The current referendum on Southern Sudan breaking away from the North will change the face of Africa. I think, as most experts do, that they will vote with a resounding 'yes' and hopefully come summer they will break away from the vile presidency of Omar Bashir.
He is a man with two international arrest warrants for genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity -warrants that shamefully have not been acted on, even when he openly travels to other countries. He has vowed to impose even stricter Sharia law onto the North if the South secedes, another reason for the South to escape - they are not Muslim, to have such diabolical and backward laws must be hard enough, but to have them imposed on you in your own country when you don't even share any of the ideology must be unfathomable.
But it will come down to oil, as ever. The oil fields sit mainly in the South, the money generated largely goes to the North, and how this is negotiated will be the difference between civil war and freedom.
Sudan is very much a country of two halves, the North is a barren desert, under Sharia law and Arab dominated, the South is lusher, oil rich, black african and generally Christian. Not many countries are so obviously naturally divided.
I'm not demonising the North at all, we travelled through it and it was bustling and so much friendlier than Egypt, where we had come from. The locals were stunned and ecstatic to discover we were not aid workers, or UN but were simply tourists. I think the people crave normality, and deserve it, North and South.
Sadly, I don't think they'll get it. Not with the shadow of Darfur still lingering, not with a criminal president and not while their country splits apart. It is the right move, but turbulent times ahead will mean more suffering for this glorious country, I sincerely hope it's worth it.
