The Sudan Handbook

50 the sudan handbook

important attributes across much of northern Sudan; the Nile has always

offered an incentive for a different livelihood strategy, one which focuses

on investment and the development of claims on land along the line of

the river itself. The annual flooding of some sections of the river creates

a very local landscape of fertile, moist alluvial soil, which shifts a little

each year as the river makes little changes in course. This seasonal flood-

land has for millennia been an outstanding resource for cultivators. In

more recent times, the steady elaboration of pumping technology – from

scoops, to water wheels, to petrol-driven pumps, to schemes for dams

and networks of irrigation canals – has created new opportunities for

the growing of crops. The effective use of land across much of Sudan

has relied on flexibility and mobility, but the developing technologies of

riverain agriculture have placed a premium on fixed investment and the

control of defined areas.

Controlling the Nile

These possibilities for development are the product of the particular

nature of the Nile river – or rather, rivers – as well as the increasing appli-

cation of capital and technology to control them. The furthest source

of the Nile is in Rwanda: from there, water flows into Lake Victoria,

through Uganda and Lake Albert (or Rutanzige, as it is also called). This

is the water that becomes the White Nile – which, having rushed down

the slope from Uganda towards Juba, then meanders its way slowly

through the southern part of Sudan, taking its colour and its name from

suspended particles of pale clay. The gradient north of Juba is very slight

indeed, and the river moves uncertainly, its pace further slowed by the

Sudd, great masses of floating vegetation that turn the river into a lengthy

stretch of swamp that grows in the wet season and shrinks in the dry,

with meandering channels that can make navigation difficult. The Sudd

is hard to navigate by boat, and its seasonal expansion across the clayish

soils is a menace to land travel, but it is a redoubt for wildlife, creating

a remarkable resource for its inhabitants – in the dry season there is a

The Sudan Handbook, edited by John Ryle, Justin Willis, Suliman Baldo and Jok Madut Jok. © 2011 Rift Valley Institute and contributors bonanza^ of^ fish^ and^ opportunities^ to^ plant^ in^ the^ moist^ and^ fertile^ soil^

(www.riftvalley.net).