"This book explores the relationship between the process of state formation and political identities in the context of Sudan's conflict. Amir Idris examines conflict and politics of identity in the Sudan, and argues that neither race, nor culture is at the center of the Sudan's tragedy. Instead, it is the racialized postcolonial state that imposed a single vision of nation through the policy of Arabization and Islamization. Idris examines how an ideology of hierarchy was historically constructed and politically institutionalized in the Sudan, acknowledging the centrality of the historical legacy of slavery and colonialism in the crisis of postcolonial citizenship in the Sudan. He also reflects on the crisis in Darfur and its implications for a durable peace in the Sudan. The book concludes by proposing an alternative perspective on the crisis of identity that transcends ethnicity and race."--Jacket.