ABSTRACT
No Sudanese at the dawn of this new century, except the inapprehensive, can look back at the last half century with congratulation. For almost half a century, instability in Sudan had never been an occasional occurrence; it was repetitive history. The country is now entering another century with its burdensome load of problems. And though Sudan has been recognized by many commentators as one of Africa's most promising countries, its situation today is so woeful that even those who divined a bright future for it, virtually assume that its future has come and gone by. Some who sang its praises in the past have sadly ended singing its requiem.2 As for the still hopeful, they are about to conclude that Sudan is the country of the future, and it shall always be. Those damning judgements were provoked by recurring crises wrought by Sudanese leaders upon themselves and their country. From the history we have reviewed, those crises were neither godordained nor results of astral influences. They are all man-made. The basic flaw rests on a socio-political paradigm that has been taken for granted by a large section of the Northern elite. Because of this flawed paradigm, Sudanese democracy had, since independence, a potential for crisis.
