|
Sudan
The South and the Unity of Sudan
During World War II, some British colonial officers questioned
the economic and political viability of the southern provinces
as separate from northern Sudan. Britain also had become more
sensitive to Arab criticism of the southern policy. In 1946 the
Sudan Administrative Conference determined that Sudan should be
administered as one country. Moreover, the conference delegates
agreed to readmit northern administrators to southern posts, abolish
the trade restrictions imposed under the "closed door" ordinances,
and allow southerners to seek employment in the north. Khartoum
also nullified the prohibition against Muslim proselytizing in
the south and introduced Arabic in the south as the official administration
language.
Some southern British colonial officials responded to the Sudan
Administrative Conference by charging that northern agitation
had influenced the conferees and that no voice had been heard
at the conference in support of retaining the separate development
policy. These British officers argued that northern domination
of the south would result in a southern rebellion against the
government. Khartoum therefore convened a conference at Juba to
allay the fears of southern leaders and British officials in the
south and to assure them that a postindependence government would
safeguard southern political and cultural rights.
Despite these promises, an increasing number of southerners expressed
concern that northerners would overwhelm them. In particular,
they resented the imposition of Arabic as the official language
of administration, which deprived most of the few educated English-speaking
southerners of the opportunity to enter public service. They also
felt threatened by the replacement of trusted British district
commissioners with unsympathetic northerners. After the government
replaced several hundred colonial officials with Sudanese, only
four of whom were southerners, the southern elite abandoned hope
of a peaceful, unified, independent Sudan.
The hostility of southerners toward the northern Arab majority
surfaced violently when southern army units mutinied in August
1955 to protest their transfer to garrisons under northern officers.
The rebellious troops killed several hundred northerners, including
government officials, army officers, and merchants. The government
quickly suppressed the revolt and eventually executed seventy
southerners for sedition. But this harsh reaction failed to pacify
the south, as some of the mutineers escaped to remote areas and
organized resistance to the Arab-dominated government of Sudan.
Data as of June 1991
|
