The De-coupling interpretation of Sudanese currencies
By Joseph Deng Garang
Feb 6, 2007 — When the news hit the airwaves and prints media on January 10th about the release of the new Sudanese Pound, the sigh was beautiful among all marginalized although there was no massive expression of such excitement. I know the news was received with a node, knowing that the day before it was all about the ceremonies in commemoration of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) and that this announcement was an affirmation of the CPA clause if not claws.
The CPA-induced currency change from Dinar to Pound is an historic move that would work to tame the oppressive face of Sudan esoteric economic marginalization that has been defining the country for fifty-one years. Put in a simple context, Sudan replaced the Pound with Dinar in 1992.Now the Pound, which was the country’s currency from 1956-1992, is touted for release this summer and many Sudanese may, out of historical curiosities, ask questions as to whose interest is being served by the new currency?
On the other hand, many foreign nationals who are schooled in the mechanics of diverse economies will or will not get the gist of three-currency change if they do not read between the lines, because maybe all they got to take in on that day it was announced was that the move is in line with the peace process or it is too controversial. Well, few may ask what about it? Many countries have always signed peace deals but currencies don’t get changed. Well for Sudan, the story is different with respect to ushering of the new currency.
It is not about inflationary pressures although Sudan inflation, according to WorldFact Book, stood at 9% as of 2006. It is neither about those arbitrary forces or rules of price market nor was it about the economic concept of purchasing power parity although the new pound is said to be 10 times the value of Dinar.
When SPLM and NCP signed that peace in 2005, the principal lesson they wanted everyone to take from the decision to revert the country back to using pound is simple: it is a symbolic action on the part of those CPA authors to remove barriers to the grand exercise of interstate commerce. It is a move to create a template for the secular government that doesn’t use religious symbols on national currencies for one or two reasons hard to understand.
Although Dinar is a legal currency in circulation in ten other countries in the world, its introduction has been a thorn in the flesh among many marginalized Sudanese. For example, following the brutal introduction of “September/Sharia laws” in the 80’s things kept spiraling in such a uniquely characterized country. .The emergence of Dinar in the 90’s put Southern populations in a position so awkward that in few places that were not under NIF control, Kenyan, Ugandan shillings plus the U.S. dollar were the currency options available to them. These currencies are still being used in the South to date!
Henry David Thoreau was right when he said that “money is not required to buy one necessity of the soul” and for the marginalized people of Sudan who have lived with the indignities of having to deal with Dinar for 15 years, the idea of Pound provides the much needed healing because they did not need the Dinar to buy even an ounce of water or soul. That is the de-coupling interpretation of the relationship between the two Sudanese currencies: the Dinar and the Pound.
Now as IDPs and refugees move back to places they once cuddled, their relief is in having celebrated the 2nd anniversary of the peace process, plus the fact that the new currency stands as a true instrument of peace.
* The author is a columnist for the New Sudan Vision website. He can be reached at [email protected] or [email protected].