Spies, Secrets, and a Story Waiting to Be (Re)told. Memories of the 1924 Revolution and the Racialization of Sudanese History

International audienceThis article attempts to trace a geography of the memory of the 1924 Revolution in colonial Sudan. It springs from a glaring paradox: though the 1924 Revolution is one of the best documented episodes of colonial history, it has not affected collective memory in the same way other episodes from the country's modern history have. Eyewitness accounts were first produced in the 1930s and have continued to be published up to the present day; for some of the central episodes of 1924, there are as many versions as there are narrators. The purpose of this article is to investigate the facets of these memories and those who have produced them. It explores two characteristics central to the geography of memory of 1924: on the one hand, the idea that in spite of the number of accounts about the revolution, this event is not fully known, shrouded as it is in mystery, filled with unspoken truths. On the other hand, it is believed that certain people in 1924 “said too much” and became spies, and that this is one of the main reasons why the revolution failed. Finally, the article will tie this peculiar memory configuration into the social trauma that was one of the consequences of the Revolution of 1924, along with the unspoken social divisions that followed it