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Mahmood Mamdani

Mahmood Mamdani, the author of Good Muslim, Bad Muslim: America, the Cold War and the Roots of Terror, is Herbert Lehman Professor of Government in the departments of anthropology, political science and international affairs at Columbia.

From the London Review dated 8 March 2007

The Politics of Naming: Genocide, Civil War, Insurgency

The similarities between Iraq and Darfur are remarkable. The estimate of the number of civilians killed over the past three years is roughly similar. The killers are mostly paramilitaries, closely linked to the official military, which is said to be their main source of arms. The victims too are by and large identified as members of groups, rather than targeted as individuals. But the violence in the two places is named differently. In Iraq, it is said to be a cycle of insurgency and counter-insurgency; in Darfur, it is called genocide. Why the difference? Who does the naming? Who is being named? What difference does it make? [ read more . . . ]

Selected bibliography

  • Good Muslim, Bad Muslim: America, the Cold War, and the Roots of Terror (2004)
  • When Victims Become Killers: Colonialism, Nativism and the Genocide in Rwanda (2001)
  • Beyond Rights Talk and Culture Talk: Comparative Essays on the Politics of Rights and Culture (editor) (2000)
  • Citizen and Subject: Contemporary Africa and the Legacy of Late Colonialism (1996)

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In the LRB archive

subscriber-only content Blue-Hatting Darfur · 6 September 2007

The Politics of Naming: Genocide, Civil War, Insurgency · 8 March 2007

From the LRB letters page