arabic as used in school and a tribal name (Hinain) that bore no relationship to his current name. The Arab dominated culture of Sudan stipulated that he abandon his original name and discard his Zaghawa language in favour of Arabic, a rule that was enforced by public punishment in the school. As he progressed through the school system, Khalil never parted company with the aspirations of his people for a dignified life away from poverty, famine and illiteracy. In his pursuit of his people s dreams, Khalil joined the Sudanese Socialist Union (SSU) and later the Islamic Front. Like the SSU, the Islamic Front also promised to fulfil similar hopes for poor people in Darfur and beyond. Khalil s journey with the Islamic Front led him to support the current government, taking several State Ministerial posts and fighting its jihadist wars. Throughout his political career, Khalil knew that the Sudanese system was flawed. Sudan was, and still is, ruled by a minority River Nile elite whose hegemony remains, irrespective of the nature of government in Khartoum. As Khalil was later to learn, this hegemony could not be changed via peaceful means. The Islamic Front was the last staging post that Khalil and many others embraced before he helped to form JEM and take up arms against the very government for which he once fought. As the biography of a once insignificant camel herder boy who rose to become a major geopolitical figure, this book provides key insights that will prove useful for readers interested in African governance, development, political systems, state formation, decolonisation, delivery of justice, human rights discourse, peace and conflict studies and multiculturalism. Activists, NGOs, bilateral and multilateral actors in particular, not to mention African politicians in general, will find this book indispensible in their efforts to bring peace to Darfur and the Sudan at large. It will also appeal to those endeavouring to avoid a repetition of past conflicts in other similarly failed states. Part advocacy, part history, this is no ordinary biography. Abdullahi El-Tom engages directly with an emerging political leader whose commitment to a future, fairer Sudan is rooted in his Darfur upbringing. Khalil Ibrahim and the movement he leads, JEM, have already become a part of the long and continuing story of resistance by the marginalized Sudanese. This book is essential reading for all those interested in the future of the country. Wendy James, University of Oxford This book succeeds at many things simultaneously. It is both biography and autobiography, travel narrative and homecoming tale, anthropological inquiry and political manifesto. Above all, it is a book that is concerned with communication, and th

Darfur, JEM and the Khalil Ibrahim Story

Abdullahi Osman El-Tom

The Red Sea Press

Study War No More: Military Tactics of a Sudanese Rebel Movement, the Case of Jem

Red Sea Press

This book offers a fascinating study of certain aspects of asymmetrical warfare in Africa, an angle rarely covered in literature on armed uprisings. In particular, it focuses on warfare strategies and military tactics deployed in combat. Engaging high profile commanders of the formidable rebel group, the Sudanese Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), the author proceeds to investigate a reality he finds most perplexing. Drawing on their culture and heritage, the rebels have managed to evolve new tactics and combat techniques that enable them to out-manoeuvre Khartoum army generals despite the latter s training in Sudan s National Military Academy, reputed to be among Africa s best military establishments. This is a clear affirmation of the old dictum that neither army size nor its weapons win battles. Soldiers do, if they are well trained, motivated and driven by a worthwhile cause to fight for. Biographies of the commanders interviewed in the book show clearly that rebels are not born. They are a product of injustice, coupled by a firm conviction that such a system cannot be removed through peaceful means. This book comes at time when supporters of non-violent political transformation are riding high on the waves of the so-called Arab Spring. The author argues that the successful toppling of a handful of dictators in the region was a result of unique and unpredictable reverberations of external factors via social media on already volatile internal dynamics. The fluke conditions that have led to successful uprisings in Egypt, Tunisia, and Yemen can neither be stage-managed nor replicated. Cognizant of the bare fact that one simply cannot reason with the likes of Al-Bashir, Mugabe, Ghadafi and Al-Assad, taking arms against these dictators remains the only viable option for their aggrieved populations. The author concedes that armed insurrections come with colossal human and non-human costs. Nonetheless, that high price tag is dwarfed by the cost of structural violence , a term that aptly connotes despotic regimes subjecting citizens to untold death through famine, disease, corruption, extra-judicial killing and lack of development. Although anthropologically anchored, this book will be of interest in many other disciplines that are driven by the need to create a better world. These disciplines include sociology, politics, development studies, peace and human rights studies, military sciences, etc. Oddly enough, dictators too might find this book of exceptional value, but only if they are able to muster their meagre common sense and vacate their palaces before it is too late. This book offers breathtaking insights into the structure and strategy of the movement. High ranking field commanders of JEM speak frankly about their personal backgrounds, their way into JEM, the military tactics in their battles and - among others - the battle of Omdurman in 2007. This book will certainly spark controversy! Prof. Dr. Kurt Beck, LS Ethnologie, University of Bayreuth, Germany A most interesting book on the conflict in Darfur! Lively written, it is a brilliant example of a truly engaged anthropology! Prof. Dr. Thomas Fillitz, Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology, University of Vienna, Austria. This is a perceptive analysis of JEM s military strategy, together with remarkable and sobering profiles of senior JEM commanders, bringing home the reality of war and the injustices of the Sudanese state. Dr. Séamás Ó Síocháin, NUI, Maynooth, Ireland

Study War No More: Military Tactics of a Sudanese Rebel Movement: The Case of JEM

The Red Sea Press, Inc.

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Abdullahi Osman El-Tom. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Abdullahi Osman El-Tom

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Abdullahi Osman El-Tom. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Darfur, JEM and the Khalil Ibrahim Story

Study War No More: Military Tactics of a Sudanese Rebel Movement, the Case of Jem

Study War No More: Military Tactics of a Sudanese Rebel Movement: The Case of JEM