Sudan: A Nation in Turbulent Search of Itself

• Author: Francis M. Deng
• Published date: 01 January 2006
• Date: 01 January 2006
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/0002716205283021
• Subject Matter: Articles

10.1177/0002716205283021 603JanuaryTHE ANNALS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMYA NATION IN TURBULENT SEARCH OF ITSELF

Sudan has been intermittently at war with itself since

independence on June 1, 1956, with only ten years of

precarious peace between 1972 and 1983. At the heart of

the conflict is a crisis of national identity. Those who

have been in control of the country define themselves as

Arabs and also Muslims, and identify more with the Mid-

dle East than with black Africa, though they are essen-

tially Arab-Africans. Their physical features are similar

to other African groups in the region, and their cultures

and even Islamic practices are an amalgam of Arab and

Islamic culture with indigenous belief systems and cul-

tures. The outcome of Sudan’s struggles is difficult to

predict. Three questions are worth probing: What is the

conflict about? To what extent does the comprehensive

peace agreement address the root causes of the conflict?

What are the prospects for a truly comprehensive and

lasting peace in the Sudan?

Keywords: Sudan; Arabization; Islamization; slavery;

genocide; civil war

Overview of the Issues

Sudan is a country in painful search of itself,

afflicted by a wave of regional conflicts that are

rooted in an acute crisis of national identity. Ini-

tially, civil war pitted the North against the

South but has recently extended to regions of

the North, the latest being Darfur. These prolif-

erating conflicts are the result of a long historical

process in which three factors—Arabization,

Islamization, and slavery—played a pivotal role

in shaping the identities now in conflict. While

Arabization was the first to take root, Islamization

accentuated the process and became a deter-

ANNALS, AAPSS, 603, January 2006 155

Francis M. Deng is director of the Center for Displace-

ment Studies at the School of Advanced International

Studies (SAIS) and research professor of international

law, politics, and society at Johns Hopkins University.

He serves as representative of the UN secretary-general

on internally displaced persons and is a nonresident

senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. He served as

the ambassador of Sudan to Canada, the Scandinavian

countries, and the United States as well as Sudan’s minis-

ter of state for Foreign Affairs.

DOI: 10.1177/0002716205283021

Sudan:

A Nation in

Turbulent

Search of Itself

By

FRANCIS M. DENG