Saviors and Survivors: Darfur, Politics, and the War on Terror

A sweeping and urgent exploration of the crisis in Darfur and an impassioned examination of the world’s response to that crisis, from Mahmood Mamdani, “one of the most penetrating analysts of African affairs” (The New York Times) and the father of New York City mayor Zohran Mamdani.

“[Mahmood Mamdani] demonstrates just how politically charged the word ‘genocide’ has become, and how many shady agendas it can serve, even among those purporting to act in the name of universal values.”—Harper’s Magazine

In Saviors and Survivors, Mahmood Mamdani brings a unique perspective on the crisis in Darfur. He explains how the conflict in Darfur began as a civil war between nomadic and peasant tribes over fertile land in the south, triggered by a severe drought that had expanded the Sahara Desert by more than sixty miles in forty years; how British colonial officials had artificially tribalized Darfur, dividing its population; and how the war intensified in the 1990s when the Sudanese government tried unsuccessfully to address the problem by creating homelands for tribes without any. The involvement of opposition parties gave rise in 2003 to two rebel movements, leading to a brutal insurgency and a horrific counterinsurgency—but not to genocide, as the West declared.

Mamdani also shows how the Cold War exacerbated the twenty-year civil war in neighboring Chad, creating a confrontation between Libya’s Muammar al-Qaddafi and the Reagan administration that spilled over into Darfur and militarized the fighting. By 2003, the war involved national, regional, and global forces, including the powerful Western lobby, who now saw it as part of the War on Terror.

Incisive and authoritative, Saviors and Survivors will radically alter our understanding of the crisis in Darfur.