Explore how "Sudan" and "South Sudan" represented in history at independence
The main question in the postcolonial discourse of northern Sudan is not the question of self-determination, but "Who are the Sudanese?" This debate is the last factor in the axis of race, creed, and class. The least prominent, but perhaps the most prevalent.
The word Sudan appeared during the colonial period and had two meanings. The first is a simple description that refers to the indigenous people in the territory of the Sudan. The second is black and non-tribalized people, mainly from the south and the Nuba Mountains.
In the latter usage, it is imprecise or deliberately inconclusive, as opposed to the relatively ambiguous word "Arabia".
Over the decades, the term Sudan has migrated upwards on a social scale, referring to economic, cultural and political elites whose members consider themselves "Arabs," and the process of "becoming Sudanese" refers to the adoption of the norms and habits of such elites. The Anglo-Egyptian Treaty of 1936 was the first time Egypt recognized the "Sudanese" as an entity.
The question of who is "South Sudanese" is equally worrying.
It's amazing how these definitions translate between ancestry, appearance, language, and territory, and then back. "Southerners" simultaneously have a primitive or true Sudanese feel, while also being excluded from the Sudanese nation.
Southerners were defined as opposed to the North, and at independence, the Southern Sudan media emphasized the theme of building a new nation on the basis of the struggle of the Sudan People's Liberation Army and the leadership of the late John Garang and overcoming tribalism. During the 2011 referendum registration process, the intrinsic socio-political identity became clear.
As Nikki Kindersley observed in defining "Southernness," "This huge issue, emotionally and politically sensitive and difficult, has hardly been discussed by the general public or political elite."
Instead, the controversy ahead of the referendum focused more on allegations of manipulation and political influence on both sides, and the process of identifying South Sudanese citizens and borders was based more on dialect concepts of identity and belonging than on legal documents.
The official languages of the Republic of South Sudan are English and the country's many indigenous languages. Arabic is not an official language, and in fact, in setting the criteria for citizenship in South Sudan, language criteria were used to explicitly exclude native Arabic speakers.
Nevertheless, the independence ceremony in July 2011 was mostly conducted in Arabic, and when President Salva Kiir Mayadit wanted to address the South Sudanese nation, his language of choice was Arabic.
South Sudan is officially a secular state and no religion has priority in the country's constitution. However, the political process of dismantling the Islamization of public life and political solidarity with Christian groups that actively promoted the separation of the South was more prominent than the separation of the State from religion
The Sudan achieved ambiguous statehood on 1 January 1956. The raising of the Sudanese flag comes after a decade of intrigue and controversy between Sudanese political leaders and the two empires of the co-autonomous LinkedIn and Egypt.
The path to independence was laid by two agreements: the 1952 self-determination agreement between the Sudanese legislature and the United Kingdom, and the agreement between Britain and Egypt, which allowed for a 3-year transition, followed by an internationally supervised referendum on independence or unity with Egypt, scheduled for 1957.
The process has been swift and the fundamental issues have not been resolved, particularly the status of southern Sudan. As one of the leading historians of the period observed, "A major reason for indifference to government problems is the belief that the whole situation is temporary."
The outstanding issue was self-determination, and when that issue was resolved, attention could be turned to other matters.
In December 1955, Prime Minister Ismail Al-Azhari rushed to declare independence by a parliamentary vote ahead of the promised referendum.
He did so in part to prevent a challenge to his precarious coalition government and to assure his patrons in Cairo that it was a stepping stone to reunification with Egypt.
For the Umma party, especially its core member Ansar, independence was the second liberation of Sudan and the return of the country that existed as a Mahdi state between 1885 and 1898. Umma MPs voted unconditionally for independence.
Azari won the votes of Southern MPs with a promise to the federal constitution, which he failed to keep. The position of the leaders of the South, adopted at a meeting held in Juba the previous year, was that Southerners would claim their right to self-determination in the absence of federal guarantees.
In fact, members of the Equatorial Legion of the Sudanese Defence Forces preferred to defect rather than be transferred to northern Sudan, heralding the first Sudanese civil war.
Reference: The Unstable Politics of the Horn of Africa
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