Customer Reviews

Emma's War: An aid worker, a warlord, radical Islam, and the politics of oil--a true story of love and death in Sudan

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I used to believe that aid workers really helped people. I'm not so sure any more. I chose to read this fascinating book because I knew little, if anything, about the Sudan. I know a lot more now. And it's not very pleasant. The author, Deborah Scoggins certainly knows this. She's an American journalist who's won awards for her fine reporting. And she's experienced firsthand the famines and frustrated attempts by aid workers who are often pawns of Sudanese politics, exacerbating the endemic horrors of the ongoing civil war.

Into this mix comes the true store of Emma McCune, a romantic British aid worker with a feisty personality and an attraction to African men. It's the early 1990's and the idealist Emma tries to set up schools for the children of the warring tribes. When she finds the young boys being kidnapped to fight in guerilla armies, she does what she can to bring attention to the problem which is just one of many that plague the country. Eventually, she meets Reik Machar, a British-educated African leader of his people. She marries him and gets swept up in the complicated intrigues and politics. As she changes, she becomes a pragmatic apologist for the murders and tortures that her husband orchestrates. Her tragic story is the center of the book. This was a wise choice of the author, who even includes photos of Emma and her husband as well as some horrific images of the famine around her.

The book, however, is more than just Emma's story. Scrupulously researched, it is the story of Africa itself, and the Sudan in particular. There's the Islamic north with ties to Osama bin Laden. There's the Animist and Christian south where oil has been discovered. There are dozens of tribes with hatreds between them that go back for centuries. There are the inefficiencies of the aid workers who mean well but wind up playing into the hands of the warlords. There are the soldiers who steal the food meant for the famine victims. There are children sold into slavery. There are corpses lining the roads and being fed upon by vultures. It's all very awful and hard to read about. But then there is Emma's romance. It ties the story together and kept me reading.

"Emma's War" is only 352 pages long. The writing is clear, the chapters short and so well structured and interspersed with factual information that the learning experience is seamless. There are maps and photographs as well as an additional 34 pages of footnotes. It certainly left me with a lot more knowledge and insight into African politics than I ever imagined. I enjoyed reading it immensely learned more than I thought I ever wanted to know. It's an experience I won't soon forget. Highly recommended.

This is a must-read book!

Deborah Scroggins does a fabulous job over covering the long-running civil war in Sudan. Rather than being simply a history book, she weaves in the human story of Emma McCune, a British aid worker who leaves neutrality behind to marry a southern Sudanese warlord.

Emma is both an admired and reproachable character. She moves to Africa, sacrificing the comforts of the West, to start schools, which she hopes will prevent children from being turned into soldiers. But, at some point, her romantic vision of Africa, schoolgirl ideals of love overcoming all, and delusions about being a bridge between khawajas, or whites, and Africans drives her into the perilous arms of Riek Machar. Riek, at first a "good guy," eventually turns on southern Sudanese, becoming responsible for thousands of deaths -either from starvation or bullets.

Deborah does a great job at exploring the idea that despite good intentions, Western aid may not be what Africa needs. She points out that most workers don't understand the history, the culture or the politics of the nation. Without that understanding, seemingly innocent actions produced deadly consequences.

Deborah gathered her information from personal interviews with key players, as well as visits to Sudan. This well-written, well-researched book illustrates the suffering of the Sudanese people. I finished it feeling deeply sad about the starvation and disease that has claimed nearly two million Sudanese lives. The war raged over religion (Islam vs. Christianity vs. Secularlism), oil and tribal differnces. It could have been prevented.

This book also helped me understand the connections between Africa and the Middle East. Afterall, Sudan was the country where Osama bin Laden lived before moving to Afghanistan.

With the global war on terrorism and President Bush's focus on Africa, this book is timely and informative.

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.

Anyone with any illusions about serving as an aide worker needs to read this book - if only to see the seemier side of an occupation that appeals to many jobless college graduates.

Scroggins opened my eyes, at least, to what goes on behind the news of wars in Africa. She has untangled the web of tribal and clan animosities which propel events there, and through the story of one misguided Englishwoman, shows us how good intentions (not to mention the dollars we donate to aid organizations) go astray.

