The Sudan Handbook

30 the sudan handbook

In the years since 2004, the optimism of Naivasha has evaporated.

And it has become clear that the concerns which drove the establish-

ment of the Sudan course were all too justified. The Comprehensive

Peace Agreement has been undermined; largely owing to the embedded

authoritarianism of the Sudanese political elite. The war in Darfur, in

western Sudan, has generated a repetition of the horrors of the war in

the south. And the resolution of this conflict in the west has become

entwined with the north-south peace process. The global response to

the decay of political goodwill in the years following the Comprehen-

sive Peace Agreement has been disjointed: there has been widespread

condemnation of the actions of the Government of Sudan; at the same

time donor countries have significantly increased levels of aid. China

and other Asian countries have expanded their capital investment,

particularly in the Sudan oil industry, while Egypt and other middle-

eastern countries are involved in large-scale hydrological projects on

the Nile.

Never has it been clearer that the problems of Sudan stem from the

concentration of economic and political power at the centre of the country

and from the destructive means that the central state has employed to

maintain and extend that power. Yet the diversity of Sudan is its most

salient characteristic; and no political dispensation will work that does not

recognize this. The Handbook aims, accordingly, to provide a sampling of

knowledge about all areas of the territory that has historically constituted

Sudan, and the multiple cultural and political realities within it: the

peoples who live there, their past and their present, and their relation to

successive governments. It offers a critique of the ambitions of the state

and of the practice of political power, in the hope that the long story of

misgovernment in Sudan may yet be modified.

Mapping Sudan

One way of looking at Sudan’s history used on the Sudan Course is

as a story of maps: of making maps, arguing over them, and remaking

The Sudan Handbook, edited by John Ryle, Justin Willis, Suliman Baldo and Jok Madut Jok. © 2011 Rift Valley Institute and contributors them.^ Maps^ of^ Sudan^ show^ not^ just^ how^ the^ borders^ of^ the^ country^ have^

(www.riftvalley.net).