Review of Elke Grawert, Making a Living in Rural Sudan" Production of Women, Labour Migration of Men, and Policies for Peasants’ Needs New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1998.

This book sets out an ambitious agenda of using data from multiple studies of economic activity around Kutum, in Darfur, to explore the more general question of how Sudanese peasants survive the political and economic disarray of the 1980s and 1990s. Unfortunately the book does not live up to its ambitions. While Grawert offers some useful and interesting information, and occassionally gives a keen insight into local conditions, the bulk of the book consists of long literature reviews. There is simply too little specificity on local economic activity in Kutum for the book to be authoritative in constructing an alternative vision and strategy for reconstructing and enabling rural society in the Sudan. As an interested reader, I found myself wishing that Grawert had concentrated her attention and empathy on presenting careful and expanded discussions of some of the key issues she raises: food security, women’s economic activities, and labor migration.

The book begins with a discussion of ‘methodology’ and ‘theory’. The latter seemed to be about something called a ‘livelihood approach’. I confess I could see little difference between this approach and that taken by standard economic anthropology. Both take a holistic approach to describing the rural economy, and both implicity recognize that in specific situations some areas of economic activity are more important than others. Thus Grawert concentrates attention on food security, women and labor migration, where someone else (xxx for example in her book on farming in Mali) might concentrate on wells and cattle. Whatever theoretical approach is taken, it should lead to some specific hypotheses. Theory should, and does, shape the point of view of the researcher. Theory is what suggests to a researcher that something is interesting, or problematical. Occasionally it leads to very specific hypotheses about what might expect to observe, or to explanations for social phenomenon. Grawert, by choosing a broad approach like that of ‘livelihood strategy’, ends up unable, in my view, to turn her observations and descriptions into conclusions and interpretations.

Grawert then continues with a useful review of the literature on peasants, and feels comfortable in using this word to describe the people of Kutum she is interested in. Since one of the primary characteristics of peasants is their subordination to outside political structures- the state the most important among them- I was gratified to find in the final chapter an extended description of state-peasant relations elucidating with many details how state interference over the years has changed the nature of peasant social organization, especially that of male-female relations in the light of the National Islamic Front’s sustained assault on women’s participation in petty trade and beer-brewing. Grawert also hints at some fascinating Darfur politics and its effects in reinforcing rural stagnation and encouraging incipient ‘warlordism’, but offers too little detail to draw any conclusions.

The heart of the book is a desription of livelihood strategies. In her review of food security, women’s economic activities and rural migration, Grawert makes a number of interesting and useful points. The chapter of food security reiterates the political nature of food crises and famines, pointing a finger, correctly, at the state. The chapter on women is very revealing of common male public attitutudes concerning the inferiority of women. An interesting section on women’s access to land along wadi and their extensive involvement in vegetable production offers evidence consonant with that from other parts of the Sudan-Sahel. Finally, Grawert suggests that labor migration may be to the net social detriment on families in Kutum. While the men earn income while they are away, apparently many do not earn enough to justify the social disruption created by their absence. Five pages that follow these chapters (pp. 153-57) nicely summarize the thesis that food security, gender and labor migration are intertwined phenomena. While an entire chapter is then devoted to policy recommendations, I found myself agreeing with the author that while the list of entirely-reasonable (though perhaps quite expensive) proposals would do some good and little harm, there was almost no chance that the present regime would successfully implement them. It seems to me that a program that would inspire peasants to overthrow the current oppressive military regime would have to be much more creative and radical.