South Sudan Secession: Role and Responsibility of Northern Sudanese Political Forces
28 July, 2016KHARTOUM (Sudanow.info.sd) - In this book (published in 2015) Dr. Salman Mohammad Ahmed Salman discusses the issue of the breakaway of Southern Sudan from the mother country (Sudan) in the light of what he calls the role of the Northern Sudanese political powers and the nature of the political, historical and moral responsibility of these forces in the division of the country ever since the independence of Sudan in the mid 1950s.
Sudanow sees no more reliable person other than historian and academic Dr. Ahmad Ibrahim Abushoak to analyze and comment on this invaluable book. Dr. Abushoak has published a thorough review of the book in a number of newspapers.
Dr. Abushoak says that the author, as a barrister, has built his book on the major hypothesis that the breakaway of Southern Sudan was the result of broken promises on the part of the Northern Sudanese politicians and the many chances of peace which were wasted by these Northern politicians with utmost negligence.
Dr. Abushoak adds a crucial question: What indications did the author rely on to prove that hypothesis that dominates the entire book’s 16 chapters.
If we attempt to answer this question and conduct an objective discussion on the book, we should better classify the book in four major axes:
The first axis is concerned with the demand for federal rule which was put forward by Southern Sudanese at the outset of national rule. The Southerners continued to press for federal rule all along the coming years with the successive governments taking no heed of this demand.
The second axis deals with what the author (Dr.Salman) calls the unfair representation of Southerners in the country’s constitutional institutions, national commissions and the public service.
The third axis discusses the failed charters and accords signed by the two parties and the repercussions of that failure.
The fourth axis (which is the pivot of the book) is the issue of the right of self-determination for Southern Sudan, that was consented to by Northern politicians on different occasions and which the author (Salman) has discussed in ten chapters of his highly documented book, explaining its legal dimensions and its political repercussions that led to the secession of Sothern Sudan in 2011.
After a detailed review and analysis, the writer (Abushoak) relates some general comments by distinguished diplomat Khalid Musa and established journalist al-Sir Sidahmad in a bid to assess the author’s hypothesis, the data he exploited in his elaborate discussions and the author’s visible academic effort throughout the book’s 16 chapters and conclusions and whether they conform with other writings that so far discussed the secession of Southern Sudan from different angles.
Says Abushoak: I agree with Khalid Musa and others who reviewed that book that Dr. Salman had contributed to the Sudanese library a work which is worthy of reading and contemplation. Salman has written an original book a match of which the Sudanese universities and publishers had failed to produce so far.
Over and above, the book emanates from a hypothesis that rules that the Northern political forces had committed a horde of grave mistakes that led to the division of the country into two states laden with the burdens of the protracted strife, destructive war, poverty, backwardness, divisions and civil and tribal wars.
This open accusation should induce us to discuss our national issues in an objective and responsible manner away from empty slogans and unfounded accusations. In that way public awareness will grow and forums will multiply and opinions can develop and diversify. That is the most viable means for the search for the truth as we go ahead with responsible and firm nation-building.
Adds Abushoak: Another undisputable advantage of this book is that it had accumulated a collection of documents that depict the history of the causes of the division of the country and the agreements concluded by the Northern and Southern political forces, the reports and recommendations of the national and constitutional committees formed to tackle the conflict in the South and the declarations of the political forces about the matter and possible solutions for the conflict. These documents constitute a solid basis for studying the South problem from different perspectives. In that manner the book can furnish researchers with a rich and indispensable documentary source as regards the bilateral and turbulent relationship that prevailed between the North and South.
Further, the book title has squeezed the author in a relatively narrow angle that led him to set all the blame for the secession of the South on the Northern political forces, forgetting the malpractices of the British colonization when the Southerners were not given due access to constitutional posts and suitable representation in national commissions. Time and again, the responsibility of the secession of the South should not be confined to the Northern political forces. The major blame should go to the colonial rule that discriminated against the Southerners in representation in those bodies. We must remember that a wide section of the Northern political movement had declined to take part in the institutions set by the British rulers of the country.
Abushoak maintains that we should not direct all the blame for the collapse of the Addis Ababa peace agreement of 1972 towards former President Ga’afar Nimeiri. Blame in this regard should also go to the Southern elite who, through their many mistakes, allowed Nimeiri to tamper with the agreement. For example, Nimeiry had relied at a certain stage on Joseph Lagu, the leader of the first Sothern rebellion (the Anyania) and the major party in the Addis Ababa agreement. But this rich legacy could not prevent General Lagu from leading the call for the division of the South into three regions (instead of one region as stipulated in the Addis Ababa agreement) out of his desire to settle his personal disputes with the leaders of the Dinka ethnic group and reduce their absolute domination on the Southern Region’s executive and constitutional institutions.
Abushoak agrees with Sidahmad that the author had attributed foreign intervention in the South question to the weakness of Sudan’s internal front and the absence of confidence among its different parties. But this variable should not prevent us from saying that the intervening foreign powers had had their own strategic interests in the Sudan. The proof of this was that the U.S was keen about the separation of the South out of its own strategic interests and those of its Israeli ally in the region.
Further, the book (in all its 16 chapters) reveals that the author was a proponent of the unity of Sudan as a better choice for the two parts of the country, thus setting the blame on the writers of the clause on the right for self-determination in the agreements and charters they signed with the Southern rebels. Here he argues that those supporters of the unity of the Sudan were well aware about the negatives of the division of the country. They were right in this given what happens now in both Sudan and South Sudan.
Dr. Salman has tackled the role and responsibility of the Northern political forces in the cessation of the South at the different historical contexts with excellent professionalism. However the present government and its ruling party should be held the most responsible.
The entire issue is a reflection of the inability of both Northern and Southern political powers to address the post-independence problems as represented in the preservation of national unity, the promotion of the democratic system and the achievement of a balanced development countrywide. Here the Northern political forces should not be blamed for just allowing the South to break away, but should further be blamed for failing to manage the country at large.
A proof of this is that opposition forces in Eastern Sudan, South Kordufan and Darfur that started as groups pressing for certain regional demands have developed into armed movements fighting the government in Khartoum due to the inadequate response of the Central Government to those demands.
This wide perspective was not, however, the aim of this book that concentrated on the role of the Northern political forces in the breakaway of the South. But the outcome of the author’s research should oblige us to have an in-depth look at the absence of a strategic vision among the political elite in both Northern and Southern Sudan.
Abushoak had in conclusion congratulated Dr. Salman ‘’for achieving this pioneering work, both in form and content, up from his review of the geography of South Sudan, its political history and the sequence of events that led to the cessation of the South, down to the concluding remarks. The book was written in an articulate scientific language, a smooth style, a comprehensive induction of the historical events and a crafty academic analysis. All of this deems the book a qualitative addition to the Sudanese and Arab library. The book is a depiction of the history of the turbulent relationship of Northern and Southern Sudan before the latter had broken away making Africa’s 54 country.
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