Enrico Ille

• PhD
• Academic staff at Leipzig University

When South Sudanese started to enter Sudanese territory after the outbreak of war in December 2013, they found themselves put into an uncertain gray area of definition. Lingering between aggressive rhetoric of Sudanese officials before the separation in July 2011 and the nominal bilateral agreement on four freedoms in September 2012, they were deni...

Nachwort zu Abdelaziz Baraka Sakins "Der Messias von Darfur"

We discuss ‘peacebuilding’ specifically as an aim and task in the Nuba Mountains, where ‘peace’ has not been sustainably achieved for more than three decades. We speak about our own experiences as anthropological researchers between two wars in the Nuba Mountains (2005-2011), when we studied receding and mounting tensions in the area, attempts at s...

https://www.sources-journal.org/894 A significant increase in date palm fires in Sudan Northern State since the mid-2000s has triggered different and partially contradictory assessments of why and how they have broken out. These assessments were not merely disinterested cause-effect analyses or differing environmental interpretations: they were pr...

Notre article revient sur les pratiques de pouvoir et les négociations opérées par le régime d'al-Inqaz dans la dernière décennie à partir de l'étude du secteur minier soudanais devenu en quelques années la pierre angulaire de l'économie soudanaise et une des principales sources d'enrichissement de ce régime. Basée sur de nombreuses enquêtes de ter...

This article reviews power and negotiation practices under the Al‑Inqaz regime during the 2010s, based on a study of the Sudanese mining sector, which has become a cornerstone of the Sudanese economy in the space of a few years and one of this regime’s main sources of wealth. Based on broad field research in the capital and other regions, our analy...

This is a synthesis report bringing together the findings of a three year project on the Urban Land Nexus and Inclusive Urbanisation in Dar es Salaam, Mwanza and Khartoum. The projects proposition is that understanding the pull of these cities (agglomeration economies), and the related political and economic contestation for space and location (in...

This is a research report summarising the results of a three year project on the Urban Land Nexus and Inclusive Urbanisation in Dar es Salaam, Mwanza and Khartoum. The projects proposition is that understanding the pull of these cities (agglomeration economies), and the related political and economic contestation for space and location (in a compar...

This is a Briefing Note summarising a three year project on the Urban Land Nexus and Inclusive Urbanisation in Dar es Salaam, Mwanza and Khartoum. The projects proposition is that understanding the pull of these cities (agglomeration economies), and the related political and economic contestation for space and location (in a comparatively dense urb...

This is a Policy Note summarising the Khartoum component of a three year project on the Urban Land Nexus and Inclusive Urbanisation in Dar es Salaam, Mwanza and Khartoum. The projects proposition is that understanding the pull of these cities (agglomeration economies), and the related political and economic contestation for space and location (in a...

This paper is a synthesis of results from a project on The Urban Land Nexus and Inclusive Urbanisation in Dar es Salaam, Mwanza and Khartoum. The projects proposition is that understanding the pull of these cities (agglomeration economies), and the related political and economic contestation for space and location (in a comparatively dense urban la...

Violent conflicts in Sudan, especially those in Darfur in the early years of the new century, led state and non-state actors in the United States to exert heightened pressure on companies to divest from Sudan, or to prove that their activities in that country do not contribute to the conflicts. In this case study of La Mancha, a company involved in...

When South Sudanese started to enter Sudanese territory after outbreak of war in December 2013, they found themselves put into an uncertain grey area of definition. Lingering between aggressive rhetoric of Sudanese officials before the separation in July 2011 and the nominal bilateral agreement on four freedoms in September 2012, they were denied o...

This chapter illustrates the interconnections emerging from a multifaceted discussion of social practices of land alienation. The overall argument is that land alienation in Sudan is not only a normalized and institutionalized process concerning the body of land-related laws in the national legal system, but also a politically charged and highly si...

This list of references is the result of the bibliographic work in two 4-year projects in frame of a collaborative research centre funded by the German Research Foundation, SFB 586 (Difference and integration). In these projects, Prof. Richard Rottenburg, Dr. Guma Kunda Komey and Dr. Enrico Ille undertook research on the relation of nomadic and sed...

This list of references is the result of the bibliographic work in two 4-year projects in frame of a collaborative research centre funded by the German Research Foundation, SFB 586 (Difference and integration). In these projects, Prof. Richard Rottenburg, Dr. Guma Kunda Komey and Dr. Enrico Ille undertook research on the relation of nomadic and sed...

Contest over the distribution of natural resources and revenues derived from them is one of the most common reasons for violent conflicts. But in an often cited definition of conflict resources, the nongovernmental organization Global Witness, which did much to consolidate related debates and campaigns, also linked the trade of such resources to th...

Both the creation and the first years of the sovereign state of South Sudan were marked by the existence and consequences of war. In a wider sense, violent conflicts constituted a formative element for both state building and societal relations, a circumstance that demands a deeper understanding of their context and their impact on the country’s po...

