Over the course of a half-century of independence the former Anglo-Egyptian Sudan has been torn by extended periods of warfare, during which the southern Sudan, roughly defined by the basin of the White Nile, has acquired an ever-greater sense of separate identity. During the same interval the Southern Sudan has been drawn increasingly into a web of diplomatic and geopolitical ties with neighbouring lands. Here studies by leading African, European and American scholars of Southern Sudan present an impressive array of essays covering all aspects.