Language Situation in Post-War Sudan

The theme behind this paper is to review the language policy and language planning in the Sudan, after the institutionalization of peace; by exploring the recent policy of political factions in the North and the South towards languages in post-war Sudan. This effort aims at encouraging non-Arabic speaking-ethnic-groups to accept the Arabic language as lingua franca, by allowing it an official status in education and government offices. The paper also aims at encouraging the Arabic speaking majority in the North, to take the initiative to study and learn the most dominant local Sudanese-African languages, and be familiar with their oral and written literature; as well as realizing the role of these languages in enriching the cultural heritage in our country and making unity an attractive choice.