The Emma in question is a want-to-be aid worker who got caught up in the feuds of Sudan, marrying the warlord leader of one of the multiple factions in Sudan's wars. It is an interesting story in itself but it is only part of Scroggins' book, which explores the Sudan and its fractious history, building some kind of explanation of how Sudan got itself into the mess it is in today. She also explores the influence of Western humanitarian aid, questioning the motives of those involved. The conclusions reached are bleak and depressing, yet sadly realistic.

There is a lot of detail in the book - tribes involved, their interwoven politics, the personalities of those involved and their backgrounds. What could have been a very dry read is made fascinating by Scroggins - she never takes anything or anyone at face values, exploring the story behind the story.

Anyone who thinks they understand what the Horn of Africa needs should read this book before saying anything. It may not be the full story, but it makes many valid and well thought out points.

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.

Deborah Scroggins gives voice to a tsunami of human suffering in the Horn of Africa while exposing the cynicism of Southern Sudan's rebel "leadership" and the shallow vanity of the Western aid establishment. Though there is fodder aplenty for condemnation here, Scroggins restrains herself ably (save for an occasional swipe at the usual Western conservative bogeymen).

In the end, this book is a mirror from which the reader cannot escape: How many innocent Africans must starve before I will really care? If not me, who? If not now, when? And once read, Scroggins' frustrating work refuses to rest politely on the bookshelf: this is a real Tragedy, and now the reader, like it or not, has a supporting role.

"Emma's War" marks Deborah Scroggins' first bow on the literary stage since her triumphant screenplay "Death In Decatur." Let's hope there's much more to come from this talented writer.

I couldn't put this book down. Having previously read "Til the Sun Grows Cold: Searching for My Daughter, Emma" by her mother Maggie McCune, I was interested in reading more about Emma's life in the Sudan.

The author cleverly interweaves the story of Emma, a young British aid worker who went out to the Sudan and subsequently fell in love with and married a Sudanese warlord, with the political situation there. It relates the horrors of famine, starvation, war, violence and terrible cruelty on the part of political leaders to their fellow countrymen. In the midst of this Emma wanted to make a difference. She did her best to try and help children and never minded being different herself and was loved and appreciated for it. However, being married to a warlord and becoming part of a very different culture in the end became the hugest of challenges though her loyalty to her husband appeared never to waver.

So many efforts have been made at providing humanitarian aid for the Sudan - almost all thwarted by people who were out for their own ends. I was shocked and saddened to read of so much political intrigue, hatred and prejudice - and of the devastation of what must in reality be a very beautiful country. What was brought home harshly to me were the tragic accounts of boy soldiers captured at a very tender age to be enlisted in the military. Mostly they died of starvation.

The book is well researched and written with feeling. I would recommend it to all who wish to know more about this particular country and its misfortunes and also about a very brave young woman, Emma McCune Machar, who tried so hard to play her part in providing humanitarian aid to the Sudan.

I saw this book excerpted in Vogue and raced out to get it. It's an amazing tale of a woman who sets out to do good and gets corrupted along the way. The politics of poverty are woven seamlessly into the seductive tale of a British AID Worker named Emma. I could not put this book down.

This is an extraordinary book about two women told against the history of the Sudan Civil War, the longest lasting in African history. The first women is EMMA McCune, a beautiful displaced sole who discovers she has the "sole of Sudan" and desires to help as an aid worker. The second woman is the author Deborah Scroggins who interweaves her own memoirs as a journalist covering the war into a complex and detailed narrative. And finally this is a great overview to the whole of Sudan history going back to the death of Chinese Gordon in Khartoum. Emma eventually leaves aid work, marries an already married warlord who we discover is in collusion with the Islamic government he declares his enemy. (Did Emma know?) The whole book is like a house of mirrors demonstrating that aid is always political and in many cases resented and ineffective. (What can the west do for the continent?) Famine we learn is also often used as a political weapon and may in the end be all about "the oil" and/or personal power. To a small degree Paul Theroux covers some of these same topics in his splendid travel book on Africa, "Dark Star". But if you want to understand the horn of Africa, as told by someone who experienced it, and is also an unusually good writer with a marvelous adventure story thrown in then move this book up on your stack of reading material. I also recommend it to anyone interested in Osama bin Laden, and a view of one root of Islamic fundamentalism took hold and how this may be part of the "blow back" we are experiencing. This is just an excellent book. What is it about the English that they are drawn to such places? People like Richard Burton, Gordon of Khartoum, Lawrence and now Emma. (I understand there are plans to make the book into a movie with Nicole Kidman playing Emma.)