ABSTRACT
What we know as Sudan 1 is the result of the territory-sharing agreements between the colonial powers in the 19th century. Composed of more than 600 different groups living in the country today, Sudan is characterized by its multiethnic, multicultural, multireligious population. When the boundaries of Sudan were established, these groups were not consulted as to whether they wanted to live together to form one nation. Instead, the delineation of the boundaries by others sealed their fate. The colonial powers essentially adopted a governance system that was centralized and controlled by Khartoum, and that was that. Following Sudan’s independence in 1956, a clique of Sudanese inherited the system and preserved the same colonial social, economic and political structure. The basic features of this structure are as follows:
A small section of the Sudanese people located in and around Khartoum, near the confluence of the Blue and White Nile, control the state apparatus, impose policies that serve their greedy interests and control and exploit the resources of the country.
The majority of the population—rich in ethnic, religious and cultural diversity—is ruled by this minority, the elite. The majority’s right to be masters over the wealth that they produce and their right to participate in the general affairs of their regions and nation is largely denied. The same is true in regard to expressing their cultures and heritage. As a result, the majority of people suffer disenfranchisement of all kinds, live in poverty, lack opportunities to pursue a formal education and do not have access to adequate health care. Over and above these basic deprivations, they have faced a raft of calamities, including terrible famines (some natural, some produced by humans), epidemics and wars that have particularly affected the rural areas.
The regions of uneven development inherited from the colonial state have been made worse when compared to the regions, such as in the vicinity of Khartoum, where there have been more development projects. The phenomenon of economic collapse and the decline of the standard of living are common to all parts of the country, but have hit rural areas with greater severity.
The regime’s adoption of the concept of a “Sudanese identity” based on religious and ethnic superiority neglects all the diverse elements and components that comprise Sudan; this dangerous and misguided effort reduces Sudanese identity to one that is solely Arab and Islamic in nature. Made the law of the land through bogus and unfair changes in the nation’s constitution, this in effect swallows any other Sudanese culture through coercion, dislodgement and extermination.
The establishment of the religious state in 1983, thus institutionalizing all of the aforementioned discrepancies and mindlessness, has found its most horrible expression as manifest in a series of wars, ethnic and religious purging and, in certain cases, mass annihilation. The religious state has deprived people of their rights of citizenship and created second-class citizens. It has also supported economic and social inequality and contributed to warfare between the diverse groups in the nation.
