|
|
|
|
|
Sudan: HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
Prehistory and Early History: Northern Sudan was inhabited by hunting and gathering peoples by at least 60,000 years ago. These peoples had given way to pastoralists and probably agriculturalists at least by the fourth millennium B.C. Sudan’s subsequent culture and history have largely revolved around relations to the north with Egypt and to the south with tropical Africa, the Nile River forming a “bridge” through the Sahara Desert between the two. The Ancient Egyptians sent military expeditions into Nubia, the region between the first and second Nile cataracts, and at times occupied Nubia as well as Cush, the land between the second and sixth cataracts, the population becoming partially Egyptianized. From the early eighth century to the mid-seventh century B. C., the Cushites conquered and ruled Egypt. By the early sixth century B.C., a Cushitic state, Meroe, had emerged that eventually extended southward almost to present-day Khartoum. Meroe maintained commercial relations with the Roman world, developed a distinctive culture and written language, and became the locale of an iron-working industry. It succumbed to invasion in the mid-fourth century A. D.
Click to Enlarge Image
Click to Enlarge Image
By the sixth century, three states had emerged as the political and cultural heirs of the Meroitic kingdom. All were ruled by warrior aristocracies who converted to Christianity, accepting the Monophysite rite of Egypt. The church encouraged literacy, the use of Greek in liturgy eventually giving way to the Nubian language. Arabic, however, gained importance after the seventh century, especially as a medium for commerce. With the disintegration of the Christian Nubian kingdoms by the fifteenth century, Islamic civilization and religion spread throughout northern and eastern Sudan. Pastoralists from Egypt filtered into the land, gradually giving rise to a new population composed of local Nubians and Muslim Arabs.
Islam and the Mahdi: The coming of Islam gradually changed the nature of Sudanese society and facilitated the division of Sudan into northern and southern halves, one Arab, the other, African. In the sixteenth century, the Ottoman Turks, governors of Egypt, claimed Nubia as a dependency but exerted little authority beyond the Nile. Meanwhile, in central Sudan, a new state called Funj arose with its capital at Sannar on the Blue Nile. The Funj checked the expansion of the Arabs, in the process becoming devout Muslims themselves. In the west, the Fur people formed the state of Darfur and similarly adopted Islam. Both states engaged in the slave trade with Egypt.
Early in the nineteenth century, the Egyptians sent another military expedition into Sudan, establishing a new administration known as the Turkiyah, or Turkish regime. The Egyptians divided Sudan into provinces, and in 1835 Khartoum became the seat of a governor general. They fostered the growth of Islamic law and institutions and organized and garrisoned the new provinces of Bahr al Ghazal, Equatoria, and Upper Nile, home to the Nilotic Dinka, Nuer, and Shilluk as well as the non–Nilotic Azande. In 1874 Egypt conquered and annexed Darfur. Slavery and the slave trade, age-old practices in Sudan, intensified during the nineteenth century. Annual raids for slaves resulted in the capture of thousands of black Sudanese, the destruction of the region’s stability and economy, and a deep hatred of Arabs among the Southerners.
In the early 1880s, an Islamic cleric, seeking to create a “purified” form of Islam and to throw off Ottoman rule from Egypt, took the title of “Mahdi” (“the rightly guided one”), and launched a revolt against the Ottomans as well as against the British, who in 1882 had assumed control of affairs in Egypt. By late 1885, the Mahdi’s forces, the Ansar, had driven the Egyptians out of Sudan. Mahdist control of central and northern Sudan lasted until an Anglo-Egyptian army defeated the Ansar in 1898. The next year, the Anglo-Egyptian Condominium in Sudan was proclaimed, which provided for joint overlordship but which in effect placed control in British hands.
Colonial Era: British authorities created a new administration in Sudan under a governor general and provincial governors. Some economic development occurred, but it was confined to the Nile Valley’s settled areas. In 1916 the British terminated Darfur’s independence by annexing that sultanate. The three southern provinces, Bahr al Ghazal, Equatoria, and Upper Nile, were separated from the North economically and politically to allow the South to develop in its own way, but in reality the region remained isolated and economically undeveloped. Western missionaries introduced Christianity, established mission schools, and provided some social services to the black population. Sudanese nationalism developed after World War I as an Arab and Muslim phenomenon with its support base in the northern provinces. The nationalists were divided between those who favored unification with Egypt and a pro-independence movement. The latter prevailed, and on January 1, 1956, Britain granted independence to Sudan.
