The Azhari government temporarily halted progress toward self-determination for Sudan, hoping to promote unity with Egypt. Although his pro-Egyptian NUP had won a majority in the 1953 parliamentary elections, Azhari realized that popular opinion had shifted against union with Egypt. As a result, Azhari, who had been the major spokesman for the "unity of the Nile Valley," reversed the NUP's stand and supported Sudanese independence. On December 19, 1955, the Sudanese parliament, under Azhari's leadership, unanimously adopted a declaration of independence; on January 1, 1956, Sudan became an independent republic. Azhari called for the withdrawal of foreign troops and requested the condominium powers to sponsor a plebiscite in advance of the scheduled date.
؟who isIsmail al-Azhari
Sayyid Ismail al-Azhari was born in Omdurman, the son of a religious notable. He studied at Gordon Memorial College in Khartoum and graduated in mathematics at the American University of Beirut in 1930.[1] He became a teacher of mathematics and then an administrator in the Anglo-Egyptian condominium government that ruled the Sudan during the colonial period.
Al-Azhari and other educated Sudanese demanded greater participation in the administration of the country, and to promote their objectives they formed the Graduates' General Congress in 1938. Al-Azhari's election as secretary to the congress launched him into a career in politics.
Although the congress at first had no political aspirations, in 1942 it asserted its claim to act as the spokesman for all Sudanese nationalists. When the wartime British administration rejected this claim, the congress split into two groups: the moderates, who were prepared to work with the British toward full independence, and a more extreme group, led by al-Azhari, which distrusted the British and sought
unity with Egypt in the post-colonial period.
In 1954 al-Azhari became the Sudan's first prime minister.[1] His government faced three major problems. The first was the critical constitutional question of the Sudan's relationship with Egypt. It soon became clear that the Sudanese people did not want to be tied closely to Egypt, and in his greatest act of statesmanship al-Azhari dramatically reversed the position which he had long advocated and, with the support of the principal political leaders, declared the Sudan independent on January 1, 1956.
Then al-Azhari was faced with the second problem, the task of organizing a permanent government. His principal opponent, the Umma Party, wanted a strong presidential system. Al-Azhari advocated a British parliamentary form of government, but he never resolved the issue during his tenure and the problem remained into the 1970s.
The third problem which confronted al-Azhari's government was the uniting of the black, non-Muslim Southern Sudanese with peoples and traditions very different if not opposed to the Arab, Muslim north. Neither by his background nor by his political convictions was al-Azhari sympathetic to the aspirations of the Southern Sudanese, and he sought to control the Southern Sudan by a combination of military and police repression on the one hand and negotiations and discussion on the other. The failure of the policy became apparent in 1955, when a mutiny in the Equatorial Corps precipitated disturbances throughout many of the districts in the south. Thereafter, relations between the Northern and the Southern Sudan remained the principal problem facing successive Sudanese governments. Their failure to meet Southern aspirations undermined their authority, just as it had drained al-Azhari's political strength.
These and other problems began to weaken al-Azhari's coalition. His reversal on unity with Egypt undermined the political strength of the NUP by depriving it of its principal ideology. The mutiny in the south damaged al-Azhari's prestige. More importantly, the fragile alliance between the Khatmiyya sect and the NUP began to disintegrate, leaving the prime minister without the popular support he needed to rule effectively. As a result, he reformed his coalition into a "government of all talents" in February 1956, but then his former Khatmiyya supporters deserted to form the People's Democratic Party in June. In July he lost a vote of confidence in Parliament and resigned.
Al-Azhari opposed the government led by Abdullah Khalil, who replaced him, and also the succeeding military regime of Ibrahim Abboud. In 1961 al-Azhari was arrested and exiled for several months to Juba in Southern Sudan. In 1964 the military regime resigned in the face of student-led demonstrations, and party politics reemerged in the Sudan. Al-Azhari sought to regain power, but without a strong political base even his skill as a politician was insufficient to lead a government in the Sudan. In March 1965 he became President of the Republic of the Sudan, but this was primarily an honorary position with little real power. He remained president until May 1969,[1] when a military coup d'état ended his political life. Known as a skilled if not crafty politician, al-Azhari was respected and loved. His tenacity to survive the many vicissitudes of Sudanese political life was even admired. Ironically, his most statesmanlike decision - not to press for unity with Egypt - destroyed the principles upon which his political life had been constructed, leaving only manipulation to achieve political power. He died on August 26, 1969.[1].
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