The Two Sudans

An animated map of the conflict zones is here .

Sudan's troubles exist in three parts, one current , and one less recent , and one much smaller . These issues have roots in Sudan's past as a colony of the Ottoman and then British Empires. All three troubles have strong linguistic elements. Two are clashes between Nilo-Saharan and Afro-Asiatic speaking peoples, and the minor one is a clash between two distinct branches of the Afro-Asiatic language family, Semitic and Cushitic.

History to Independence

Sudan exists in the shape it does because of the efforts of European and Ottoman imperial powers during the colonial period. Through a long period of slow migration, mostly without women, Arabic speaking Muslims came to dominate northern Sudan culturally, most likely because of the relative richness and prestige of Arabic and Islam. The main requirements for being "Arab" are speaking Arabic and following Islam, but some, in Darfur, start calling themselves Muslim when they become well off1 2 . There is no major skin pigmentation or "racial" element involved in the Sudan or its conflicts. The descendants of the Arab migrants, never more than a trickle before 1821, look pretty much the same as the "black" Africans. We know that the northern Arab population, under the Ottomans (1821-1877), raided the south heavily for slaves. Perhaps a million souls were taken from their homes3 . The practice was nearly stopped by the first British Governor-General, at the beginning of the period of British rule (1877-1956), but then started up again on a smaller scale.

The Divide

The British managed Sudan in two parts, dividing the north from the south. This was done for historical and practical reasons, but also to stop the spread of Arabic culture and Islam4 . In the 1920s, the first period when any foreign power was exercising direct control over the South, numerous laws were passed to prevent the free flow of people from north to south , and then increased paperwork requirements to further restrict contact. In the 1930s the British thought the future of the southern zone was going to be with British East Africa (Kenya)5 . The Arabic language and Arab dress was officially discouraged.

A conference was held to establish language policy in the south, distinct from the official Arab and English policy in the north. The conference decided to support six Nilo-Saharan languages, including debating orthography and to provide for basic textbooks for schools.6 In 1947, while excluding southerners from anything but a advisory role, the British and northern Sudanese held a conference in the south in order to decide the future of the two Sudans. For nation state and economic reasons, the north decided that it would be united with the South. The north avoided making their position public7 .

Sudan's Post Independence Conflicts

All of Sudan's linguistically distinct regions have rebelled in the country's 52 year history. The rebel group with the closest language to Arabic had the shortest, most easily solved problem. The current Sudanese government is interested in wiping out the languages of the South and making Arabic the language of all the Sudanese.8 Based on Ethnologue, a table of populations is here and an animated map of all the conflict zones here .

The Civil War , 1955-1971 and 1983-2005

A civil war between the Afro-Asiatic north and the Nilo-Saharan south broke out in 1955, one year before independence was officially declared. It continued about fifty years, with one eleven year hiatus, until an official ceasefire was signed in 2005. Low level fighting continues. Millions of people have died, with the UN once called it the bloodiest conflict in the post-WWII world. 9 The southern Sudanese speak a number of languages of the Nilo-Saharan family, while the northern Sudanese mostly speak Arabic.

Darfur, 2003-today

Perhaps it is simplest to see the situation in Darfur as part of a war between the Sudan and Chad. The Darfur region of Sudan is on the Chadian border, and rebel groups from both sides seek refuge in the other country. The Zaghawa tribe, a large linguistic group that straddles the Sudanese-Chadian border, is also the tribe of the Chadian President, Idriss Deby. Deby is the only leader of any nation with a Nilo-Saharan background.

The people of Darfur and of the Khartoum government are both black and they are both Muslim. The people of Chad are predominantly black and Muslim. One notable difference is language.

The Arabic speaking government led by Omar al-Bashir has come up with numerous explanations for what is going on. Principally, it is engaged in fighting a rebellion. Sudanese rebels, based in Chad, have a lot of freedom of movement in Darfur. It also playing the "Israel card", which keeps many Muslim and Arab countries from being critical. Israel played a role arming and training the rebels during the Sudanese Civil War mentioned above.

A leading Muslim cleric in the Darfur region praises Osama bin-Laden.

Eastern Front Rebels, 2003-2006

Compared to the conflicts in Darfur or the south of Sudan, the conflict in the northeast, between the Khartoum government and the "Eastern Front Rebels" was mild and short. After only a few years, a deal was signed sharing oil wealth between the government and the provinces. In this case, both the rebels and the government were Afro-Asiatic speaking people, but they come from separate branches of the Afro-Asiatic family, Semitic (Khartoum) and Cushitic (the rebels).

Footnotes7. See the letter of the Deputy Governor of the Bahr al Ghazal area, 21 June 1947 here back

Most languages spoken in Africa fall into four language superstocks. Three of them--Afro-Asiatic, Niger-Kurdufanian, and Nilo-Saharan--are represented in Sudan. Each is divided into groups that are in turn subdivided into sets of closely related languages. Two or more major groups of each superstock are represented in Sudan, which has been historically both a north-south and an east-west migration crossroad.10