The Sudan Handbook

72 the sudan handbook

other. Their labour – and their ancestors’ labour – has been exploited,

often by force, and their livelihoods modified or transformed. They have

been both victims and instruments of political turbulence and military

devastation. Such disruptive episodes, particularly in recent times, have

forced many, particularly those living outside the northern heartland in

the Nile valley, to move in order to survive, engendering further economic

and cultural transformations.

Understanding these Sudanese communities and the relations between

them requires an approach that combines geographical, historical and

anthropological forms of knowledge. For this purpose, Sudan may be

divided into a number of regions. One is the northern heartland that lies

along the Nile between Dongola and Khartoum, and between the Blue

and White Niles, which has formed the economic and political centre of

successive states in modern times. A second is Nubia, in the far north

towards Egypt. A third is the desert region in the east stretching to

the Red Sea hills and the coast. A fourth region comprises Darfur and

Kordofan in the west; a fifth, the north-south borderlands along the

Tenth Parallel; a sixth, the extensive floodplain of the White Nile that

forms the southern heartland; and, finally, to the South, beyond these, a

seventh, the wooded ironstone plateau of Equatoria, on South Sudan’s

borders with East and Central Africa.

People from all these regions have long been resident in major towns

all across north and South Sudan (and in neighbouring African countries,

and – more recently – in the cities of Europe, North America and

Australia). Yet local origin and a sense of belonging based on kinship or

common language remain the primary components of identity for most

Sudanese, even for those born and raised far from their places of familial

or ancestral origin, as increasing numbers are. Kinship is the funda-

mental language of social association; and the greater the distance from

the centres of power and the reach of central government the greater

the importance likely to be accorded to it, and the less compunction in

invoking it.

Some aspects of the cultural diversity of north and South Sudan may

The Sudan Handbook, edited by John Ryle, Justin Willis, Suliman Baldo and Jok Madut Jok. © 2011 Rift Valley Institute and contributors be^ understood^ as^ the^ product^ of^ long-term^ movements^ of^ people^ into^ or^

(www.riftvalley.net).