The Sudan Handbook

tRaditional authoRity, loCal GoVERnmEnt & JustiCE 193

the nationalist era utilized traditional networks for their popular support;

indeed it was the success of the sectarian parties in gaining rural support

through their religious orders and the Native Administration that partly

prompted criticism of the system from those also opposed to these

parties. Relatives of the Native Administration leaders have often had

greater access to education and pursued political, military, international

or other professional careers. Many leading Sudanese politicians have

originated from chiefly families. At the local or regional level, powerful

patronage networks have formed, headed by the Native Administration,

religious leaders, merchants and wealthy landowners and farmers. In the

town where John’s case was heard, both the county judge and the county

commissioner, as well as a number of officials in the county or state

government, come from the two or three leading families of chiefs. Such

local or regional elites have formed and cemented over the last century

or more, and have provided greater political continuity than have the

changing governments and varying administrative policies.

The strength of these local elites, and the overlaps between effendiya

and Native Administration, was particularly apparent in the lead-up

to and aftermath of the 1971 Local Government Act. The professional

administrative officers serving in local government campaigned against

the abolition of Native Administration from the mid-1960s, convinced

that the traditional leadership was vital to the preservation of basic order

and security, and the collection of taxes. Even after the removal of former

Native Administration leaders from the new councils and courts, local

government officers continued to turn to them for advice and assistance

in resolving disputes, especially as the local governments struggled with

the perennial problems of understaffing and lack of resources. It was in

fact these administrative officers who by the 1980s began to call for a

reinstatement of Native Administration in Darfur and eastern Sudan, in

order to deal with escalating conflicts over grazing and other resource

issues.

There may be, then, less of a traditional-modern dichotomy in local

government and more of a tension between administrators – both Native

The Sudan Handbook, edited by John Ryle, Justin Willis, Suliman Baldo and Jok Madut Jok. © 2011 Rift Valley Institute and contributors Administration and civil servants – and politicians or military leaders.

(www.riftvalley.net).