Abdel Rahman Sule is a South Sudanese politician who was one of the founders of the

Liberal Party The Liberal Party is any of many political parties around the world. The meaning of ''liberal'' varies around the world, ranging from liberal conservatism on the right to social liberalism on the left. For example, while the political systems ...

, officially registered as the "Southern Party" in 1953, the main party in

Southern Sudan Southern Sudan may refer to: * the southern regions of the present-day Republic of Sudan in North Africa * South Sudan South Sudan (), officially the Republic of South Sudan, is a landlocked country in East Africa. It is bordered on the nor ...

in the years immediately before and after independence in 1956. Abdel Rahman Sule belonged to the

Bari people Bari ( ; ; ; ) is the capital city of the Metropolitan City of Bari and of the Apulia region, on the Adriatic Sea in southern Italy. It is the first most important economic centre of mainland Southern Italy. It is a port and university city ...

. He has been described as a farmer and as a trader. Sule was the son of a village chief. Speaking of his childhood, he said: "The effendi who came around our village to kill elephants were

Muslims Muslims () are people who adhere to Islam, a Monotheism, monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God ...

. I used to see what these people were doing. That is how I became a Muslim. In 1927, I was caught with arms from Ethiopia. By then I was already a Muslim. But I was very aware of my African-ness. When I was a kid, if I was woken late in the morning by my father, he would say 'if it had been in the days of the Ansars you would have been taken'. My father always woke me up early so that in his words I am not taken by the Ansars". Sule was at the forefront of pro-federalist politics in the 1940s and 1950s. Sule, Stanislaus Paysama and Buth Diu founded the Southern Sudanese Political Movement in 1951, with the goals of achieving full independence for Sudan, with special treatment for southern Sudan. The southerners were excluded from the Political Parties agreement with the British colonial authorities, but in 1953 registered the Southern Party, later renamed the Liberal Party. The party was supported by almost all southern intellectuals and by the majority of southern people. Although also open to northerners, none joined. The new party was led by Benjamin Lwoki and funded by Abdel Rahman Sule and Fahal Ukanda, both Muslims. Sule was known as "The Patron" of the party. Sule's

Juba Juba is the capital and largest city of South Sudan. The city is situated on the White Nile and also serves as the capital of the Central Equatoria, Central Equatoria State. It is the most recently declared national capital and had a populatio ...

branch of the Southern Party was particularly active in recruiting future southern politicians. After the military crack-down in 1960, Sule went into exile and helped lead the south Sudan resistance movement from abroad.

References

{{reflist , 30em, refs= {{cite book , page=166 , title=African Affairs , volume= 72 , author =Royal African Society , publisher=Oxford University Press , year=1973 {{cite book , title=Southern Sudan: colonialism, resistance, and autonomy , author =Lam Akol , publisher=The Red Sea Press, Inc. , year=2007 , ISBN=1-56902-264-X {{cite book , url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1xxzGh74bOUC&pg=PA67 , page=67 , title=The Politics of Two Sudans: the south and the north, 18211–969 , author =Deng D. Akol Ruay , publisher=Nordic Africa Institute , year=1994 , ISBN=91-7106-344-7 Liberal Party (Sudan) politicians South Sudanese Muslims 21st-century South Sudanese politicians