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AEGIS European Conference on African Studies
11 - 14 July 2007
African Studies Centre, Leiden, The Netherlands
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Moving frontiers of citizenship: Islam, locality and the construction of the 'lesser male' in Sudan
| Panel |
56. Moving Frontiers: contestations in Muslim communities in Africa
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| Paper ID | 715 |
| Author(s) |
Willemse, Karin
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| Paper |
No paper submitted
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| Abstract | In this paper I will analyze the dynamics between migration, citizenship and constructions of masculinity in relation to Islam. I will point out that a dominant masculinity is constructed in relation to significant 'Others': women (dominant femininity) and 'lesser males'. I will concentrate on the relation between dominant masculinity and these lesser males in constructions of exclusive (and exclusionary) notions of citizenship in contemporary Sudan. The resulting “moving-frontier" between autochthonous and allochthonous identities is mainly based on shifting notions of a Sudanese Islamic identity.
I base my argument on anthropological research conducted in the 1990s and Darfur, west-Sudan, and early 2000 and 2006 in Khartoum, the capital of Sudan. Long before the current war in Darfur started in 2003, people from Darfur migrated to Khartoum, where they are generally considered as 'displaced'. In the process Darfur men have become the 'lesser male' par excellence and are instrumental in constructing a 'Sudanese' national identity. In analyzing this shifting position of Darfur men I will refer to the operation of tribal and shari'a courts both in Darfur and in Khartoum, and relate these diverse law speaking-practices to discourses on the current war in Darfur. This will lead to an insight into the ways in which citizenship, in Sudan and elsewhere, hinges on intersected identities, such as ethnicity, class, location, gender etc. in the demarcating a frontier which is seemingly fixed, but in effect shifting and moving. |
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