The Sudan Handbook

76 the sudan handbook

of an older generation. And traces of pre-Islamic Nubian culture can be

discerned upstream from Dongola, among the more Arabized peoples

towards the centre of the country. South of Khartoum, beyond Kosti, the

limit of Arab-Islamic cultural influence coincides, more or less, with the

border between north and south Sudan (though a form of Arabic is the

lingua franca of the south).

Today something over half of the inhabitants of northern Sudan –

between fifteen and twenty million people – would define themselves

as belonging to one or another group of Arab, or Afro-Arab, descent.

Most of these descent groups fall, in theory, under one of two higher-

order groups, Jaali and Juhayna. The logic of patrilineality is liable to

break down on examination, however; there is often a lack of fit between

particular Arab tribal identities and these overarching categories. The

sedentary peoples of the central Nile valley mostly define themselves

as Jaali (to be distinguished from the Jaaliyin, a Jaali subgroup), and

many claim lineages which link them to a common ancestor, Ibrahim

Jaal, and through him to al-Abbas, uncle of the Prophet Mohamed. The

other overarching Arab group, the Juhayna, includes most present-day

nomadic groups, and a number that were historically nomadic but have

long been settled.

The educated elites of three groups in the central Nile valley, groups

that came to prominence in the Turco-Egyptian and Condominium

periods, have, to a significant extent, monopolized state power in the

post-independence era. The Jaaliyin, who are a Jaali subgroup with an

historic centre in Shendi, are the first of these. Jaaliyin have also, histori-

cally, dominated trade and business in the towns and cities of the north

and, until the second civil war, in the south. The second of the key groups

in northern politics is drawn from the Shaigiya, a tribal confederacy

known historically for initial resistance to the Turco-Egyptian invasion

of Sudan and subsequent cooperation with the invaders, and later for

their domination of Sudan’s armed forces. The third of the triumvirate

of riverain groups from which the political elites have been drawn is the

Danagla, the people of Dongola in southern Nubia. Danagla are found

The Sudan Handbook, edited by John Ryle, Justin Willis, Suliman Baldo and Jok Madut Jok. © 2011 Rift Valley Institute and contributors in^ every^ town^ and^ city^ of^ the^ north^ (as^ are^ Shagiya^ and^ Jaaliyin),^ while^

(www.riftvalley.net).