The Sudan Handbook

PeoPles & cultuRes of tWo sudans 73

across geographical zones, and corresponding changes in their modes of

production, a process that starts with the first expansion of early humans

into north-eastern Africa. Historical geography is thus a starting point

for understanding certain aspects of the contemporary distribution of

peoples. This diversity is also the product of much more recent events,

however, and processes of interaction and redefinition that are still in

progress. As the Anglo-Sudanese novelist Jamal Mahjoub has written,

Sudan has a multi-layered history, one that has ‘crystallized from the

crucible of possibility’.

Migration, Settlement and State Formation

In prehistoric Eastern Africa, the unchronicled migrations of hunters

and gatherers were followed, first, by the introduction of domesticated

animals from Asia, notably the long-horned, auroch-like cattle whose

descendants are still the source of livelihood for stock-keepers in south

Sudan and the north-south borderlands. Then – around the fifth millen-

nium bce – came the introduction of agriculture. The states that arose

in the Nile Valley thereafter owed their wealth and power to the ability

to produce food surpluses from the labour of slaves, usually raided from

populations further south (raids that were themselves carried out by

slave armies) and to the extraction of natural resources such as gold,

ivory, skins and timber. This pattern of accumulation endured through

the rise and fall of the Nubian kingdoms of the pre-Christian era, through

the Christian kingdoms of the middle ages, into the Muslim polities of

the sixteenth century, and beyond. Its legacy in interethnic relations can

still be seen in Sudan today.

In the current era, the most significant event in Sudan’s demographic

and social history has been the process of Arabization and Islamiza-

tion, an epochal change that transformed indigenous societies across

the African continent. After the advent of Islam in the seventh century, a

pre-existing pattern of small-scale population exchange between Arabia

and Africa was succeeded by a long-term process which combined the

The Sudan Handbook, edited by John Ryle, Justin Willis, Suliman Baldo and Jok Madut Jok. © 2011 Rift Valley Institute and contributors physical^ migration^ of^ people^ from^ the^ Arabian^ peninsula^ with^ extensive^

(www.riftvalley.net).