Resisting the Anti-Democratic Tide: Sudan's Grassroots Movements in a Counterrevolutionary War

In Sudan, a revolution initiated a democratic transition in 2019, which was subsequently disrupted by a military coup in 2021, culminating in a full-scale violent conflict in 2023. A year and a half since the outbreak of the war, prevailing analyses of Sudan's war predominantly frame it as either a power struggle between military factions or a proxy war. However, there is a critical need for more nuanced, non-elite analyses of the situation in Sudan. The ongoing war represents an extension of an anti-democratic project that has been in development since the revolution and was set in motion by the military coup. The war transcends the simplistic categorizations of an internal power struggle or a proxy war orchestrated by regional or global powers. Instead, it constitutes a multi-scalar counterrevolutionary war, supported by both internal and external actors bound by shared capital interests and a desire to preserve the authoritarian, extractive, and postcolonial Sudanese state.

Centring the counterrevolutionary and anti-democratic aspects in the analysis of Sudan's war is essential in underscoring the struggles of Sudan's pro-democracy grassroots movements. Throughout Sudan's revolution and the subsequent democratic transition, these grassroots movements have played instrumental roles in mobilising for democracy and demonstrating a bottom-up approach to democratic transitions. The powerful mobilization of these movements threatened the interests of the elite Sudanese military and political class, as well as regional and global powers. In the aftermath of the military coup and the war, these movements have continually adapted their roles to resist anti-democratic endeavours. This paper will present a case for understanding the Sudan’s war as a counterrevolutionary one and will analyse the tactics employed by grassroots movements in resisting democratic backsliding. By doing so, it aims to contribute to a more comprehensive understanding of the complex dynamics at play in Sudan's struggle for democracy