After Sudanese long-time despot, Omar Bashir was pulled down, his army decided to take over after betraying him. This is because there was no way one can accuse Bashir of anything he committed while in power without touching the army that kept him in power for 30 years. To make matters worse and unearth what actually the Sudanese army is, it has betrayed both sides namely their boss Bashir and his arch nemesis, opposition. In Sudanese language they call this dhubab dhakar namely the one who eats both ways if not a fuddy-duddy or a wolf in sheep’s clothing if not a pain in the ass.
Looking at a perilous turn Sudan has taken recently, one can argue that when the army ousted Bashir under the pretext of supporting the revolution, it has another hidden agenda, to take power and replicate what transpired in the neighbouring Egypt which now is one of the players trying to destabilise Sudan for its own interests. The army take over and suppressing of the revolution prove beyond doubt that Africa has never been free either from external colonial powers or internal colonial institutions such as armies. Refer to Sudanese, former Janjaweed, now Rapid Support Forces (RSF) whose boss, Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo aka Hemedt cis calling the shots (Al Jazeera, May 9th, 2019). Interestingly, the army that is now ruthlessly killing Sudanese for demanding and enjoying their democratic rights, is financed by the taxes of those it is killing and brutalising.
Apart from the RSF, the junta in Sudan recently dispatched its leaders to tour three Middle Eastern capitals namely, Cairo, Dubai and Jeddah to receive aid and instructions on how to ruthlessly deal with the revolution. Before the heads of the junta visited the above countries, they were cooperating and negotiating with the revolution leaders. But soon after being influenced, they came home and started butchering their own citizens for their future peril. When I saw the photo ops between Hemedt and the Saudi crown Prince Mohamed bin Suleman (MbS), I automatically smelled a rat. For the good tacticians and democrats, apart from Donald Trump, nobody would like to get closer to MbS thanks to Khashoggi’s massacre and hands full of blood. The Guardian (June 3, 2019) notes that Saudi Arabia and the UAE that are not friendly to democratic governance, are acting in concert to thwart the aspirations of Sudan’s reform movement. Remember, the duo lease land from greedy and myopic African countries to produce food for their citizens while Africans in many countries face food shortage.
Further, when I saw the head of the junta Abdul-Fattah Burhan hugging and kissing with his namesake Abdul-Fattah al Sisi, I knew how the chalice became poisoned. Who'd like to associate himself or herself with a stinking despot? As I am writing, over 100 innocent Sudanese have already been butchered by the army that seeks to rule Sudan. How will it rule Sudan with such blood in its hands not to mention the same being responsible for over two decades of perpetrating genocide in Darfur wherein the same RSF aka Janjaweed is accused?
When it comes to Africa’s coloniality, it goes without saying that all African armies deem themselves to be kingmakers, aloft and untouchable simply because they're entrusted with the war toys to borrow from star wars. The army that doesn’t know the hand that feeds it, public coffers, is nothing but a colonial tool or institution.
Many Sudanese regard themselves as Arabs. Refer their membership to Arab League and whatnots, though lesser than actual Arabs who refer to as abid, slaves or black. The NewStatemanAmerica (February 21, 2018) notes that “racist terms were routinely used by Sudanese Arabs against those African groups they enslaved. This racism was manifested by Arabs’ derogatory use of the term “abid” (slaves)–and what the Northern Sudanese writer Mansur Khalid called “a series of [other] unprintable slurs–to apply to western and southern peoples.” The abid is calling another abid the way one is called the same way the victims of holocaust are replicating the same in Palestine.
To prove their coloniality, the army has made itself cheap already to be used and misused by Arab countries its heads went to kow tow before. Why Middle East not Africa? Sudan is not Africa but Arab. This is why even when the African Union (AU) banished Sudan, neither the junta nor their masters in the Middle East took it seriously due to the fact that the AU also is still colonialised for failing to practically unify Africa. The junta and their masters know how moribund the AU is. Another layer of Africa’s coloniality. Ironically, the same AU banned coup d’états despite the fact that it is still made of coup makers and dictators almost all over the continent from Equatorial Guinea to Egypt and you name it.
Another element of Africa’s coloniality, Sudan’s neighbours are not able to banish it so as to punish and suffocate the junta to relinquish powers. Why? Either those neighbours are coward, weak or doing the same to their citizenry. Ethiopia tried to mediate. Out of kilter, to prove that the junta do not respect it, after PM Abiy Ahmed boarded his plane, the opposition leaders, he had talk with, were brutally arrested and put behind bars. Actions speak louder than words.
In sum, despite Sudanese junta clinging to power, it knows that it is not dancing its tune. Again, thanks to coloniality, narrow and myopic interests such as trying to avert the long arm of law for the Janjaweed and Bashir’s consigliere, the army is trying to call shots knowing that its successes will be temporal; and the results will be for all to face justice one day. Saudi Arabia and the UAE have already promised a $3billion aid to Sudan. Does Sudan need money now or democracy first so as to have the government in place that can manage its humungous resources or money? The duo is using cash as a bait for the junta and catalyst for the opposition in order to scuttle the process and poison everything due knowing how African countries have made unnecessary dependence their policies and a noose for those who want to hang them. Had Sudanese junta been decolonised, it would have acted like the armies in Burkina Faso, Gambia and Tunisia that put their countries forth but not narrow and awkward interests of individual carbuncular heads.
Had Africa been free through its reunification, no shame such as the one we are now evidencing in Sudan would have happened, bothered and tainted us as a whole. It is time for Africa to stand up and unite so as to avoid such as loss-making encounters as the one we are now evidencing in Sudan among others.
Source: African Executive Magazine, today.
2 comments:
Sudan is suffering ignored by everybody including Africans and arabs because they are africans, black, muslims and third world country.
Dear Anon,
I fully concur with you that the three tiers you have pinned down are the only causes for the world to ignore Sudan. Generally speaking, whatever happens in Africa, has no mojo for the so-called international community. It is as if Africa is not the part of the world or it is not occupied by human beings. it is too bad, so sad so to speak. These double standards and hypocrisy of the world need to be brought to the fore. Again, if Africa were to make its case, one would ask it: Who stopped it from uniting and making a formidable force just like others. This is where the concept of internalised internal colonisation kicks in.
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