In 1936 Britain and Egypt had reached a partial accord in the Anglo-Egyptian Treaty that enabled Egyptian officials to return to the Sudan. Although the traditional Sudanese sheikhs and chiefs remained indifferent to the fact that they had not been consulted in the negotiations over this treaty, the educated Sudanese elite were resentful that neither Britain nor Egypt had bothered to solicit their opinions. Thus, they began to express their grievances through the Graduates’ General Congress, which had been established as an alumni association of Gordon Memorial College and soon embraced all educated Sudanese.

At first the Graduates’ General Congress confined its interests to social and educational activities, but, with Egyptian support, the organization demanded recognition by the British to act as the spokesman for Sudanese nationalism. The Sudanese government refused, and the Congress split into two groups: a moderate majority, prepared to accept the good faith of the government, and a radical minority, led by Ismāʿīl al-Azharī, which turned to Egypt. By 1943 Azharī and his supporters had won control of the Congress and organized the Ashiqqāʾ (Brothers), the first genuine political party in the Sudan. Seeing the initiative pass to the militants, the moderates formed the Ummah (Nation) Party under the patronage of Sayyid ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Mahdī, the posthumous son of the Mahdī, with the intention of cooperating with the British toward independence.

Sayyid ʿAbd al-Raḥmān had inherited the allegiance of the thousands of Sudanese who had followed his father. He now sought to combine to his own advantage this power and influence with the ideology of the Ummah. His principal rival was Sayyid ʿAlī al-Mīrghānī, the leader of the Khatmiyyah brotherhood. Although he personally remained aloof from politics, Sayyid ʿAlī threw his support to Azharī. The competition between the Azharī-Khatmiyyah faction—remodeled in 1951 as the National Unionist Party (NUP)—and the Ummah-Mahdist group quickly rekindled old suspicions and deep-seated hatreds that soured Sudanese politics for years and eventually strangled parliamentary government. These sectarian religious elites virtually controlled Sudan’s political parties until the last decade of the 20th century, stultifying any attempt to democratize the country or to include the millions of Sudanese remote from Khartoum in the political process.

Although the Sudanese government had crushed the initial hopes of the Congress, the British officials were well aware of the pervasive power of nationalism among the elite and sought to introduce new institutions to associate the Sudanese more closely with the task of governing. An advisory council was established for the northern Sudan consisting of the governor-general and 28 Sudanese, but Sudanese nationalists soon began to agitate to transform the advisory council into a legislative one that would include the southern Sudan. The British had facilitated their control of the Sudan by segregating the animist or Christian Africans who predominated in the south from the Muslim Arabs who were predominant in the north. The decision to establish a legislative council forced the British to abandon this policy; in 1947 they instituted southern participation in the legislative council.

The creation of this council produced a strong reaction on the part of the Egyptian government, which in October 1951 unilaterally abrogated the Anglo-Egyptian Treaty of 1936 and proclaimed Egyptian rule over the Sudan. These hasty and ill-considered actions only managed to alienate the Sudanese from Egypt until the revolution in July 1952 led by Gamal Abdel Nasser and Muḥammad Naguib placed men with more understanding of Sudanese aspirations in power in Cairo. On February 12, 1953, the Egyptian government signed an agreement with Britain granting self-government for the Sudan and self-determination within three years for the Sudanese. Elections for a representative parliament to rule the Sudan followed in November and December 1953. The Egyptians threw their support behind Ismāʿīl al-Azharī, the leader of the NUP, who campaigned on the slogan “Unity of the Nile Valley.” This position was opposed by the Ummah Party, which had the less-vocal but pervasive support of British officials. To the shock of many British officials and to the chagrin of the Ummah, which had enjoyed power in the legislative council for nearly six years, Azharī’s NUP won an overwhelming victory. Although Azharī had campaigned to unite the Sudan with Egypt, the realities of disturbances in the southern Sudan and the responsibilities of political power and authority ultimately led him to disown his own campaign promises and to declare Sudan an independent republic with an elected representative parliament on January 1, 1956.

