The Sudan Handbook

tRaditional authoRity, loCal GoVERnmEnt & JustiCE 199

The search for land rights has contributed to the association of ethnic

or kin groups with a particular unit of local administration. In turn,

governments have sought or rewarded loyalty by creating new adminis-

trative units for groups, and encouraged the perception that rights and

resources can only be guaranteed by each group having a corresponding

traditional leadership position. The result has been a proliferation of ever

smaller administrative units, and vigorous struggles to create or promote

new positions in Native Administration, which conveniently ensures that

people are preoccupied with local power struggles rather than national

politics. Local government reforms since the colonial period intended to

replace so-called tribal units with territorial ones; instead, the two have

fused, so that ethnic or sectional units seek recognition as territorial

units, leading to ever greater fragmentation.

In northern regions of Sudan, the NIF/NCP has intervened very

significantly in local administration to foment conflict or to shore up

support. This has been particularly apparent in the case of Darfur, where

a division of the old province into three states transformed the former

majority Fur into a minority in each state, and a new title of amir was

inserted in the higher levels of Native Administration (especially in west

Darfur state) to enable greater manipulation of appointments. Certain

groups have been rewarded with newly independent units in the Native

Administration and titles for their support of the government or in

order to undermine other groups and their leaders. The government

has intervened comprehensively in the selection of individual leaders,

particularly in Darfur; the hereditary tradition is respected but governors

and commissioners appoint their chosen member of the chiefly family

rather than the popular or family choice. No wonder that Darfuri rebel

movements have deliberately targeted some of the government-appointed

leaders since 2003.

This political interference has, however, largely been confined to the

higher levels of the Native Administration. Village sheikhs have retained

much greater credibility and have continued to play a key role in dispute

resolution at the local level; they have also moved with their people,

The Sudan Handbook, edited by John Ryle, Justin Willis, Suliman Baldo and Jok Madut Jok. © 2011 Rift Valley Institute and contributors including into the Darfur camps for the internally displaced. Like the

(www.riftvalley.net).