Travel, literature, and a little too much gunfire: Andrew Burmon talks with Dan Morrison about The Black Nile.
Mar 072011
My four-day series on the coming breakup of Sudan in Slate magazine has received good notices from the likes of The Village Voice, The Browser, Bobby Ghosh of Time magazine, Microkhan, and the Wandering Savage.
In case you missed the tasty 7,500-word opus, here’s a recap:
Part 1: Meet the Bernie Madoff of Sudan
Part 2: Fighting for Freedom in the New Sudan
Part 3: South Sudan: A Million Mutinies Now?
Part 4: South Sudan’s Oil Curse
Since the series began running, the insurgent militia leader Lt. General George Athor, who I quote in Part 3 of the series, has continued his private war in Jonglei state at the cost of some 300 lives. I’m posting, after the jump, notes from my January interview with Athor. I’ll reserve comment except to say the statements of this former golden boy of the Sudan People’s Liberation Army are extremely self-serving.
That’s all for now. I’m off to write a new chapter of The Black Nile to be included in the book’s upcoming Penguin paperback edition. So much has changed on the Nile this year, and so much of if for the better, that I felt the book needed an update.
There’s an old saying in Darfur that goes: Kalash au bilash; Kalash begim al kash.
Translation: “You’re trash without a Kalashnikov; get some cash with a Kalashnikov.”
My newest story at Slate.com is about a Darfur police corporal who stole millions without ever flashing a gun.
I hope you enjoy the story of Adam Ismael, his $180 million Ponzi scheme, and Omar al-Bashir’s economic war on Darfur. It’s the first installment in a four-day series on the coming breakup of Sudan. (And here’s a piece I wrote from Sudan in January during the south’s historic independence vote.)
Nov 302010
Mohammed Wardi, the legendary Sudanese crooner, has joined the pessimistic chorus predicting a weak and battered Sudan after next month’s southern secession vote.
In a recent interview with the Al Ahdath newspaper in Khartoum, translated by the Sudan Votes website, Wardi says “the current unity [of Sudan] is nothing but a lie and it is not attractive.”
Do you mean that we are living on borrowed time?
We do not even have borrowed time. I am really worried about what will come later. Oil and borders are not the only issues to worry about; there is also the future of Darfur, the East and the North. Eventually, Sudan will turn into dub-districts.
As I recounted in this 2007 article, Wardi is beloved in Sudan and across the Sahel region for incorporating diverse melodies and rhythms into his songs. He’s been imprisoned and exiled for his stands against Sudan’s various dictators, and he was by far the most prominent northern member of Sudan People’s Liberation Movement. (A more evocative account of my meeting with Wardi — complete with a pair of caged fauns and a fast-flowing bottle of Chivas — can be found in Chapter Nine of The Black Nile.)
Jun 142010
Part travelogue, part crazy adventure tale, part political reportage: Veteran foreign correspondent Morrison and a buddy build a boat and paddle up the Nile River through Uganda, Sudan and Egypt. Morrison’s African river journey is a paradoxical mixture of awe-inspiring discoveries, eye-opening human interactions and perilous escapes. — Chuck Leddy, the Minneapolis Star-Tribune
Apr 302010
My newest piece, a bit truncated, on the opinion pages of today’s New York Daily News. Apparently I’m keeping Charles Krauthammer’s seat warm.
My new article, published yesterday in Slate, looks at the twisted politics behind Sudan’s recent election. Check it out.
Who is the mystery Londoner who helps move guns to the Islamist-led government of Sudan and invests the regime’s money in Europe? Continue reading »
