Ferenc Dávid Markó

BBC World Service - Focus on Africa, UN accuses South Sudanese leaders of 'systematic looting' U.N. investigators accuse South Sudanese authorities of plundering country’s wealth

I talked about the new UN Human Rights Commission in South Sudan report, and their robust methodology at BBC Africa ‘Focus on Africa’ podcast

Fogbow operations in South Sudan and beyond raise red flags for faltering aid system The for-profit US firm is coordinating airdrops that critics say transgress humanitarian principles.

“It’s not just private companies that are instrumentalised by the government. Humanitarian aid has been used (…) as a tool of population control and a means of acquiring revenue”

I’m quoted by joe_falzetta and @joshuacraze.bsky.social in a piece on Fogbow

www.thenewhumanitarian.org/investigatio...

I am deeply ashamed of the vote by my native Hungary

Why Do Some Rebel Governments Last When Others Fall? One factor matters most, and it could be a problem in Syria.

interesting piece

“Rebellions that were unified, with just one major group taking power, tended to build long-lasting governments. But fractured rebellions, in which multiple rebel groups formed a coalition to defeat the previous regime, tended to produce short-lived governments.”

I have a new piece out with Small Arms Survey on the situation in Eastern Equatoria, #SouthSudan

It's about gold, power, and cattle raids!

www.smallarmssurvey.org/highlight/ne...

Sudan’s national treasures have been stolen – we spoke with the director of museums The war in Sudan has seen the looting of the country’s museums. Heritage boss Ikhlas Abdel Latief speaks about the losses.

Great short interview with Dr Ikhlas Abdel Latief Sudan’s director of Museums for the National Corporation of Antiquities and Museums on the recent looting of the National museum. Sadly much of the stolen material is likely already distributed on the market
theconversation.com/sudans-natio...

The issue has several other essays on Azande witchcraft, including a smart reflection by my friend @joshuacraze.bsky.social on what can-and-cannot be said when a society is talking about witches

www.journals.uchicago.edu/toc/hau/2024...

I have an essay out in
@haujournal
on witchcraft, anthropology, and the state.

It's about what you can say with witches, and the violence of the silences that surround them.

It contains some sentences I am very proud to have written:

www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/full/10....

Lately, dabaya replaced the famous benge oracle, that used strychnine poison instead of the decapitation of the chicken. Benge is a cornerstone of Evans-Pritchard's famous 'Witchcraft, Oracles and Magic Among the Azande' book. The essay is an anthropological reflection on the changes in witchcraft.

I was invited to attend a dabaya divination in 2019 to settle a case of adultery at the chief's court. Dabaya is a divination when an operator cuts the head off a chicken and the place of the collapse of the chicken and the position of the carcass determines if the accused is a witch or no.

I have a new academic essay at @HAU on the famous Azande witchcraft, based on a decade of fieldwork and almost a dozen trips to Western Equatoria state of South Sudan. I try to unpack social transformation through the changing nature of oracles.

www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/...

Hi bsky, I'm an anthropologist, researching and writing mostly about South Sudan. Currently I am teaching social anthropology at ELTE, Budapest and work as a consultant researcher. I worked for @crisisgroup.org and @smallarmssurvey.bsky.social in the last 8 years.