Bahr el Ghazal (region of South Sudan)
Bahr el Ghazal
بحر الغزال | |
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Region | |
UTC+2 (CAT ) |
The Bahr el Ghazal (Arabic: بحر الغزال) is a region of northwestern South Sudan. Its name came from the river Bahr el Ghazal. The name translates as "sea of gazelles" from Arabic.
Geography
Bahr el Ghazal borders the
Administrative divisions
Bahr el Ghazal consists of the following states:
- Lakes
- Northern Bahr el Ghazal
- Warrap
- Western Bahr el Ghazal
- Abyei Area
Between October 2015 and January 2020, the region consisted of the following states:
- Eastern Lakes State
- Gok State
- Western Lakes State
- Aweil East State
- Aweil State
- Tonj State
- Twic State
- Lol State
- Wau State
- Gogrial State
- Abyei Area
History
It was historically subject to raids by the Fur invaders from the neighboring region of Darfur. The khedive of Egypt made Bahr al Ghazal his province in 1864. Powerful native merchants, who set themselves up as princes complete with armies, emerged in the area. The most powerful of them, al-Zubayr, fought and defeated a joint Turkish/Egyptian force sent to Bahr el Ghazal in 1873. The khedive conceded defeat and made Bahr el Ghazal a nominal province of Egypt, with al-Zubayr as its governor. It came under Mahdist control in 1884, when Karam Allāh Muḥammad Kurkusāwī was appointed governor.[1]
The region was visited by the anthropologist E. E. Evans-Pritchard in 1929.[2] The region was later incorporated into Anglo-Egyptian Sudan and became the ninth province after being split from Equatoria in 1948, and later a province, and then state, under the Republic of Sudan. In 1996, the region was divided into the four current districts as part of an administrative reorganization of the country. During the condominium period of joint British-Egyptian rule, the area was administered by British district officers; because of annual flooding and difficult traveling conditions, the area became part of what was known colloquially in the British Sudan Service as "The Bog", with British District Officers known as "Bog Barons" [3]
The region has been affected by civil war for many years. It was a scene of fighting in the
Under legislation approved by the
See also
References
- Wyndham, R, 1936, The Gentle Savage, A Journey in the Province of Bahr El Ghazal, commonly known as 'The Bog', (New York: William Morrow and Company).
External links
- Bahr-el-Ghazal, The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition