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Department of History

Sudanese Borderlands Workshop Programme

The workshop is convened by Cherry Leonardi and Chris Vaughan (History Department), John Donaldson (International Boundaries Research Unit), Lotje de Vries (African Studies Centre, Leiden University) and Mareike Schomerus (LSE).

 

Monday 18th April

2 - 3.30 : Introductory session

Discussion of workshop agenda by the convenors

* Wolfgang Zeller (ABORNE and Centre of African Studies, University of Edinburgh), 'Borderlands - Zones of Protracted Conflict or Sites of Emerging Sovereignties?'

4 - 6: State formation in borderlands

* Anne Walraet (Conflict Research Group, University of Ghent), 'Making a life and a living in the Sudanese-Kenyan border area: the rise of a thriving cross-border trade network'

* Aleksi Ylonen (Anthropology, Bayrueth University), 'Challenges to Consolidation of Centralized Authority in Borderlands: Equatorian Responses to the SPLM/A Orchestrated Statebuilding in Southern Sudan'

* Lotje de Vries (Sociology, African Studies Centre, Leiden), 'Pulling the ropes; Negotiations of power through the conduct of the state at the Southern Sudanese borders in Kaya and Bazi'

Tuesday 19th April

9 - 11: Historical perspectives on imperial frontiers and state borders

* Wendy James (Anthropology, Oxford University): 'Minority languages as a strategic resource?  Rethinking the longue durée in the Blue Nile Borderlands'

* Chris Vaughan (History, Durham University), 'State regulation and local accommodations: Rizeigat and Malual on the Darfur/Northern Bahr el Ghazal border in the Condominium period'

* Eddie Thomas (Historian), 'Cross-border connections in Western Bahr el Ghazal'

11.30 - 1.30: North-South borderlands and border-crossings

* Guma Kunda Komey (Geography, Juba University and Halle-Wittenberg), 'The Implication of Internationalizing the North-South Boundary along the Contested Border Region of the Nuba Mountains '

* Leben Moro (Centre for Peace and Development Studies, Juba University), 'Conflict and cooperation in Sudan's North-Sudan border zone, focusing on Pariang County, Unity State'

* Oystein Rolandsen: 'An exploration of governance and conflict in the Sudan's north/south border'

2.30 - 4.00: Uncertain and alternative citizenships

* Dereje Feyissa (Anthropology, Max Planck Institute) 'Alternative citizenship: The Nuer between Ethiopia and the Sudan'

* Mareike Schomerus (Development Studies, LSE), 'Borderlanders and the uncertainties of citizenship: the Ambororo'

 

Wednesday 20th April

9-10.30: Pastoralist borders in south-eastern Sudan

* Nene Mburu, (Politics/History, Amersham and Wycombe College) 'The Ilemi Triangle: the challenges of disarming trans-frontier communities of Southern Sudan'

* Immo Eulenberger (Anthropology, Max Planck Institute), 'Sudan's Southeastern Frontier: The Toposa and their neighbours'

11.00-1.00/1.30 Panel remarks and plenary discussion: conclusions and directions

Douglas Johnson, Mark Leopold, John Ryle; non-academic participants

Including discussion of publication plans led by Wolfgang Zeller (ABORNE) 

 

ABORNE is an interdisciplinary network of researchers interested in all aspects of international borders and trans-boundary phenomena in Africa. The emphasis is largely on borderlands as physical spaces and social spheres, but the network is also concerned with regional flows of people and goods as well as economic and social processes that may be located at some distance from the geographical border. ABORNE is primarily a forum for academic researchers aiming for a better understanding of African borderlands, but it also welcomes individual members and institutions whose work is of a more applied nature.