This seminar draws from Benson-Strohmayer’s forthcoming book—Of Rule Not Revenue: Predation, State-Unbuilding, and Civic Resistance in Sudan and South Sudan, 1821-2023—which traces how both Sudans have been governed through fragmented, militarised revenue systems rather than accountable taxation. It introduces the concepts of predatory peace, fiscal fragmentation, and civic fiscal resistance to show how civic actors have contested predatory rule and advanced alternative state-building visions rooted in fiscal justice. In so doing, the talk situates Sudan’s experience within wider debates on African political economy, peacebuilding and the infrastructures of war.

Dr Matthew Benson-Strohmayer is a social and economic historian of Africa in the Conflict & Civicness Research Group (CCRG) at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) researching changing global conflict and peace dynamics. Matthew is both a Research Fellow within the CCRG and the Sudans Research Director, leading research in both Sudans, and affiliate staff within the Department of Economic History.