Cockett is the Economist's Africa editor, and has produced here a very readable account of the last few decades and years in Sudan, explaining how the Darfur crisis came about and exploring the international reaction to both Darfur and the sputtering implementation of the peace agreement between the government in Khartoum and the southern part of ( Read more... )

A couple of telling photographs from the current trip. ( Read more... )

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( January Books 30) Southern Sudan: Too Many Agreements Dishonoured, by Abel Alier )

I got home to find this waiting for me (would have been nice if it had arrived before I went to Juba) and skimmed through it to get the most important points. Juba Arabic is used as a lingua franca across Southern Sudan (where the official language is [sometimes] English, and most speak their own tribal language). I haven't as yet particularly felt ( Read more... )

Well, I have very nearly caught up with myself after my 17-day trip which included five countries, five hotels and three overnight flights. I can't write much here about the actual trip to Juba, but I can share with you some of the photographs I took (below the cut):

( pictures )

The place I will be staying in the first week of November is visible on Google Earth, with photographs, at 4°50'25" N, 31°37'5" E - reassuring to see what it looks like, though I guess the photos won't convey the temperature.

I have been reading up on Sudanese issues over the last few days, and have come to realise the depths of my ignorance on the subject.

( July Books 9) A History of Modern Sudan, by Robert O. Collins )

For as long as I can remember, I have been aware of the Democratic Unionist Party, founded by the Reverend Ian Paisley in 1971 and now the largest Unionist party in Northern Ireland.

Now I discover that there is another Democratic Unionist Party (referred to by its members as الحزب الإتحادي الديموقراطي‎) in Sudan, founded in 1967. I doubt very ( Read more... )