Exploratory readings of Mahdist archives : spatializing discursive practices in Sudan during the early Mahdiyya

Anael Poussier is a doctoral candidate from the University Sorbonne – Paris 1, working under the under the supervision of Pierre Vermeren (University Sorbonne Paris 1 – IMAF) on the the history of the Mahdiyya (1880-1898). His PhD thesis attempts to analyse the socio-economic factors that defined the mobilization of the Sudanese population in favor of the Mahdist regime, with a particular emphasis on the Eastern Sudan. More broadly, his interests span the pre-colonial economic history of the Sub-Saharan belt and the various forms of social mobilization in this region during the XIXth century.