Emma's War: An Aid Worker, a Warlord, Radical Islam, and the Politics of Oil--A True Story of Love and Death in Sudan

With yet another crisis in the Sudan (did it ever go away?) this book is a powerful source of information on the machievelian politics of the region, but also of the Aid, the aid workers and one in particular, Emma McCune. In the early 1990's Emma was an aid worker and idealist, working in the Sudan on programmes to provide young people with education (and assisting them in avoiding being drafted into the armies of the fighting factions of the region. Deborah Scroggins who met her once, unravels her life, and ties it in with the actions of the those around her - the warlords, the aid organisations, and the man she married, Northern Nile Warlord Riek. This is a fascinating and well written book, almost Shakesperian in its tragedy. From tragic childhood to idealist aid worker to blindly in love, to prime manipulator and finally tragic heroine - It seemed her life and made a complete circle. Scroggins clearly knows the area, its politics and history and is able to draw in immense amounts of background to situations which might otherwise be inexplicable - but she is an easy writer to read, it is eloquently put. I found myself unable to put this down until I was finished, and is easily one of the best reads of the year for me. I found myself by turns exasperated and annoyed with Emma - she seemed frivolous with everyone but herself and yet, she obviously achieved such a lot before she became enamoured with Reik. Even perhaps afterwards. I think reading this book will do more than explain the life of one woman, it will provide a background to one of those little understood regions - we are expected to give aid to the suffering masses without understanding why - and whether you actually give aid after you read this book will be interesting!

I couldn't put this book down. I really enjoyed how the writer combined Emma's stories, her own experiences as a journalist, and history. It really makes a person ponder the West's efforts to do good in Africa. Strings are always attached. I wonder if Sudan would have been better or worse off without oil. After reading this book, I think that Europe and America would have been less interested in the country, but that meddling did create many devastating problems. Do aid workers hurt more than they help? Are the benefits of their efforts negligible? Perhaps some. I liked the author's metaphor of the mirror when she talked about the ways the West and the Sudan were entagled with each other. Emma was an adventuress, and she seemed to mainly be trying to escape a mundane life. She liked helping people, but she seemed more wrapped up in the IDEA of doing so. She seemed to care, but she seemed addicted to the electricity of living life on the razor's edge in Sudan. THere, she had access to movers and shakers. THat intoxicated her.

Having made 3 trips to Sudan doing some medical missions work I found this to be a very interesting book, giving good insight to the terrible situation of that country. Much more a story of the country than just about Emma. Probably is best for me to remain anonymous.

Scroggins' story about Emma is a strange one, but the detailed descriptions of Scroggins' observations and experiences provide a stunning description of starvation, war, and disease in southern Sudan. Some parts of this book will stay with the reader for a very long time. The book is monumental and fulfills one's expectation of an epic story. I believe that the descriptions of the famine and its consequences must have been a painful story to tell, and we are indebted to Ms. Scroggins for her great effort.