ABSTRACT
Numerous large and small scale agricultural industrial development projects are taking shape in the Blue Nile Province. The relationship between economic and political changes on the one hand and social and religious development on the other is also accessible through descriptions of civil laws, customary law, and native courts. In traditional Sudanese society, a man's strongest loyalty is to his family and to the tribe (gabila). The gabila offers its members an identity and a base for loyalty, over and above a religious loyalty to Islam. Sudanese policies of national unification are also felt in the rural areas. Many Sudanese doubt that customary laws are compatible with the interests and the growing economic and social demands of a modernizing state. The People's Courts in Damazin and Roseiris are responsible for civil cases in the two towns. There are two Judges, a President, a Clerk, and a Messenger in each court.
