Anthropology in the Sudan

This book is a testimony to Professor Abdel Ghaffar's significant contributions to anthropology and the social sciences generally in Africa and around the world. In putting together a collection of well-written essays spanning more than 25 years of serious scolarship, the author skilfully shows the strenghts and weaknesses of anthropology for Africa and Africans themselves. Buries in the guilt of its colonial association, anthropology has served both as an exploitive and more recently a liberating force on the continent, and Professor Abdel Ghaffar nicely documents these contradictory processes. He rightfully scorns the discipline for its contributions to the colonial enterprise, but also shows how its methods, its focus on the local', and its holistic approach holds great promise in contributing to social and economic development on the continent and to addressing its gripping problems.