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Economic Development and the Heritage of Slavery in the Sudan Republic Author(S): Peter F

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Economic Development and the Heritage of Slavery in the Sudan Republic Author(S): Peter F International African Institute Economic Development and the Heritage of Slavery in the Sudan Republic Author(s): Peter F. M. McLoughlin Source: Africa: Journal of the International African Institute, Vol. 32, No. 4 (Oct., 1962), pp. 355-391 Published by: Cambridge University Press on behalf of the International African Institute Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1157439 . Accessed: 12/10/2013 19:43 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp . JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. Cambridge University Press and International African Institute are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Africa: Journal of the International African Institute. http://www.jstor.org This content downloaded from 129.128.216.34 on Sat, 12 Oct 2013 19:43:12 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions [355] ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AND THE HERITAGE OF SLAVERY IN THE SUDAN REPUBLIC' PETER F. M. McLOUGHLIN A. INTRODUCTION-GENERAL THIS paper suggests that important economic problems in the Republic of the Sudan (the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan untilindependence in 19 56) arise from attitudes associated with the heritage of slavery. After briefly outlining the nature of indigenous slavery, and the essential interrelatedness of its economic and social characteristics, it uses primarily official documents to analyse the economic effects of slavery abolition in the northern Sudan. Present-day economic ramifications of the slavery heritage are then discussed. The economist appraising the development of African nations is interested in understanding values for two main reasons. He must advocate policies which dis- courage most quickly attitudes resistant to increases in productivity, and promote, as far as possible, those likely to contribute to the rapid introduction and use of more efficient tools, techniques, and institutions. Political, tribal, and religious factors, as well as the nature and availability of resources, all affect the speed and direction of development, and long-term development for the greatest number occurs when strongly entrenched resistances are most quickly broken down. Conversely, social and economic change may defeat their own ends if the means of development en- courage the survival of negative traditional values; though output rises initially, its very increase may then create a network of interrelated resistances to further growth and the rate of progress will decline. A Marxist might describe such development as one containing the seeds of its own eventual destruction. Such is the situation in northern Sudan. Documents describing the more strongly centralized traditional African societies almost invariably stress, in one way or another, their hierarchical nature. Status, prestige, and power structures result from mutually interacting ethnic, social, economic, political, and religious factors, whatever may be the type of society. Wars and conquest and domination of one group by another, owing to superior arms, numbers, or organization, have produced a wide range of status structures in African societies. One characteristic common to them all appears to be that the lowest social groups-normally in domestic slave or serf capacities-were economically involved in work which the community considered both distasteful and dishonourable. Regardless of how they were obtained (raiding, debt-bondage, pawning, born to slavery, &c.), whatever the religion (pagan, Christian, or Islam in their many forms) and the manumission customs (freedom obtained through own purchase, being the grandchild of a slave, or the child of a free father and slave woman, or by the master's religious obligation), the work of slaves was regarded as onerous and degrading. Thus, though it took many forms, a close correlation has developed over the years I We are grateful to the Bureau of Business and Economic Research, University of California, Los Angeles, for a grant towards the printing of this long article. This content downloaded from 129.128.216.34 on Sat, 12 Oct 2013 19:43:12 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 356 ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AND THE HERITAGE OF between lowest social status, relativelyrestricted freedoms, dependenceupon some- one of higher position for basic economic and social securities,and specificforms of economic activity. African policy-makers desiring maximum and increasing rates of economic development are thus obliged to examine carefully their nation's cultural history. Not to do so, or to neglect introspective findings, may prove economically dis- astrousin the long run. Not only is such 'economic status'research in its infancy,but the conception tends to be suppressedwhen recognized. ' Democracy', ' freedom', and other avowed objectives of egalitarianpolicy are incompatiblewith suggestions of inherent social and economic inequality,particularly if policy-makersthemselves are imbued with the attitudes which supported slavery in pre-colonial Africa. If the policy of economic developmentdemands an increasein certaintypes of labour which are traditionallyconsidered to be inferior and only for lower social groups, who will perform them voluntarily? To engage in them is to lose social status, simultaneouslyand automatically.Social objectives conflict directlywith economic. Under these conditions workers tend to be persons whose parentsand grandparents were culturally' out', or migrant groups from other societies where that particular form of labour was not regardedas dishonourable. European administrativepolicies (of all kinds) in a given area resulted from two interactingfactors-what the Europeanbrought to the area,and what he found there. Labourpolicy thereforedepended on (a) Europeansocio-economic goals-particular conceptions of what should be developed, who should do what work, and who should benefit-and (b) local socio-economic conditions. Recruitment practices, labour levies, taxationsystems, and other administrativemeasures varied in type and degree over time dependingon changesin these two variables.Wage labourin some regions provided relief from an historicallysanctioned social inferiority.If enough persons sought this form of economic manumission,then the need for compulsion was obviously lessened (compulsionwould still be requiredif demandfor workers was inordinatelyhigh, but not to the same degree). Where relatively few persons came forward to perform work which was culturallydistasteful, then more severe administrativemeasures, such as levies through chiefs, were introduced.These need not have been direct pressures. Insufficientrural investment which forces labour migrationis still standardbehaviour. The breadth,depth, and longevity of political, religious, and other African-Europeanrelationships have been permanentlyaffected by initial and succeedingEuropean administration labour policies. But these in turn partly result from traditional values regarding labour, types of work, and who performsthem-themselves products of the many and various forms of indigenous labour patterns,particularly forced servitude. African nations are normally composed of a variety of cultures, ethnic groups, religions, languages, political systems, and economic patterns. Certain regions of heavy investment stand out as exceptions to the normal economic conditions under which most Africans live, and tend to be less culturally clear-cut than the rural regions of little investment which still have comparativelyinefficient production tools and techniques.A given geographiczone of non-investmentis quite likely to have severalpatterns of economic utilization,each a result of its own specialcultural and social adaptationsto that environment. This content downloaded from 129.128.216.34 on Sat, 12 Oct 2013 19:43:12 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions SLAVERY IN THE SUDAN REPUBLIC 357 A policy-making body planning national economic development is therefore obliged to study a variety of value systems and their underlying economic institutions. But it has the further duty of co-ordinating inter-group development. Should one particular society be developed and not others? How will development affect inter- group relationships economically, politically, socially-five, twenty, fifty years hence ? The making of such rational and basic decisions demands social information which is typically absent. B. INTRODUCTION-SUDAN It is felt that the institution of slavery and its attendant values, intrinsic to pre- Anglo-Egyptian administration society, are still affecting economic and social atti- tudes, and hence behaviour and productivity. If it can be shown that recent policy for economic development is breaking down efficiency-resisting traditions, then such policy and the engendered development are 'good'. Conversely, if it can be indicated that both policy and economic results are reinforcing values which inhibit increasing long-term efficiency, then they are 'bad'. While both occur, the latter outweighs the former in northern Sudan. The evidence clearly indicates that in Sudan (and elsewhere in Africa) it is these traditional attitudes, based upon slavery, which now and increasingly influence the pace and
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