Gezira is the Arabic word meaning 'island* or 'peninsula*. It crops up in place names throughout the Arab world, notably in the name Algeria which is an anglicized form of the Arabic al-guzayir, 'the islands*. In the Sudan, Gezira means only one thing. It refers to that vast area of land which lies between the Blue and the White Nile. In particular, though, it refers to the part of that area which is irrigated and used for growing cotton, the staple export crop of the country.

TONY BARNETT Overseas Development Group, University of East Anglia.

Chapter 1: Background to the Gezira Scheme, Chapter 2: The village, the people and their work, Chapter 3: Social resources and labour strategy (i), Chapter 4: Social resources and labour strategy (ii), Chapter 5: The causes of debt and the sources of credit, Chapter 6: The contract between the tenant and the Sudan Gezira Board, Chapter 7: The manipulation of water and the manipulation of men, Chapter 8: Policy and external constraints, Chapter 9: The field staff: their origins and their work, Chapter 10: The means of production