The Sudanese Ummah (“community”) Party was formed in February 1945 by proindependence nationalists, most of whom were supporters of Sayyid `Abd al-Rahman al-Mahdi, the posthumous son of Muhammad Ahmad ibn `Abd Allah (d. 1885) who founded the Mahdist movement in that country. The nearly 4 million followers of this movement, known as Ansar, constitute the bulk of the party’s membership. Although Ummah often gained the greatest number of seats voted to a single party in general elections, it was never in a position to form an independent government and was forced to participate in coalitions.
Three main factors contributed to the formation of the Ummah Party. The first was the reemergence of the Ansar as an influential religio-political organization under Sayyid `Abd al-Rahman after World War I. Its sectarian followers provided the mass basis of the Ummah Party and their hierarchical structure of command subsequently served as its backbone. Second, following the rift created between the Graduates’ Congress and the Condominium government in 1942, political control of this nationalist organization gradually passed to a militant, and later pro-unionist, faction headed by Isma’ll al-Azhari (d. 1969). This development led `Abd alRahman to discard the Congress as an instrument for advancing Sudanese independence and to promote the Ummah Party as a substitute. Third, whereas Congress in 1944 boycotted the establishment of an Advisory Council for the Sudan, `Abd al-Rahman realized its political significance and was determined to participate in its deliberations. Such participation, however, presupposed the formation of a political organization distinct from the Congress.
`Abd al-Rahman al-Mahdi, imam of the Ansar, was the new party’s patron, while its leadership initially rested with one of his sons, Siddlq. In October 1955, in order to secure the commitment of his sectarian rival to full independence for the Sudan, `Abd al-Rahman accepted Sayyid `All al-Mirghani’s proposal that they pledge themselves and members of their families to refrain from seeking public office. This measure shifted control of the party to the secular wing, then led by `Abd Allah Khalil. However, the military regime established by General Ibrahim `Abbud in November 1958 disbanded all political parties, thereby neutralizing the secularists and restoring the Ummah’s leadership to alSiddlq al-Mahdi,
Sayyid `Abd al-Rahman died in March 1959, and alSiddlq succeeded him as imam. Almost immediately the latter integrated the party’s hierarchy of institution with the Ansar movement. When al-Siddlq himself died in October 1961, his brother al-Hadi was elected as the new imam and his own Oxford-educated son al-Sadiq was designated as leader of the Ummah Party. Thus, the party’s leadership, though retained by the Mahd, family, became essentially divided along functional lines.
This division proved crucial, for al-Hadi was conservative while al-Sadiq was liberal. By 1963 the latter had grown critical of his uncle’s tolerance of `Abbud’s regime, and he began to advocate that the Ummah should adopt a more democratic structure and a modern political program. With the restoration of democratic rule in
October 1964, the struggle between the conservative and liberal wings intensified and in July 1966 precipitated a split within the party. In April 1969, however, dissatisfied with their reduced political role, al-Hadi and al-Sadiq came to an agreement that reunified the party and prepared it to head a new coalition government. A few weeks thereafter, and partly in reaction to this development, a second military regime was established under Colonel Ja’far al-Nimeiri (or al-Numayri).
From the outset the Ummah-Ansar leaders were unequivocably opposed to the leftist orientation of the new junta and, failing to change it by persuasion, they resisted it forcibly. The confrontation led to a military attack on Aba Island in March 1970, in which Imam alHadi and thousands of his followers were killed. AlSadiq was first exiled to Egypt but was later returned to Sudan and kept under house arrest until his release in December 1972.
The Ummah Party participated in setting up the Sudanese National Front in exile to oppose the military regime, and in July 1976 it spearheaded an abortive coup. A year later, al-Sadiq negotiated a reconciliation agreement with Nimeiri, following which the Front was dissolved. This agreement created dissension within the Ummah-Ansar from followers of al-Hadi who were vehemently opposed to Nimeiri and who had not forgotten the bitter split of 1966. Soon, however, al-Sadiq became disillusioned with Nimeiri’s domestic and foreign policies; in 1978 he led his wing of the Ummah Party again into opposition.
In April 1985 Nimeiri’s regime was overthrown and the Ummah joined other parties in forming a transitional regime pending general elections. By March 1986 its various wings were effectively reunited, and al-Sadiq was formally reelected as its leader. In the elections held a month later, Ummah was able to gain loo of the the 26o contested seats and to head the new coalition government formed with the Democratic Union Party and others. In May 1987 al-Sadiq was elected imam of the Ansar to succeed his uncle al-Hadi, thereby unifying in his person the leadership of the Ummah-Ansar movement.
The instability created by differences over the repeal of Nimeiri’s Islamic legal code and the resolution of conflict in the southern Sudan opened the way for the establishment, in June 1989, of a third military regime under General `Umar Hasan Ahmad al-Bashir. Its fundamentalist orientation and its close association with the Muslim Brotherhood drove the Ummah and other parties to form the National Democratic Alliance to oppose it.
Ideologically, the Ummah Party draws its orientation from Sudanese Mahdist thought. Like the Sufi orders and the Muslim Brothers, it believes that Islam plays a major role in the sociopolitical life of Muslims. But unlike the former, it is strongly committed to political activism; and unlike the latter, it believes that a just social order can only be achieved on the basis of the widest popular participation. Accordingly, it supports the establishment of a modern Islamic state, but one that is based on a constitution that recognizes the ummah as the source of political authority and the possessor of sovereignty. Believing that the institutions of the modern state are new political phenomena with no resemblance to those of the original Islamic polity, the Ummah Party seeks to restore the functions rather than the traditional patterns of ancient Medinese society. Hence, like the Sufi orders but unlike the Muslim Brothers, it recognizes the shari `ah as the main-but not the sole-source for legislation. In this connection it advocates the establishment of a shura (advisory) council vested with adequate legislative powers not only to reenact provisions of the shari`ah in the light of modern conditions, but also to validate existing modern legislation for which no precedent can be found in Islamic law. The application of such an Islamic legal system would be restricted to the Muslim population, and other religious faiths would be formally recognized rather than suppressed or simply tolerated, and their members would be guaranteed full freedom of religious conscience and practice. In this way, Ummah believes, Sudanese national unity and territorial integrity can be preserved.
[See also Ansar; Mahdiyah; Sudan; and the biography of (al-Sddiq al-)Mahdi.]
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Bechtold, Peter K. Politics in the Sudan: Parliamentary and Military Rule in an Emerging African Nation. New York, 1976. Overview of political developments up to 1975, based mainly on an evaluation of the general election results.
Cudsi, Alexander S. “Islam and Politics in the Sudan.” In Islam in the Political Process, edited by J. P. Piscatori, pp. 36-55. Cambridge, 1983. Analysis of the process of islamization in the Sudan under Nimeiri’s regime, including a comparison of policies advocated by the major religio-political organizations.
Niblock, Tim. Class and Power in Sudan: The Dynamics of Sudanese Politics, 1898-1985. Albany, N.Y., 1987. Insightful overview of the socioeconomic basis of politics in the Sudan that makes constructive use of unpublished postgraduate dissertations and theses on Sudan submitted at British and Sudanese universities. Sections dealing with the reemergence of the Ansar and sectarian rivalry within the Graduates’ Congress provide valuable background material.
Warburg, Gabriel R. Islam, Nationalism, and Communism in a Traditional Society: The Case of Sudan. London, 1978. Collection of three papers dealing with the reemergence of the Ansar, the transition to independence, and Sudanese communism. Regretfully, the paper on the Ansar is based primarily on British intelligence reports and does not consider records in Sudanese archives.
ALEXANDER S. CUDSI
