Race in Sudan and South Sudan Part 1: Intersectional and Cross-sectional
Rohan Lambore, Research Analyst, Youth, Gender, & Vulnerability Policy Lab
rlambore@africacfsp.org
This piece seeks to examine how the ethno-social environment in Sudan and South Sudan specifically impacts race and its unique intersection with religion and gender in the two nations. By examining historical and current developments across the Republic of the Sudan (henceforth ‘Sudan’) and The Republic of the South Sudan (henceforth ‘South Sudan’), it is evident that the Arab and Non-Arab Worlds are colliding within two nation states that are effectively partitioned. However, the very sets of differences that separate the many groups within Sudan and South Sudan may hold the key to further reconciliation and human development.
As a hallmark case-study for the intersectionality between ethnicity, religion and race, the Sudan – South Sudan relationship remains a telling example of how prolonged conflict navigates and reshapes the populations that it has destroyed and rebuilt over decades. For certain provinces in Sudan, the presence of brutal militia groups like the Janjaweed is still an everyday reality. Since 2003, violence constituting rape, looting, pillaging, and mass murder across the Darfur persists, though the national government is now actively pushing back and apprehending many of the perpetrators. Amid this war in the vast Saharan region, ethnicity, religion and race have merged and resulted in death and destruction. As noted journalist and American University Law professor Rebecca Hamilton, describes, “the Janjaweed bear responsibility…[and] the genocide may still be occurring”. Even in 2021, the division between Muslim and non-Muslim, and darker African and lighter Arab still contribute to the instability and carnage.
Race and Intersectionality in the Sudanese/South Sudanese Context
Since 2011, Sudan and South Sudan have created an ideal pair of case studies to examine the power of race. Before the partition of Sudan into two states, the united country once encompassed the vast territory that spans portions of the Sahara Desert, the Sahel, and the White Nile Valley. Particularly compelling and cogent, as the world continues to globalize, is that after South Sudan’s 2011 Independence, both nations continue to linger in political and national uncertainty.
Intersectionality, as a theme, allows for an investigation into race and gender to illuminate the ways that each impacts identity. Kimberlé Crenshaw, a UCLA Law professor and activist, initially coined intersectionality, which she developed as a mechanism specifically concerned with male violence against women of color that also acknowledges how one’s identity can then impact the experiences of oppression. Yet there are other lenses through which this theme can be explored in relation to Sudan and South Sudan. Indeed, the intersection of race, religion, and even tribe are driving factors that compound the effects of, and have historically exacerbated, extreme violence. This serves to generate and entrench an in-group/out-group dynamic whereby individuals are measured and their status in society is thus determined according to a variety of characteristics.
Before 2011, Sudan’s “other” was considered anyone who was not an Arab or did not look Arab, and by ethnoreligious association, was not Muslim. As Sudan has historically been “a crossroads between the Arab and African worlds,” this “othering” inevitably led to divisions between the predominantly Arab, lighter-skinned north, and the Christian, darker-skinned south. When the identities of a racial Arab and African then merge, adding the layers of religion and gender further underscores the necessity of an intersectional approach to understanding the two nations.
Critically, throughout the regime of Omar Al-Bashir (President of Sudan from 1989-2019), the ethno-racial and ethnoreligious cleavages became even more apparent through two major civil wars (Second Sudanese War from 1983-2005 and the War in Darfur from 2003-Present). Al-Bashir gained worldwide notoriety for his militant, brutal, and autocratic dictatorship during both conflicts, which saw the deaths and displacement of hundreds of thousands of civilians. The Second Sudanese Civil War eventually led to the independence of South Sudan, while the War in Darfur displays the current range of crises hindering democracy and nation-building in the region.
