Après le Mahdī : la politique coloniale chez les pasteurs arabes soudanais.

N. Grandin. A fier the Mahdi: Colonial Policy among Pastoral Arabs in the Sudan. The British colonial practice in the Northern Sudan was dominated by the fear of a resurgence of Mahdism. This resulted in frequent contradictions between a theory of Native Administration, based upon the assumption of a tribal model, and empirical direct manipulations which ran contrary to the principle of Indirect Rule, even as proclaimed in local officiai instructions. A comparison between two 'tribes' having similar ways of life but a different history at the time of the Mahdiya shows a political development with thoroughly divergent trends. Amongst the Humr—-who had supported the Mahdi—the officiai policy was to limit the Nazir's authority by developing the 'omodiya System based upon lineage divisions. Amongst the Kababish, conversely, and because they had opposed the Mahdi, the colonial government encouraged the consolidation of a tribal autocracy centered on the Nazir and his lineage. This was a stringent departure from traditional practice, where the very nature of the economy precluded the formation of any permanent System of centralized government.Grandin Nicole. Après le Mahdī : la politique coloniale chez les pasteurs arabes soudanais.. In: Cahiers d'études africaines, vol. 18, n°69-70, 1978. pp. 123-158