The Sudan Handbook

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services in few urban centres (notably Khartoum) and undermined tradi-

tional rural production.

The Sudanese state has consistently favoured mechanized and irrigated

farming over traditional agriculture. This has benefited those who are rich

and well-connected, and can provide capital. The growth of mechanized

farming schemes since the early 1970s has denied pastoralists access to

seasonal grazing and to the migration routes on which they depend; it

has driven small-scale farmers off the rainlands they once cultivated. In

this way, state policies have directly increased the rates of rural inmigra-

tion. Almost all parts of the country are affected in one way or another

by this. Though southerners and westerners may have suffered most,

movement from the country to the town is not unique to any particular

ethnic group or region.

Rural-urban migration is a back-and-forth, bit-by-bit process. Over

time, the idea of going home fades away. There are counter-migrations,

but the number of these is small; movement between country and town

is, overwhelmingly, a one-way process. In burgeoning urban centres,

new migrants place a burden on urban infrastructure and public services.

And members of migrant households, a majority of which are headed by

women, must find a way to eke out a living – as petty traders or labourers

or domestic servants – in the already-saturated informal economies of the

urban periphery. Still, these urban migrants may be in a better position

in terms of opportunities and earning than those they leave behind. The

rate of economic growth in Sudan between 2003 and 2008 was well above

seven per cent, but urban-rural, regional, and north-south disparities all

worsened.

Histories of Migration

There is an established history of movement from western Sudan to the

eastern and central parts of the country. Seasonal or short-term migration

has long been a livelihood strategy for these communities, and migrants

have generally returned to their areas of origin. But a succession of dry

The Sudan Handbook, edited by John Ryle, Justin Willis, Suliman Baldo and Jok Madut Jok. © 2011 Rift Valley Institute and contributors years from 1978 to 1987 resulted in the movement of several million people

(www.riftvalley.net).