The definition of Sudan as either an African or an Arab country or a mixture of both has generated much controversy about an intrinsic nature to the country (Deng 1995). Over the longue durée, this dilemma has given life to the unequal standings between the people who inhabit this land. Even before it was a nation state, its territories were the site of identity clashes that culminated in Arabo-Islamic cultural supremacy within central riverine Sudan (Hashim 2019: 32).
These dynamics have been informed by power relations, political and social discourses, political economy and slavery. Sudan’s identity debate is intrinsic to the binary Arab and African. Indeed, this polemic has impeded its flourishing as a nation able to manage its social and cultural diversities. Hence “being Arab, Muslim and Sudanese” in Sudan constitutes a series of unstable categorisations spanning the breadth of Sudanese populations. These are conceptually useful to contend with the specter of polemical identitie...