Religion, Wet-nursing, and Laying the Ground for Breastmilk Banking in Darfur, Sudan

The Berti live in the state of Northern Darfur, Sudan. They are sedentary farmers who combine agriculture with animal husbandry. The Berti are followers of the Maliki School of Islam. For several generations, they have spoken Arabic only, and are now reasonably grounded into the Arab Islamic culture (for more details see Holy 1974; El Tom 1989). In the current Darfur war, the Berti fall within the so-called African divide that pits them against their nomadic Arab neighbors. As such, they are primarily supporters of the rebels, while most of the Arabs are sympathetic to the government of Khartoum (for more on the Darfur conflict see El Tom 2005; Flint and De Waal 2005; Daly 2007).