Why Did Africa’s Largest Country Split into 2 Countries p1
This is Sudan, which once was the largest country of Africa Its area was approximately 2.55 million square kilometers But in 2011 it was divided into two countries Now its northern part is Republic of Sudan While southern part is called Republic of South Sudan South Sudan is the last and largest country to get independence in 21st century till now What was the reason behind the split of this Islamic country? Was there any role of Oil and Religion in this division?
What was the role of Great Britain in this division historically? Are these country in peaceful terms with one another or there is still some issue between them? Let’s find out this all History of this division is rooted in colonial system When at the beginning of 19th century Sudan was in control of Egypt In the last years of the century, Egypt became a British colony In 1899, Sudan was given the status of a condominium, a state ruled jointly by Britain and Egypt During this period,
Arab Muslims were in the majority in the north of Sudan While the majority in South Sudan were non-Muslim African tribes After being granted condominium status, North Sudan soon recognized British rule While the British faced fierce resistance in the south And here most of Britain’s energy was spent in crushing this resistance Due to different responses in the two different parts of a same country, colonial power also ruled in different ways As there was less resistance in the north,
Britain was more interested in modernization here And the construction of infrastructure etc. was also done well Britain did not build any kind of infrastructure in the south Rather, here the situation was barely under control The reason for not building infrastructure etc. was probably the resistance here Further, in 1922, Britain banned the movement of northern Sudanese southwards from the 10th parallel
Britain also banned the movement of South Sudanese from the 8th parallel to the north After such restrictions, the distance between North and South Sudan increased One of the objectives of these restrictions was to prevent Islamic ideas from spreading further south Along with this, the Christian Missionaries in South Sudan were also engaged in converting the local African tribes
Why Did Africa’s Largest Country Split into 2 Countries p2
A clear line was being drawn for the division between North and South Sudan, which became deeper in the future The marginalization policy of the British government in Sudan continued in the following decades At that time, the world colonial system was ending And Britain decided to grant independence to Sudan in 1956 Sudan had become independent under an interim constitution And now a permanent constitution for the country was to be made But there were two problems
The first issue was whether Sudan would be a federal of unitary state The second issue was whether this Sudan would be a secular or Islamic state Here in South Sudan, the politicians thought to have more powers in the provinces They thought it as a better option to protect the rights of the people here Because otherwise, South Sudan would have to be subordinated to the Northern-dominated central government Northern Sudanese politicians were reluctant to adopt a system In which the provinces would have some degree of autonomy If this was the case,
Separatist ideas would have been strengthened in South Sudan Which Northern Sudan did not want at all Therefore, the politicians of North Sudan wanted to keep the affairs under the control of the North and the Center The same problem was with regard to religion North Sudanese politicians believed that Sudan should be an Islamic state While serious concerns were being found in South Sudan Because in this case, they were afraid that they would be subordinated to the Arab Muslims of North Sudan And this was not acceptable to them at all So they were in favor of a secular state At that time,
Part 2
About 80 percent of South Sudan’s population was Christians or other African religions While Muslims were only 18 percent here in South Sudan The differences regarding government structure and constitution were the objections that came up after independence When Britain was preparing to leave South Sudanese got negligible number of posts out of 800 vacant posts At that time, in the situation of political uncertainty When the forces of North Sudan used force to control the rebels of South Sudan The civil war also started in Sudan The only demand of South Sudanese rebels was that they be given more representation and autonomy in the government The civil war ended with the Addis Ababa Agreement in 1972.
