27216. The International Presence in Sudan
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This chapter offers an overview of successive waves of international
involvement in Sudan, outlining the evolution of the international
presence since the nineteenth century and the context of Sudan’s
changing foreign relations. One theme is the continuing importance
to the present day of external intervention in Sudan. Another is the
manner by which different generations of Sudanese have been able to
control or manage these external forces from a position of apparent
weakness, appropriating resources provided from outside to consolidate
and augment their own authority. A third, related theme is the way in
which external assistance, including humanitarian relief and develop-
ment aid, have had unintended consequences on political developments
in Sudan. Finally, the chapter looks at the diversity of the international
presence, the presence of countries that are not Sudan’s neighbours on
the continent. The meaning of ‘international’, formerly more or less
confined to Europe and the United States, has more recently expanded
to include Asian countries – Malaysia, India and, especially, China.The TurkiyyaThe territory that became Sudan had a long history of international
connections prior to the Egyptian invasion of 1820–21 and the Turkiyya
period that followed. The invasion inaugurated, however, a new kind
of international presence, predicated on the growing global economic
and political dominance of Europe, already apparent in Egypt itself. A
number of European adventurers were involved in Egypt’s territorialThe Sudan Handbook, edited by John Ryle, Justin Willis, Suliman Baldo and Jok Madut Jok. © 2011 Rift Valley Institute and contributors conquests. These included the British explorer Samuel Baker, who led an
(www.riftvalley.net).