Redefining National Identity and Nation-Building in Post-secession Sudans: Civic and Ethnic Models

By Redie Bereketeab

Volume 14, Issue 2, pages 301-318

Abstract

The split of Sudan following popular referendum in South Sudan may have spurred a need for a serious reconsideration of national identity and nation-building in the two emerging states. Sudan is compelled to embark in the reconstitution of national identity in a manner that reflects the new reality. South Sudan also needs to gear its post-secession identity formation and nation-building in a way that reflects and celebrates its ethnocultural diversity. This article seeks to analyse identity and nation-building in the Sudans using the sociological concepts of civic identity and ethnic identity. It examines the challenges of reconstitution of national identity and nation-building in a postcolonial, pluralistic, and post-secession setting. The main focus is on the post-secession period. It argues that the hierarchical organization of the civic identity and ethnic identity, which give rise to a duality of identity, may inform the new social contract of the reconstituted nation-building processes in the Sudans.

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