Notes INTRODUCTION 1. The distinction between cultivators and nomads is not in fact clearcut. Many people straddle the dividing line between the two occupations. This obviously complicates a description of the socio-economic structure, in so far as the dividing line between social groups based on these different occupations itself becomes blurred. 2. The distinction between the modern and traditional sectors ofthe Sudan­ ese economy is, with respect to agriculture, embodied in law. The use of tractors and other modern machines is forbidden outside of areas desig­ nated for the purpose by the government. The object of this much­ broken regulation is to conserve the environment. 3. All land in Sudan which is not registered as private property legally belongs to the state. This has been true ever since the Land Ordinance of 1905. The state, however, recognises customary rights of use to the land, and the communities which enjoy these rights naturally consider them­ selves the real owners of the land. See Saeed Mohamed Ahmed El Mahdi, A Guide to Land Settlement and Registration (Khartoum Univer­ sity Press, 1971) Ch. 2. CHAPTER 1 1. The account given here of economic developments in the Sudan between the 16th and 18th centuries relies heavily on the able historical work of R. S. O'Fahey and J. L. Spaulding. Their principal writings on this period are: R. S. O'Fahey and J. L. Spaulding, Kingdoms of the Sudan (Methuen, London, 1974); J. L. Spaulding, 'Kings of Sun and Shadow: A History of the 'Abdullab Provinces of the Northern Sinnar Sultanate, 1500-1800', unpublished PhD thesis, Columbia University, 1971; R. S. O'Fahey, 'The Growth and Development of the Keira Sultanate of Dar Fur', unpublished PhD thesis, University of London, 1972; R. S. O'Fa­ hey, 'Slavery and the Slave Trade in Dar Fur', Journal of African History, vol. XIV/I, 1973. Another important historical work from which information is taken is: 0. G. S. Crawford, The Funj Kingdom of Sennar (John Bellows, Gloucester, 1951 ). The accounts of European travellers who visited the area at this time are also instructive, as for example: J. Bruce, Travels to Discover the Source of the Nile in the Years 1768-1773 (Edinburgh University Press, 1805); J. L. Burckhardt, Travels in Nubia (Murray, London, 1819); G. W. Browne, Travels in Egypt, Syria and Africa (Cadell and Davies, London, 1799). 2. For a discussion of what is meant by 'administered trade', seeK. Polanyi, 294 Notes Primitive, Archaic and Modern Economies (The Free Press, New York, 1968), pp. 280-3. 3. O'Fahey and Spaulding, Kingdoms, p. 56. 4. The information which follows in this paragraph is taken from O'Fahey and Spaulding, Kingdoms, pp. 55-6. 5. Information on the goods traded can be found in 'Awad al-Sid al-Karsani, 'Trade and Society in ad-Darner Town', unpublished typescript, p. 4; in El-Sayed el-Bushra, 'Towns in the Sudan in the Eighteenth and Early Nineteenth Centuries', Sudan Notes and Records, vol. LII, 1971, pp. 63-70; and M. A. Amin, Historical Geography of Trade Routes and Trade Centres in the Northern Sudan: 1500-1939, unpublished PhD thesis, University of California, 1968. 6. The main evidence for this is found in the developments which followed later. There must have been a sizeable number of traders in subsistence goods in existence by the end of the 17th century for, as explained later, such traders had become strong enough to take away some of the sultan's prerogatives in international trade at this time. 7. The main form of artificial irrigation before the 19th century was that based on the shaduf. The shaduf is a hand-operated lever in the form of a pole pivoted at the middle like a seesaw with a skin bucket at one end and a counterweight (usually a stone) at the other. By this means, water was raised from the river to feed shallow canals. 8. See G. Brausch, 'Problemes du travail au Gezira', Civilisations, no. 3, 1965. 9. O'Fahey and Spaulding, Kingdoms, p. 55. 10. Ibid., pp. 158--61. 11. See the references given under note 5 above. 12. See Browne, Travels, p. 57. 13. The information contained in the four paragraphs which follow is taken from O'Fahey and Spaulding, Kingdoms, pp. 68-74, 78-82, and 85-8. 14. O'Fahey and Spaulding, Kingdoms, p. 80. 15. Ibid., p. 85. 16. See El-Sayed el-Bushra, 'Towns in the Sudan in the Eighteenth and Early Nineteenth Centuries', Sudan Notes and Records, vol. LII, 1971, p. 65. 17. O'Fahey and Spaulding, Kingdoms, p. 86. 18. See G. Brausch, 'Problemes du travail'. 19. For some examples of such charters, seeM. I. Abu Salim, 'Some Land Certificates of the Fung', Occasional Papers No. 2, Sudan Research Unit (Khartoum), 1967. 