In this article, I present some reflections on the categorization ‘private’ in reference to Sudan’s higher education institutions. This categorization is treated as merely denoting ‘non-governmental’ in national legal documents, but many more connotations appear when looking at practices in this sector. Based on the personal experience of 13 months...

The basis of this annotated bibliography is a list of references, the Nuba Mountains Bibliography, which is published and regularly updated on the website of the Institute for Social and Cultural Anthropology at the University of Halle in Germany, as part of the Law, Organisation, Science and Technology (LOST) Research Group. The list was originall...

This article discusses a recent call to include gold from Sudan in the ‘conflict gold’ category of global supply chains. The call reacts to Sudan’s protracted violent conflicts, as well as a recent surge in gold mining that became of essential importance for governmental policies after most of the country’s oil reserves were lost with South Sudan’s...

This article discusses the poem “A Homesick Sparrow” by the Sudanese poet Mahjoub Sharif (1948-2014) in the frame of recent cultural policies in Sudan. The poem was written in 1990, one year after the military coup that brought the present regime to power, while the poet was imprisoned together with others regarded as oppositionists to the new Isla...

This article follows the attempts of Sudan's Mahdist rulers between 1881 and 1898 to establish a military, political, and cultural foothold in the Nuba Mountains, a region now close to the southern border of Sudan and historically a mountainous retreat area. These attempts started with talks held between religious authorities in the kingdom of Tega...

All social theory emphasises that institutions universally play a crucial role in organising the ways in which people live together. At the same time the concept is vaguely defined and used in different ways. Inspired by the pragmatic sociology of critique, we emphasise how institutions enable people and things to hold together and provide importan...

This paper outlines the landscape of development interventions in South Kordofan between the signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) in 2005 and the start of a new war in June 2011. Given the constant political volatility during this period and the resurgence of violent political contest, the study traces the conditions under which such...

This article discusses the spatial organization of agri-and horticulture in Heiban (South Kordofan) through five case studies, which cover various scales and kinds of cultivation. The discussion aims at highlighting the interconnections and gradual differences between these cases, in order to stress the shortcomings of conventional exclusionary cla...

Examines the commodification of land rights and the effect of international licences for resource extraction on the pastoral communities of Sudan.

This book explores the emergent character of social orders in Sudan and South Sudan. It provides vivid insights into multitudes of ordering practices and their complex negotiation. Recurring patterns of exclusion and ongoing struggles to reconfigure disadvantaged positions are investigated as are shifting borders, changing alliances and relationshi...

The so-called Green Revolution established seeds and their qualities as a main focal point for the development of agricultural production. Subsequently, many countries were covered by networks of agricultural research stations, agricultural extensions, and seed banks, whose function was to develop and distribute new varieties promising higher yield...

In this article, I relate to debates concerning the production of scientific knowledge (Knorr Cetina 1999), the role of scientists in society (Latour 1987), and works on a theory of translation (Serres 1982, Callon 1986, Maranhão & Streck 2003, Czarniawska & Sevón 2005, Rottenburg 2009). My analysis works with a conceptual triangle, whose edges are...

One nation becoming two—looking into an arduous process ridden with violence, and sketching out the struggles with the legacies of an already troubled history, are the motivations for this publication on the Republic of Sudan and the Republic of South Sudan. The governments and societies of the two countries are facing challenges of internal disuni...

This thesis discusses the conditions of social interaction in development projects in the rural Nuba Mountains (Sudan) between 2005 and 2011. Above all, the study examines conditions of structural instability in the region, which are also reflected in processes of planning and implementation supposedly technical in nature. The concepts ‘problematiz...

This article discusses different technologies used to classify water as potable or non-potable in South Kordofan, Sudan. The case of a water pump in the village Abol is presented to show how different actors dealt with the uncertain situation, when changes in the water coming from the pump caused doubt about its potability. Officials in South Kordo...

Nomaden scheinen aus unserem Alltag fast vollständig verschwunden zu sein. Doch die Abhängigkeit von Mobilität, die Bewältigung finanzieller Unsicherheiten sowie der ausgewogene Umgang mit unserer Umwelt fordern alle, auch ›moderne‹ Gesellschaften heraus. In der Wahrnehmung von Sesshaften verkörpern Nomaden und andere Mobile bis heute allerdings of...

This book deals with two puzzles: Who has lived on the mountain Shaybun, which has been a famous gold market in the Nuba Mountains (Sudan) until the 19th century, and why has it been deserted? The answering begins with a present ethnic group, the Shawabna, who are of unclear origin and have a contested position between the lines of being Arab or be...

Health sector is a multi-dimensional key parameter for human development as it contains various indicators that reflect, to large degree, an entire wellbeing and development/ underdevelopment of individual members in a society. The magnitude of health variables in measuring human development worldwide are manifested in the fact that 50% of the Mill...