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    Divided by History: Roots of Sudanese Conflict
    Divided by History: Roots of Sudanese Conflict
    Divided by History: Roots of Sudanese Conflict
    Ebook118 pages1 hour

    Divided by History: Roots of Sudanese Conflict

    By Peter Dixon

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    About this ebook

    Do you wonder how the past affects today's violent conflict?

    Tragic turmoil in Sudan and South Sudan reminds us how fragile peace can be.

    Sudanese civil wars were not ended by formation of a new state. Violence has continued in South Sudan and we see today that the North is by no means peaceful.

    Current politics matter. Yet the origins of today's violence stretch back into past centuries. And much of Sudanese history has been about intervention and domination by foreigners.

    By telling the stories of some of these outsiders, Divided by History digs out the historical roots of Sudanese conflicts.

    Along the way, we meet

    • The 2,300 BC pioneer who braved the dangers of Egypt's 'Wild South'
    • The ambitious Albanian 'Turk' who connived his way to becoming ruler of Egypt and Sudan
    • The devout Christian who was sent to relieve a besieged city - and gave his life
    • The meticulous general whose superior weaponry proved an unstoppable force
    • The adventurers, soldiers and even Olympic oarsmen who ruled a vast land while still young

    And we recognise the difficulty of escaping from our past and the importance of understanding it.

    Order your copy of Divided by History today.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherCloudshill Press
    Release dateJun 5, 2019
    ISBN9781916027305
    Divided by History: Roots of Sudanese Conflict

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      Book preview

      Divided by History - Peter Dixon

      Divided

      by

      history

      roots of sudanese conflict

      Peter Dixon

      Cloudshill Press

      Cheltenham and London, United Kingdom

      Copyright © 2019 by Peter Dixon.

      Every reasonable effort has been taken to trace copyright holders of material reproduced in this book, but if any have been inadvertently overlooked the Publisher would be glad to hear from them. 

      Cover image: Anglo-Egyptian Sudanese camel soldier, photograph by Frank G Carpenter (1855-1924). US Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division, Washington DC Reference LC-USZC2-6349.

      Copyright details for images are provided in the List of Images, whose content is deemed to be part of this copyright page.

      Peter Dixon asserts his moral right to be identified as the author of this book.

      All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without prior written permission of the Publisher.

      Published by Cloudshill Press LLP

      Registered Office: 27 Old Gloucester Street, London WC1N 3AX United Kingdom

      All enquiries to info@cloudshillpress.com

      Book Layout ©2015 BookDesignTemplates.com

      Ordering Information:

      Quantity sales: special discounts are available on quantity purchases by corporations, associations and others. For details, contact the publisher at info@cloudshillpress.com.

      Divided by History / Peter Dixon.—1st ed.

      ISBNs Paper 978-0-9935080-9-7

      Ebook 978-1-9160273-0-5

      For the people of Sudan and South Sudan,

      who deserve better

      The further backward you look, the further forward you can see.

      ―Winston Churchill

      Contents

      Then affects now

      Egypt and Kush

      The Turks and the Mahdi

      The Condominium

      War and Peace

      Chronology

      Research Sources and Further Reading

      Acknowledgements

      List of Images

      About the Author

      Bibliography

      Notes

      Sudan political map, 1994

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      Divided by History

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      Chapter one

      Then affects now

      Juba

      It is a Sunday morning in the spring of 2009. I sit in the back row of All Saints’ Cathedral in Juba, the capital of South Sudan. I watch in fascination as a procession of children sways up the central aisle of the church in time with their well-rehearsed song. An eleven-year-old boy leads the procession and the singing. A six-year-old at the tail of the procession looks a little nonplussed, but overall they are a happy sight. They reach the altar, line up and turn to face the congregation. The music – sung in that enchanting shrill, piercing style peculiar to Africa – gives way to a joyful ululation from the 500 worshippers. All applaud.  Such a line used to be called a ‘crocodile’ when my children were at school. It seems apt, a couple of miles from the White Nile.

      The church service was a celebration of peace, but most of these children were born into war. Even their parents had seen little else. Civil war had raged for all but eleven of the years since Sudan gained its independence in 1956.

      Fast-forward two years to 9th July 2011. Jubilant men, women and children crowd the streets of Juba to celebrate the independence of the new state of South Sudan. For them, this day is the culmination of decades of struggle to gain their freedom. Around the world, many sympathise with the well-publicised plight of the southern Sudanese people. They enthusiastically greet the creation of the 193rd member state of the United Nations. Some Sudanese to the north, though, see the day as the end of seventy-eight months that were meant to ‘make unity attractive’.

      The starting pistol for that 6-month Pre-Interim Period and 6-year Interim Period – seventy-eight months in all - was the so-called Comprehensive Peace Agreement. The CPA was signed on 9th January 2005 by the two main combatants: the Government of Sudan and the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement/Army, the SPLM/A. It is commonly known as the Naivasha Agreement, after the Kenyan resort where negotiators agreed most of its complex components. It brought the second of two Sudanese civil wars to an end.

      The various protocols covered a wide spectrum of issues: transition to democratic governance, security arrangements, power-sharing and wealth-sharing. The agreement also included documents covering the regional disputes in areas close to the north-south border: the Abyei area and Southern Kordofan and Blue Nile States. Richer countries and international organisations promised vast sums of development aid: a ‘peace dividend’ for a land and people devastated by bloody civil war.

      Yet the initial euphoria soon dissipated. The Interim Period passed relatively peacefully, but the CPA had left many issues unresolved. The civil war that had just ended was not simply a two-sided conflict, to be solved by negotiations between two ‘players’. Instead, it was a complex web of interconnected conflicts, rooted in ethnic and religious identity, economic inequality and competition for resources and power.

      Perhaps the divisive outcome of the waiting period could have been foreseen years earlier. Suffice it to say that many factors prevented the protagonists from using the ‘breathing space’ to settle the outstanding issues and create a democratic New Sudan. In a referendum in January 2011, almost 99% of the southern Sudanese people voted for independence from Sudan. Six months later, it became fact.

      But even that momentous decision did not bring peace. In July 2016, that same cathedral provided sanctuary for 1,000 people fleeing gun battles in the streets of Juba. Soldiers loyal to the President, Salva Kiir, fought armed men supporting his Vice President, Riek Machar. This was just one violent episode of many, in a struggle between ethnic groups for power in the new state.

      Modern South Sudan

      The peace process that culminated in southern Sudanese secession was a partial success. Yet almost continuous hostility between Sudan and South Sudan has blighted the years since southern independence.  Inter-ethnic violence within both countries has not helped. Armed conflict has continued, and the complexities of Sudanese conflict are by no means resolved.

      Deep Roots

      The Comprehensive Peace Agreement signed on 9th January 2005 resulted from years

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