History of sudan

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Portrait of a Nubian King from Tabo , possibly King Natakamani , 1st century AD

The history of Sudan is closely linked to the history of Egypt , with which historical Nubia shares the Nile Valley , one of the cradles of human civilization .

In terms of area, Sudan is the third largest (since July 9, 2011 - secession from South Sudan ) country in Africa . The desert landscape of the Sahara dominates large parts . The Nile is the country's main lifeline and thus offers the conditions for a high culture to emerge south of historical Egypt. The south of today's Sudan already belongs to sub-Saharan Africa with the important neighboring country Ethiopia . The Sudan is ethnically and culturally extremely diverse. For over 50 years the country has been marked by civil war and poverty - despite its relatively cheap potential for fertile land and mineral resources.

Overview

At the time of the pharaohs , historical Nubia was partly part of Egypt and partly the master of the entire Nile valley. Islamization only took hold of the country centuries after Egypt. In the 19th century it was first conquered by Egypt, then for a short time back by the Mahdi movement and finally, with British help, the so-called Anglo-Egyptian Sudan until its independence in 1956. Since then there have been repeated parliamentary-democratic approaches that were canceled by military coups. There were also internal conflicts such as the fight of the liberation army SPLA from 1983 to 2011 against the central power in the capital Khartoum and the Darfur conflict, which has been ongoing since 2003 . In 2005, a peace agreement was signed between the Sudanese government and the Liberation Army, which regulates the autonomy of South Sudan and the path to independence.

prehistory

Climate history

Paleolithic (until 8000 BC)

The oldest traces of human settlement in today's Sudan are at least 300,000 years old, probably even older, and therefore belong to Homo erectus . Technologically and culturally, these oldest find complexes belong to the Acheuléen . From Homo erectus the modern man (Homo sapiens) developed in Africa , who settled from East Africa on the land on the Nile before he - following the Nile to the north - began to open up Asia and Europe for himself. Paleolithic sites are concentrated in the Nile Valley: Khashm el-Girba, Khor Musa.

Mesolithic (8000-5000 BC)

The first site of this period to be investigated was Khartoum Hospital, which is why this culture is also known as Khartoum Mesolithic in archeology. The bearers of this culture were semi-sedentary hunters who, however, were already familiar with ceramic production. Their way of doing business was appropriate. The river resources were in the foreground, which is why these find complexes are sometimes also referred to as "aqualithic". The typical ceramics are called Wavy-Line ceramics after the decisive decoration. The sites are mainly on the banks of rivers and lakes. Important sites / regions are: Ad-Damir , Abu Darbein, Wadi Howar , Shaqadud.

Neolithic (4900-3000 BC)

During the 5th millennium BC The domestic animals cattle, sheep and goats from the domestication centers of the Near East came from Egypt to the central Nile valley. The appropriating economic method (hunting, fishing and collecting) is slowly changing to a combined mode of subsistence in which animal husbandry was carried out in addition to fishing and hunting. In some places the appropriative way of life continued to dominate, while in other areas of Sudan keeping pets guaranteed the meat supply of the population and hunting only played a subordinate role. The assumption of arable farming is difficult to prove due to the lack of clear findings. Wild cereal grains that had been collected beforehand were ground on millstones, which often come to light during excavations. The evidence of barley in the graves of Kadruka is in any case a first indication of agriculture. While in the earlier phase simple vessel shapes dominated, in the more recent phase eye-catching vessel shapes such as the elegant tulip-shaped cups take center stage. Important sites / regions are: Kadero, esh-Shaheinab, Kadruka, Kerma, Wadi Howar.

In the east of Sudan the Gash group (around 3000 to 1800 BC) is attested. The people lived from agriculture and animal husbandry. Pottery was produced. At Mahal Teglinos, a village with almost urban dimensions was excavated. The building consisted of round huts, but also of rectangular adobe buildings, the southernmost at all in Africa at that time. Large cemeteries have been found. some of the graves were marked with large, undecorated stone steles. There were seals and seal stamps that indicate forms of administration. Egyptian ceramics and faience pearls are evidence of trade with Egypt. Shells from the Red Sea testify to relationships there.

Kerma culture (2500–1520 BC)

Pharaonic times

Pyramids of Meroe , built by the Kingdom of Kusch - aerial photo from 2001

During the time of the Egyptian pharaohs and in ancient times , the region of what is now Sudan was known as Upper Nubia .