Independence: Independent Sudan continued to be bedeviled by Southerners’ fears of domination by the North and of the imposition of an Islamic and Arabic-speaking administration. Discontent flared as early as 1955. Rebellion began in earnest in 1963 and lasted through the 1990s except for a decade of peace from 1972 to 1983. Peace negotiations repeatedly foundered over the issues of self-determination for the South and the application of sharia (Islamic law). Beginning in 1983, Colonel John Garang assumed leadership of the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA), the main opposition force. The Northerners were headed after mid-1989 by Lieutenant General Umar Hassan Ahmad al Bashir and his ally, Hasan Abd Allah al Turabi, of the National Islamic Front party. The regime became increasingly Islamist, in keeping with al Turabi’s views, and remained so even after al Bashir ousted al Turabi from the government and imprisoned him in 2002. Sudan’s financial prospects improved dramatically in the late 1990s with the export of petroleum from oilfields in the South.
Negotiations between the regime and the SPLA produced results only after international mediation. In June 2002, both sides agreed that a referendum on self-determination for the South would be held within six years of a peace agreement and that in the interim the sharia would not apply to non-Muslim Southerners. Subsequent negotiations produced a cease-fire in much of the South, provisions governing national institutions, security arrangements, a formula for sharing oil revenues, and a federal governing structure. These negotiations, however, were overshadowed by a separate rebellion in Darfur that began in 2003 over alleged economic and political marginalization. The al Bashir regime sent Arab militias into Darfur, whose atrocities drew international condemnation, threats of sanctions from the United Nations, and, in late 2004, emplacement of cease-fire monitoring troops from the African Union.
AllAfrica.com,BARBARA AMONG reports Misgivings are growing in Ugandan government circles over the manner in which the Government of Southern Sudan (GOSS), which is mediating ... Rift between UN, Sudan deepens with envoy's expulsion - 24 Oct 2006 Victoria Times Colonist,Pronk's expulsion deepens the rift between President Umar al-Bashir's government and the international community over demands that Sudan allow UN peacekeepers ... Sudan Expels UN Representative - 24 Oct 2006 Prensa Latina,Khartoum, Oct 23 (Prensa Latina) Sudan s official notice to UN special Representative Jan Pronk (Holland) on Sunday, giving him 72 hours to leave the country ... State lawmakers seek to punish Sudan - 24 Oct 2006 Durango Herald,DENVER - Colorado should divest its stock in companies that do business with Sudan as a protest against the genocide in Darfur, a group of students and state ... 'Lost Boys of Sudan' screening Nov. 3 in GR - 24 Oct 2006 Grand Haven Tribune,GRAND RAPIDS — Grand Rapids Community College will hold a free screening of the documentary "Lost Boys of Sudan" on Friday, Nov. ... Challenges Facing Southern Sudanese Returnees - 24 Oct 2006 OhmyNews International,2006 signing of a historic tripartite agreement between the governments of Kenya and Sudan and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), for ... SECRETARY-GENERAL REVIEWING SUDAN’S REQUEST TO WITHDRAW SPECIAL ... - 24 Oct 2006 PressZoom (press release),The Secretary-General received this morning a letter from the Government of Sudan requesting him to withdraw his Special Representative, Jan Pronk, from the ... South Sudan wants own country communication Code - 24 Oct 2006 Sudan Tribune,Oct 20, 2006 (KAMPALA) — Southern Sudan is mobilising support to get its own international gateway and communication code. Barnabas ... sudan: Plan announced to disarm feared Darfur militia - 24 Oct 2006 Monday Morning,Sudan announced a plan to disarm Darfur’s feared Janjaweed militia, as a human rights report released last week charged that the enormous death toll in the ... Condoleezza Rice On Expulsion Of UN Sudan Envoy - 24 Oct 2006 Scoop.co.nz (press release),SECRETARY RICE: I'm going to talk to Kofi Annan about this later