The Problem of Centralization in the Sudan

Abstract

The withdrawal of British imperial power from the Sudan in the 1950s was accompanied by efforts to conceptualize a new political order using the European conception of nation-state. The European concept of a nation-state refers to a people who share a common language, literature, and cultural tradition. It is the concept of state that has become increasingly important in the organization of Sudanese society, like other Third World societies, following the collapse of the British, Dutch, French, German, Japanese, and Portuguese empires in the period immediately following World War II. The concept of state can, in some basic sense, be considered as constitutive of human societies in the modern era. Fundamental to the conception is the belief that the peoples of the world are (or should be) organized as nation-states in a global family of nations. This idea has been especially important in the organization of European states growing out of what had been called the Holy Roman Empire; Latin American states and the Philippines growing out of the Spanish Empire; and African and Asian states emerging out of the British, French, Portuguese, and Dutch empires. It is necessary to understand both the positive and negative implications of the conception of the state for the constitution of order in the Sudan. The concept of state, defined as a monopoly of the exercise of authoritative relationships and legitimate use of coercive power in a society, is usually associated with the command theory of sovereignty. A state is presumed to be fully independent of all others and sovereign.