29317. The Past & Future of Peace
EdWaRd thomas
The recent history of Sudan is, in general, one of erratic and coercive
attempts at modernization that have become entangled in highly destruc-
tive wars. It is also a history of attempts to end conflict, to resolve the
national question, and establish a form of government that can satisfy
the aspirations of all Sudanese, rather than those of the members of a
regionally and ethnically-defined elite that controls the state.
The country currently faces unprecedented political change. Can its
historical experience of interrupted political projects, economic schemes
and armed conflict offer clues to the future? What did Sudanese political
leaders want when they started wars, or wrote constitutions, or took
out huge development loans? Did their forgotten manifestos and five-
year-plans set out anything that looks like the Sudan of today? Did the
strategic embrace of unity by southerners conceal a vision for the future
of southern Sudan that goes beyond independence?
Sudan’s exposure to international forces has imposed equivocation
and ambiguity on political leaders seeking to articulate visions for the
country. The SPLM, equivocal between southern separatism and a
national idea of a new Sudan, were not the first to adapt their goals to
the requirements of foreign allies. Colonial-era urban nationalists had
to negotiate between two colonial powers, Egypt and Britain. Egypt was
dominated by Britain, a junior partner necessary for the legal propriety
of the Condominium, according to the international law of that era.
Nationalists and proto-nationalists knew that if they aligned with Egypt,
that could bring pressure on the British for political change.
Sudan’s first nationalist movement, the White Flag League, suppressedThe Sudan Handbook, edited by John Ryle, Justin Willis, Suliman Baldo and Jok Madut Jok. © 2011 Rift Valley Institute and contributors after a mutiny in 1924, was influenced by the anti-colonial struggle in
(www.riftvalley.net).