Abstract
Nohn argues that controversies and debates concerning history have always been closely related to the question of national identity in Sudan. While northern Sudanese intellectuals underscored the strong cultural and historical links with the Arab world, the history of the country’s southern regions, and peripheral regions such as Darfur, was neglected by national historiography. This backdrop is examined against debates following South Sudan’s declaration of independence in 2011. While ‘unity with diversity’ has been a slogan of Sudanese political discourse since the signing of the ‘Comprehensive Peace Agreement’, voices from southern Sudan demonstrate the depth to which feelings of mistrust and anger towards the north have taken root in the collective memory. The reconciliation is, and remains, an ongoing process.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsNotes
- 1.
Gordon Memorial College, founded by General Kitchener in 1902, served as the principal training centre for jobs within the colonial service. It became a breeding ground for nationalist activity among the educated classes from the 1920s until independence in 1956, when it was renamed University of Khartoum. See H. J. Sharkey, Living with Colonialism: Nationalism and Culture in the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2003), 50–60; M. S. al-Qaddal, Tarih as-Sudan al-hadith. 1820–1955m [History of the modern Sudan. 1820–1955] (Khartoum: Markaz Abd-al-Karim Mirghani, 2002), 463–480.
- 2.
M. S. al-Qaddal, Tarih as-Sudan al-hadith, 126. Makki Shibayka/Mekki Shibeika (variant spelling) (1905–1980) received his doctorate in history from the University of London and later became professor of history at the University of Khartoum. He wrote many studies of Sudanese history, including M. Shibeika, The Independent Sudan: The History of a Nation (New York: Robert Speller, 1959). See R. A. Lobban, R. S. Kramer and C. Fluehr-Lobban, Historical Dictionary of the Sudan (Lanham, Md: Scarecrow Press, 2002), 254.
- 3.
M. Sommers, Islands of education: Schooling, civil war and the Southern Sudanese (1983–2004) (Paris: UNESCO, International Institute for Educational Planning, 2005), 62.
- 4.
See M. O. Beshir, The Southern Sudan. Background to Conflict (Khartoum: Khartoum University Press, 1970), 41–42; D. H. Johnson, The Root Causes of Sudan’s Civil Wars (Oxford, Bloomington, Kampala/Nairobi: James Currey, Indiana University Press, Fountain Publishers, in association with International African Institute, 2003), 11–15.
- 5.
M. U. Bashir, al-Ta’lim wa-‘l-wahda al-wataniya [Education and national unity] (Umm Durman: Markaz Muhammad Umar Bashir li-d-Dirasat al-Sudaniya, 2005), 13. Muhammad Umar Bashir and Mohamed Omer Beshir are two different spelling variants (Transliteral Arabic and English) of the same name. Muhammad Umar Bashir is a renowned northern Sudanese scholar and should not be confused with Omar al-Bashir, the president of Sudan.
- 6.
See F. M. Deng, War of Visions: Conflict of Identities in the Sudan (Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution, 1994), 4–9, 69–76. Francis Mading Deng graduated from Khartoum University and pursued postgraduate studies in the UK and at Yale Law School in the US, where he obtained his LLM and JSD degrees. In 2007 Deng was appointed UN Special Advisor on the Prevention of Genocide.
- 7.
See Y. F. Hasan, Studies in Sudanese History (Khartoum: SUDATeK, 2003), 209. See also Y. F. Hasan, The Arabs and the Sudan. From the Seventh to the Early Sixteenth Century (Khartoum: Khartoum Univ. Press, 1973).
- 8.
See A. Breidlid, ‘Education in the Sudan. Privileging of an Islamic discourse’, Compare 35 (2005) 3, 247–263.
- 9.
‘Results for the Referendum of Southern Sudan’, 2011, accessed 5 June 2017, http://southernsudan2011.com.
- 10.
Official Website of the Government of Southern Sudan, accessed 5 June 2017, http://www.goss.org.
- 11.
F. M. Deng, War of Visions: Conflict of Identities in the Sudan (Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution, 1994).
- 12.
On 14 July 2008 the International Criminal Court (ICC) announced criminal charges against President al-Bashīr, accusing him of committing war crimes and crimes against humanity.
- 13.
The first history textbook for use in secondary schools in South Sudan was edited by Anders Breidlid (Oslo University), in cooperation with Sudanese scholars and the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology of South Sudan. The book project was funded by the Norwegian Foreign Ministry. See A. Breidlid, ed., A Concise History of South Sudan (Kampala: Fountain Publishers, 2010).
- 14.
See R. A. Lobban, R. S. Kramer and C. Fluehr-Lobban, Historical Dictionary of the Sudan (Lanham, Md: Scarecrow Press, 2002), 283.
- 15.
F. M. Deng, War of Visions: Conflict of Identities in the Sudan (Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution, 1994), 160.
- 16.
Y. F. Hasan, Studies in Sudanese History, 211. Yusuf Fadl Hasan is a professor of history at Khartoum University.
- 17.
A. A. an-Na’im, ‘National Unity and the Diversity of Identities’. In The Search for Peace and Unity in the Sudan, ed. F. M. Deng and P. Gifford (Washington, D.C., Lanham, Md., U.S.A: Wilson Center Press, 1987), 71–77 (here 73). An-Na’im is a professor of law at Emory Law School. He is an expert in human rights in cross-cultural perspectives.
- 18.
M. U. Bashir, al-Ta’lim wa-l-wahda al-wataniya (Umm Durman: Markaz Muhammad Umar Bashir li-d-Dirasat al-Sudaniya, 2005), 20. Bashir composed the original text in 1983. [Translated from Arabic by the author].
- 19.
F. M. Deng, War of Visions, 205.
- 20.
SRS—Sudan Radio Service, ‘Under-Secretary Urges Single Curriculum for Southern Sudan Schools’, Mou Mou, under-secretary at the GoSS Ministry of Education, in an interview with Sudan Radio Service (SRS), 6 February 2010, accessed 5 June 2017, https://web.archive.org/web/20100214105122/http://www.sudanradio.org/under-secretary-urges-single-curriculum-southern-sudan-schools.
- 21.
N. N. Kumama, ‘Teaching history in independent South Sudan’, Emmykwa’s Blog, 20 August 2010, accessed 5 June 2017, http://emmykwa.wordpress.com/2010/08/20/teaching-history-in-the-independent-southern-sudan. Ndole Ndoromo Kumama is an educationalist and teacher from South Sudan. He received his master’s degree from Newcastle University and specialised in educational management, planning and curriculum development.
- 22.
M. U. Bashir, al-Ta’lim wa-l-wahda al-wataniya, 47.
Further Reading
Seri-Hersch, I. ‘Histoire scolaire, impérialisme(s) et décolonisation(s): le cas du Soudan anglo-égyptien (1945–1958)’. PhD diss., Aix-Marseille University, 2012.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2019 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Nohn, J. (2019). Sudan. In: Cajani, L., Lässig, S., Repoussi, M. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of Conflict and History Education in the Post-Cold War Era. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-05722-0_47
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-05722-0_47
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-05721-3
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-05722-0
eBook Packages: EducationEducation (R0)