The Azania Liberation Front (ALF) was an armed rebel faction established in 1965, during the

First Sudanese Civil War The First Sudanese Civil War (also known as the Anyanya Rebellion or Anyanya I, after the name of the rebels, a term in the Madi language which means 'snake venom') was fought from 1955 to 1972 between the northern part of Sudan and the sout ...

, by exiled members of the

Sudan African National Union The Sudan African National Union (Juba Arabic: الاتحاد الوطني الأفريقي السوداني ''Ettihad Al-Wataniy Al-Afriqiy Al-Sudani''; SANU) is a political party formed in 1963 by Saturnino Ohure and William Deng Nhial in Ugan ...

(SANU). It was a part of the original South Sudan Liberation Movement, the first Sudanese

secessionist Secession is the formal withdrawal of a group from a Polity, political entity. The process begins once a group proclaims an act of secession (such as a declaration of independence). A secession attempt might be violent or peaceful, but the goal i ...

movement. Its name was taken from the

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

Azania Azania () is a name that has been applied to various parts of southeastern tropical Africa. In the Roman period and perhaps earlier, the toponym has been hypothesised to have referred to a portion of the Southeast Africa coast extending from sou ...

, the Greek designation for the lands of

East Africa East Africa, also known as Eastern Africa or the East of Africa, is a region at the eastern edge of the Africa, African continent, distinguished by its unique geographical, historical, and cultural landscape. Defined in varying scopes, the regi ...

south of

Nubia Nubia (, Nobiin language, Nobiin: , ) is a region along the Nile river encompassing the area between the confluence of the Blue Nile, Blue and White Nile, White Niles (in Khartoum in central Sudan), and the Cataracts of the Nile, first cataract ...

History

The organisation was formed after February 1965 when the SANU split into two sectors, the home and foreign. The home sector was led by

William Deng Nhial William Deng Nhial (1929 – 5 May 1968) was the political leader of the Sudan African National Union (SANU), from 1962 to 1968. He was elected unopposed. He was one of founders of the military wing of the Anyanya fighting for the independence of s ...

, it sat in the Parliament on the issue of southern Sudan's right to self-determination. The foreign sector was directed by Aggrey Jaden Ladu, who had fled to

Kampala Kampala (, ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Uganda. The city proper has a population of 1,875,834 (2024) and is divided into the five political divisions of Kampala Central Division, Kampala, Kawempe Division, Kawempe, Makindy ...

Uganda Uganda, officially the Republic of Uganda, is a landlocked country in East Africa. It is bordered to the east by Kenya, to the north by South Sudan, to the west by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, to the south-west by Rwanda, and to the ...

. In November 1964 Joseph Oduho, the first president of SANU, after losing a bid for presidency of the group to Jaden left and in so doing, split the organization. In March 1965 Oduho formed his own organization, the Azania Liberation Front; Jaden then renamed his faction of SANU loyalists, the Sudan African Liberation Front. In June of the same year the two factions reached a settlement and by the end of 1965 they had decided to reunite under as the Azania Liberation Front with Oduho as the president and Aggrey Jaden as vice president. In 1967 they headed the National Transitional Government of South Sudan (formed on August 15, 1967). On 15 August 1967 was a called Provisional Government of Southern Sudan, SSNPG (1967–1969) chaired by Aggrey Jaden, who gave way (March 1969) to the Provisional Government of the State of the Nile. Later he had confrontations and reconciliations of the forces Anyanya Laguar that in 1969 he created his own political group, the National Organization after Anyanya (1970) Liberation Front of South Sudan (Laguar preferred first name). Both the provisional government and the Azania Liberation Front were formally dissolved in July 1970. In 1971 the remnants joined with the Liberation Front of South Sudan, the

Anyanya The Anyanya (also spelled Anya-Nya) were a southern Sudanese separatist rebel army formed during the First Sudanese Civil War (1955–1972). A separate movement that rose during the Second Sudanese Civil War were, in turn, called Anyanya II. ''An ...

and other groups in the new organization Liberation Movement of South Sudan, which included almost all political organizations and the south. The flag had three horizontal stripes, the upper and lower two were red and narrow, the central one (three times the measure of one red) was black. The stripes were separated with white fimbriations.

Notes

References

* Douglas H. Johnson,
The Root Causes of Sudan's Civil Wars (African Issues)
', pg. 33, Indiana University Press, 2003, {{ISBN, 0253215846

External links

Gurtong.net Political Parties in early Sudan
First Sudanese Civil War Military of South Sudan Rebel groups in Sudan Rebel groups in South Sudan Politics of South Sudan Political organisations based in South Sudan