Kimberly Smith

Sudan: History of a Broken Land

The land of opportunity, or the land of continuous civil conflict. Over the decades over 2.5 million have lost their lives in these terrifying civil wars and over 4 million survivors have been displaced. Now after all this time they are considering splitting Sudan into 2 different countries. The story is a sad one to hear. A story of a beautiful land and its people being ripped away from their homes and taken away as slaves, mostly for the Egyptians. This beginning has left a feeling of inequality, the northerners still associate blackness with slavery. British colonial masters took control of the country and further created a divide between the two sides in 1922 creating laws that restricted the movement of northerners south of the 10th parallel and southerners above the 8th parallel. Thus creating a time bomb for regional and religious conflict, the north is mostly comprised of Islamic worship and the south is more Christianity. It is believed the British wanted to rid the south of the Islam belief seeing as Christianity flourished under their rule and traditional tribal religions were marginalized. In 1955 British control ceased and they left the civil service in charge. 800 civil service members were elected, however, out of that only 4 were from the south. This inequality was the beginning of the 50 year war. A mere 3 years after Sudan had received it's independence the country invited into power a military general Ibrahim Abboud who remained in power until 1964. Their were short bursts of democracy, however, it was mostly controlled by military dictatorships.
War began again in the south on September 19, 1963. It was a small effort that started with many men using their bare hands. There were very few weapons and they would also use deadly poisons. This war lasted almost 9 years. One of the times of democracy is call the golden era. This was a time of peace during the late 1960's and the early 1970's. Their was an open market and citizens were able to get the latest products as well as have their culture and entertainment. A Peace Accord was signed in 1972. It gave the south autonomy in everything except national matters such as defense and foreign affairs. Nearly 10 years of peace followed the signing, sadly the longest in modern Sudan history. However, a quiet revolution was starting which would lead to the 2nd civil war where over 1 million people lost their lives. In May of 1983 southern soldiers mutinied against the northern officers causing the north to attack and start the fighting up again. SPLA (Sudan People's Liberation Army) formed to liberate the south from the north causing the civil riots. Soon new laws were put into place, September Laws, that were an extreme version of the Islamic Sharia law, for example the cutting off of limbs for theft, stoning women to