Forde, Haroon Leon (2025) Learning to be Sudanese? : the role of Qur'anic schools in Sudanese education from the Anglo-Egyptian Condominium to the present day. PhD thesis, Birkbeck, University of London.
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Abstract
Quranic schools in Sudan are part of the tradition of Khalwa education dating back to the Funj dynasty of the 16th century. At the height of its popularity in the late 19th century under the Mahdiyyah regime it was the only permissible schooling system. This exclusivity changed during the colonial Anglo-Egyptian Condominium period 1898-1956 when Sudan’s secular schooling system was established as a competitor. This resulted in increased diversification of families’ strategies for securing their children’s futures. The concomitant demands on students’ time in attending secular schooling has challenged the importance and position of Qur’anic education within the Sudanese education landscape. This thesis draws on Anglo-Egyptian Condominium reports (1902-1952) in the Durham archive to examine the role of Qur’anic education in the development of Sudan’s modern education system. These reports do not include Sudanese voices about the education policy of the new regime. To address this absence, this study also draws on research with Sudanese middle-class families and spans education from the Condominium period to the present day. This group in Sudanese society was essentially formed by and developed within the Condominium administration and has played an important role in the late 20th-century in the growth of the private education sector; partly in response to the National Congress Party’s policy to Islamicise education from 1990. The thesis contributes original empirical material to debates in sociology and development studies about the place of Qur’anic schooling in education across sub-Saharan Africa. It argues that attempts to exploit Qur’anic education politically and educationally have been countered by the steadfastness of this schooling system in maintaining its identity as a religious-cultural education. As a result, whilst Sudanese communities have engaged in other types of education for socio-economic mobility or security this has not conflicted with Qur’anic schooling serving their Muslim identities.
Metadata
| Item Type: | Thesis |
|---|---|
| Copyright Holders: | The copyright of this thesis rests with the author, who asserts his/her right to be known as such according to the Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988. No dealing with the thesis contrary to the copyright or moral rights of the author is permitted. |
| Depositing User: | Acquisitions And Metadata |
| Date Deposited: | 18 Feb 2025 10:42 |
| Last Modified: | 05 Sep 2025 10:10 |
| URI: | https://eprints.bbk.ac.uk/id/eprint/55007 |
| DOI: | https://doi.org/10.18743/PUB.00055007 |
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