Wendy James is Professor of Social Anthropology in the University of Oxford, and a Fellow of St. Cross College. She has carried out research in the Sudan and Ethiopia intermittently over four decades, and has long-standing academic links with universities and other institutions in the region of north-eastern Africa. She is a Fellow of the British Academy and has served as President of the Royal Anthropological Institute. She has published widely not only on Africa but on the history and current scope of anthropology, as well as acting on various occasions as a consultant to the UN and associated agencies. She was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Copenhagen in 2005.

"Wendy James's book is an impressive study, based on long-term field research in the turbulent area of Southeast Sudan bordering Ethiopia and in Khartoum, and gives great insights into the experiences of the Uduk (or Kwanim Pa) people and their wider (inter)national contexts.... This monograph makes absorbing reading; Wendy James has done a wonderful job."--Jon Abbink, Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute