Holding Ground

South Kordofan has been bombed, besieged and left off the map for most of four decades. The Nuba Mountains absorbed hundreds of thousands fleeing the war elsewhere, and are now contested from within: the movement that administers these villages has tied itself to the Rapid Support Forces, and its army, the SPLA-N, has turned on other Nuba communities. In Mboro and Angolo the wrestling still takes place. Men coat themselves in wood ash and step into the ring, young men dance them in, and the village stands at the edge and watches. Each of them was asked to hold still for a moment. So was an SPLA-N general, photographed behind his desk — the same frame as the wrestlers and the crowd, one face, one stance, and not the same power. Who holds this ground, and on whose terms, has more than one answer.