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AEGIS European Conference on African Studies
11 - 14 July 2007
African Studies Centre, Leiden, The Netherlands
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Fragmentation and marginalization and in Sudan: is it the time for a new national synthesis?
| Panel |
53. Les effets socio-économiques de la « deuxième décolonisation africaine » au nom du marché libre et global
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| Paper ID | 316 |
| Author(s) |
Musso, Giorgio
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| Paper |
No paper submitted
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| Abstract | The paper starts up with a short analysis regarding the ethnic, linguistic, religious, geographical and political fragmentation that has characterized Sudan since the Anglo-Egyptian colonization. This issue has deeply influenced the crises that have repeatedly affected the peripherical areas of the country.
The main subject that we introduce deals with the opportunities to re-invent the Sudanese identity in the light of the political and economical events that have taken place in Sudan just in the latest years.
Because of the ruinous internal situation and in the face of the changeable international relations after 2001, the Sudanese government has been forced to change its path: peace has been reached in the South and the East, while in Darfur it is stuck just on the paper. Besides, the economy is rapidly growing mainly thanks to the involvement of different Chinese investors in the oil sector. Finally, the Sudanese government has got rid of its most radical Islamic wings and, committing itself in the fight against international terrorism, has freed itself from the label of “Rogue State”.
Anyway, as the persistent Darfur crisis shows, these changes – though important - haven’t been followed by a comprehensive solution of the identity issues that lay behind the repeated insurrections around the whole country.
This “identitarian synthesis” – that involves political, economic and social features – needs to find its starting point in the new national constitution, that will take the place of the today transitional charter.
So, what are nowadays the perspectives for a re-definition of the Sudanese identity? Is the country going to be able to solve the hoary issues regarding secularism and federalism? Will Sudan manage to keep its own territorial integrity, or is the secession of the South destined to open a period of “balcanization” of the country? Which role the international powers – especially China and the US – are going to play in the forthcoming years? |
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