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Memories of a Sudanese Community
Better than Musalsal
Susan M. Kenyon
318 pages, 23 figs, index, bibliog.
ISBN 978-1-80768-153-1 $135.00/£104.00 / Hb / Not Yet Published (April 2027)
eISBN 978-1-80768-154-8 eBook
Reviews
This was a delightful and deeply insightful read. Susan Kenyon is a renowned scholar of women’s lives, with a special focus on religious experience and, more specifically, zar possession. Lesley A. Sharp, Columbia University
Description
Between 1979 and 1981, anthropologist Susan Kenyon lived in al-Gul'a, a district of Sennar, Sudan, where women worked to create community among migrants and marginalized peoples. Drawing on her experiences, this book explores everyday life through ceremonies, spirit possession, market-shopping, cooking and other social practices. Focusing on the relationships and activities that shaped neighbourhood life, it offers insights into how ordinary Sudanese people build and sustain communities. Against the backdrop of Sudan's ongoing conflict and displacement, the study highlights the enduring importance of sharing material, social and intellectual resources in the face of seemingly overwhelming odds.
Susan M. Kenyon is professor emerita of Anthropology at Butler University, Indianapolis. In addition to her long-term interests in Sudan she has carried out research in British Columbia, Indonesia and Costa Rica. She is the author of The Kyuquot Way: A Study of a West Coast (Nootkan) Community (University of Ottawa Press, 1980), Five Women of Sennar: Culture and Change in Central Sudan (Waveland Pr Inc, 2004), Spirits and Slaves in Central Sudan: The Red Wind of Sennar and numerous publications (Palgrave Macmillan, 2015).



