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‪This article analyses history teaching in Sudanese schools during the first three-quarters of the 20th century. Covering both the colonial and postcolonial eras, it scrutinises the evolution of several variables – i.e., the status of history as a school subject, teacher training, teaching and learning materials, teaching techniques – in order to identify continuities and breaks in Sudanese school history. Getting to grips with this limited objective over a long period allows for the renewal of the classic, basically political, periodisation of modern Sudan. The article argues in particular that a major transformation of teaching took place in the decade before independence in 1956. Sudan’s political decolonisation did not generate substantial changes in the texts and practices, at least until the 1970s. Late colonial school history books (produced between 1944 and 1956) enjoyed a surprising longevity, and the article tries to explain the material, financial and ideological grounds for this.‪