Population shifts and changes in Sudan since 1898

Abstract

The great change that has taken place in the political status of much of the African continent during the third quarter of the twentieth century has for the most part involved the conversion of a number of somewhat oddly constituted former colonies to independent states. These, whatever their internal degree of coherence or contradiction, have shown a remarkable reluctance to surrender territories, however valueless, or sovereignty, however ineffectual, in order to reconcile anomalies and internal contradictions, and the outside observer can therefore be forgiven for failing to observe that throughout the century each state has been steadily changing its character. In fact there is reason to believe that in almost every state the relative numerical importance of the population of the several parts or regions has been altering significantly, partly through emigration and immigration, partly through internal migration, and partly through the normal demographic processes of differential birth and death rates. By way of illustration of this general thesis, it is intended in the following pages to present an account of changes that have apparently taken place in the make-up of the population of Sudan during the current century. After a discussion of such changes in regional and provincial totals as seem to have occurred during the past sixty years, it is hoped to illustrate as far as possible the processes of change as they have operated in the past and appear still to be affecting the demographic structure of the country in the present.