The South in Sudanese politics, 1946–1956

Abstract

In December 1946 James Robertson, Civil Secretary of the Sudan Government, issued a memorandum pronouncing the final abandonment of the southern policy which had sought to isolate the largely negroid and pagan peoples of the southern Sudan from the predominantly Islamic and Arab north.' Less than ten years after the introduction of the new policy, in August 1955, a mutiny occurred amongst southern troops of the Sudan army which sparked the first violent incidents in a region where subsequently a sustained rebellion occurred. The period from 1946 to 1956 is therefore an important one for the southern Sudan, and the deteriorating relations between northerners and southerners have since been accorded a variety of explanations. The ethnic differences between the two regions have been advanced. So too has the view that the character of many southern tribes made them resist all outsiders, including initially the British; though British officials pacified the region their rapid replacement by northern Sudanese in 1954 resulted in renewed resistance. Northern attitudes have been blamed, including an alleged desire to dominate despised southerners, and the use of the term abid (slave) has been frequently quoted. The conflict has also been presented as a legacy of imperialism: northern Sudanese have pointed to Britain's attempt to isolate, and some suggest separate, north from south while the ousted British officials argued that they had been pushed out by over-hasty northern politicians before the south was prepared for independence.2 Such explanations tend to focus on the contrasts between north and south rather than examining relations between the regions in the light of the wider changes taking place in the Sudan, yet it was these developments which provided the setting for events in the south and contributed significantly to occurrences in the region. Indeed, since during this period the Sudan was a Condominium it will be necessary to begin with an examination of the attitudes of the co-domini, Britain and Egypt. By 1946 the Condominium, which had been established as a convenient fagade for Britain's domination of the Sudan, was clearly becoming an inconvenience both for successive British governments and the British officials in the Sudan. It had worked well when Britain had been in full control of Egypt, but since the latter's formal independence in 1922 problems had repeatedly arisen. Egypt sought recognition of her sovereignty over the Sudan, a matter which was ambiguous under the Condominium Agreement, and she wished to participate fully in the Sudan Government. In an effort to achieve these ends at least in part she insisted that any negotiations with Britain on defence should be linked to the question of the Sudan's future, rather than allowing the two subjects to be discussed separately as the British and Sudan governments wished. Repeated talks between Britain and Egypt broke down over the Sudan before the threat of Italian expansion in