The Sudan Handbook

tRaditional authoRity, loCal GoVERnmEnt & JustiCE 197

seen continued or increased centralized control over local government,

and councils have at best enjoyed deconcentrated rather than devolved

powers. Crucially, government resources rarely reach the province/

state level, and certainly never go below it. But on the other hand, local

government institutions have provided arenas, like the councils, through

which more people can engage with the state and the cultures of bureau-

cratic, representative government, which has created both a sense of

participation and of frustration. It is no coincidence that the leaders of

the earliest southern political parties had mostly been low-level admin-

istrative officers under the British, who found their ambitions frustrated

by the appointment of northern officers to the higher positions. Local

councils have also helped to form and cement the local political elites

that have been so powerful within local society. Conflicts and political

strategies have, however, generated greater attempts than ever before to

harness or replace those local elites since the 1990s.

Divide and Rule?

Opinion – whether Sudanese or international – remains divided on

the desirability and legitimacy of Native Administration or traditional

authority. Some point to the resilience of traditional leaders as indicative

of their fundamental legitimacy, and view them as defenders of cultural

particularity against a centralizing, autocratic state, and as providers of

restorative justice and communal harmony. Critics claim instead that

the system of Native Administration provides only for privilege and

abuse, that it is undemocratic, exclusionary and regressive, and/or that

it has been corrupted beyond redemption by the political manipulation

of recent years.

This variance in opinion is shaped by individual position, age and

stance, but also by the particular area of Sudan being discussed. On the

whole, younger, urbanized and educated Sudanese are more likely to

criticize the failings of Native Administration, with its widespread associ-

ation with heredity and gerontocracy. But there is also immense variation

The Sudan Handbook, edited by John Ryle, Justin Willis, Suliman Baldo and Jok Madut Jok. © 2011 Rift Valley Institute and contributors across Sudan and among the traditional leaders themselves. Some have

(www.riftvalley.net).