Emma's War: A True Story (Paperback)

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Review
You would expect a figure as glamorous as Emma McCune to die a heroic, martyred death. But in fact the white, illegal second wife of a Sudanese warlord - one who smuggled herself illegally aboard UN planes and recklessly tripped about the Horn of Africa trying to manipulate the Western press and abusing relief sent for the starving Sudanese - met a sad, banal end in a car accident. In this impressive book, Deborah Scroggins manages to weave the frustrating tale of Emma's life and death and the complicated history of Sudanese politics into a thoughtful, engrossing read. Emma McCune's life was one of unending melodrama. She was born in India, moved to England at two, and was affluently raised in Yorkshire by parents whose lifestyle exceeded their means. They lived in a draughty mansion until her father committed suicide when Emma was 11; the surviving family then moved into a council flat. This did not stop Emma from pursuing the life of privilege her parents felt was owed to them: she went to Oxford and took a year to fly around the world in a single-engine plane with a friend. It was at Oxford that adventure called to Emma: she fell in love with Africa, specifically Sudan, and tried desperately to obtain a position in the bush. Abandoning a master's degree for a position with Street Kids International, she set off to create schools in southern Sudan. There she met and married Riek Machar, a separatist warlord whose actions and orders murdered thousands, if not millions, of innocent Sudanese. Scroggins tries to be as fair as possible when presenting all viewpoints regarding Emma's marriage. In Riek, Emma managed to marry the African man she found so seductive, and in Emma, Riek enjoyed the status of a white wife with ties to various relief efforts operating in Sudan. Emma claimed to be Sudanese at heart and embraced the desperate way of life, enduring numerous diseases, massacres and death threats as she threw herself into her husband's political movement. Her life was notorious: she lived like an African queen in surroundings that are incomprehensible to Westerners, and both she and the people who loved her expected great things from her unborn child. This is an insightful, sensitive and powerfully written biography of a woman whose motivations may have seemed dubious, but whose sincerity and devotion were beyond question. (Kirkus UK)

Compelling portrait of an independent-minded British aid worker who married a Sudanese warlord. Atlanta-based journalist Scroggins, who has reported from the Sudan, uses the story of Emma McCune, a young woman with fashion-model looks who found something in African culture missing from her own life, as a through-line to follow the neglected history of Africa in the 1980s and '90s, ravaged by famine and genocidal tribal warfare. Daughter of a colonial tea plantation executive who killed himself after repatriation from India to England, McCune became involved with African student political groups as a college student in the UK in the mid-1980s. Once in the Sudan, she proved a diligent and charismatic figure, eschewing white privileges, behaving at times more Sudanese than Western, and developing an almost cult-like following, particularly among women and children. McCune became even more of a curiosity when she married the leader of an armed Sudanese faction, Riek Machar. This marriage alienated some of her former colleagues, and much of the organizational support she had relied on diminished when she appeared to be assuming some of her husband's political views. Bouts with malaria and dysentery took their toll on her health, and she came to desperately lack funds, but she remained capable, according to one friend, of looking smashing in a cocktail dress while dining out with other whites in Nairobi (although someone else inevitably had to pay her bill). By the time of her 1993 death in a Nairobi traffic accident at age 29, she was pregnant, optimistic, and pressing ahead with new plans to assist Sudanese women. Her story had by then attracted the interest of several reporters and film documentarians, who found her singularly intriguing, but also a tad bizarre. Solid background, cinematic descriptions, and the author's own intimate knowledge of the Sudan and the international aid community in Africa, enhance this profile of a woman who gave herself fully to her ideals, and to her fate. (Kirkus Reviews) --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

The Economist
EMMA'S WAR is about the politics of the belly, and what happens when the fat white paunch meets the swollen stomachs of the hungry of Africa. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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2 Reviews 5 star:    (0) 4 star:  (1) 3 star:  (1) 2 star:    (0) 1 star:    (0)           Average Customer Review 3.5 out of 5 stars (2 customer reviews)		Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
Most Helpful Customer Reviews   19 of 20 people found the following review helpful: 4.0 out of 5 stars The Heart of Darkness still beats, 22 May 2005 By  Robert Lauder "r_lauder" (Coventry, UK) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)    This review is from: Emma's War: Love, Betrayal and Death in the Sudan (Paperback) Like a lot of people, I have entertained idle thoughts of going and doing aid work in Africa. This book hasn't deterred me, but through its examination of the life of one person, does 'dramatise' the issues involved. These are... The unexamined motivations of young people to do aid work as a way of escaping an emotionally and physically 'boring' developed world (Scroggins makes mention on several occasions the incomprehension of the African towards the kawahaja (white person) - "we'd far rather be in London") The limited vocabulary the western media has for describing white women in Africa - dispensers of aid or venerated queens. The impossibility of delivering aid to refugees without compromising your moral stand - the armed men control access to the refugee camps, eat first (and best) and see getting aid as a zero-sum game played against their military opponents. The most compelling part of the book is Emma's change from aid worker to lover/wife of a charismatic military commander, and the subsequent betrayal of the ostensible motives that led her out of Europe in the first place. Scroggins writes the book from three angles, of her own investigation in the civil wars and conflicts in the country, her meetings and subsequent documenting of Emma's life, and as necessary, a history of Sudan and the Upper Nile region. Her own love for this part of the world comes through, as does a quite clear-eyed recognition of the limitations of any options for outside parties in trying to 'aid' a country in the grip of conflict. A reviewer elsewhere thought that Emma was closer to a Greene character in her naivete and good intentions, though I think that I would stay with the Conradian interpretation that it was the situation of the war and the cheapness of life that create a re-orientation from Western to African values. Which to our eyes is the horror. Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)   3.0 out of 5 stars An interesting account of an unusual life, 28 May 2009 By  N. Kelly "maiden_of_kent" (UK) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)    This review is from: Emma's War: Love, Betrayal and Death in the Sudan (Paperback) I should probably start by saying that this is not usually the genre of book I go for. It was recommended to me by a friend who described the subject matter. As it sounded intriguing I thought I would give it a try and was glad that I did. It is not the most enthralling book I have read (I didn't sit and read it in one sitting as I have with other tomes) but it was entertaining enough. What I enjoyed was the mixture of Emma's life history and that of the region, including its political and military groups. I felt at times that there was a speculative element about Emma's motivations which was probably unavoidable. It is a pity that there were some gaps in her story about which her own experiences will forever remain unknown. I am thinking in particular about her marriage to the Sudanese warlord. A strength of the writing was that I was able to gain a vivid picture of the region, helped greatly by the fact that the author had been there herself. In addition, the author had mixed in some of the same social circles as Emma; I felt this added legitimacy to her writing. I would recommend this to a friend if they were someone with an interest in history, biographies or unusual life-stories. Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this) Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review › See all 2 customer reviews...		Ad feedback   Search Customer Reviews Only search this product's reviews

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