There were connections to northern Egypt and even to Greece early on . This was favored by the geographical location on the upper reaches of the Nile. The kingdom of Kerma once existed here , the oldest known black African state, which was able to extend its domain to the southern border of Egypt, in the 2nd millennium BC. But was repulsed by the pharaohs.

Probably from 1080 BC. The kingdom of Kush exists here (at the latest from 750 BC) to the 3rd century . The capital was initially Napata , later Meroe . The empire can build on a strong military power and large gold finds.

Around 700 BC BC Cush conquered Egypt and established the 25th dynasty of the ( Nubian ) pharaohs there.

Christianization and Islamization

Map of the Christian Kingdoms in the Middle Ages

Between the fifth and sixth centuries, Christianity was established in northern and eastern parts of Sudan , mainly from Coptic Egypt, but also partly from present-day Ethiopia and Byzantium . The Christian kingdoms of Alwa , Makuria and Nobatia arise , of which Makuria is the best known. From 640 AD, Islam spreads in the north through Arab traders. The settlement and mixing of Arab and indigenous populations over time led to an Arabization of the area and a strong loss of influence of Christianity. Nevertheless, Christian kingdoms in Nubia can last into the 14th century. From the 16th century onwards, some South Sudanese ethnic groups also became Muslim. Most of the south, however, remains true to traditional religions into the 20th century .

The Islamic Sultanate of Sannar (1504–1821), also known as the Black Sultanate, contributed to the further expansion of Islam . Under his influence there is the Arabization and Islamization of various indigenous peoples in Sudan. However, there are also developments such as the bedscha who settle in the mountains of the Red Sea . Despite conversion to Islam and mixed marriages with Arab immigrants, they retain their own distinct culture.

The powerful sultanate in Darfur , also known as the Fur Sultanate , existed from the 16th century until the conquest by Turkish occupiers in 1874 and, unlike the Fung Empire, plays a key role in trans-African trade. It is then restored under Ali Dinar after the end of the Mahdi rule in 1898 and remains in place until 1916.

Occupation and Colonial Era

Ottoman-Egyptian rule

In the early 19th century, the Khedives , the Ottoman viceroys of Egypt, began to conquer Sudan. They pushed further and further south along the Nile. In 1820 today's capital Khartoum was founded by them as a military camp. In 1821 the Sultanate of Sannar was conquered by Turkish-Egyptian troops led by Ismael Kamil Pasha, the son of Muhammad Ali . After the conquest, black slaves began to be recruited immediately. On June 13, 1821, the capital of the Fung Sannar was conquered. After Dongola , the Kingdom of Darfur was conquered and the Central African Lakes were finally reached in 1871 with the province of Equatoria .

In order to organize the administration in the occupied territories and put an end to the slave trade, the Egyptian government sent Europeans to Sudan in the 1870s. Charles George Gordon was appointed governor of Equatoria and then of all of Sudan in 1874.

Mahdi uprising

Muhammad al-Mahdi

From 1881 the movement of the Sudanese religious leader Muhammad Ahmad (called al-Mahdi - the one led by God ) was able to prevail. Egypt, which had been occupied by Great Britain since 1882 , withdrew from Sudan. This phase is also known as the Mahdi uprising . On January 26, 1885, the capital Khartoum fell into the hands of the Mahdi. Governor Gordon was killed in the process. The Mahdi founded a new capital in Omdurman , on the other bank of the Nile from Khartoum, where he died on June 12, 1885. The Mahdi successor, Caliph Abdallahi ibn Muhammad , established a state that stretched from Darfur in the west to Suakin in the east (excluding the city itself) and from Dongola in the north to Bahr al-Ghazal in the south. The Omdurman Caliphate formed the first Sudanese national government. The Sharia governed all areas of human existence. The slave trade was allowed again under the caliph. Abdallahi ibn Muhammad was only defeated in 1898 by Egyptian troops under the British general Lord Horatio Herbert Kitchener at the Battle of Omdurman . The Mahdists then fled south. Here they controlled the area from Darfur to the border with Ethiopia until October 1899 .

British-Egyptian condominium

Faruq (I.), tenth Egyptian ruler of Sudan, was established in 1951 for King of Egypt and Sudan proclaimed

In 1898 there was a Faschoda crisis between Great Britain and France , who could not agree on their claims to ownership of Sudan. In the end, France had to withdraw from Fashoda , officially renounced in 1904, and Sudan became an Anglo-Egyptian condominium ; but in fact it remained a British colony until the Kingdom of Egypt became independent in 1922 . Egypt continued to claim Sudan for itself and the condominium status therefore remained controversial. In 1924 the Sudan crisis broke out , which put a heavy strain on relations between the two countries for over a decade.