Intersectionality Within the Path Forward
Despite the ongoing strife in both countries, the cultural, racial, and religious diversity of each country can form the basis of a pluralistic society that thrives on multiculturalism and sustained peace. In order for it to do so, a non-exclusionary definition of race, religion, and gender is integral to future developments. Sudan and South Sudan maintain a diversity that presents multiple paths that can achieve prosperity. For example, efforts have been made toward integrating the non-Arabs that remain in Sudan after partition into the public and private sectors in Sudan without significant pushback from the precariously assembled Sovereignty Council (which was formed following the 2019 overthrow of Al-Bashir). Further, intergovernmental cooperation between Sudan and South Sudan is necessary for future prosperity. In South Sudan, examining the current government deeply enhances any understanding of how the South Sudanese, and in particular, the tribes that identify as such, coexist in an intersectional sphere. Illustratively, since early 2020, the South Sudanese unity government led by Salva Kiir (an ethnic Dinka) includes five vice-presidents with each representing a major tribe of the nation, including a female and a Muslim. This recent political effort portrays the immense diversity of South Sudan and illuminates the leaders’ attempts to forge new pathways for peace and stability.
Exemplifying racial relations, University of Pennsylvania historian Heather Sharkey dissects the historical concept of “blackness” and the specific relationship that racial tones have with Arab and non-Arab “Africans,” asserting that “Arabization” instituted Arabic as the most shared and widely spoken Sudanese language. The formation of South Sudan as a separate state represented a cultural and political rejection of the effects of racial dominance, and through them, the claim that Arab Muslims should not and do not define Sudan’s global image. Indeed, the fact that the majority of South Sudan identifies as non-Muslim was not only a tenet of their independence but continues to justify and bolster their existence as separate from that of Sudan’s Arabs. However, the Arab-non-Arab delineation is not the only one that exists in South Sudan. Freelance investigative journalist Laura Kasinof builds on this by pointing out that language hierarchies continue to serve a dominant role within South Sudan. Here, as a broader strategy of ‘creating’ a South Sudanese identity, tensions over language, exemplified in attempts to eschew Arabic and embrace English, have also generated strain between tribes that prefer their own languages, such as Dinka and Nuer.
Race can also be examined through Sudan and South Sudan’s burgeoning movements for female empowerment. Given that the Muslim-Christian schism continues to deepen within South Sudan and Sudan, the former is in the unique position of pushing forward in areas of tolerance and development, which are two tenets of religious and gender-based acceptance. As Utrecht University professor Griet Steel indicates, social media is placing Sudanese and South Sudanese women in control of their identity, albeit not without a struggle. Companies such as Facebook and its subsidiaries are established in nearly all states in the region and provide opportunities for employment and avenues through which women can voice grievances. Of note, women played a prominent role in the ousting of former President Al-Bashir, organizing civil society and many of the protests in late 2018 and early 2019.
This phenomenon also exists in South Sudan, where the boundaries seem different than those of their northern neighbors. While Sudanese women, specifically in Khartoum, are often subjected to the strict Sharia laws that govern the Islamic culture, in South Sudan, they are not. In Juba, the capital of South Sudan, the urban setting serves as a hub for women to explore their identities and talents amidst chaos and unpredictability. Here, the distinction between Arab and non-Arab is crucial, as non-Arab women form a majority in South Sudan since its Independence. Beyond this, women have played a crucial role during post-conflict reconciliation. Further, the fact that women have carved their paths in the entire region is promising and vital when considering the multiple ways forward for these diverse and fragile nations.
Intersectionality allows for a robust platform to dissect the relationship between race, religion, and gender in how each is impacted by the ongoing uncertainty in Sudan and South Sudan. Contentions surrounding race exist in everyday life in the Sahel and Horn of Africa, as well as in the academy of global scholars. Crenshaw’s conceptualization allows for insights that may otherwise remain unobserved and under-discussed. The future prospects for Sudan and South Sudan largely depend on the channels through which each nation pursues reconciliation and development. Race, religion, and gender will play a major role in this. However, while racial disparities have and will continue to exist in both nations, their respective environments can pave a reinforced road towards reconciling with these facts while further developing their demographically diverse polities.
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