MONGABAY.COM
Mongabay.com seeks to raise interest in and appreciation of wild lands and wildlife, while examining the impact of emerging trends in climate, technology, economics, and finance on conservation and development (more)
WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
|
|
Sudan
Index
Portrait of Herbert Kitchener, commander of the AngloEgyptian army that reconquered Sudan in the 1890s
Courtesy Robert O. Collins
In January 1899, an Anglo-Egyptian agreement restored
Egyptian rule in Sudan but as part of a condominium, or joint
authority, exercised by Britain and Egypt. The agreement
designated territory south of the twenty-second parallel as the
Anglo-Egyptian Sudan. Although it emphasized Egypt's indebtedness
to Britain for its participation in the reconquest, the agreement
failed to clarify the juridical relationship between the two
condominium powers in Sudan or to provide a legal basis for
continued British presence in the south. Britain assumed
responsibility for governing the territory on behalf of the
khedive.
Article II of the agreement specified that "the supreme
military and civil command in Sudan shall be vested in one
officer, termed the Governor-General of Sudan. He shall be
appointed by Khedival Decree on the recommendation of Her
Britannic Majesty's Government and shall be removed only by
Khedival Decree with the consent of Her Britannic Majesty's
Government." The British governor general, who was a military
officer, reported to the Foreign Office through its resident
agent in Cairo. In practice, however, he exercised extraordinary
powers and directed the condominium government from Khartoum as
if it were a colonial administration. Sir Reginald Wingate
succeeded Kitchener as governor general in 1899. In each
province, two inspectors and several district commissioners aided
the British governor (mudir). Initially, nearly all
administrative personnel were British army officers attached to
the Egyptian army. In 1901, however, civilian administrators
started arriving in Sudan from Britain and formed the nucleus of
the Sudan Political Service. Egyptians filled middle-level posts
while Sudanese gradually acquired lower-level positions.
In the condominium's early years, the governor general and
provincial governors exercised great latitude in governing Sudan.
After 1910, however, an executive council, whose approval was
required for all legislation and for budgetary matters, assisted
the governor general. The governor general presided over this
council, which included the inspector general; the civil, legal,
and financial secretaries; and two to four other British
officials appointed by the governor general. The executive
council retained legislative authority until 1948.
After restoring order and the government's authority, the
British dedicated themselves to creating a modern government in
the condominium. Jurists adopted penal and criminal procedural
codes similar to those in force in British India. Commissions
established land tenure rules and adjusted claims in dispute
because of grants made by successive governments. Taxes on land
remained the basic form of taxation, the amount assessed
depending on the type of irrigation, the number of date palms,
and the size of herds; however, the rate of taxation was fixed
for the first time in Sudan's history. The 1902 Code of Civil
Procedure continued the Ottoman separation of civil law and
sharia, but it also created guidelines for the operation of
sharia courts as an autonomous judicial division under a chief
qadi appointed by the governor general. Religious judges and
other sharia court officials were invariably Egyptian.
There was little resistance to the condominium. Breaches of
the peace usually took the form of intertribal warfare, banditry,
or revolts of short duration. For example, Mahdist uprisings
occurred in February 1900, in 1902-3, in 1904, and in 1908. In
1916 Abd Allah as Suhayni, who claimed to be the Prophet Isa,
launched an unsuccessful jihad.
The problem of the condominium's undefined borders was a
greater concern. A 1902 treaty with Ethiopia fixed the
southeastern boundary with Sudan. Seven years later, an AngloBelgian treaty determined the status of the Lado Enclave in the
south establishing a border with the Belgian Congo (present-day
Zaire). The western boundary proved more difficult to resolve.
Darfur was the only province formerly under Egyptian control that
was not soon recovered under the condominium. When the Mahdiyah
disintegrated, Sultan Ali Dinar reclaimed Darfur's throne, which
had been lost to the Egyptians in 1874 and held the throne under
Ottoman suzerainty, with British approval on condition that he
pay annual tribute to the khedive. When World War I broke out,
Ali Dinar proclaimed his loyalty to the Ottoman Empire and
responded to the Porte's call for a jihad against the Allies.
Britain, which had declared a protectorate over Egypt in 1914,
sent a small force against Ali Dinar, who died in subsequent
fighting. In 1916 the British annexed Darfur to Sudan and
terminated the Fur sultanate
(see
fig. 3).
Figure 3. Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, 1899-1955
During the condominium period, economic development occurred
only in the Nile Valley's settled areas. In the first two decades
of condominium rule, the British extended telegraph and rail
lines to link key points in northern Sudan but services did not
reach more remote areas. Port Sudan opened in 1906, replacing
Sawakin as the country's principal outlet to the sea. In 1911 the
Sudanese government and the private Sudan Plantations Syndicate
launched the Gezira Scheme (Gezira is also seen as Jazirah) to
provide a source of high-quality cotton for Britain's textile
industry
(see Irrigated Agriculture
, ch. 3). An irrigation dam
near Sannar, completed in 1925, brought a much larger area in Al
Jazirah under cultivation. Planters sent cotton by rail from
Sannar to Port Sudan for shipment abroad. The Gezira Scheme made
cotton the mainstay of the country's economy and turned the
region into Sudan's most densely populated area.
In 1922 Britain renounced the protectorate and approved
Egypt's declaration of independence. However, the 1923 Egyptian
constitution made no claim to Egyptian sovereignty over Sudan.
Subsequent negotiations in London between the British and the new
Egyptian government foundered on the Sudan question. Nationalists
who were inflamed by the failure of the talks rioted in Egypt and
Sudan, where a minority supported union with Egypt. In November
1924, Sir Lee Stack, governor general of Sudan and sirdar, was
assassinated in Cairo. Britain ordered all Egyptian troops, civil
servants, and public employees withdrawn from Sudan. In 1925
Khartoum formed the 4,500-man Sudan Defence Force (SDF) under
Sudanese officers to replace Egyptian units.
Sudan was relatively quiet in the late 1920s and 1930s.
During this period, the colonial government favored indirect
rule, which allowed the British to govern through indigenous
leaders. In Sudan, the traditional leaders were the shaykhs--of
villages, tribes, and districts--in the north and tribal chiefs
in the south. The number of Sudanese recognizing them and the
degree of authority they held varied considerably. The British
first delegated judicial powers to shaykhs to enable them to
settle local disputes and then gradually allowed the shaykhs to
administer local governments under the supervision of British
district commissioners.
The mainstream of political development, however, occurred
among local leaders and among Khartoum's educated elite. In their
view, indirect rule prevented the country's unification,
exacerbated tribalism in the north, and served in the south to
buttress a less-advanced society against Arab influence. Indirect
rule also implied government decentralization, which alarmed the
educated elite who had careers in the central administration and
envisioned an eventual transfer of power from British colonial
authorities to their class. Although nationalists and the
Khatmiyyah opposed indirect rule, the Ansar, many of whom enjoyed
positions of local authority, supported the concept.
Data as of June 1991
|
|