Amal Madibbo

Conflict and the conceptions of identities in the Sudan

My native Sudan has been ravaged by conflicts over identity and socioeconomic marginalization since independence from Britain in 1956. Elitist debates confined the country’s diverse identities to two dichotomous categorizations: Arabism, associated with Islam and Arabic descent and culture, and Africanism, linked to Christianity, indigenous beliefs and African culture. These polarized views, along with the dominant ideology of the imposition of Arabism and Islam as the basis of national identification, triggered a national identity crisis. This crisis contributed to the escalation of armed conflicts notably the civil war between the North and the South and the current conflict in the Sudan’s Western province of Darfur. This article explores the Darfur conflict which erupted between the central government and liberation groups in 2003, and has been described both as the first genocide of the 21st century and an ethnic cleansing in which the Arab militia are killing the Africans. Using data gathered recently in the Sudan, this article extends the debates on Sudanese identities by showing that the boundaries between Africanism and Arabism are fluid, and by positing multiple identities that resurface as a result of globalization, migration and social ties among ethnic groups. By deconstructing the dominant conceptions of the Sudanese identities, and considering new conceptions about these identities, we can address social dynamics that impact the conflict and take them into consideration when it comes to conflict resolution. Multiculturalism is proposed as a model that could help to accommodate the country’s diverse identities and foster stability.

Power, Language, and Race Relations Within Francophone Communities in Canada

Franco-Ontarians have been migrating to the province from Quebec, Acadia, and other parts of Canada since the second half of the nineteenth century (Boudreau, 1995; Martel, 1995; Welch, 1988). Many studies (Choquette, 1977; Labrie and Forlot, 1999) reveal that franco-Ontarians constitute a linguistic minority vis-a-vis dominance of anglophone state institutions. They have been struggling throughout history for the right to establish and control their own institutions in their own language. This process has had considerable success: the Official Languages Act was passed in 1969. It provides funding for official language minority communities. The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms was adopted in 1982. It gives the right for schooling in any of the two official languages in a minority context, and the establishment of political, social, financial, and educational institutions. Moreover, many associations were established to guide the struggle of francophones: Association canadienne-francaise de l’Ontario (ACFO) has been perceived for many decades as the official representative for the minority in the province.

Book Reviews: Negotiating language, constructing race: Disciplining difference in Singapore Nirmala Srirekam Purushotam (1998). Edited by J. A. Fishman. Vol. 79, Contributions to the Sociology of Language. Berlin New York: Morton De Gruyter. ISBN 3-11-015679-2; pp. 294

It is an excellent idea and laudable effort to bring together all this information in one book. This volume is a significant contribution to our understanding of the issue in the field of acquisition. However, like many other edited publications, this one also suffers from an imbalance among its chapters. For example, phonological acquisition is mentioned only in relation to Spanish, and conspicuously absent from others. Also, some chapters are purely descriptive (Spanish, French, Semantics of AAE), while others have data based arguments related to the evaluation of theoretical points regarding acquisition (Inuktitut, Korean). Finally, a point should be made concerning the acquisition setting. With the exception of the chapters on AAE, acquisition settings are not well stated. Are these settings purely monolingual, or is there contact with another language? If so, what is/are the other language/s? This question may be irrelevant for Inuktitut, and may be partially relevant for Spanish (depending on where Spanish is acquired), but certainly looks relevant for French in Canada, and Korean in the United States.