Africa A to Z: Continental and Country Profiles: Third Edition

Sudan

COUNTRY PROFILES A-Z 364 Africa A-Z: Continental and Country Profiles | Africa Institute of South Africa Sudan Orientation Until July 2011, Sudan was the largest country in Africa. The secession of South Sudan left the North a much smaller territory. Now with a significantly reduced population and diminished resources, Sudan is the third largest country in Africa. Sudan’s territory has been reduced to 1 861 484 km² from 2 505 813 km² prior to the secession of South Sudan. Its estimated population according to the Population Reference Bureau was 33.5 million mid-2012. Sudan lies at the eastern end of a chain of desert countries extending across Africa, from the Atlantic Ocean to the Red Sea and the Ethiopian mountains. In ancient times the Arabs of North Africa named this region, to the south of the Sahara Desert, bilad as sudan (land of the blacks). As well, the name Sudan was adopted for the dry savanna vegetational zone, running parallel with the Sahara borderlands (Sahel) across the continent, from east to west. When the country named Sudan was formed in the 19th century there was sometimes confusion as to whether the name Sudan referred to the country or to the continent-wide natural zone. Nowadays, the name Sahel is increasingly used for the semi-arid natural zone separating the Sahara Desert and the tropical forests to the south. No point in the country is very high and Sudan is generally a flat featureless plain lying below 1000 m above sea level. The highest point in Sudan, Mt Marra, an extinct volcano in the west near the border with Chad is 3 071 m. The Nuba Mountains in the south of the country are not very high but are a prominent natural feature. Sudan is drained by the Nile River and its great tributaries, the world’s longest waterway. The Bahr al-Jabal is the southern stretch of the Nile, rising in Uganda. It is joined in the Sudd Swamps, in South Sudan, by the Bahr al-Ghazal, flowing from the southwest, and by the Sobat River, flowing from the east. From this point the three rivers form the White Nile as far as the large river port of Khartoum, where the White Nile is joined by the Blue Nile, flowing from Ethiopia. From Khartoum the main Nile flows through Northern Sudan to Egypt and the Mediterranean Sea. Owing to the flatness of the land the Nile is a slow-flowing river, except during the annual flood. The 360 km Jonglei Canal was constructed in the 1980s to release more water at a faster rate from the Sudd Swamps in South Sudan. North of Khartoum the river flows across six cataracts, known by their numbers (1-6) since ancient times. In modern times the Aswan High Dam was built across the first cataract, located in COUNTRY PROFILES A-Z Africa Institute of South Africa | Africa A-Z: Continental and Country Profiles 365 Egypt. Behind the dam wall Lake Nasser (or Lake Nubia) extends into Sudan for about 500 km, almost as far as the third cataract while submerging the second cataract that formerly marked the Egyptian-Sudanese border. The northern third of Sudan is true desert, except for the Nile River valley. To the west of the river lies the Libyan Desert and, between the river and the Red Sea, the Nubian Desert. South of Khartoum the rainfall increases steadily to around 200 mm per year. People Sudan is one African country where languages belonging to all three of the continent’s major linguistic families are spoken. First, there is the Afro-asiatic linguistic family, including Arabic, the country’s sole official language which is spoken by the people in the northern and central regions. The Cushitic languages are a subgroup of the Afro-asiatic family and are spoken by groups such as the Beja in the Red Sea coastlands. Second, there is the Nilo-Saharan family of languages, also spoken in Chad, Niger and Mali. It includes the large subgroup of Sudanic languages spoken in south-western and what is now South Sudan. The speakers of Arabic and Beja and many speakers of Nilo-Saharan languages are Muslims. Arab culture and Islam dominate in the capital of Khartoum and in the northern and central parts of the country that accommodate about 48% of the total population. Muslim society is characterised by various religious orders and by politicoreligious movements such as the Muslim brotherhoods...