Identity is a matter of survival
arid environment and barren economy are fuelling divisions among the country's people, says Ramesh M Shah. If the country was more prosperous, discrimination would fall away.
I taught at the University of Juba at the time of conflict/war. We had done several researches. Professor Prah was there also for some time. It is true the Sudanese ‘race’ may look similar in terms of skin, features, life style, and even language. The problem is one of identification. Some identified themselves as Arabs and some as Africans or non-Arabs. This identification is based on the benefits and threats, mainly of survival between artificial ‘groups’, since Sudan is a desert with non-fertile, poor land and old-fashioned technology. Should the economy change, and should the opportunity increase for all, such identification will fade away. Some of these threats were imaginary rather than real. The North-South war was more on imaginary, egoistic, ‘supremacy’ related threats.