The Sudan Handbook

the ambitions of the state 113

most of the     58   years of the Condominium they assumed that the corollary

of such order was an authoritarian central structure. The Governor-

general ruled from the palace in Khartoum; beneath him the men of the

Sudan Political Service ruled as Governors and Inspectors (later District

Commissioners). They were remarkably few in number: a total of three

hundred and fifteen men joined the SPS between  1899     and 1939. Each

bore responsibility for a vast area of the country; they wielded more or

less unlimited authority. Only in the last few years of the Condominium

was there a rush of experimentation with electoral forms of representa-

tion – initially at a local level, and then nationally.

The simplicity of administrative structures was dictated to a significant

extent by financial exigency. The Condominium began with an enormous

budget deficit. This was partly plugged by a subvention from Egypt. This

was used in maintaining the military forces of the Condominium, giving

it a coercive capacity that was unusually large for a colonial state in

Africa. The Condominium made good use of this, emphasising military

displays and ceremonies, and in its first decades relying heavily on the

use of force to establish its authority, particularly in the south.

But the Egyptian subvention was a threat to British domination of

the Condominium, especially after 1922, when Egypt became formally

independent of Britain (though remaining, resentfully, under British

occupation). A local source of revenue had to be found. The answer was

a single economic development strategy: a vast cotton-growing scheme in

the Gezira, which started producing significant amounts of cotton in the

late 1920s. This did, ultimately, yield considerable taxable revenue – in

years when the world market was good – first for the government, which

owned a large share of it, and for the companies who invested in it, but

also for the Sudanese who held tenancies. It also, of course, promoted the

dependence of the emerging economy of Sudan on a single crop, which

was largely exported as raw material.

The wealth created by cotton-growing had other effects. The proportion

of the profits which flowed to the Sudanese was unevenly distributed; it

went to certain individuals and families, often those who already enjoyed

The Sudan Handbook, edited by John Ryle, Justin Willis, Suliman Baldo and Jok Madut Jok. © 2011 Rift Valley Institute and contributors some^ connection^ with^ the^ state,^ and^ who^ were^ part^ of^ the^ developing^

(www.riftvalley.net).