Northern Sudan and South Sudan: Denying the South Autonomy Led to Independence, 1947–2011

Abstract

It took South Sudan 64 years of struggle, from 1947 to 2011, to break away because the North had convinced itself that it could marginalise South Sudan with impunity. They believed South Sudan’s only recourse was armed rebellion, which the North could put down at any time. In any event, the rulers of Sudan from the North thought the South would stay no matter how badly they were treated. This kind of mentality led the North to believe that the August 1955 uprising amongst the South Sudanese army officers and men of the British colonial Sudan Defence Force in Torit could be put down without any political accommodation. Indeed, because the North had merely promised the South federation on 19 December 1955 in order to win independence from the British on 1 January 1956, the disturbances in South Sudan had already cooled down. The North thought the South could easily be deceived. The North never realised that the South was only waiting for the North to fail to fulfil the promise of federation before taking other steps.