This book explains how the conflict in Darfur began as a civil war (1987₂89) 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 into βnativeγ and βsettlerγ tribes and creating homelands for the former at the expense of the latter; 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 counterinsurgency₁but not to genocide, as the West has declared.

Includes maps of: Sudan.

The Save Darfur Movement and the Global War on Terror. Globalizing Darfur -- The politics of the Movement to Save Darfur -- Darfur in context. Writing race into history -- Sudan and the sultanate of Dar Fur -- A colonial map of race and tribe : making settlers and natives -- Building nation and state in independent Sudan -- The Cold War and its aftermath -- Re-thinking the Darfur crisis. Civil War, rebellion, and repression -- Conclusion: Responsibility to protect or right to punish?.