The Crisis of Sudan
Competition between rival interests is behind the violence in Sudan, writes Explo N. Nani-Kofi. As a result, voices for empowering popular forces for justice and resistance are not being heard.
Post-colonial Sudan has faced one of the longest wars on the African continent, a war which was fought as a war between the south and the north. For those who saw the problem in Sudan as one between north and south, the independence of South Sudan on 9 July will appear to be the end of the crisis. However, as I said on a Press TV programme in January this year, the crisis will not end with the independence of South Sudan as other flash points which have not attracted attention in the past will emerge. The recent conflict in South Kordofan, with reports of a genocidal attack by the government of Sudan, proves me right.
To put the situation in context, we have to look at the history of Sudan. Sudan has been identified today as an Arab country. Arab influence through Islam came to Sudan only in the 7th Century AD after the Islamic take over of Egypt in 640AD and later intrusion into Egypt. Before then, there had been a Christian presence in Nubia in the 6th Century AD. Islamic intrusion isolated the Christians in Nubia from Christians elsewhere. Before the advent of Christianity and Islam in Sudan, the people in Sudan were African groups with languages and culture similar to the rest of pre-colonial Africa.
One of the strange features of Sudan is how difficult it is to distinguish between supposedly declared Arabs and non-Arabs. Arabs in Sudan had become Arabs through Islamisation and the loss of their original languages and culture. In trying to increase their number there has been the attempt to spread Islam to the whole population. Effective islamisation meant people losing their culture.
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The colonial state everywhere exploits differences to carry out the exploitation and oppression of people under capitalism. The Sudanese government, which is the leading force in directing the economy as in most post-colonial countries, is dominated by an Arab-Islamic ruling class that use it as a tool for the exploitation of the people. Over the years, the ruling class has used Islam as a tool and have treated various groups as marginalised groups whilst embarking on aggressive Islamisation and Arabisation. So you have the Arab-Isamic state and its organs of oppression in the centre, with peripheries of marginalised groups. It is therefore natural to see resistance from these peripheries of marginalisation. That is how the situation has led to the long post-colonial war between various Arab-Islamic regimes on one side, as against the south led by the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement/Army, the Darfur crisis and the recent genocidal situation in South Kordofan.
Before I left West Africa and travelled to Europe I didn’t know anything about the Arab-led slave trade and Ottoman Empire slave raids in Africa. I thought the only slave trade was the transatlantic slave trade. When a student from Rwanda talked about Arab-led slave invasions in Eastern Africa, I thought it was a fairy tale and I have returned to West Africa to see that the situation hasn’t changed with many people here, including people who consider themselves conscious political analysts, being totally ignorant of anything like an Arab-led slave trade. The worse feature of this issue is that the Arab-led slave trade is not a thing of the past, but still ongoing in the Sahel zone of Africa and Sudan.
These arrangements facilitate the divide and rule disorganisation of post-colonial states, which prevents them from developing a capacity as independent nations to end their dependent relationship on former colonial authorities or new powerful forces competing with the former colonial authorities for economic and political control. This also results in a proxy relationship where forces in conflict within the newly declared countries seek external support to sort out the internal conflict. When a situation like this arises then various analysts with particular leanings resort to a distraction away from the facts of the situation, muddying the waters further.
Some will point out that in the field of realpolitik, your enemy’s enemy will be your friend, so it shouldn’t be surprising seeing South Sudan work with the USA and Israel in having their eye on the goal of the decency and dignity of their people. Some will immediately conclude that South Sudan has become an agent of western imperialism and Zionism so there is no reason to sympathise and support its cause from an anti-imperialist standpoint. But from the position of South Sudan, why should they be prepared to suffer slavery and dehumanisation at the hands of the Arab-Islamic regime just to pass the test of being anti-imperialist?
Specifically in the situation that South Sudan found itself in, having a cruel colonial relationship with the Arab-Islamic regime in Khartoum meant seeking help in the fight against Khartoum. Had there been an independent and united African force, this could have been the force to step in, but in the absence of such a force what is South Sudan left with?
This is what has complicated the building of solidarity for causes in Sudan – like that of Darfur and the Nuba people of South Kordofan. Injustice in the form of the marginalisation of people perceived to be non-Arab in Darfur or of the Nuba people in South Kordofan is wrong. The lives being lost because of the fact that people are rising against inhuman treatment has to be stopped. Our starting point should be how to end the injustice. Some of the arguments about external manipulation are even very racist and give the impression that the non-Arab or African people in Darfur and South Kordofan cannot even know that they are being enslaved or marginalised until external forces come to manipulate them. This hypocrisy, hiding behind the dishonest façade of anti-imperialism, has to stop. True anti-imperialists have to mobilise on the side of all marginalised and oppressed forces, who are being marginalised for capitalist exploitation and the use of profits from resources for the interest of the small ruling class. The oil from South Kordofan and Abyei is not being used in developing the areas close to the oil but being used to advance the opulence of the Arab-Islamic regime in Khartoum. In every conflict, various interests will get involved in trying to advance their interests.
After the Arab-Islamic intrusion into Sudan came the European colonial presence, with rivalry between the two. The two competing ruling class interests then became the pillars for capitalist exploitation in Sudan. Consequently, there is nothing surprising that in the present situation, western imperialist interests will also be involved in opportunistically presenting themselves as the voices against the genocidal situation in South Kordofan. It is, however, important there should also be voices for empowering popular forces for justice and resistance to the genocidal situation.
Explo Nani-Kofi is the Co-ordinator of Kilombo Community Education Project, London, UK, and Kilombo Centre for Civil Society and African Self-Determination, Peki, Ghana, which jointly publishes the Kilombo Pan-African Community Journal. He is also the Producer and Coordinator of the ‘Another World is Possible’ radio programme currently on GFM Radio, London. He is also a regular guest on African Analyst on Press TV and has made appearances on Al Jazeera. He contributes articles to the Counterfire website and Pambazuka News. For further information contact him through kilombo.
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