Under British rule, the capital Khartoum was expanded according to plan, a university was established (mainly to train local officials) and, above all, the cultivation of cotton , which was a very important import item for the British textile industry, was intensified . The area between the White and Blue Nile south of Khartoum became the most important cultivation area .

Meanwhile, Protestant and Catholic missionaries poured into the country and converted parts of the previously pagan local religions or blacks belonging to Monophysite Christianity with Ethiopian characteristics in the south , so that where there has been no Islamization up to now, the Christian minority has in some cases increased considerably.

As early as 1948 the British carried out an administrative reform in Sudan and, against the resistance of Egypt, allowed a national constituent assembly in 1951. On February 12, 1953, after the military coup there, Egypt announced that the future Sudan should decide for itself whether it wanted to belong to Egypt or not. The elections on November 29, 1953 were clearly in favor of the National Union Party ( Umma Party - UP). This largely paved the way to self-employment.

After the November elections, Ismail al-Azhari (1902–1969) managed to form a government on January 9, 1954. In the same year the Muslim Brotherhood gained a foothold in Sudan. In 1955 the civil war began between the Christian black south and the Islamic Arab north of the country.

Republic of Sudan

Independence 1956

On January 1, 1956, Sudan became independent under Prime Minister al-Azhari. In April of that year Sudan became a member of the Arab League , demonstrating that it belongs to the Arab world .

In the elections of March 11, 1958, the Umma became the strongest party with 68 of the 173 seats in parliament. Because of the problems within the coalition, its leader, Abdullah Khalil, turned to the army commander in chief , General Ibrahim Abbud . This coup on November 17th. He dissolved parliament, suspended the constitution, banned all parties and became head of state as the head of the military junta .

Government of the National Union

On November 15, 1964 Abbud was replaced by a civilian government, which was supported by the two majority parties, the Umma Party and the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP). Al-Azhari became chairman of the Sovereignty Council . In November 1964 the active and passive right to vote for women was introduced.

This time was marked by instability and rivalries between the parties, but at the same time also by the will of the Arab elites to Arabize and Islamize the country as a means of "cultural decolonization". Imam al-Hādī, leader of the Mahdists , the religious base of the Umma party, declared in August 1966: "For the most part, Sudan is an Arab and Islamic state." In November 1966 the government in Omdurman founded the Islamic-African Center , which was supposed to offer young Africans from different countries training in Arabic and Islamic studies.

1969–1985: reign of Numairi

On May 25, 1969, there was a new coup. This time under Colonel Jafar an-Numairi , who subsequently installed the Sudanese Socialist Union ( SSU ) as the sole party in the state. In terms of foreign policy, he moved closer to the Soviet Union and in 1970 nationalized foreign banks and companies. His policy was initially based on the then pan-Arab model of Gamal abd an-Nassir . On the domestic level, he tried to break the power of the Mahdists. In March 1970 he bombed the island of Aba on the White Nile , where the Ansār stronghold was.

On July 19, 1971, there was a communist coup attempt in Sudan: Left forces in Numeiri's Revolutionary Council rebelled against his plans to establish a state union with Libya and Egypt. Numeiri was able to suppress the coup on July 22nd of that year with military help from the two countries. Arrests, executions and diplomatic conflicts with Moscow follow. On October 10, 1971, Numeiri was elected head of state.

In 1972 he signed the Addis Ababa Peace Agreement with the rebellious south . The south receives an autonomy ; an amnesty for the rebels and economic aid for the poor south are promised. On June 13, 1972, Sudan resumed diplomatic relations with the Federal Republic of Germany . On July 25th back to the USA . In the West this is welcomed as an opening up of Sudan's foreign policy, while in the Eastern Bloc it is seen as a turn to imperialism .

On April 14, 1973, a new constitution for Sudan was passed. The Islam was in it as a state religion enshrined that Christianity as a minority religion recognized, Sudan defined as state with Arab and African identity, the South assured the autonomy of the SSU was awarded as the sole constitutional state party leadership. Indeed, on October 22nd, an autonomous government of South Sudan will be established.

In 1976 there is another attempted coup, but it fails. Numeiri accuses Libya of authorship and concludes an assistance agreement with Egypt on July 15 . Relations with the Soviet Union are deteriorating increasingly. Diplomatic contacts are minimized.

