This book presents an analytical narrative of Darfur, from the beginnings of its recorded history onwards. This work focuses on three themes: Darfur's complex history and its equally complex ethnic and ecological issues. It covers various phases of Darfur's history - under the sultans (1650-1916), under the British (1916-56) and since independence (1956).

Recent events

• On 13 June 2008, Elena Vezzadini successfully defended her Ph.D. thesis, "The 1924 Revolution; Hegemony, Resistence and Nationalism in the Colonial Sudan"

  Lectures and seminars

• 23.10.08: Jerôme Tubiana (Paris), "Chad, Another Darfur? Links between Two Crises", & "Darfur, Chad: Humanitarianism Challenged"
• 24.9.08: Munzoul A.M. Assal (Khartoum), "The National Congress Party and the Darfur Crisis
• 24.9.08: Kassahun Berhanu Alemu (Addis Ababa), "Abyei: The Achilles Heel of Peace in Sudan"
• 11.6.08: Endre Stiansen (PRIO, Oslo), "International, National or Something in Between? The Assessment and Evaluation Commission of the Sudan's Comprehensive Peace Agreement."
• 5.2.08: Samah H. Abd Alghaffar (Khartoum): "Political Transformation in Eastern Sudan: The Beja Congress in Kassala and Gedarif States",
  Azza Mustafa Babikir Ahmed (Khartoum), "The Beja Congress and their struggle against marginalization", and
  Rasha Abdelhafeez (Khartoum), "NGO's intervention in Eastern Sudan: The Case of Kassala State".
• 16.1.08: Guma Kunda and Enrico Ille (Halle), "Land-Based Conflicts in the Nuba Mountains.
• 10-11.5.07: Workshop: Sudan - the colonial experience. Lectures by Fadwa Taha (Khartoum), Randi Håland (Bergen), Salah M. Ahmad (Khartoum), Irma Taddia (Bologna), Massimo Zaccharia (Pavia).

• On 6-8 April 2006, the 7th International Sudan Studies conference was held in Bergen, with the theme: "Fifty Years After Independence: Sudan's Quest for Peace, Stability and Identity"

Recent master theses

• Agnes Rokkan, '(Indirect rule and the tribal system of south-central Sudan)' (History, 2008)
• Ida Dyrkorn Heierland, 'Artifacts, Interests and Agencies: The Politics of Sudan Archaeology' (Archaeology, 2008)
• Marte Teie Hellum: 'Who are you? Self-consciousness: certainty and incertainty in the Nuba Mountains, Sudan' (2007, Anthropology) *
• Marit Vambheim, 'Peace-making in the southern Sudanese civil war, 1965-66' (History, 2007)
• Mahmoud Suliman Beshir, 'Iron objects from Meroitic and Post-Meroitic periods discussion on chronology, contexts and rituals' (Archaeology, 2006)
• Ghefari Fadlallh Elsayed: 'The politics of Difference and Boundary Making among the Nuba and the Baggara of Southern Kordofan State, Sudan' (2006, Anthropology)
• Gunnar Thune, 'The inspector general: the career of Baron Sir Rudolf von Slatin Pasha in the Sudan' (History, 2005)
• Liv Tønnessen, 'Islamism and democracy: an inquiry into the political thought of the Sudanese Islamist Hassan al-Turabi' (Political Science, 2005)
• Håkon Taule Njøs, 'Unity of the Nile valley or an independent Sudan? British-Egyptian conflicts and Sudan's path to independence 1936-1956' (History, 2004) *

Resources

• The Mahmoud Salih collection
  A large book collection on the Sudan, deposited at the Centre for Middle Eastern Studies.
• The Collins Collection
  Prof. R.O. Collins donated a part of his library of African and Sudan-related books to the Centre before his death.
• Sudanic Africa
  An academic journal of historical sources. "Sudanic" refers to all of the Sudanic Belt, Atlantic to Indian Ocean, but includes a number of articles on the Nilotic Sudan as well.
• Darfur website
  An archive of material on Darfur, its history and culture. It contains primary and secondary material. Maintained by R.S. O'Fahey.
• Nuba mountain languages
  A report on the usage of non-Arabic languages in the Nuba mountains in 1976, from the Language Survey of the Sudan. Prepared by Herman Bell.
• Cush
  On the Cush project of Nubian archaeology, language, history and architecture. Prepared by Herman Bell.
• Sudan studies in Bergen
  An historical survey (dated 1993) of Sudan studies in Bergen.

  See also the general surveys of research in Bergen, where Sudan appears regularly:
  

• Research Staff in Bergen
• Publications by Bergen scholars
• Library holdings