The Sudanese Identity in the Mirror of Colonial and Post-Independence History

After independence, Sudan’s political elite adopted colonial-inspired policies that sought to divide the country into North and South (Arabs versus Africans). This policy was further reinforced by the civil wars and by the failures of the Sudanese political elite to construct a cohesive national identity. In the post-independence period, one elite group aligned itself with an Arab identity, while another embraced an African identity. Logically, therefore, both identities—Islamic-Arab and African—encompass the majority of the population. Yet, while Islamists and Africanists each claimed to represent this majority, neither addressed the contradictions inherent in their positions. As the tension between the Islamic-Arab and African projects illustrates, there is no permanent Sudanese majority that can be established. Rather, Sudanese people possess multiple and overlapping affiliations—religious, linguistic, and regional—that together produce shifting cross-cutting majorities.