20. See O'Fahey and Spaulding, Kingdoms, p. 82. 21. See R. Hill, Egypt in the Sudan 182~1881 (Oxford University Press, 1959), pp. 7-8. 22. For the development of communications in Sudan at this time, see ibid., pp. 99-101, 129-33 and 156-60. 23. 'Basins' were areas adjacent to the Nile where the level of the land was lower than the river-level during the Nile flood. By cutting irrigation canals through the river banks, the areas concerned could be watered while the flood was at its height. The basin land could thus be brought Notes 295 under cultivation. There had been a number of basins in use in Meroitic times, but these had fallen into disuse thereafter. The petty tribal chiefs along the river were not able to organise the labour needed to maintain the irrigation system. 24. For the development of the economy and of trade at this time, as outlined in the three paragraphs which follow, see Hill, Egypt, pp. 49-59, 62-4, 73-4, 97-9, 122-5, and 153-6. 25. For the activities of the traders at this time, as outlined in this paragraph and the three which follow, see R. 0. Collins, The Southern Sudan, 1883-;-1898: A Struggle for Control (Yale University Press, New Haven, 1962). Also see Abbas Ibrahim Muhammad Ali, The British, the Slave Trade and Slavery in the Sudan (Khartoum University Press, 1972), pp. 3-21. 26. See Hill, Egypt, p. 98. 27. See O'Fahey and Spaulding, Kingdoms, pp. 179-80. 28. See P. M. Holt, The Mahdist State in the Sudan 1881-1898 (Oxford University Press, 1970), pp. 255-7. 29. The map is reproduced in F. Rehfisch, 'A Sketch of the Early History of Omdurman', Sudan Notes and Records, vol. XLV, 1964, pp. 44-5. The book from which the map was taken is P. Rossignoli,J Miei Dodici Anni di Prigonia (Mondini, 1898). Other first-hand accounts of the economic conditions during the Mahdiyyah can be found in J. Ohrwalder, Ten Years' Captivity in the Mahdi's Camp (Macmillan, London, 1892); R. C. Slatin, Fire and Sword in the Sudan (Arnold, London, 1896); and F. R. Wingate, Mahdism and the Egyptian Sudan (Macmillan, London, 1891). See also S. M. Nur, 'The Memoirs of Yusuf Mikhail', unpublished PhD thesis, University of London, 1956. 30. For fqrther discussion of the state of the economy under the Mahdiyyah see Abd al-Muhsin Mustafa, 'The Structural Malformation of the Sudan­ ese Economy', Bulletin No. 24, Economic and Social Research Council (Khartoum), 1975, pp. 6-10. 31. Slatin, Fire and Sword, pp. 357-9. 32. The information given here on the needs of the Lancashire cotton industry is taken from A. Barnett, 'The Gezira Scheme: Production of Cotton and Reproduction of Underdevelopment', in I. Oxaal, A. Bar­ nett and D. Booth (eds), Beyond the Sociology of Development (Rout­ ledge and Kegan Paul, London, 1975), pp. 187-9. 33. This point was stressed at the time by MPs from Lancashire constitu­ encies in debates in the House of Commons. See Hansard Parliamentary Debates, fifth series, vol. 50, vol. 17, 1913. Mentioned in Barnett, 'Gezira Scheme', p. 188. 34. A number of the memoirs of British officials who served the Condo­ minium in the early years refer to this point. See, for example, H. C. Jackson, Sudan Days and Ways (Macmillan, London, 1954), p. 130-2. 35. The pattern of financing gives credence to the contention of Mustafa Kamil and the Egyptian nationalists at the time that Sudan had become a British colony at the expense of Egypt's 'blood and money'. See Mekki Shibeika, The Independent Sudan (Robert Speller, New York, 1959), pp. 461-2. 296 Notes 36. For a discussion of this, see D. M. Benn, 'The Theory of Plantation Economy and Society: A Methodological Critique', Journal of Common­ wealth and Comparative Politics, vol. XII, no. 3, November 1974. 37. For the early developments see W. F. Tewson, Golden Jubilee, 1904-1954: The Sudan Plantation Company and the Kassala Co. Ltd. and Their Work in Sudan (SPS, London, 1954). 38. One feddan is equal to 1.036 acres. 39. The basic information given here on the schemes which came under the SPS is taken from A. Gaitskell, Gezira: A Story of Development in the Sudan (Faber, London, 1959). See also W. A. Hance, 'The Gezira, an Example in Development', The Geographical Review, vol. 44, 1954, pp. 253-70; and Khattab Saggar al-Ani, 'The Gezira Scheme in Sudan, unpublished PhD thesis, Columbia University, 1959. 40. See E. Mackinnon, 'Blue Nile Province', in J.D. Tothill (ed.), Agricul­ ture in the Sudan (Oxford University Press, 1948). 41. See Gaitskell, Gezira, pp. 83-6. 42. This was in accordance with a land settlement ordinance laid down in 1905. See Saeed Mohamed Ahmed El Mahdi, A Guide to Land Settle­ ment and Registration (Khartoum University Press, 1971), Ch.