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AEGIS European Conference on African Studies
11 - 14 July 2007
African Studies Centre, Leiden, The Netherlands
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Religious education as a strategy for alleviation of poverty and marginalisation in Eastern Sudan.
| Panel |
30. Islamic education and activism in sub-Saharan Africa
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| Paper ID | 68 |
| Author(s) |
Nautrup, Birthe Lindeskov
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| Paper |
No paper submitted
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| Abstract | The aim of the paper is to discuss how Ali Betai’s Islamic reform movement in eastern Sudan relates to the local and national context. The movement has to be analysed within a broader development discourse with focus on gender, ethnicity and religion, and one of the central themes to be discussed is whether religious education is a viable strategy for alleviation of poverty and marginalisation in the Eastern Sudan. The religious sheikhs from Hamosh Koreib, the religious centre of Ali Betai’s movement have been involved in the armed resistance in the area during the civil war, and joined for a short period National Democratic Alliance in Asmara in Eritrea. In order to understand the conflict and later break among the allies within the alliance one has to focus on the religious question as a central element in a strategy for peace and development in the Sudan.
The paper is based on extensive fieldwork among Kalolai-Hadendowa in the Gash Delta Area between 1993-1995 just before Beja Congress took up arms against the Government and joined National Democratic Alliance (NDA), and a visit in Eritrea in 2001 where interviews were conducted with NDA members, leaders from Beja Congress, Beja fighters, and Beja pastoralists living in exile in Eritrea.
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