The creation of the “Egyptian-Sudan” in the 19th century as a product of Muhammad Ali Pasha’s expansionist policies in competition with European powers of the day is one example that highlights perceptions and views from the “Arab center” on “blackness” in the region. An amalgamation of various political entities and regions (Nubia, Sennar, Darfur, Nuba Mountains, southern Sudan) with a diverse ethnic make-up, the naming of this entity “Sudan” is telling as the Khedives would consolidate their power along the Nile Valley in an effort to achieve the goals of Egypt’s oldest foreign policy: water security. This, despite a large, if not majority, self-identifying “Arab/Arabized” population in “the Sudan.” The legacies of oppression, slavery, would inform the political developments that would follow including the Mahdist rebellion, the “reconquest,” the nationalist movement, calls for “Unity of the Nile Valley,” Sudanese independence, civil wars and popular uprisings. All in one way or the other have had to deal with the complex questions of Sudanese identity. Linked and overlapping with these debates are questions of economic underdevelopment, social relations and political power in the marginalized regions of Sudan and “who gets to speak” on these matters. How did various “Sudanese,” over decades, relate to the term “Sudan,” given to them? How did it change and why? What does this mean the experiences of “black-Arabs” in other areas of the Arabic-speaking world? How do we understand “Arabness,” “Africaness,” and “blackness” as a result? How do scholarship and journalism approach these complex categories and experiences, particularly as they become politicized by various actors ranging from governments, political parties and activists?