If you’ve watched the news over the past four weeks you’ll probably know there’s a crisis in Sudan. You’ll likely also know that the UK and other Western nations have been struggling to evacuate their citizens, and you might have been told the conflict is a power struggle between two leading generals. However, if you’ve been relying on mainstream news media, it’s unlikely you’ll know much more than that.

In the first of a two-parter on Sudan, I speak to Joshua Craze about the history of political conflict in Sudan. Here, we race through the history of Sudan, from its foundation in 1956 to the rule of Omar al-Bashir, which lasted from 1989 to 2019.

In part two we'll discuss how an understanding of Sudan's history can help explain the present conflict in the country.

I came across Joshua Craze via this brilliant article in Sidecar: https://newleftreview.org/sidecar/posts/gunshots-in-khartoum

More reading suggestions from Joshua can be found here:

https://riftvalley.net/publication/sudans-grain-divide-revolution-bread-and-sorghum

https://africanarguments.org/2021/11/creatures-of-the-deposed-connecting-sudans-rural-and-urban-struggles/

https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v45/n10/alex-de-waal/the-revolution-no-one-wanted

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Crash Course is produced and edited by Lewis Bassett and Patrick Heardman. Patrick Heardman does the sound design.

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