Noah R. Bassil is Senior Lecturer in Politics and International Relations, Department of Modern History, Politics and International Relations and Director of the Centre for Middle East and North African Studies, Macquarie University. Educated at the University of New South Wales, he holds a PhD from Macquarie University.
THE POST
COLONIAL
STATE AND
CIVIL WAR IN
SUDAN
The Origins of Conflict in Darfur
BY NOAH R. BASSIL
New paperback edition published in 2015 by
I.B.Tauris & Co Ltd
London New York
www.ibtauris.com
First published in hardback in 2012 by I.B.Tauris & Co Ltd
Copyright 2012, 2015 Noah R. Bassil
The right of Noah R. Bassil to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by the author in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
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ISBN: 978 1 78453 160 7
eISBN: 978 0 85773 940 7
A full CIP record for this book is available from the British Library
A full CIP record is available from the Library of Congress
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: available
Typeset by Newgen Publishers, Chennai
CONTENTS
The people who have made this book possible deserve more than the few brief words that I grant them here. Nonetheless, I will attempt to acknowledge those whose help, support and encouragement were instrumental in this study finding its way to publication. Penny Griffin, Geoffrey Hawker, Stephanie Lawson, Sarah Turner, Peter Vale, all those associated with the Macquarie University Centre for Middle East and North African Studies, and in particular Gennaro Gervasio, have my sincerest gratitude for their important involvement. Also, I would like to thank all the Sudanese I have met and debated with, whose insights have led me to a much deeper understanding of the crisis of the Sudanese state than I would have otherwise had. Maria Marsh from I.B. Tauris has patiently supported this project from the very start. Finally, I would like to thank my wife, Rachael, and my parents, who have been my strongest supporters and to whom I am eternally grateful.
An earlier version of was published in Joseph Pugliese (ed.), Relational Dis/locations: Mediterranean Cultures in Translocal and Transnational Contexts (Brussels: Peter Lang, 2010).
In July 2011 the South Sudan proclaimed its independence, and the Republic of Sudan, which came into existence on 1 January 1956, is no more. What constituted the nature of that republic, and of the relations between its north and south, may now be considered a question for historians, but these questions are also deeply significant for anyone interested in what the future holds for the Sudan, now that what has been regarded as the most pressing division within that long-suffering country seems to have been resolved. In many ways, the events covered in this book follow the same chronology that has been used by others to analyse the origins of the conflicts between the north and the south. However, the story of Darfur differs in a number of key respects from that of southern Sudan, even if some of the similarities appear obvious.
The differences are best understood as a result of the contrast between Darfurs efforts to gain inclusion in the political, economic and social community of the Sudan, compared with the souths determination to remain apart. Even today, as the south celebrates independence, the rebel leaders in Darfur seek greater involvement in government, and continue to struggle for acceptance as equals within the northern Sudan. When exploring the origins of the civil war, and the subsequent humanitarian crisis that erupted across Darfur in 2003, the starting point, at least in this study, is considered to be located in understanding the historical relationship between Darfur and the northern Sudanese ruling elite, an elite who have almost exclusively been drawn from Khartoum and its immediate surrounds.
The central theme of this book, then, focuses on the struggle by the people of Darfur, with and against the elite in central Sudan, for a role in the administration of the state and for recognition as part of the Sudanese nation. This struggle began with the Turko-Egyptian conquest of Darfur in 1874, and despite a brief interlude of independence from 1885 until 1916, has remained the key to understanding the causes of the tensions that have brewed between Darfurs marginalised communities and successive Sudanese governments. It was this historical struggle for recognition, which finally boiled over in the late 1990s.
In this history of centre-vs.-periphery tensions there are some key stages beginning with the colonial period, and in particular with the period that saw the creation of the colonial state, which laid a certain foundation on which later struggles have played out. At independence, the post-colonial Sudanese state largely resembled the colonial state that preceded it. The second key period in the relationship between centre and periphery occurs with the rise and fall of the Sudanese developmental state. A decade of state (and nation) building in the 1970s ended in turmoil with the bankruptcy of the Sudanese economy, and most importantly, with the failure to resolve the contradictions of the Sudanese state to transform the power relations between the centre and peripheries within Sudan. The third period of significance for this story about the origins of the conflict in Darfur begins shortly after the fall of the developmental state and covers a decade of what might be referred to as the Islamist project for Sudan. Despite promises by the Islamists that they would resolve the divisions and inequalities inherited from the past, a decade of Islamist rule saw only a heightening of the contradictions that had affected Sudan since independence. It was in the shadow of the Islamist project that the conflict in Darfur exploded. So, some 60 years after the end of colonialism, many of the contradictions and tensions that plagued Sudan at independence remain unresolved, even if the north-south conflict no longer occupies the central position in the Sudanese drama.
The conflict between the north and the west (Darfur) is unlikely to be resolved by the act of separation in the same way as has the north-south dilemma. Rather, solutions lie in rethinking the structure of the Sudanese state and resolving the crisis of political legitimacy that caused the rebellion in Darfur in the first place. However, to begin this task of rethinking, a deeper understanding of the power relations and structural issues at the heart of the tensions between north and west is required. This book devotes itself to this task, and in some way, it is hoped, will contribute to opening the space necessary for contemplating what can be done to overcome the political impasse that continues to forestall any prospect for lasting peace and stability in post-colonial Sudan.
Noah Bassil
Sydney
THE NATIONAL ISLAMIC FRONT AND THE IMMEDIATE CAUSES OF CONFLICT IN DARFUR
