Sudan

The name of the modern country known as Sudan is derived from the phrase Bilal al-Sudan, which Arabs used to describe black people in sub-Saharan Africa living in the broad belt stretching from the Red Sea in the east to Mauritania in the west. The smaller region retaining the name still covers an area of almost 1 million square miles, making Sudan the largest country in Africa. It is an area comprising a diversity of history, culture, religion, and climate connected by shared events and interactions among its people. Despite the country's great potential and historical ties that might bind the country together, post-independence Sudan has been plagued by violence that has threatened to rend the state into many pieces. In fact, Sudan is no ...