The Darfur Sultanate: A History

by R.S. O'Fahey

In 2003, Khartoum deployed the Janjaweed militia to violently suppress a separatist rebellion, thus launching Darfur into the international spotlight. Since then, over 200,000 people have been murdered and scores more have become refugees. In order to understand the extent of this humanitarian crisis, which has developed into one of the most important international causes of our day, the complicated history of this region must be understood. Having conducted forty years of research in Sudan, R.S. O'Fahey has written the definitive account of the Darfur Sultanate, which stretches from 1650 to 1916. O'Fahey is uniquely qualified to write this book. In addition to being a scholarly expert on the region, O'Fahey has worked with the United Nations Mission to Sudan (UNMIS) and the African Union during the peace talks in Abuja, which were initiated to resolve Darfur's current crisis. While O'Fahey discusses the impact of outside forces on the sultanate, he focuses primarily on Darfur's ruling elites, including its sultans, royal women, holy men, traders, and other individuals in positions of power. His intention is to write a record of the history and cultures of the Sultanate in all their variety, complexity, and richness.

Genres: Sudan, Nonfiction

288 pages, Hardcover

First published April 25, 2008

Reviews

[Muna Zaki · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book builds on R S O'Fahey's earlier work on the Keira Sultanate of Darfur. The main part of the book ends with the demise of Sultan Ali Dinar after the British invasion of 1916.. The reader cannot help sharing the writer's feeling that the destruction of local archives at El Fasher in the 1980s were an enormous loss to understanding the history of Darfur both before and during the colonial period. O'Fahey touches on the neglect of the province during the Anglo-Egyptian Condominium and points to some of the complexities of the current conflict.

The author's professional training as a historian is evident and the book includes comprehensive footnotes that explain in full the sources he has used and how he came to his conclusions. Much of the book is organised around themes such as the power structure of the sultan's clan in relation to the rest of the community and the role of Islam. But there are also chronological chapters that describe the fractious nature of the sultanate down the centuries leading up to its invasion in both the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
Much of the book is so detailed and includes so many references to people and places that it but the general theme of each section is never lost.