the ambitions of the state 113most of the 58 years of the Condominium they assumed that the corollary
of such order was an authoritarian central structure. The Governor-
general ruled from the palace in Khartoum; beneath him the men of the
Sudan Political Service ruled as Governors and Inspectors (later District
Commissioners). They were remarkably few in number: a total of three
hundred and fifteen men joined the SPS between 1899 and 1939. Each
bore responsibility for a vast area of the country; they wielded more or
less unlimited authority. Only in the last few years of the Condominium
was there a rush of experimentation with electoral forms of representa-
tion – initially at a local level, and then nationally.
The simplicity of administrative structures was dictated to a significant
extent by financial exigency. The Condominium began with an enormous
budget deficit. This was partly plugged by a subvention from Egypt. This
was used in maintaining the military forces of the Condominium, giving
it a coercive capacity that was unusually large for a colonial state in
Africa. The Condominium made good use of this, emphasising military
displays and ceremonies, and in its first decades relying heavily on the
use of force to establish its authority, particularly in the south.
But the Egyptian subvention was a threat to British domination of
the Condominium, especially after 1922, when Egypt became formally
independent of Britain (though remaining, resentfully, under British
occupation). A local source of revenue had to be found. The answer was
a single economic development strategy: a vast cotton-growing scheme in
the Gezira, which started producing significant amounts of cotton in the
late 1920s. This did, ultimately, yield considerable taxable revenue – in
years when the world market was good – first for the government, which
owned a large share of it, and for the companies who invested in it, but
also for the Sudanese who held tenancies. It also, of course, promoted the
dependence of the emerging economy of Sudan on a single crop, which
was largely exported as raw material.
The wealth created by cotton-growing had other effects. The proportion
of the profits which flowed to the Sudanese was unevenly distributed; it
went to certain individuals and families, often those who already enjoyedThe Sudan Handbook, edited by John Ryle, Justin Willis, Suliman Baldo and Jok Madut Jok. © 2011 Rift Valley Institute and contributors some^ connection^ with^ the^ state,^ and^ who^ were^ part^ of^ the^ developing^
(www.riftvalley.net).