The division of Sudan is the direct aftermath of the colonial rule of the imperialists. Many analysts agree with this view.

Khalid Dirar, a researcher at the al-Rasid Center for Strategic Studies in Khartoum, at an interview told historical and psychological accumulations enhanced by colonial policies have caused a pre-attitude in the southern Sudanese minds that the north treats the south with superiority.

Sudan is a multi-nationality country where more than 500 tribes live. Sudan derives its name from black people in Arabic. The Sudanese have called their country the heart of Africa as their country looks like a heart in shape.

75 percent of its population is Arabs and Southern Sudan is inhabited mostly by African black people.

They consist of various tribes. Most of them live in the three regions of Southern Sudan. People in Northern and Central Sudan are Muslims and those in Southern Sudan are Christians.

They were subject to colonialists' invasion from the 70s of the 19th century and had been under the colonial rule of the imperialists since 1877. The Sudanese people waged a vigorous struggle to achieve national independence from the colonialists from the very day the imperialists invaded their country. Their struggle for national independence and liberation mounted after the Second World War, in particular. The imperialists worked hard to sow the seeds of antagonism and discord among the black people in Southern Sudan and Arabs in Northern Sudan in a bid to keep Southern Sudan at least under permanent occupation.

However, the Sudanese people frustrated the moves of the imperialists to divide and rule Northern and Southern Sudan and proclaimed independence from their colonial rule on Jan. 1, 1956.

After its independence, there were ceaseless political instability and mayhem due to the separatist moves of the imperialists and fierce scrambles of right-wing political parties for power. A frequent power change took place.

In June 1969, the government granted regional autonomy to Southern Sudan which had waged an armed revolt since 1963.

A peace accord was signed between the government and rebel groups in Khartoum in April 1997, but the civil war went on.

A Sudanese political analyst in Southern Sudan said that colonialism isolated Southern Sudan and barred the two parts of Sudan from having mutual deals, aggravating the conflict that had existed between the two parts long ago.

He added that the attempt of some key politicians of the north to politicize religion, in particular, rendered the issue more serious and religion was one of the factors that deepened the conflict between the north and the south.

A referendum took place in Southern Sudan in a peaceful atmosphere and the government of the north immediately recognized the results of division. But, it is hard to expect the so-called honeymoon between the north and the south will go on for a long time.

Analysts are concerned that the independence of Southern Sudan after division does not mean the complete healing of the wound in the heart of Africa and, on the contrary, it may be a curtain-raiser to a new conflict between the north and the south.