Ahmad Sikainga

Ahmad Sikainga (B.A. and M.A. from Khartoum University (Sudan); Ph.D., University of California, Santa Barbara) is Professor of History at The Ohio State University. 

He is a specialist in African and economic social history, with a focus on slavery, emancipation, labor, and urban history. The geographical focus of his research is Sudan, the Nile Valley, and North Africa.  His publications include:

  • Sudan Defence Force: Origin and Role, 1925-1955 (1983),
  • Western Bahr al-Ghazal Under British Rule, 1898-1956 (1991),
  • Slaves into Workers: Emancipation and Labor in Colonial Sudan (1996),
  • He co-edited Civil War in the Sudan, 1983-1989 (1993) and Post-Conflict Reconstruction in Africa (Africa World Press)
  • His most recent book is City of Steel and Fire: A Social History of Atbara, Sudan's Railway Town, 1906-1984 (2002).

In 1991-92, Professor Sikainga was a Mellon Fellow at Harvard University and in 1996-97 he was a Fulbright Scholar in Morocco. His current research examines the role of slavery, ethnicity, and identity in the development of popular culture in contemporary Sudan. He is also working on a research project that deals with the Islamic legal system and slavery in Morocco in the 19th century.  He spent 2007-08 conducting research in Sudan.