The Sudan Handbook

334 thE sudan handbook

Congress Party, and on a number of occasions has publicly criticized

Omar al-Bashir and the National Congress Party.

IbR ahim Abboud (1900–1983). Sudan’s first post-independence military

dictator. Born near the town of Suakin on the Red Sea, Ibrahim Abboud

graduated in engineering at Gordon Memorial College and then attended

Military College in Khartoum. A career soldier, he fought in Eritrea and

Ethiopia during the Second World War. He became Commander of the

Sudan Defence Force in 1949 and then Commander-in-Chief of the Armed

Forces when Sudan gained its independence in 1956. He overthrew the

government of Abdullah Khalil in a bloodless military coup in 1958. While

he had some limited success in improving the economic situation of the

country, his aggressive pursuit of Arabization and Islamization in the

south provoked civil unrest, which, by 1963, escalated into civil war. His

popularity gradually plummeted and in October 1964 popular riots and

demonstrations forced General Abboud to hand over power to a civilian

government. He died in Khartoum in 1983.

IbRahim El-Salahi (b.1930). Artist. Born in Omdurman, he studied

art at the School of Design at Gordon Memorial College (now the Univer-

sity of Khartoum). He received a scholarship from the Slade School of

Fine Art in London. On returning to Sudan, he taught at the Khartoum

School of Fine and Applied Art. Considered a pioneer of modernist

Sudanese art, he developed a distinctive style, characterized by abstract

forms and the use of lines, and was one of the first artists to incorporate

Arabic calligraphy into his work. He has also worked for UNESCO and

held posts in various government ministries. He was imprisoned for six

months in 1975, accused of conspiring against Nimeiri’s government, and

on his release he went into exile abroad.

Ismail al-AzhaRi (1900–1969). A leading figure in Sudan’s nationalist

movement. He was one of the founders of the Graduates’ Congress in 1938.

He became the leader of the Congress’s younger, more radical members,

The Sudan Handbook, edited by John Ryle, Justin Willis, Suliman Baldo and Jok Madut Jok. © 2011 Rift Valley Institute and contributors known as the Ashiqqa, who by 1943 had transformed themselves into a

(www.riftvalley.net).