In The Sudan there are long lasting lines of colonial influence from the West and from the Middle East, now was the time for Sudan to own itself. President Okelo has created a policy of Sudanisation that would reclaim The Sudan to it's African roots. This would initially start with removing the Arab influenced names of Sudanese people and instead they will revert to their tribal names and affiliations. The Sudanisation campaign was an effort to rid the country of the lingering vestiges of colonialism and the continuing influence of Western and Eastern culture and to create a more centralised and singular national identity. The policy, as implemented, included numerous changes to the state and to private life, including the renaming of the Sudanese cities, as well as an eventual mandate that Sudanese are to abandon their Christian or Muslim names for more "authentic" ones. In addition, Western style attire is to be banned and replaced with the abacost and its female equivalent.

Under the state and party ideology of Sudanisation, all citizens were equal and the appropriate term of address among all Sudanese became mwenzio, or comrade. The term was mandated for public use in order to do away with the perceived hierarchical distinctions of monsieur and madame or Sheikh and Emir. Visiting heads of state are to be greeted with African drumming and singing as opposed to the 21-gun salute, traditional in Western practice.

President Okelo spoke of the practice: "Sudanisation has made us discover our personality by reaching into the depths of our past for the rich cultural heritage left to us by our ancestors. We have no intention of blindly returning to all ancestral customs; rather. We would like to choose those that adapt themselves well to modern life, those that encourage progress, and those that create a way of life and thought that are essentially ours."