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| Republic of the Sudan جمهورية السودان | |
|---|---|
 Flag
 Coat of arms
| |
 | |
| Capital and largest city | Khartoum |
| Official languages | Arabic English |
| Dominant mode of production | Capitalism |
| Government | Federal Bourgeois Provisional Government |
| Area | |
• Total | 1,886,068 km² |
| Population | |
• 2022 estimate | 45,709,353 |
Sudan, officially the Republic of the Sudan, is a country in Northern Africa bordered by Egypt, Libya, Chad, Central African Republic, South Sudan, Ethiopia and Eritrea with a coastline on the Red Sea to the east. Sudan's capital is Khartoum, located where the two major tributaries of the Nile River merge together.[1] In 2023 a civil war broke out against the military dictatorship which is currently in opposition to the Sudanese Communist Party.[2]
History
Ancient history
See main articles: Kingdom of Kush, Nobadia
The area which comprises modern Sudan has been known by different names and varying political and cultural groupings in different periods. The region historically known as Nubia is located in what is today northern Sudan and southern Egypt. The cataracts of the Nile river have in some contexts served a way of conceptualizing boundaries in the region, with the cataract at Aswan often considered the traditional boundary between Egypt in the north and Nubia in the south. Over millennia, the region of Nubia gave rise to a number of cultures and kingdoms.[3][4][5] Some of these include Kush, Makuria, Nobadia, and Alodia.[6][3]
Kush
The area around Kush was inhabited circa 8000 BCE. The city of Kerma was established in Kush by circa 2400 BCE. Kerma traded in ivory, gold, bronze, ebony, and slaves with neighboring states and along the Red Sea. Around 1500 BCE, Egypt conquered Kerma, with Egyptian rule prevailing in Kush until the 11th century BCE.[7] The Kingdom of Kush rose to prominence between approximately 1069 BCE and 350 CE.[8]
Over time, as Egypt's New Kingdom declined (circa 1069 BCE) the Kushite city of Napata grew stronger as a political entity independent of Egypt.[8] Over time, a dynasty of kings from Napata arose, with the third king of Napata, Piankhi (also called Piye), defeating a coalition of Egyptian princes and establishing the 25th Dynasty of Egypt.[7]
Beginning in the 6th century BCE, the capital of Kush was gradually moved south to Meroë, a junction of several important trade routes in a region which was rich with iron and precious metals[7] as well as agricultural production exporting grains and cereals.[8] Kush continued with Meroë as its capital until an invasion by Axumites circa 330 CE, which destroyed the city, with the Kingdom of Kush itself coming to an end circa 350 CE.[8]
Medieval history
By the sixth century CE there were three Nubian kingdoms, namely Nobadia, Makuria, and Alodia.[6] These kingdoms converted to Christianity in the sixth century.[6] In the seventh century, Nobadia was incorporated into Makuria.[6]
Mentions of the Funj sultanate appear in historical records by approximately 1504.[9][6]
The sultanate of Dar Fur arose in the mid-1600s.[10][11]
Turco-Egyptian rule
Mahdist state
In 1885, Khartoum was captured by the armies of the Mahdist revolution against British and Turco-Egyptian forces, led by Muhammad Ahmad ibn Abdullah, eventually defeated by the British in 1898.[1][10]
Anglo-Egyptian rule
Anglo-Egyptian rule in Sudan was a condominium of joint rule established by an agreement between Great Britain and Egypt under which the two countries would jointly administer Sudan.[12]
Agriculture in the colonial period was primarily export-oriented, with the Gezira Scheme established to supply British industrial capital with cotton.[13]
In 1943, Ismail al-Azhari, future prime minster of independent Sudan, helped form the Ashiqqa Party, the first political party organized in Sudan.[12]
Independence
On January 1, 1956, Sudan gained formal independence, with Ismail al-Azhari elected as first prime minister.[6][12]
In the analysis of Fatima Babiker Mahmoud, a lecturer of political economy at the University of Khartoum in the 1980s,[14] after independence in 1956, the nature of the state which had previously been constructed to support colonial rule did not change significantly after independence. In Mahmoud's view, the main difference was a shift from British colonial policy to a neo-colonial configuration.[13]
Sudan was under a military dictatorship from 1964 to 1969, when Jaafar Nimeiry overthrew the corrupt junta with support from the Sudanese Communist Party. Nimeiry banned all political parties except the SCP. In 1970, he began an attack on Sadiq al-Mahdi's reactionary Umma Party before cracking down on the SCP.[15]
In 1978, Nimeiry signed the first of several stabilization programs with the International Monetary Fund. This resulted in the creation of a typical IMF/World Bank program which consisted of measures such as currency devaluation, trade liberalization, social spending cuts, layoffs, removal of food subsidies, and a shift to privatization and an export-oriented economy, particularly focusing on the export of cotton. The export-led growth model led to smallholders being pushed off of their lands while giving an advantage to already large land owners and agribusiness, as well as to a decline in the production of food for local consumption and a rise in dependence on imports of wheat via US taxpayer-subsidized commodity aid programs.[16]
In 1985, mass protests removed Nimeiry from power, but Omar Hassan al-Bashir established another dictatorship in 1989. U.S. president Bill Clinton ordered the destruction of Sudan's only pharmaceutical plant in 1988, removing 90% of Sudan's access to medicine.[17] Sudan lost all access from anti-malaria drugs.[18] The US labeled Sudan as a state sponsor of terrorism in 1993.[19][20] South Sudan broke away from Sudan in 2011.
