Reviews for Background notes, Sudan

The average rating for Background notes, Sudan based on 2 reviews is 4 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2017-03-01 00:00:00 Ann Corm I see a lot of comments about this book, some saying it is so so, too much politics...etc. If you have never been to the Sudan, in particluar, through the Sudd and Southern Sudan then you don't know what the hell you are talking about. I read this book after travelling through the Sudan in 1982 and re-read it in 2007--still an excellent read. In 1982, I travelled overland from Nairobi with a convoy of two M.A.N. trucks and Dutch drivers and some travellers to Juba. From there a 10 day boat trip up the Nile to Kosti. From there by bus to Khartoum and then by train to Wadi Halfa. Hoagland's description of the South and North are spot on as are his accounts of the Greek community in Juba and at the Metropole. I stayed at the Africa Hotel and it was disgusting. This was Jaafar Nimieri's time--that time is gone. Our Dutch drivers got caught when Green Monkey disease (aka AIDS) hit Juba. African Calliope is one of my favourite books on African and especially Southern Sudan. The South is complicated by tribals issues--read Emma's War, and W.W. Pritchard's book on The Nuer. As for Kapusckinski writing--I find him difficult to read, I think that has to do with his works being translated into English and not in a good way.

Review # 2 was written on 2012-03-10 00:00:00 JIll Schaffer Interesting book about the Sudan; Hoagland spend several months traveling through the country, primarily the south, during 1976 and '77, and it eerily predicts the Arab genocide against the Darfurians in more recent decades. Sudan was hardly a united country, but one riven by regional, religious and racial differences, and terribly, terribly poor.