Historically, Indirect rule constituted a defining characteristic of British colonial governance, designated to acknowledge and institutionalize customary forms of political authority through the use of native ethnic chiefs as proxies (Mamdani 1996). This doctrine of “non-interference,” as described by the American anthropologist Dirks (2001), varied from one colony to the other. In Sudan, the British gradually developed a particular form of indirect rule during the 1920s, commonly referred to as the Native Administration (idāra ahliya) (Abu Shouk & Bjørkelo 2004). The Native Administration is a form of local governance based on tribes as social and political units defined by territories. The British adopted it due to Sudan’s vastness of its rural areas, ethnic diversity and the high cost which direct administration would have caused (Grandin 1982).
Despite variations between regions, in most cases the hierarchy of the Native Administration followed the tribal segmentary pattern. The...


