The Sudan Handbook

intRoduction: many sudans 29

or create new ones. What began to manifest itself was the latest variant of

what Joseph Conrad referred to as a ‘fantastic invasion’, the intervention

in Africa by outside forces: a new phase of foreign involvement in the

national affairs of Sudan under the auspices of an amalgam of commercial

interest, humanitarianism, peace-building and counter-terrorism.

The Sudan course was designed to offer, among other things, a critical

perspective on such developments, based on an analysis of the role of

the state in Sudanese history and the stratagems it had developed over

time for extending its power to the peripheries of the country. The course

included a consideration of the history of development and the impact

of previous international interventions. It drew attention to the risk of

repetition of the errors of the past, and the ways in which aid and develop-

ment could contribute to political disequilibrium.

For a short course this was a tall order. Sudan’s borders encompass a

huge diversity of territory, peoples and ways of life. It would be implaus-

ible to claim that a one-week event could provide a comprehensive

understanding of a country or its people. And clearly it did not. What

the course provided was as much useful knowledge – and as coherent

an analytical approach – as it was possible to fit into six days of inten-

sive, dawn-to-dusk study. The staff of the course has certainly reflected

the diversity of the field: Sudanese academics and activists from almost

every region of the country have taught on the course in the past seven

years, alongside expatriate specialists whose views and fields of expertise

are equally various. Although the course is short, it offers something

unavailable elsewhere. And the risk of presumption on the part of those

who make it their business to study Sudan is clearly eclipsed by the

greater risk of ignorance – by the suppression of free speech on the part

of governments in Sudan, by the decay of standards in higher education

and by institutional amnesia on the part of international agencies and

representatives of donor nations. It may be argued, in fact, that those

who have had the privilege of living in Sudan as researchers and scholars

have an obligation to find ways to impart their knowledge to a new

generation that has the chance to influence future events. Such was the

The Sudan Handbook, edited by John Ryle, Justin Willis, Suliman Baldo and Jok Madut Jok. © 2011 Rift Valley Institute and contributors thinking^ of^ those^ who^ devised^ and^ taught^ on^ the^ course.

(www.riftvalley.net).