Colonial Sudan: The Separate Administration of The South (1920-1933)

Abstract

As a matter of fact, many educated Sudanese questioned whether there ever existed a coherent and comprehensive British policy toward the Sudan as a whole and toward its Southern Regions in particular. There was actually no room in Sudanese nationalism for continuing domination of the traditional leaders, and as Native Administration came under increasing attacks by the nationalists, so too did its resultant “Southern Policy”, with all its implications for separatism. Ten years after its promulgation, the Southern Policy was regarded by the nationalists as the very symbol of the British imperial dictum of Divide and Rule, intended to continue British control in the Sudan by perpetuating the separation of the country into two regions. Sudanese nationalists viewed the Southern Policy as part of a system which sought to search for the past not to look for the future, and to emphasize diversity not to encourage unity. Moreover, the language policy adopted in the South did not aim specifically at the exclusion of Islam and Arabic but more at the encouragement of English as a lingua franca. This created or intensified linguistic division, which still complicates North – South relations today. Sudanese nationalists continued to condemn the Southern Policy because its implementation, they considered, allowed the ultimate political arrangements of a unified Sudan to be indefinitely postponed. This section is reserved to the birth and execution of the Southern Policy, the factor most responsible for the Sudan’s present separation.