Cotone, zucchero, alfalfa. Il grande progetto tra sviluppo e "sradicamento" territoriale

Throughout the twentieth century, the attempts of the Sudanese state to strengthen its sovereignty were achieved through the establishment of large-scale agricultural projects in the drylands of the Country, which are located along the Nile and its tributaries. At the time of the establishment of the projects, these areas characterised by agropastoral activities lost their socioenvironmental complexity, becoming simplified spaces as dictated by planned agriculture. The case of Gezira, a cotton monoculture imposed by the British, clarify how the state has been able to consolidate its territorial control by deleting previous local dynamics and setting up new ones, functional to the exercise of its power. In the post-colonial era, the Sudanese state was able to reinforce its control on the territory by prosecuting in the implementation of agricultural projects, thanks to the substantial financial support from the Gulf countries: the project of the Kenana Sugar Company is the most important example in this phase. On the contrary, today, the state is engaged in a process of territorial denationalization. It acts as a company that offers national resources (land and water) to non-national authorities: the projects in northern and central Sudan, aimed at the production of fodder, are the spatial manifestation of this recent trend.