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Politics

On Writing Sudan (And Getting It Wrong)

By Alex de Waal
June 27, 2008
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Last Sunday the Washington Post ran a column by me in the section This Writing Life. It begins:

Some years ago in a rebel-held enclave of Sudan, I met a man whom I had reported as assassinated. He was chief Hussein Karbus, and I was introduced to him by the man I had said killed him, the liberation fighter Yousif Kuwa Mekki. Both of them thought my mistake – made in a human rights report – was hilarious. In truth, Karbus had gone into hiding, and many had feared he was dead. It’s characteristic of Sudanese society not to let political differences – even accusations of homicide – get in the way of amicable social relations. It’s also characteristic of Sudan that the worst will usually come to pass. In recent years especially, some commentators have gained a reputation for prescience by parroting that mantra.

The column continues here.

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Alex de Waal

Alex de Waal is Research Professor and Executive Director of the World Peace Foundation at The Fletcher School, Tufts University. He was the founding editor of the African Arguments book series. He is the author of The Real Politics of the Horn of Africa: Money, War and the Business of Power.

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