SOAS Research Online

Abstract

The whole study is cast in an historical mould and falls into three basic parts corresponding roughly to the first two decades, the inter-war period, and post-war developments. In the first part, colonial motives are briefly examined, followed by a general description of the salient features of early administration. An account is also given of administrative attempts to impose Governmental authority upon the unwilling peoples of the Southern Sudan by the method of punitive expeditions. The point is made that although no general or comprehensive policy for the South had emerged at this stage, the period was significant for the formation of an official impression of the 'needs' of Southern Sudanese. Such an impression was not especially favourable to the introduction of external, Arabic and Islamic, influences in the Southern Sudan.;In the inter-war period, as a result of a half-hearted application of the policy of native rule, the South actually stagnated in the sphere of education, which the Sudan Government devolved almost entirely to Christian missionary societies. The lack of development schemes is noted and, as it turned out, no piece of socio-economic development effort initiated by the Administration ever advanced beyond the experimental stage. 'Southern Policy', the offshoot of native administrative policy, is of course discussed. The impression is created that the main preoccupation of the Administration till the outbreak of the Second World War had been how to block the infiltration of Arab elements coming from the North. These efforts proved difficult to achieve in view of the reality of the Southern situation and the continuing dependence on Northern personnel by the Administration.;In the post-1945 period, combined nationalist pressures from both the Northern Sudan and Egypt forced a review of policy whereby the South was thrown open to external, mainly Northern Arab and Islamic influences. In the meantime any crash programmes for the economic and social development of the Southern Sudan ran out of time, and the Southerners found it almost impossible to adjust to the changed political circumstances. The outcome was a civil war, by which time the British had made their exit from the Sudan.