There are a number of enigmatic features about how events unfolded in 1924. First, it is quite bewildering to observe the rapidity with which the movement, started by a handful of people based in Khartoum, spread in Sudan, attaining a variety of social groups in both rural and urban locations. Second, the most serious events occurred after the leaders of White Flag League had been imprisoned. The various demonstrations from August onwards appear at first sight as ‘spontaneous’ ocurrences. However, not only were they organized beforehand, but also none of them was disconnected from the network of activists surrounding the White Flag League: looking carefully, one might observe that either members or close supporters of the League were always within reach if not at the very heart of riots and demonstrations.

These aspects go hand in hand with the fact that it is particularly difficult for a historian to grasp how this society functioned. Even if the White Flag League chose a strategy of visibility and above all accountability, it was still structured as a secret society. Once more, that shapes the nature of the sources. The overwhelming majority comes from judicial records fed by informants who were at times quite dubious. The Intelligence Department was aware of that, but they simply needed their accounts. As for local and oral sources, the members and supporters of the White Flag rarely discussed directly or in detail the organization of the League and its sister organizations. Not only did few people know exactly how it worked and who were its members, but also members of the League and of other secret societies swore an oath of secrecy to which many remained bound until death.

Because direct testimonies about the organization of the League are unavailable, the historian can only reconstruct them by being sensitive to small fragments, then by searching for other ways to approach this problem. One such is to uncover the structure of society from patterns of participation in protests. Of course, when a historical fact can only be revealed from the existence of a pattern, it is impossible to know whether it is merely due to chance or coincidence, and even whether it only exists in the mind of the historian who is searching for it. However, sometimes, as in this case, a pattern is all we have.