Wendy James is Professor Emeritus of Social Anthropology in the University of Oxford, and a Fellow of St. Cross College. She has carried out research in the Sudan and Ethiopia intermittently over four decades, and has long-standing academic links with universities and other institutions in the region of north-eastern Africa. She is a Fellow of the British Academy and has served as President of the Royal Anthropological Institute. She has published widely not only on Africa but on the history and current scope of anthropology, as well as acting on various occasions as a consultant to the UN and associated agencies. She was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Copenhagen in 2005.

• Historical Introduction: The Blue Nile Borderlands ; PART ONE: THE STRUGGLES FOR KURMUK AND FOR CHALI ; 1. Projects, Targets, and the Recruitment of the People ; 2. Chali: Rooting up a Sleepy Village ; 3. Chali: Front-line Garrison ; PART TWO: THE LONG ROAD, 1987-93 ; 4. Initial Refuge at Assosa and Why it Failed ; 5. Blue Nile South: Ethiopian Turmoil, SPLA-protection, 1990-92 ; 6. The SPLA Split: Refugees on the Edge ; 7. Escape Bac to the New Ethiopia, 1992-3 ; PART THREE: BEYOND WORDS ; 8. Safe Haven? Bonga Refugee Scheme ; 9. Dance, Music, and Poetry ; 10. Sermons, Visions, and Dreams ; 11. Reunions, Retrospectives, and Ironies ; Epilogue ; Current and Future Agendas ; Appendix: Time Chart

Wendy James's book is an impressive study, based on long-term field research in the turbulent area of Southeast Sudan bordering Ethiopia and in Khartoum, and gives great insights into the experiences of the Uduk (or Kwanim Pa) people and their wider (inter)national contexts ... This monograph makes absorbing reading; Wendy James has done a wonderful job.