Introduction

The history of the conflict in the Sudan is full of tales of invasions, enslavement and exploitation of the South by the North. Group consciousness in the Sudan has been founded on race, culture and religion and these factors have been powerful in accentuating inter-group relations in many plural societies. But the Southern Sudanese people’s memories of their past created in them a strong need for autonomy, the need to throw off the external control of the Northern Sudanese, whose position of superiority is satisfying their own need to dominate. In the Sudan, the Northerners, because in the majority and with better prospects of taking over as successors of the British, defined self-determination for the entire Sudan as one entity. The misfortune of the Sudan is that most politicians in the North are sectarian and reactionary. The Sudan must demonstrate her ability to settle her own problems free from dictation by outside vested interests.