On May 24, 1977, Numairi proposed a "great national reconciliation" to the Islamic opposition front in exile, which consisted of the Khatmiyya , the Mahdists and the Muslim Brotherhood. On August 14, 1977, various politicians in exile were rehabilitated and were allowed to come back to Sudan. Sadiq al-Mahdi was reconciled with Numeiri and unceremoniously dissolved his National Front . In return, Numeiri promised political participation under the umbrella of the SSU. In the same year, the Islamic-African Center reopened on a site ten kilometers south of Chartoum and accepted its first 60 students, who came from Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda and Sudan. Numairī declared in a book in 1978 that it was necessary to return the country to the "Islamic way" ( an-nahǧ al-islāmī ).

From January 12 to 21, 1979, the parliaments of Egypt and Sudan meet together. The aim is to underline the solidarity between the two countries in the economic, social and cultural fields.

In March 1980, Jafar an-Numeiri also survived a coup attempt by five army officers who were arrested. He then accused the Soviet Union and Syria of having supported the coup attempt and, from June 1980, offered the USA the use of military facilities in Sudan. On June 26, 1980, diplomatic relations with Libya were broken off because Sudan was on the other side of its involvement in neighboring Chad , as Libya was striving to unite the two countries.

In 1982 there were further agreements of close cooperation with Egypt in the Nile region.

In 1983 South Sudan revolted again. Observers assumed that this time ethnic disputes are only an excuse and that it is more about the oil deposits discovered there . In addition, the Sharia was introduced on September 9th of that year. The SPLA under John Garang started its resistance struggle for the “liberation of Sudan” in the south . It received logistical support from Ethiopia and did not see itself as a separatist .

A state of emergency was declared in April 1984. Numeiri grew closer to the Muslim Brotherhood under the religious leader Hassan al-Turabi . The most important opposition leader was again Sadiq al-Mahdi, who was able to refer to the nimbus of his ancestor, the powerful al-Mahdi from the 19th century (see above) and is considered a moderate representative of Islam. He led the Umma Party and founded the Ansar Brotherhood .

Both the majority of the population and the National Assembly rejected Numeiri's policy of Islamization. It came to a head when Numeiri wanted to officially proclaim himself an imam and have Sudan renamed as an Islamic state , and the National Assembly refused to give his approval.

On January 18, 1985, the 76-year-old reformist religious leader Mahmud Taha ( Republican Brotherhood ) was executed for heresy . When US Vice President George HW Bush was in Sudan in March, he criticized Numeiri's Islamization course in view of the worsening economic situation in the African country. As a result, Turabi and other Muslim Brotherhood were arrested.

Numeiri was overthrown in a bloodless military coup on April 6, 1985 after unrest and the threat of a general strike in Khartoum . Numeiri was on a state visit to the United States at the time . The Provisional Military Council (TMC) under Swar ad-Dahab took power and appointed a transitional government. Despite the offer of peace, the SPLA's struggle continued in the south, while resistance against the reform of the governance structures created under Numeiri was formed in the north.

In terms of foreign policy, the new government again oriented itself more towards Libya and the Soviet Union and also resumed diplomatic relations with Iran . Finally, on October 10th, a transitional constitution was put in place and elections were called.

From April 1st to April 12th 1986 there were general elections in Sudan, in which 40 parties participated. Because of the ongoing fighting in the south, dozens of constituencies did not vote there. The Umma Party (UP) of Sadiq al Mahdi gets 99 seats, the Democratic Union Party (DUP) 63; and the National Islamic Front (NIF) under Hassan Turabi 51.

Sadiq al-Mahdi became Prime Minister of the coalition government of the UP and DUP on May 15. The Muslim Brotherhood , which operated under the umbrella of the NIF, was able to prevent the Sharia from disappearing entirely from the Sudanese legal system through its parliamentary strength .

In the meantime, the SPLA continued to gain ground, and mediation efforts between al-Mahdi and SPLA leader John Garang in Addis Ababa failed. The supply situation for the population deteriorated increasingly.

1989 to 2019: Rule of Bashir

Sudan with South Sudan, which became independent in 2011 . The other regions in which there are separatist efforts are marked in old pink, red areas represent territorial conflicts.

In 1989 the military struck again, and the Islamic-oriented Umar Hasan Ahmad al-Bashir took power with his Revolutionary Command Council (RCC).

In July 1991, the Sharia was fully reintroduced. In addition, Bashir banned further aid flights from Operation Lifeline Sudan (OLS) to the starving south.

