Editor's NoteAuthor(s): Edward A. HawleySource: Africa Today, Vol. 28, No. 2, The Sudan: 25 Years of Independence (2nd Qtr., 1981), p.12Published by: Indiana University PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4185993 .

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priority should be given to theoretical or practical concerns. The issue is to create a climate constructive of research relevant to nation-building, and to the development of the natural and human resources. It is a difference between constructive research and valueless or negative research. While certain areas and certain topics have been over-researched and over-used, other areas have been neglected. The results of research have not yet filtered down to the educational system nor have they been used in a rational way by policy makers. A communication gap exists between the "intellectual" on the one hand and the administrator or the ordinary man and woman on the other hand. In many cases they speak and write in a language which is not comprehended by the ordinary citizen.

The last twenty-five years since the Sudan's independence have seen relative progress in different aspects of Sudan's life. Although the achievements have been less than the expectations and even the direction and degree of progress has been less satisfactory than it was before, nevertheless there have been positive changes. The changes can only come through the indigenization of the institutions and the systems employed to make effective change. The mutually cooperative efforts of the concerned and the commited research workers with the others is central and indispensable toward this end. It would be wrong to interpret this as an irrelevant leisurely occupation for an "elite".

The continuous dialogue and interaction between the research workers within the Sudan and outside of the Sudan, and the challenge of ideas and their discussion is one of the essential pre-requisites for channeling Sudan studies and research toward the positive and valuable ends. My appeal is for constructive, Sudan-centered and not Euro- American centered research on the Sudan.

Editor's Note We are most grateful to our guest editors, Carolyn Fluehr-Lobban and

Richard Lobban, for the many hours of devoted effort involved in bringing to- gether these many articles and book reviews from distinguished scholars in recognition of the Sudan's first quarter century of independence. Special thanks, too, go to Osman Hassan Ahmed, acting Cultural Counsellor at the Embassy of the Democratic Republic of the Sudan, for his close cooperation in the project. Our apologies to them, to the many authors whose work included Arabic, German or French words and citations, and to our readers, for our inability to reproduce accent marks not included in our printer's type.

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Edward A. Hawley

12 AFRICA TODAY

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