SUDAN



Sudan 1699
Photo by: Natasha Owen

Republic of the Sudan

Jumhuriyat as-Sudan

CAPITAL : Khartoum

FLAG : The national flag consists of a tricolor of red, white, and black horizontal stripes, with a green triangle at the hoist.

ANTHEM : Jundi al-Allah (Soldiers of God).

MONETARY UNIT : The Sudanese dinar ( SD ) is a paper currency of 100 piasters (qurush) or 1,000 milliemes. SD 1 = $0.0038 (or $1 = SD 260.39) as of May 2003.

WEIGHTS AND MEASURES : The metric system is the legal standard, but a highly diverse system based on Egyptian and British standards is in local use.

HOLIDAYS : Independence Day, 1 January; Unity Day, 3 March; Uprising Day, 6 April; Decentralization Day, 1 July; Christmas, 25 December. Movable Muslim religious holidays include the 1st of Muharram (Muslim New Year), 'Id al-Fitr, 'Id al-'Adha', and Milad an-Nabi.

TIME : 2 PM = noon GMT.


ETHNIC GROUPS

Indigenous Sudanese include Nilotic or Negroid peoples, of whom the Dinka form the largest portion, and constitute about 52% of the national population; Arabs (an estimated 39% of the population); and Beja (6%). In all, there are nearly 600 ethnic groups. Foreigners constitute 2% of the total populace; other groups another 1%.

LANGUAGES

Arabic, the official language, is the mother tongue of about half the population. Besides standard Arabic, Nubian and Ta Bedawie are also commonly spoken. English is used widely, in many cases serving as a lingua franca among the southern tribes. In all, more than 400 diverse dialects of Nilotic, Nilo-Hamitic, and Sudanic languages are spoken.

FISHING

In the southern provinces and towns, fish, particularly the Nile perch, is a diet staple. The river yields some 110 varieties of fish, and the Red Sea is another valuable fishing ground. In 2000, the total catch was 50,000 tons, 88% from freshwater sources.

INSURANCE

All foreign insurance companies were nationalized in 1970; there were at least 20 Sudanese insurance companies in 1997 and a National Reinsurance Co.

DEPENDENCIES

Sudan has no territories or colonies.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Anderson, G. Norman. Sudan in Crisis: the Failure of Democracy. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 1999.

Arkell, Anthony J. A History of the Sudan, from the Earliest Times to 1821. London: Athlone, 1961.

Bechtold, Peter. Politics in the Sudan: Parliamentary and Military Rule in an Emerging African Nation. New York: Praeger, 1976.

Beshir, Mohamed O. The Southern Sudan: From Conflict to Peace. New York: Barnes and Noble, 1976.

Burr, Millard. Africa's Thirty Years War: Libya, Chad, and the Sudan, 1963–1993. Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press, 1999.

Collins, Robert O. Shadows in the Grass: Great Britain and the Southern Sudan, 1918–1956. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1983.

Daly, M. W. Imperial Sudan: The Anglo-Egyptian Condominium, 1934–1956. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1991.

——. Sudan. Santa Barbara, Calif.: Clio Press, 1992.

——, Ahmad Alawad Sikainga (eds.). Civil War in the Sudan. New York: British Academic Press, 1993.

Deng, Francis Mading. Bonds of Silk: The Human Factor in the British Administration of the Sudan. East Lansing, Mich.: Michigan State University Press, 1989.

Fluehr-Lobban, Carolyn, Richard A. Lobban Jr. and John Obert Voll (eds.). Historical Dictionary of the Sudan. 2d ed. Metuchen, N.J.: Scarecrow Press, 1992.

Gurdon, Charles. Sudan at the Crossroads. London: Menas, 1984.

Hale, Sondra. Gender Politics in Sudan: Islamism, Socialism, and the State. Boulder, Colo.: Westview, 1996.

Hill, Richard Leslie, Egypt in the Sudan, 1820–1881. London: Oxford University Press, 1959.

Holt, P. M. The History of the Sudan, from the Coming of Islam to the Present Day. 4th ed. New York: Longman, 1988.

Lobban, Richard. Historical Dictionary of the Sudan. Lanham, Md.: Scarecrow Press, 2002.

Malwal, Bona. People and Power in Sudan. London: Ithaca Press, 1981.

Metz, Helen Chapin (ed.). Sudan: A Country Study. 4th ed. Washington, D.C.: Library of Congress, 1992.

Niblock, Tim. Class and Power in Sudan: The Dynamics of Sudanese Politics, 1898–1985. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1987.

O'Sullivan, Meghan L. Shrewd Sanctions: Statecraft and State Sponsors of Terrorism. Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution Press, 2003.

Patterson, Donald. Inside Sudan: Political Islam, Conflict, and Catastrophe. Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press, 1999.

Sikainga, Ahmad Alawad. Slaves into Workers: Emancipation and Labor in Colonial Sudan . Austin, Tex.: University of Texas Press, 1996.

Simone, T. Abdou Malqlim. In Whose Image?: Political Islam and Urban Practices in Sudan . Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1994.

Sudan in Pictures. Minneapolis: Lerner Publications Co., 1988.

Thomas, Graham. Sudan: Struggle for Survival . London: Darf, 1993.

Verney, Peter. Sudan: Conflict and Minorities . London: Minority Rights Group, 1995.

Voll, John, and Sarah Voll. The Sudan. Boulder, Colo.: Westview, 1985.

Warburg, Gabriel. Historical Discord in the Nile Valley. Evanston, Ill.: Northwestern University Press, 1992.

Also read article about Sudan from Wikipedia

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