Meanwhile, the conflict in the south came to a head, and in 1992 there was a large-scale offensive by government troops against the Sudanese People's Liberation Army (SPLA). The official end of the military dictatorship in 1993 did nothing to change that. The fronts against the south, which was striving for autonomy, intensified. United Nations observers spoke of genocide committed by radical Islamists with the approval or participation of government troops. Sudan was condemned by the UN in 1992 for human rights violations.

On February 10, 1993 Pope John Paul II visited the capital Khartoum.

After his re-election as president in 1996, al-Bashir negotiated unsuccessfully with the SPLA, so that the 1997 talks in Nairobi had to be declared a failure. The following year, negotiations were resumed in the Kenyan capital. Hassan al-Turabi (now President of Parliament) declared in July 1998 that independence for the South would no longer be ruled out.

In 1998 the United States attacked Sudan and bombed the Ash Shifa drug factory near the capital, Khartoum. The official justification for this was that allegedly poison gas was being produced there and that Sudan was involved in the terrorist attacks in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam . Evidence for these claims has not been produced to date.

250,000 people are said to have been killed by the bombing in the south and 2.5 million are acutely affected by famine. In the same year there were also reports of the increasing slave trade in the south.

In 1999 the Sudanese parliament was dissolved, al-Bashir declared a state of emergency and dismissed Turabi's supporters from the government. An agreed ceasefire between the government and the rebels was broken, making it difficult for the aid organizations to work.

In the new elections in 2001, al-Bashir won a huge leap, which is partly due to the fact that the opposition parties boycotted the election. The state of emergency was extended again.

Since the peace treaty of 2005 with the south, however, Umar al-Bashir has governed with his National Congress Party together with the Sudanese People's Liberation Movement .

In 2011 there was an independence referendum in South Sudan , in which the majority of the South Sudanese voted for an independent state. Since July 9, 2011, South Sudan has been officially separated from Sudan.

On February 22, 2019, President Bashir declared a year-long state of emergency and dismissed the government; on April 11, 2019 of the same year he was overthrown by the military and imprisoned after popular protests ; other senior politicians were arrested. He was succeeded by a military council.

See also

literature

  • Robert O. Collins: A History of Modern Sudan . Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2008, ISBN 978-0-521-67495-9 .
  • Nicole Grandin: "Al-Merkaz al-islami al-ifriqi bi'l-Khartoum: la République du Soudan et la propagation de l'islam en Afrique noire (1977–1991)", in: René Otayek (ed.): Le radicalisme islamique au sud du Sahara: da'wa , arabization et critique de l'Occident. Karthala Karthala - MSHA, Paris, 1993. pp. 97-120.
  • Khaled al-Hakami: Sudan - Arabia and Black Africa on the Nile , NORDICO - Museum of the City of Linz 2001, ISBN 3-85484-078-0 .
  • Fritz and Ursula Hintze: Ancient Cultures in Sudan . Munich: Callwey 1967
  • Derek A. Welsby, Julie R. Anderson eds., Sudan: ancient treasures, an exhibition of recent discoveries from the Sudan National Museum , British Museum Press, London 2004, ISBN 0-7141-1960-1 .

Web links

Commons : History of Sudan  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Andrea Manzo: Eastern Sudan in its Setting, The archeology of a region far from the Nile Valley , Archaeopress 2017, ISBN 9781784915582 , pp. 33-42 online
  2. ↑ See the Anglo-Egyptian Condominium Agreement of January 19, 1899, in which Great Britain and Egypt agreed to jointly colonize and administer Sudan under the "Condominium Rule".
  3. ↑ See Grandin 105.
  4. ↑ - New Parline: the IPU's Open Data Platform (beta). In: data.ipu.org. Retrieved October 6, 2018 .
  5. ^ Mart Martin: The Almanac of Women and Minorities in World Politics. Westview Press Boulder, Colorado, 2000, p. 360.
  6. ↑ See Grandin 99.
  7. ↑ Quoted from Grandin 103.
  8. ↑ See Grandin 101.
  9. ↑ See Grandin 105.
  10. ↑ See Grandin 105.
  11. ↑ See Grandin 106.
  12. ↑ See Grandin 106.
  13. ↑ See Grandin 113
  14. ↑ See Grandin 105.
  15. ↑ http://www.sudantribune.com/spip.php?article67113
  16. ↑ See Enrico Ille: Review of: Collins, Robert O .: A History of Modern Sudan. Cambridge 2008 . In: H-Soz-u-Kult , March 12, 2010.