Document Type
Introduction
Abstract
[First paragraph]
The essay leading off this issue of Reconstruction, "History, Ethnicity and Religion and the Sudanese North-South Conflict," points out not only the slipperiness of race, but the fact that it is erased and reappears depending on various political contexts. Muslims in Northern Sudan, although claiming an ethnic identity, "are not Arab in a genetic sense." Rather, the goal was to pass as Arab in order to gain status (trade relationships, escape from slavery) with Muslims in the Arabian Peninsula. Yet, what may have begun for many as a pragmatic conversion has in turn passed into an identity claimed with belief and conviction, one that happens to justify the brutal treatment of peoples in Southern Sudan.
Repository Citation
Clinton, Alan. "Always Passing." Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture vol. 8, no. 4, 2008, pp. 1–2. https://digitalcommons.odu.edu/reconstruction/vol8/iss4/1