The name Sudan comes from “bilad al sudan”: Arabic for “the land
of the blacks.” So you might expect Sudanese to be comfortable
with the color of their skin. But they’re not. “They are
equating black with dullness, so a black person is stupid,
automatically a slave,” says southerner Agnes Silver Nyarsuk.
She explains that Southern Sudanese consider themselves black,
while northerners see themselves as Arabs — and treat blacks as
second class. “For transport, an Arab lady when she enters, the
men will stand up and give the place, for an Arab lady, because
she’s a woman,” Nyarsuk says. “But a black lady, even if she is
old, and she’s shivering, dying, they will not respect because
you are automatically a slave.” The differences between north
and south might seem like one of religion but that’s only a
secondary conflict. Most northerners are Muslims. And most
southerners follow traditional African religions or
Christianity. Sudanese journalist Godfried Victor Bulla has
written extensively on race issues. He says