"Brothers" or Others?
Muslim Arab Sudanese in Egypt
Published on 6. October 2007
Book
Paperback/Softback
160 pages
978-1-84545-244-5 (ISBN)
Description
Muslim Arab Sudanese in Cairo have played a fundamental role in Egyptian history and society during many centuries of close relations between Egypt and Sudan. Although the government and official press describes them as "brothers" in a united Nile Valley, recent political developments in Egypt have underscored the precarious legal status of Sudanese in Cairo. Neither citizens nor foreigners, their uncertain position is created in part through an unusual ethnic discourse which does not draw principally on obvious characteristics of difference. This rich ethnographic study shows instead that Sudanese ethnic identity is created from deeply held social values, especially those concerning gender and propriety, shared by Sudanese and Egyptian communities. The resulting ethnic identity is ambiguous and flexible, allowing Sudanese to voice their frustrations and make claims for their own uniqueness while simultaneously acknowledging the identity that they share with the dominant Egyptian community.
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Oxford
United Kingdom
Target group
College/higher education
ISBN-13
978-1-84545-244-5 (9781845452445)
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Schweitzer Classification
Person
Anita H. Fabos is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Cultural Studies, University of East London, where she teaches for the Masters program in refugee studies. Formerly Director of the Forced Migration and Refugee Studies Program at the American University in Cairo, Egypt, she received her Ph.D. from Boston University in anthropology in 1999.
Content
Acknowledgements Note on Transliteration and Transcription Glossary PART I: UNITY AND 'BROTHERHOOD' Chapter 1. Introduction Historical Framework Muslim Arab Sudanese: Labels and Definitions Framing Difference: Ethnicity, Inequality, and Mobility Positioning and the Production of Knowledge Scope of the Book Chapter 2. Being Sudanese in Cairo Centuries of Migration: Sudanese in Egypt, Egyptians in Sudan Contemporary Sudanese Migration and Forced Migration to Egypt Sudanese in Cairo: Urban Geography Displacement and Resentment PART II: MODERNITY AND OTHERNESS Chapter 3. Creating Foreigners, Becoming Exiles Competing Nationalisms in a United Nile Valley Borders and Citizens Gender, Egyptian Statecraft, and Sudanese Transnationalism Creating Refugees Becoming 'Others' Chapter 4. Presenting Sudanese Differences Muslim Arab Sudaneseness PART III: NEITHER 'BROTHERS' NOR 'OTHERS' Chapter 5. Muslim Arab Adab and Sudanese Ethnicity Adab as a Discursive and Cultural Concept Gender and Propriety Sudanese Gender Roles and Adab in Cairo: Ideal and Real Adab in the Community Chapter 6. A Sudanese 'Culture of Exile' in Cairo Community Mobilization: Circumstances and Strategies Taking Muslim Arab Sudanese Identity Public: Adab and Community Exile and Change: a 'New Sudan'? Imagining Sudan in Exile Chapter 7. Gender, Diaspora, and Transformation Gender and Displacement in Cairo Challenging Adab/Transforming Gender Sudanese in Cairo, Sudanese in the Diaspora The Dialectic of Sudanese Ethnicity Conclusion: Ambiguous Ethnicity Bibliography Index