Identities and the politicization of water (continued): Sudan and the precious Nile

State-building, the quest for the Nile

As observed in Egypt, water ‘structures ideology and society’. Since antiquity, water has been seen as containing magical and religious properties. Unlike depictions of the territory as ‘a land of famine, a country of scarcity and death’, Sudan has also been imagined as ‘a country by the Nile uniquely endowed with resources’, a prosperous land where dreams and fantasies can materialise. The idea of a water-power nexus is determinant in understanding why ‘successive rulers […] sought to centralise control over the Nile and use its waters to achieve their ambitions’. For instance, influenced by the legacy of Muhammad Ali’s dream of a ‘hydraulic civilization’, Al-Ingaz’s “hydro-agricultural mission” and ambitious Dam Programme was an attempt at identity construction and state-building around the Nile waters. In other words, ‘elites, both from the Nile Valley and from further afield’ have ‘historically conceptualised and physically built the links between water, civilisation and power’, which echoes in today’s Sudanese politics.  

History vs ‘Renaissance’: the GERD 

photo credit: Mohamed Nureldin Abdallah, Reuters

Historically, Sudan was granted rights over the Nile Basin by the 1959 Nile Waters Agreement. While it was allocated 18.5 billion cubic meters, Egypt was given legal control over 55,5 billion cubic meters, the rest considered to be lost through evaporation. The unequal dual governance conferred Egypt superiority, and the country has ‘historically used Sudan as its passive and weak partner in the exploitation and use of the Nile Waters’. Nonetheless, Ethiopia’s recent counter-hegemonic move left Sudan ‘ample diplomatic spaces to act as an independent actor’. The country’s position tends to reflect that of a ‘mediator’ attempting to ease tensions in the dispute settlement process. However, Sudan has also adopted a more confrontational tone regarding Ethiopia’s filling enterprises. The GERD has been seen as beneficial regarding access to cheap energy and flood reduction, but also as a national security threat, and Ethiopia as an ‘aggressor’. The changing narratives reveal diverging identity construction processes through water discourse and water-related foreign policy. Sudan’s support is sought by both competing parties and it has a crucial role in negotiations, which has implications for the broader geopolitics of the region. The new bargaining power of Sudan triggered a process of identity reconstruction, where Sudan was not just caught in the middle of the diplomatic contest but used the newly opened opportunity window to break away from the status quo with Egypt and promote its interests.

This post added to the idea that a strong relationship between water and identity exists. Indeed, ‘the Nile can be called one of the main factors influencing the Sudanese statehood’, highlighting that water is much more than a simple resource. It can be part of a national heritage, a symbol, a tool, politics and policies, and a component of a nation’s identity.