Negotiating access to land in Alshigelab: Narratives on social contestations and networks of solidarity on the riverbanks of the White Nile

Abstract

Located on the eastern riverbanks of the White Nile south of Khartoum (Sudan), the peri-urban settlement of Alshigelab has grown into its current configuration as a mosaic of expanding agropastoral villages, resettlement areas, seasonal settlements, and changes in the fluctuating levels of the river. This paper showcases how processes of urban development and devastating flooding events have since the beginning of the 20th century, have contributed to emerging territorial narratives, social contestations, and networks of solidarity around land. Through fieldwork and collective critical mapping with residents conducted between 2021 and 2023, key narratives that contest dominant views on peri-urban territories as sites “awaiting to become urban” were identified and analyzed. Rather, through the persistence of rural dimensions and practices in Alshigelab, the paper showcases them as sites that reconstitute both the urban and the rural.