In 2019, the military overthrew Bashir, and Ahmed Awad Ibn Auf briefly took power before being replaced by Abdel Fattah Abdelrahman Burhan, an ally of the Saudi and UAE monarchies.[17] In October 2021, the army staged a coup and took full control of the state. In 2023, fighting broke out between Abdel Fattah's government and the Rapid Support Forces led by General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo (also known as Hemedti).[2][21]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Caelen Anacker (2010-07-07). "Khartoum, Sudan (1821- )" Blackpast. Archived from the original on 2025-04-22.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 "PSL Statement — Sudan: In the face of civil war, the people demand the end of military rule" (2023-04-18). Liberation News. Retrieved 2023-04-18.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Mark Cartwright (2019-04-04). "Old Dongola" World History Encyclopedia. Archived from the original on 2025-05-15.
- ↑ "Nubia" (2025-08-15). Encyclopædia Britannica. Archived from the original on 2025-08-27. Retrieved 2025-08-27.
- ↑ Janice Kamrin and Adela Oppenheim (2018-02-02). "The Land of Nubia" Metropolitan Museum of Art. Archived from the original on 2025-07-05.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 6.4 6.5 "History of Sudan". Embassy of the Republic of the Sudan. Archived from the original on 2025-08-27.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 Isma'il Kushkush (2020-09). "In the Land of Kush" Smithsonian Magazine. Archived from the original on 2025-08-23.
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 8.3 Joshua J. Mark (2018-02-26). "The Kingdom of Kush" World History Encyclopedia. Archived from the original on 2025-07-17.
- ↑ A.C.S. Peacock (2012). The Ottomans and the Funj sultanate in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies.
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 Christopher Banks (2009-06-09). "Survivors and Saviors: Darfur, Politics, and the War on Terror (book review)" Liberation News. Archived from the original on 2025-08-26.
- ↑ J. O. Hunwick (Editor) (1983). Land in Dār Fūr: charters and related documents from the Dār Fūr sultanate. Cambridge University Press.
- ↑ 12.0 12.1 12.2 David Zuber (2022-03-11). "Ismail Al-Azhari (1900-1969)" Blackpast. Archived from the original on 2025-07-10.
- ↑ 13.0 13.1 Fatima Babiker Mahmoud (1981). Some Aspects of the Political Economy of the Sudan. Sudan Notes and Records. University of Khartoum.
- ↑ Cindi Katz (1985). "Mahmoud, The Sudanese Bourgeoisie" Middle East Research and Information Project. Archived from the original on 2025-07-06.
- ↑ Vijay Prashad (2008). The Darker Nations: A People's History of the Third World: 'Bali' (pp. 159–61). [PDF] The New Press. ISBN 9781595583420 [LG]
- ↑ John Prendergast (1989). Blood Money for Sudan: World Bank and IMF to the "Rescue", vol. Vol. 36, No. 3/4. Africa Today.
- ↑ 17.0 17.1 Luwezi Kinshasa (2019-06-10). "The fall of Omar Hassan al-Bachir" The Burning Spear. Archived from the original on 2020-11-09. Retrieved 2022-08-13.
- ↑ Sara Flounders (2023-04-12). "Ramsey Clark, human rights fighter – 1927-2021" Workers World. Archived from the original on 2023-01-31. Retrieved 2023-04-23.
- ↑ "Brief Timeline of Key Sanctions Events in Sudan (adapted and updated from Hufbauer et al.)" (2011-10-06). Center for Global Development. Archived from the original on 2025-08-22.
- ↑ Samy Magdy (2020-06-05). "IMF says initial deal reached with Sudan to reform economy" AP News.
- ↑ Vijay Prashad (2025-05-15). "A Language of Blood Has Gripped Our World: The Twentieth Newsletter (2025)" The Tricontinental. Archived from the original on 2025-06-18.