The 1958 cotton crisis and the advent of military rule in Sudan

Abstract

This article examines the 1958 cotton crisis in Sudan, an event that has hitherto been absent in histories of the country and the region. I present the cotton crisis as a crisis of capital during which political, religious, and corporate elites each struggled to regain liquidity and to determine the resulting distribution of money, debts, and power in Sudanese society. The ways in which each of these actors sought to recover investments and refinance their positions had a lasting impact on the politics of the postcolonial state in Sudan, as different sections of capital sought different policy responses to the crisis from government. This article highlights how religious elites in Sudan had renewed and expanded their influence within the corporate business structures created by the colonial economy. Profits from these structures then flowed into the political system, shaping conflict and crisis after decolonisation.