Between 'Place' and 'Non-Place': Settlement and Displacement in Sudan (Tussen plaats en niet-plaats: nederzetting en verplaatsing in Sudan)

Sudan is a country that has witnessed huge population displacements, some due to natural causes and others due to a multitude of ill-devised government policies. The worst form of displacement the country witnessed however has been war-related displacements which have been devastating both in terms of scale and effect. An estimated 6 million were reported to have been displaced in 2005 due to the war in the southern and western part of the country, this was reported as the highest number worldwide and which constituted 14% of the country s total population. All this places Sudan on the map as the country of displacement par excellence with millions of displaced trekking its vast terrain in search of a suitable place to relocate, or a better place to position themselves. As a result of these multiple and compounded displacements the country needs to come to terms with what is at hand, what is jeopardized and what opportunities are being developed. In these extreme conditions queries arise concerning notions of settlement, questions such as what does place and home mean in such a country and to whom? In this thesis we endeavor to understand how displacement may affect and redefine such notions, hypothesizing on whether something can be made out of the outcome.Displacement in Sudan has certainly been too broad a topic which has succeeded in attracting the interest of historians, political scientists, environmentalists, and a great number of international development and humanitarian organizations. Scholars such as Johnson, De Waal, Mamdani, Tigani and Carloyn Fluehr-Lobban, have produced a corpus of literature concerning this subject. In all this architects and urbanists have hardly had a say, this comes as rather unusual given the fact that most of these displacements are played out and have their greatest impacts on urban settlements. In this dissertation we attempt to fill this gap, our attempt however is not exclusive of what has already been done but rather stitches together the different disciplines that have tackled this subject bringing them together in a singular work. The spatial dimension is used here as the thread which binds these disparate and vast disciplines together, and our two cases, that of Khartoum and Yei, are used as the platform for their engagement. All the disciplines presented seem to converge in the two cases, clearly illustrating the extent of, and the multiplicity and complexity of the manifestations that result out of displacement. The underlying questions in this dissertation therefore are concerned with the meanings of place and home, and the techniques developed to reconstitute these meanings in circumstances far from the ordinary. We question the links between place and home, identity and territoriality, wealth and investments; how these concepts are played out in conditions of displacement, and how they might come to affect the postwar urbanism that begins to emerge.Table of Contents Abstract Acknowledgements Preface Introduction Chapter 1 – Literature Review Introduction Displacement within the discipline of Anthropology Displacement within Refugee Studies and IDP studies The Refugee Camp: Spatial confinement or an opening of possibilities? Between the camp and city IDP studies Is there an end to displacement? Architecture and Displacement The Phenomenology of Place Non-Place, The Generic City and Movement in the African Metropolis Between Place and Non-Place Conclusions Chapter 2 – Sudan Introduction Geography Borders and Displacement The Nile and its Patterns of Displacement Forming Connections Between Riverscape and Peoples Anthropology The Nilotics: A Lifestyle Structured By Movement Nilotes – Dinka and Nuer Ecology and Patterns of Movement A Mobile Lifestyle Suited for a Changing Landscape Daily and Seasonal Movements The Cycle of Seasons and its Impact on the Settlement Patterns Material Culture in Conditions Of Mobility Personification – Cattle (Mobile Property) as an Extension of One’s Identity Gender Relations and Place Identification The History Invasion – A Lifestyle Pattern Suited for Resistance 1821 – 1881 - The Arrival of The Turks 1881-1898 - The Sudanese Revolution (The Mahdi) 1898 – 1956 - The British Colonization 1956 - Independence and The First Civil War 1973-1983 - The Addis Ababa Agreement ‘The Bread-Basket’ Project and Subsequent Displacements Displacing Borders – The Question of Oil Water and Possible Displacements 1983 – 2005 Second Civil War, Displacement As A Strategy Displacement Patterns Displacing The Displaced The CPA, The Referendum and the Future Post-CPA Fragile Urbanities Weakened Infrastructure Urban Demographic Explosions Return Political Dimensions Social Dimension Economic Dimension Khartoum – Keeping The Links? The Referendum – The Creation Of A New State South Sudan – The Present And The Future (Challenges And Hopes) Which Way Forward? Illusory Expectations And Harsh Realities Tensions – Displaced Borders Cattle Raiding Territorial Domination And Expansion Expectations of Further Conflict Conclusion Chapter 3 – Khartoum Prelude Introduction Part I 4000 BC – 1500AD _ NS axis – The Egyptianization of riverine northern Sudan? 1500 AD -1820 - WE connections - Sudanese Islamic Urbanization – The Funj Sultanate The structure of the Sultanates A specific African/Arab/Islamic urbanization 1821-1885 – re-establishing the NS links - Turco-Egyptian Period 1885-1898 – revival of the WE axis - Mahdist Period 1898-1956 – NS axis strengthened – Anglo-Egyptian Condominium Situating the Plan of Khartoum Khartoum and the cotton industry Planning Khartoum Growth of the Town The Fabric, the spaces and the Iconic structures Connectivity and Growth 1956-1980 - Omdurman a seat for Nationalism and Khartoum in search for itself – The Tri-capital as a multilayered entity Omdurman a seat for Nationalism Khartoum – a capital in search for itself A Reading of the Tri-capital as an ‘inclusive unity’ Part II Khartoum and the Islamic Project An attempt at purging the multi-cultural, multi-ethnic, multi-religious fabric Public space and its reinvention Substituting the public space Purging the colonial fabric Khartoum – the city of displacement par excellence Khartoum – conditions at the time of displacement A different focus Pre-war conditions – Perception of southerners in Khartoum and a history of urban exclusions War and post war period – Khartoum and Mass Displacement Impositions and messages of Exclusion The Field Methods and approach Fieldwork Sites Relocation Sites vs. Squatter Settlements Dar el Salaam Hillat Sillik – Mayo Spatial Differences between Dar el Salaam and Hillat Sillik Gaps and ambivalences Writing on the Wall Carefully picked and well placed furniture Doors Signs of Modernity? Suitcases Identity markers Nostalgia? Gap Closed – Elizabeth, wife of the Sultan Possible Interpretations Permanence/Impermanence Identities and Representation The City Centre – Staging a Presence? The City Centre – Qasr Avenue Gender Differences – Home, a place of vulnerability? The Shopping Street – Naivasha: The Church The Cinema The Missionary Night School ‘Comboni and the The Sports Field ‘Comboni Playground’ The City as a Chessboard? Home and Displacement Post CPA Chapter 4 – Yei Intro Methodology History of Urbanization The War End of the war Population explosion Economy Services Insecurity Land Prices Housing Neighbourhood profiles Planning the town for the future Actors in the planning process The Dinka and the SPLA Hostilities and exclusions Permanence/Impermanence Habitation patterns Home Interviews Conclusion Bibliographystatus: publishe