The Sudan Handbook

intRoduction: many sudans 39

independence on the corrupting power of a secular western imperialism

that sought to continue its control of the country. But for most south-

erners and many northerners the Islamist vision of the country was

anathema, denying the value of their culture and the meaning of their

historical experience. The civil war in southern Sudan was aptly called

a war of visions.

Sudan, it may be argued, has no single history; it has multiple histo-

ries, a clamour of competing versions of what matters about the past.

The diversity within Sudan consists not just of the great plenitude of

communities, languages, belief systems and ways of life that it contains.

It also includes a radical diversity in ideas about what Sudan is that are

entertained by members of these communities. Different histories, and

different ways of understanding the relation of particular communities

to the centres of power and to the governments that have tried to assert

control over them – these histories are playing a key role in the current

transformation of the Sudanese state.

As Sudan enters a new phase of radical political and administrative

restructuring, it becomes more important than ever to understand the

variant histories that exist in the minds of Sudanese themselves. There

are, it is clear, many Sudans, both real and imaginary – and many more

possible Sudans. No account of these myriad visions of the country can

be definitive. The Sudan Handbook does not aspire to be a new Almanac.

It does not offer a systematic account of the country, nor does it provide

information in a form meant to be applied to the design of develop-

ment projects. What it offers, in the spirit of engagement with Sudanese

visions of the future, is a critical guide to current knowledge, a collection

of essays on key aspects of the country, written from a range of disci-

plinary points of view. In these essays are a variety of perspectives on the

past and present of the lands that lie within the historical boundaries of

Sudan – and the peoples that have lived and continue to live there.

The Sudan Handbook, edited by John Ryle, Justin Willis, Suliman Baldo and Jok Madut Jok. © 2011 Rift Valley Institute and contributors

(www.riftvalley.net).