today. The situation in Darfur has been deteriorating and the international ... Canada should lead in Darfur`Responsibility to protect' more than ... - 24 Oct 2006 Toronto Star,...situations have worsened. The government of Sudan has launched a new military offensive against the rebel holdouts. Meanwhile, government ... Call for expression of interest, Southern Sudan - 24 Oct 2006 ReliefWeb (press release),HelpAge International established a presence in Sudan in 1984 in response to the emergency situation caused by a series of famines in the Horn of Africa and ... UN Sudan envoy retains status - 24 Oct 2006 The Australian,JAN Pronk remains the United Nations' special envoy to Sudan with the full support of UN chief Kofi Annan despite being the target of an expulsion order from ... Zimbabwe Rights Groups Plan To Press AU's Konare At Upcoming ... - 24 Oct 2006 Voice of AmericaKonare met with President Robert Mugabe on October 13 and responded to requests for a meeting that his visit concerned African conflicts in Sudan and elsewhere ... Peace Talks Resume; LRA Requests For All Rebels to Assemble in Ri ... - 24 Oct 2006 Uganda Conflict Action Network,The LRA has said it wants all its troops to assemble in Ri-Kwangba in Western Equatorial State, one of the two assembly points in southern Sudan. ... Country Overview: Sudan - Oct 22, 2006 AND,Sudan has an estimated population of 38 million, a land mass of 2.376 million sq km and shares borders with 9 countries (Egypt, Libya, Chad, Central African ... US envoy says he has come to Sudan with open heart - Oct 23, 2006 AND,The Advisor of the President of the Republic, Dr Ghazi Salah Al-din, on Thursday said that the American Envoy to the Sudan, Andrew Natsios, has pointed out ... Genocide in Sudan - Oct 22, 2006 ProgressiveU.org,Every week, 8000 innocents are killed in the Darfur region of Sudan. ... Currently, only 6,700 African Union (AU) troops are deployed in Sudan. ... Sudan dictatorial shift and Prok’s expulsion - Oct 22, 2006 Sudan Tribune,In this context, the expulsion of the UN Secretary General Special Envoy to Sudan, Jan Pronk, after a press release by the Sudanese army against him, comes as ... AU welcomes signing of Eastern Sudan Peace Agreement - Oct 23, 2006 AND,The Chairperson of the African Union (AU) Commission welcomes the signing of the Eastern Sudan Peace Agreement (ESPA), which is signed between the Government ... Sudan lifts emergency state in east after deal - Oct 22, 2006 Reuters AlertNet,KHARTOUM, Oct 22 (Reuters) - Sudan has lifted the state of emergency in its eastern region and released prisoners following a peace deal signed last week ... Pressure builds on businesses tied to Sudan - Oct 21, 2006 MarketWatchSAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Companies doing business in Sudan are coming under increasing pressure from the United States, as the international community ... News Roundup - Oct 22, 2006 Monsters and Critics.com,KHARTOUM, Sudan, Oct. ... So far, however, the Sudan government refuses to allow an international peacekeeping force into Darfur. NEW BRIGHTON, Pa., Oct. ... Forum: Help keep Sudan on right path - Oct 21, 2006 Washington Times,Earlier this month, I concluded my tenure as chief of mission at the Embassy of the Republic of the Sudan to the United States. ... This series of profiles of foreign nations is part of the Country Studies Program, formerly the Army Area Handbook Program. The profiles offer brief, summarized information on a country’s historical background, geography, society, economy, transportation and telecommunications, government and politics, and national security. In addition to being featured in the front matter of published Country Studies, they are now being prepared as stand-alone reference aides for all countries in the series, as well as for a number of additional countries of interest. The profiles offer reasonably current country information independent of the existence of a recently published Country Study and will be updated annually or more frequently as events warrant. |
| what's new | rainforests home | help support the site | madagascar | search | about | contact |
Copyright Rhett Butler 1994-2006 |
