Over the Borderline
Insight Myanmar10 Kesä 2025

Over the Borderline

Episode #353: Professor Lahra Smith, a political science professor specializing in East Africa at Georgetown University, argues that Myanmar’s current struggles must be seen within a global framework of colonial legacies, using Sudan as a comparative case. While acknowledging contextual differences, Smith shows how both countries were shaped by British colonial rule that hardened ethnic divisions, created infrastructure disparities, and entrenched political inequalities.

Sudan lies within Africa’s so-called "coup belt," illustrating a broader dissatisfaction with post-colonial governance and foreign interference. Like Myanmar, Sudan has suffered from military coups that initially promised reform but quickly descended into new forms of repression. Smith discusses how colonial policies divided Sudanese society along racial and religious lines, just as British colonialism in Myanmar entrenched ethnic and religious hierarchies that still drive conflict today.

Colonialism’s infrastructural and missionary legacies further marginalized Sudan’s peripheries, fostering grievances that exploded into civil wars and the eventual, troubled independence of South Sudan. Similarly, Myanmar’s marginalized ethnic regions remain flashpoints for conflict. Smith stresses the need to move beyond thinking in terms of static land borders and recognize the deeper regional and cultural continuities that colonial boundaries disrupted.

Ultimately, Smith emphasizes that identities and nations are constantly evolving, and that just drawing new lines on maps to replace the old, artificial, colonial ones will not solve the problems caused by the colonial experience. She stresses that genuine understanding requires recognizing this fluidity.

Jaksot(507)

Access Denied

Access Denied

Episode #165: Toe Zaw Latt, a journalist currently with Mizzima talks with us about access to communications in Myanmar.Before the arrival of mobile phones and internet in the country, one of the few ...

16 Touko 20231h 15min

Flavors of Freedom

Flavors of Freedom

Episode #164: Yunanda Wilson has warm memories not only of the scrumptious fish noodle dish—known as mohinga—that her grandmother was famous for, but also its place in her family history. Her grandmot...

12 Touko 202359min

The Inconvenient Truth about the Military Coup

The Inconvenient Truth about the Military Coup

Episode #163: Jack Jenkins Hill, a PhD student at the University College London, joins the show to discuss the state of capitalism and the deteriorating environment in Myanmar. Hill has spent the last...

5 Touko 20231h 8min

Contrasting Iran and Myanmar

Contrasting Iran and Myanmar

Episode #162: Pardis Mahdavi, Provost and Executive Vice-President as well as professor of anthropology at the University of Montana, joins the conversation to talk about the growing discontent and pr...

28 Huhti 20231h 8min

The Rohingya Refugee Crisis

The Rohingya Refugee Crisis

Episode #161: Dan Sullivan, the Director of Africa, Asia, and the Middle East at Refugees International, joins this episode to discuss the challenges facing the Rohingya community. Most of the world b...

25 Huhti 202352min

U Gambira

U Gambira

Episode #160: U Gambira was a 29-year old monk in 2007 when he helped foment the initial protests that grew into what came to be known as the Saffron Revolution. After running away from home because o...

21 Huhti 20231h 59min

The Harmony of David Lai

The Harmony of David Lai

Episode #159: “As soon as the coup started, the first thing in my mind was how we, the people of Myanmar, had lost our future, and are going back to old times, which weren't good.”This was David Lai’s...

14 Huhti 20231h 21min

Ayya Yeshe

Ayya Yeshe

Episode #158: Following a family tragedy when she was just a teenager, Ayya Yeshe set off on a spiritual journey, becoming a nun in a Tibetan lineage at just 23. However, she soon learned that female ...

7 Huhti 20232h 11min

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