Sudan - parties and political groups

Last modified: 2004-06-19 by ole andersen
Keywords: sudan | arab | splm | anya-nya | lado | machar | secessionist |
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• Sudan

• Sudan People's Liberation Movement
• Anya-Nya
• Movement of Riak Machar
• Lado
• National Democratic Alliance
• Nile State, c. 1970
• Azania Liberation Front and South Sudan National Provisional Government
• Umma Party
• Darfur

This flag (with red star) is presumably that of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement. It appeared on television during a report related to the war in the South of Sudan and was placed at the side of a personage who I think was Colonel John Garang. The SPLM is not a separatist movement (like the Anya-Nya) but operates in the South with the intention of taking power throughout the country.

Jaume Ollé, 3-MAR-1996

On some web sites the flag (with the yellow star) is named the Christian flag of Sudan or the New Sudan flag. Its colours are described as "black for the Africans, red for those who died, green for the country and a star for the star of Bethlehem." The description of the yellow star as "star of Bethlehem" was found on other (non-Christian) websites, too. If this meaning of the star is "official" or just an individual interpretation it is not clear. The movement name is nowdays used on web-site of Free Sudan Center the Sudan Liberation Movement and its military wing, the Sudan Liberation Army (SLM/SLA), based mainly in the souther province of Dafur.
various reports, May 2004

Ivan Sache, 12 September 1999

We have many southern Sudanese people here (Rochester, Minnesota, USA) who call their flag New Sudan.
It has 5 stripes like Kenya, black/white/red/white/green.
The blue triangle is blue and the star is yellow, not red, and pointing to the pole, away from the point of the triangle.

Lee L. Herold, 14 September 1999

I believe that the first star was red and later (early 1990's) changed to yellow. I saw this flag with red star at side of Garang with red star, but many years ago.

Jaume Ollé, 17 October 1999

Ivan Sache, 12 September 1999

The emblem is sketchy, with a european cow, a buffalo would certainly be better.
Ivan Sache, 12 September 1999

General Riak Machar give his name to a movement formed in August 1991 as a break-away from the Sudan People's Liberation Army.

Jaume Ollé, 19-NOV-1996

The Lado territory was a British possession which the British government rented to the Congo Free State in 1894. It was returned to Sudan in 1910. The Bari people in Lado have demanded independence for the territory and have adopted a flag.

Jaume Ollé, 19-NOV-1996

My 'Allers Illustrerede Konversations-Leksikon' from 1906-10 (third volume, K-Me: 1908) says about Lado [translation OA]:

"Trade station in Eastern Sudan [This is 'Sudan' in the old meaning. Today, 'Sahel' would be used instead. OA] on the White Nile [Bahr-el-Djebel. OA]. Built 1874 by the well-known Gordon Pasha, and was the most important station in Egyptian Sudan; after the Mahdi's revolt, it was completely cut off from Egypt 1885; now, leased from England, a part of the Congo State."

Ole Andersen, 12 August 2000

There's more:
1909 - Lado enclave ceded by Belgium from Congo to the Sudan
1912 - Southern half of Lado enclave ceded from the Sudan to Uganda as W. Nile province: Bari-Lotuka area ceded to the Sudan
Source: Freeman-Grenville, 'Chronology of African History', 1973

Lado Enclave: A territory on the West bank of the Nile river north of Lake Albert, now in Uganda and in souteast Sudan; 15.000 square miles; explored by British 1870 and later, and claimed for Great Britain 1894; leased to Belgium 1894-1910. Chief town was Lado, on the Nile just south of Mongalla, Sudan.
Source: Webster's New geographical Dictionary, 1988

Jarig Bakker, 12 August 2000

[A] referendum in the south of Sudan, once the borders are established, could spell a new flag of a new nation, theoretically anyway.

Steve Stringfellow, 06 May 1998

Jaume Ollé, 5 September 1998

Azania was also a word used by leftist groups during the apartheid regime in South Africa as "local" name of new South Africa to be, however it seems to have been derived from Arab "al-zandjijja", meaning the land from the blacks.

Franc van Diest, 13 January 2000

There was some debate prior to 1994 as to whether the name of South Africa should be changed to Azania. However, the term is not originally from South Africa and actually refers to a part of East Africa in Tanzania.

Bruce Berry, 13 January 2000

For several centuries until the 11th century, Azania was used by Arab seafarers for that part of Eastern Africa, with which they traded. Azania refers to 'the land of the blacks' - compare with the Arab word for a black person 'zanj'.

Ole Andersen, 13 January 2000

In South Sudan and Northeast Congo there was (is) a tribe named 'Azande(h)' - which had nothing to do (as far as I know) with Azania / Zanj / Zanzibar. So instead of: 'Azanian' read (possibly): 'Azande Liberation Front'?

Jarig Bakker, 13 January 2000

From Umma web site on http://www.umma.org/English.html:

The Sudanese Patriots who established Umma Party in February 1945 as the fist Popular Political Party, aimed at attaining the country’s independence from the Condominium Reign. The Umma Party is the Party of Sudanese Independence. It championed that cause until it became the basis for Sudanese consensus in 1955. (The country's Independence was announced in 1st Jan 1956).
It bore the brunt of opposition to all the Dictatorial Regimes, which came to power through coup d’etat. It drew the largest electoral votes in all the free General elections, which took place in the Sudan. It masterminded all the initiatives to arrive at a Great Compromise between North and South. It initiated the principle of making citizenship the basis for Constitutional Rights, the recognition of Religious and Cultural plurality in the Sudan, and a program to resolve the issues of Religion and Politics, Religion and State, on a basis which reconciles National unity and Religious loyalties. Currently the Umma Party is championing the cause of a negotiated Just Peace, and Democratic Transformation and so putting an end to the War and to Totalitarianism.
Elected (April 2003) President of Umma Party is Imam Al Sadig Al Mahdi.

See also: Flags of the Mahdi on this site.

Reconstructed from written description by Ivan Sache, 22 February 2001

Darfur is the westernmost part of Sudan, along the Chadian border. The major ethnic group is the Fur. According to "Nations Without States" the flag of the Fur national movement is a 1:2:1 horizontal tricolor of green, red and black, with a white crescent on the center stripe.

Ned Smith, 21 February 2001