Five Women of Sennar: Culture & Change in Central Sudan

EAN/UPC/ISBN Code 9781577663133


In this second edition of the highly regarded original, five Muslim women and their families from the town of Sennar, Central Sudan, update their life stories. Halima, the hairdresser; Fatima, the market woman; Zachara, the midwife; Bitt al-Jamil, the faith healer; and Naiema, leader of tombura zâr spirit possession, each look back on their lives, their families, and their work in accounts that now span more than twenty years. The women’s own voices provide insight into how ordinary individuals deal with the challenges of making a living, raising a family, and leading a good life in twentieth-century Sudan while Kenyon situates the narratives in the larger historical and ethnographic context. The ongoing strengths and stability of local community and family life, as well as the surprisingly independent views of the women themselves, are vividly illustrated against a background of rapid urbanization, economic constraints, and the introduction of Islamic law and an Islamist government.