The Sudan Handbook

tRaditional authoRity, loCal GoVERnmEnt & JustiCE 189

depredations. Out of these partially complementary, partially conflicting

needs emerged the role of ‘traditional’ leaders.

Understanding Traditional Authority

The term ‘traditional authority’ is a problematic one because it is often

taken to indicate an age-old and untouched indigenous custom. It is

important to realize that traditional leaders across Sudan in fact reflect

a far more modern – and uneasy – accommodation between govern-

ment and society. When British officers arrived from 1899, they sought

to overcome the limitations of their resources through alliances with

Sudanese leaders. Yet the individuals and families identified as useful

colonial allies had often gained their prominence relatively recently,

through prior alliances with the Turco-Egyptian or Mahdist governments.

In many other cases, especially in southern and eastern Sudan, British

officers encountered a bewildering multiplicity of local authority, and, by

their own admission, had to construct new kinds of leadership altogether.

Even where the nazir, omda or sheikh came from a historically important

family, the nature of their authority would be changed by the demands

of mediating with the colonial government. Much of the variation in

the legitimacy and effectiveness of traditional leadership in Sudan today

arises from the contingency of its origins, and the variable success of

individual leaders in maintaining their authority within their community,

at the same time as (or despite) also working with government.

A uniform hierarchy was established in most areas, from sheikh up

to nazir or sultan (or from headman up to chief in the south). In the area

where John, the plaintiff in our court case lives, the chiefs are known in

the local language as ‘chiefs of the cloth’ (a reference to their original

colonial uniforms or sashes) to distinguish them from other chiefs such

as the spearmasters, who perform vital sacrifices, and whose spiritual

power is often seen to be incompatible with ‘government’ work. The

emergence of the traditional leaders in the Condominium period was

further complicated by their relationship to religious authority. Sufi

The Sudan Handbook, edited by John Ryle, Justin Willis, Suliman Baldo and Jok Madut Jok. © 2011 Rift Valley Institute and contributors sheikhs or holy men, and indigenous spiritual leaders like rain-makers,

(www.riftvalley.net).