Coups and conflict with the south

On the night of November 16–17, 1958, the commander in chief of the Sudanese army, Gen. Ibrāhīm ʿAbbūd, carried out a bloodless coup d’état, dissolving all political parties, prohibiting assemblies, and temporarily suspending newspapers. A Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, consisting of 12 senior officers, was set up, and army rule brought rapid economic improvements. The ʿAbbūd government at once abolished the fixed price on cotton and sold all the Sudanese cotton, rebuilding the nation’s foreign reserves. On November 8, 1959, the government concluded an agreement with Egypt on the Nile waters, by which Egypt not only recognized but also appeared to be reconciled to an independent Sudan. In southern Sudan, ʿAbbūd’s policies were less successful. In the name of national unity, the army officers introduced many measures designed to facilitate the spread of Islam and the Arabic language. Important positions in the administration and police were staffed by northern Sudanese. Education was shifted from the English curriculum of the Christian missionaries, who had long been solely responsible for education in the south, to an Arabic, Islamic orientation. Foreign Christian missionaries were expelled between 1962 and 1964.

In the southern Sudan itself, the measures of the central government met ever-increasing resistance. In October 1962 a widespread strike in southern schools resulted in antigovernment demonstrations followed by a general flight of students and others over the border. In September 1963 rebellion erupted in eastern Al-Istiwāʾiyyah (Equatoria) and in the Aʿālī al-Nīl (Upper Nile) province, led by the Anya Nya, a southern Sudanese guerrilla organization that believed that only violent resistance would make the government of General ʿAbbūd seek a solution acceptable to the southerners. In return the generals in Khartoum increased repression.

Although the northern Sudanese had little sympathy for their countrymen in the south, the intelligentsia was able to use the government’s failure there to assail authoritarian rule in the north and to revive demands for democratic government. By 1962, numerous urban elements, including the intelligentsia, the trade unions, and the civil service, as well as the powerful religious brotherhoods, had become alienated from the military regime. Moreover, the tribal masses and growing proletariat had become increasingly apathetic toward the government. In the end the regime was overwhelmed by boredom and overthrown by the reaction to its lassitude. The means of its overthrow was the southern problem.

In October 1964, students at the University of Khartoum held a meeting, in defiance of a government prohibition, in order to condemn government action in the southern Sudan and to denounce the regime. Demonstrations followed, and, with most of its forces committed in the southern Sudan, the military regime was unable to maintain control. The disorders soon spread, and General ʿAbbūd resigned as head of state; a transitional government was appointed to serve under the provisional constitution of 1956.

Under the leadership of Sirr al-Khātim al-Khalīfah, the transitional government held elections in April and May 1965 to form a representative government. A coalition government headed by a leading Ummah politician, Muḥammad Aḥmad Maḥjūb, was formed in June 1965. As before, parliamentary government was characterized by factional disputes. On the one hand Mahjūb enjoyed the support of the traditionalists within the Ummah Party, represented by the Imām al-Hādī, the spiritual successor to the Mahdī, while on the other hand he was challenged by Sayyid Ṣādiq al-Mahdī, the young great-grandson of the Mahdī, who led the more progressive forces within the Ummah. Unable to find common objectives, parliament failed to deal with the economic, social, and constitutional problems in Sudan. Moreover, the earlier hopes expressed by the transitional government of cooperation with the southerners soon vanished. Conflict continued in the south, with little hope of resolution. A group of young officers led by Colonel Gaafar Mohamed el-Nimeiri (Jaʿfar Muḥammad Numayrī)—tired of having no workable constitution, a stagnant economy, a political system torn by sectarian interests, and a continuing civil conflict in the south—seized the government on May 25, 1969.

The Nimeiri regime

When Nimeiri and his young officers assumed power, they were confronted by threats from communists on the left and the Ummah on the right. Nimeiri disbanded the Sudanese Communist Party, which went underground; its leader, Imām al-Hādī, was killed and his supporters dispersed. An abortive coup by the resilient communists in July 1971 collapsed after popular and foreign support held steadfast for the reinstallation of Nimeiri. The abortive coup had a profound effect on Nimeiri. He promised a permanent constitution and National Assembly, established himself as president of the state, and instituted the Sudanese Socialist Union (SSU) as the country’s only party. The affair also produced the incentive to press for a resolution to the southern rebellion.