The Sudan Handbook

the ambitions of the state 117

conflicts in post-colonial Sudan. But the problems of governance have

not been restricted to war at the margins. After independence, regimes

in Khartoum became locked into a cycle of instability. Brief periods of

parliamentary rule have been succeeded by lengthy periods of effec-

tive dictatorship, in turn ended by popular unrest. Some observers have

attributed this destructive cycle to the influence of sectarian politics in

the north. They argue that the prolonged rivalry between Ansar and

Khatmiyya – between the Mahdi family and the Mirghani family – have

had the effect of sabotaging democracy, making it impossible for what

were formerly called the ‘modern forces’, the technocrats, trade unions,

teachers, to lead Sudan in the path of development. This is a misleading

simplification. Sectarian rivalry, in part a legacy of colonial policies that

favoured the two leading families , has certainly been a problem, but

the ambitions of the modern forces themselves – shaped by a sense

of the superiority of the ideals and culture of the riverain centre they

hailed from – exacerbated the crisis of the state, straining its resources to

breaking point. Post-independence governments have been authoritarian

for the most part. They have had aspirations to transform the country, but

lacked the power to realize their goals. Grand ambitions have propelled

instability. These included the campaign by General Abboud, who seized

power in    1958     and tried to Islamize the south, and President Nimeiri’s

visions of a country where prosperity would be created by mechanized

farming. Resistance to these visions was met with a response that was

both authoritarian and weak – Abboud’s war in the south, Numeiri’s

alliance with radical Islam and, in the 1980s, Sadiq al-Mahdi’s use of

murahalin (mounted raiders drawn from Arab pastoralist groups) as

military auxiliaries. The reflex authoritarianism of a state convinced of

its rightness has also affected politicians and administrators who are

not riverain northerners as the southern leader Abel Alier inadvertently

revealed when he said of those who resisted the Jonglei Canal Project,

that he would ‘drive them to paradise with a stick’.

In recent years this particular cycle of instability at the centre seems to

have been interrupted. The current regime in Khartoum has held power

The Sudan Handbook, edited by John Ryle, Justin Willis, Suliman Baldo and Jok Madut Jok. © 2011 Rift Valley Institute and contributors since^ 1989,^ longer^ than^ any^ other^ since^ independence.^ This^ is^ partly^ the^

(www.riftvalley.net).