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Sudan
THE ANGLO-EGYPTIAN CONDOMINIUM, 1899-1955
In January 1899, an Anglo-Egyptian agreement restored Egyptian
rule in Sudan but as part of a condominium, or joint authority,
exercised by Britain and Egypt. The agreement designated territory
south of the twenty-second parallel as the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan.
Although it emphasized Egypt's indebtedness to Britain for its
participation in the reconquest, the agreement failed to clarify
the juridical relationship between the two condominium powers
in Sudan or to provide a legal basis for continued British presence
in the south. Britain assumed responsibility for governing the
territory on behalf of the khedive.
Article II of the agreement specified that "the supreme military
and civil command in Sudan shall be vested in one officer, termed
the Governor-General of Sudan. He shall be appointed by Khedival
Decree on the recommendation of Her Britannic Majesty's Government
and shall be removed only by Khedival Decree with the consent
of Her Britannic Majesty's Government." The British governor general,
who was a military officer, reported to the Foreign Office through
its resident agent in Cairo. In practice, however, he exercised
extraordinary powers and directed the condominium government from
Khartoum as if it were a colonial administration. Sir Reginald
Wingate succeeded Kitchener as governor general in 1899. In each
province, two inspectors and several district commissioners aided
the British governor (mudir). Initially, nearly all administrative
personnel were British army officers attached to the Egyptian
army. In 1901, however, civilian administrators started arriving
in Sudan from Britain and formed the nucleus of the Sudan Political
Service. Egyptians filled middle-level posts while Sudanese gradually
acquired lower-level positions.
In the condominium's early years, the governor general and provincial
governors exercised great latitude in governing Sudan. After 1910,
however, an executive council, whose approval was required for
all legislation and for budgetary matters, assisted the governor
general. The governor general presided over this council, which
included the inspector general; the civil, legal, and financial
secretaries; and two to four other British officials appointed
by the governor general. The executive council retained legislative
authority until 1948.
After restoring order and the government's authority, the British
dedicated themselves to creating a modern government in the condominium.
Jurists adopted penal and criminal procedural codes similar to
those in force in British India. Commissions established land
tenure rules and adjusted claims in dispute because of grants
made by successive governments. Taxes on land remained the basic
form of taxation, the amount assessed depending on the type of
irrigation, the number of date palms, and the size of herds; however,
the rate of taxation was fixed for the first time in Sudan's history.
The 1902 Code of Civil Procedure continued the Ottoman separation
of civil law and sharia, but it also created guidelines for the
operation of sharia courts as an autonomous judicial division
under a chief qadi appointed by the governor general. Religious
judges and other sharia court officials were invariably Egyptian.
There was little resistance to the condominium. Breaches of the
peace usually took the form of intertribal warfare, banditry,
or revolts of short duration. For example, Mahdist uprisings occurred
in February 1900, in 1902-3, in 1904, and in 1908. In 1916 Abd
Allah as Suhayni, who claimed to be the Prophet Isa, launched
an unsuccessful jihad.
The problem of the condominium's undefined borders was a greater
concern. A 1902 treaty with Ethiopia fixed the southeastern boundary
with Sudan. Seven years later, an AngloBelgian treaty determined
the status of the Lado Enclave in the south establishing a border
with the Belgian Congo (present-day Zaire). The western boundary
proved more difficult to resolve. Darfur was the only province
formerly under Egyptian control that was not soon recovered under
the condominium. When the Mahdiyah disintegrated, Sultan Ali Dinar
reclaimed Darfur's throne, which had been lost to the Egyptians
in 1874 and held the throne under Ottoman suzerainty, with British
approval on condition that he pay annual tribute to the khedive.
When World War I broke out, Ali Dinar proclaimed his loyalty to
the Ottoman Empire and responded to the Porte's call for a jihad
against the Allies. Britain, which had declared a protectorate
over Egypt in 1914, sent a small force against Ali Dinar, who
died in subsequent fighting. In 1916 the British annexed Darfur
to Sudan and terminated the Fur sultanate.
During the condominium period, economic development occurred
only in the Nile Valley's settled areas. In the first two decades
of condominium rule, the British extended telegraph and rail lines
to link key points in northern Sudan but services did not reach
more remote areas. Port Sudan opened in 1906, replacing Sawakin
as the country's principal outlet to the sea. In 1911 the Sudanese
government and the private Sudan Plantations Syndicate launched
the Gezira Scheme (Gezira is also seen as Jazirah) to provide
a source of high-quality cotton for Britain's textile industry
(see Irrigated Agriculture , ch. 3). An irrigation dam near Sannar,
completed in 1925, brought a much larger area in Al Jazirah under
cultivation. Planters sent cotton by rail from Sannar to Port
Sudan for shipment abroad. The Gezira Scheme made cotton the mainstay
of the country's economy and turned the region into Sudan's most
densely populated area.
In 1922 Britain renounced the protectorate and approved Egypt's
declaration of independence. However, the 1923 Egyptian constitution
made no claim to Egyptian sovereignty over Sudan. Subsequent negotiations
in London between the British and the new Egyptian government
foundered on the Sudan question. Nationalists who were inflamed
by the failure of the talks rioted in Egypt and Sudan, where a
minority supported union with Egypt. In November 1924, Sir Lee
Stack, governor general of Sudan and sirdar, was assassinated
in Cairo. Britain ordered all Egyptian troops, civil servants,
and public employees withdrawn from Sudan. In 1925 Khartoum formed
the 4,500-man Sudan Defence Force (SDF) under Sudanese officers
to replace Egyptian units.
Sudan was relatively quiet in the late 1920s and 1930s. During
this period, the colonial government favored indirect rule, which
allowed the British to govern through indigenous leaders. In Sudan,
the traditional leaders were the shaykhs--of villages, tribes,
and districts--in the north and tribal chiefs in the south. The
number of Sudanese recognizing them and the degree of authority
they held varied considerably. The British first delegated judicial
powers to shaykhs to enable them to settle local disputes and
then gradually allowed the shaykhs to administer local governments
under the supervision of British district commissioners.
The mainstream of political development, however, occurred among
local leaders and among Khartoum's educated elite. In their view,
indirect rule prevented the country's unification, exacerbated
tribalism in the north, and served in the south to buttress a
less-advanced society against Arab influence. Indirect rule also
implied government decentralization, which alarmed the educated
elite who had careers in the central administration and envisioned
an eventual transfer of power from British colonial authorities
to their class. Although nationalists and the Khatmiyyah opposed
indirect rule, the Ansar, many of whom enjoyed positions of local
authority, supported the concept.
Data as of June 1991
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