Ethnic boundaries and conflict in Darfur

Abstract

This article proposes an event structure hypothesis to study the ethnic dimensions of conflict in Darfur, Sudan. I construct a narrative that describes a sequence of four `event structures' to explore how ethnic boundaries transformed in Darfur during the period from the formation of the modern Sudanese state in 1956 through the regional wars fought in Darfur in the 1980s. I use anthropologist Fredrik Barth's influential `ethnic boundary theory' as a conceptual model to describe the historical interaction between ethnic groups. Barth's ethnic boundary theory is useful not just on its own merits, but because it was informed, in part, by examples provided by ethnographic work carried out in Darfur in the late 1960s. I propose the hypothesis that Darfur was subjected to four major historical changes that occurred between independence and the end of the 1980s, which further solidified and eventually militarized ethnic boundaries between groups and clans, who then began identifying themselves as `Arab' or `non-Arab'. I also look at the sexual violence in Darfur, by using `ethnosexual boundaries', Nagel's extension of Barth's original concept. Finally, I briefly address whether or not the conflict constitutes genocide. My analysis is meant to be a preliminary investigation that will hopefully inspire future empirical and comparative analyses.