Oil and Water in SudanOverview of the Environment
A tale of Two Rivers: Ecological sources of the
North-South Divide
Analysing Sudan from a comparative perspective subsumes critical geo-
graphical differentials distinguishing the southern Saharan fringe from the
lush regions below. North Africa and Arabia form an environmental and cul-
tural continuum separated by the Red Sea. The camel and the Mediterranean
coastline made lateral communication in the north relatively easy compared
to crossing the vast, waterless desert to the south.
But the fact that, with proper preparation and organisation, traders could
cross the sands enhanced the strategic position of communities in the Sahel,
the zone of semi-arid and sub-humid savanna stretching from Senegal to the
Horn of Africa. Long-distance commerce and trade with forest communities
to the south contributed to the emergence of a number of medieval states
located along the arc of the River Niger. States like Timbuktu, Dje~e, and
Ghana came and went, and conflict remained a localised phenomenon.
This was also the case both before and after the regional violence precipitat-
ed by the campaigns of Osman Dan Fodio. Environmental comparative advan-
tage underpins the symbiosis linking savanna and forest communities. Exchange
reinforced the co-evolutionary dynamic responsible for West Africa's regional
commonalities that developed over time. The distribution of Fulani herders kom
Guinea to Cameroon illustrates the regional scale of ago-pastoral connections
binding the western Sahel to adjacent agricultural mas. The Senegal, Niger, and
Volta river systems reinforced and complemented the eco-zone symbiosis.'
The western Sahel developed the same religious, cultural and economic
oppositions present in Sudan. The presence of oil has been equally con-
tentious. Yet contemporary incidents of conflict indicate a breakdown of tradi-
tional protocol - and not the collapse of the regional social-environmental
dynamic - as recent incidents of farmer-herder conflict in Cameroon demon-
strate. Even the periodic emptions of violence plaguing modem Nigeria, the
region's microcosm, derive from internal political competition, and not region-
al factors. Indeed, the whole region would catch fire if they did.
Just as environmental zoning and river networks fostered exchange and
interaction, the highly compartmentalised structure of the region's ethnic
communities serves to buffer and contain conflict from spreading beyond
their epicentre. This configuration of environmental forces and social units,
however, become progressively attenuated beyond the eastern flank of the
Niger Ba~in.~
The similar combination of ethnic patchwork and ecological zoning in the
eastern Sahel displays a certain internal equilibrium over time, but with
external contact and modernisation this pattern breaks down in Sudan. The