The Sudan Handbook

202 thE sudan handbook

a wider change across Sudan, namely the process of urbanization. The

massive growth of Khartoum and smaller expansion of regional towns

since Sudan’s independence has radically increased the number of people

who live within close reach of government institutions. In the towns and

cities, people are as or more likely to interact with the police and the

statutory law courts, which also administer sharia matters nowadays,

than with a chief or sheikh. On the one hand, urban populations are more

subject to state control, including by the powerful agencies of national

security. On the other hand, beyond criminal and political or security

matters, town dwellers often have a degree of choice as to in which court

to open their case. There is a kind of marketplace of arenas of dispute

resolution, which is also to some extent responsive to popular demand

and evaluation of individual judges.

In this context, the customary courts are often quite flexible in terms

of the basis of the law that they apply. In southern towns, the chiefs’

courts apply an ad hoc mixture of customary principles and compensa-

tion, and statutory (or even international) legal codes and penalties.

Customary law has never been fixed and rigid; each court decision is

the product of its immediate context and lengthy processes of negotia-

tion. The resulting dynamism is particularly apparent in urban courts,

where migrants, returnees and younger generations gradually push

for change as they argue their case in the public arenas of the courts,

even if the latter are dominated by elder men. The system is clearly

weighted against women and youth, but this does not preclude the latter

sometimes finding ways to use the courts to their own advantage. There

is tremendous social and cultural change going on in Sudan, and it is

reflected in the courts.

Even where the Native Administration has declined in legitimacy

or popularity, systems of customary dispute resolution remain deeply

important. Disputes over customary land tenure continue to be dealt

with exclusively by the native courts in rural areas. In eastern Sudan, Beja

youth in the towns criticize their leaders, but uphold the Beja system

of customary dispute resolution, or silif. In Darfur and elsewhere, the

The Sudan Handbook, edited by John Ryle, Justin Willis, Suliman Baldo and Jok Madut Jok. © 2011 Rift Valley Institute and contributors collective mediation of elders, the ajawid, remains a key means of conflict

(www.riftvalley.net).