162 thE sudan handbookeconomy remained largely stagnant. The tension produced by multiple
failures contributed to the instability of successive coalitions. In an
attempt to cut the Gordian knot in 1988 the Unionist Party made its
own deal with the SPLA, and by the following year there were signs
that Sadiq al-Mahdi was prepared to do likewise even if it meant ending
Islamic law as demanded by the southerners. The Council of Ministers
and the Assembly endorsed the DUP-SPLM accord in April 1989, Sadiq
initialled a law suspending Islamic laws on 29 June, and the Council of
Ministers endorsed it on 30 June.
However a new ingredient had been emerging in Sudanese politics
in the shape of the National Islamic Front (NIF), as the party of the
Muslim Brotherhood was now known. Its leader, Hassan al-Turabi, had
been building up his movement since National Reconciliation in 1977
and although the NIF had won only 18.5 per cent of the popular vote,
mainly in and around Khartoum, it organized astutely to win 23 of the
28 ‘graduate’ seats. It was to be in and out of the succession of coali-
tion governments thereafter, with its main concern centring always
on defending and enhancing Islamic law. By 1989 the possibility that
Islamic law might be ended by a deal with the SPLA encouraged army
officers sympathetic to the NIF. Few had realized the extent to which NIF
‘entryism’ had penetrated not only the military but other areas of the
state as well. This became apparent only after the coup.Recommended Reading
El-Affendi, Abdelwahab. Turabi’s Revolution: Islam and Power in Sudan. London:
Grey Seal, 1991.
Alier, Abel. Southern Sudan: Too Many Agreements Dishonoured. Exeter: Ithaca
Press, 1990.
Burr, J. Millard, and Collins, Robert O. Requiem for Sudan: War, Drought and
Disaster Relief, 1983–1993. Boulder: Westview Press, 1994.
Niblock, Tim. Class and Power in Sudan: The Dynamics of Sudanese Politics
1898–1985. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1987.
Voll, John O. (ed.). Sudan: State and Society in Crisis. Bloomington: IndianaThe Sudan Handbook, edited by John Ryle, Justin Willis, Suliman Baldo and Jok Madut Jok. © 2011 Rift Valley Institute and contributors University Press, 1991.
(www.riftvalley.net).