ABSTRACT

After the overthrow of the Mahdist Government in the Sudan, the Anglo-Egyptian Condominium Government set out to build what became known as the Sudan. While the Muslim Sudanese were left to practice their religion, Christianity was promoted in Southern Sudan. However, in 1956, the northern Sudanese who inherited political power sought integration through Islam, while ignoring the seeds of Christianity. This chapter argues that these developments contributed to the splitting up of Sudan. Sudan became independent on January 1, 1956. Ismail al-Azhari, a Northern nationalist and religious pragmatist formed the first government. In his effort to Islamize the education system in Southern Sudan, Abdalla Khalil appointed Ziada Arbab as the Minister of Education. In January 1962, the Minister of Education, Ziada Osman Arbab, in a speech in Juba, asserted that national unity implied universal adoption of Arabic as the national language and Islam as the national religion.