Hurrying home: Sudanization and national integration 1953–1956

Abstract

After over a half-century of service to Sudan, the few dedicated and proud members of the Sudan Political Service (SPS) hastily closed out their affairs and left their charges to the challenge of independence in 1955. The justifications for this 'abandonment' and the consequences for national integration have left a somber and conflictive picture in the minds of those who either participated in the process or were affected by it or seek to understand it. This paper will examine the immediate background to the Sudan's independence and attempt to show how the 'Sudanization' (or, in the British official spelling 'Sudanisation') process damaged long-term prospects for national integration and viability. It is based on extensive archival research as well as dozens of interviews with many of the senior members of the SPS who laid the foundations for the independent Sudan. Many of these men knew their work was far from complete when their posts fell to Sudanization, and they were haunted for years by a sense of responsibility for some of the difficulties and tragedies which continue to afflict the Sudan. The negotiations and discussions which resulted in the Anglo-Egyptian Agreement of 1953 are too complex and extensive to be discussed here. However, this Agreement served as the basis for dismantling the structure of British rule, and it is with the following excerpts and commentary that the stage was set for the final act in the drama of the Sudan's independence. First: