Dear Alex,

You have been selected among the brave thinkers of our time and for that you should be congratulated. For those of us who worked closely with you during the difficult times of wars in the Eastern Sudan, we sincerely believe you deserve this acknowledgment and more. It never came to us as a surprise, because when we stood alone against the roaring guns and call for war against famine first, you came by our side and supported us and, there was small but effective lifeline humanitarian operations that spared some lives. We may agree or disagree with you, but we have no any doubt of your commitment to the cause of the Sudanese people specially Darfuris, for whom you have dedicated much of your life.

Thank you and the struggle continues

Alex: well done – and well deserved!

The truth is always an offence – but never a sin.

Time will tell.

Ahmed Badawi

Alex,

Though we have known each other for only a short time (and virtually over the internet at that). I have long admired your writings and have always been intereested in what you have had to say about Sudan.

Your recognition by “Atlantic” is well deserved and I hope that this will cause more people to listen more closely to what you have to say.

Best regards,

Oscar

I was surprised, flattered and pleased to find myself on the Atlantic’s list. But I would also insist that intellectual courage, like physical courage, is contagious and collective.

One of my first lessons in challenging the comforts of the status quo was the example of the late Dr. Ahmed Karadawi, Assistant Commissioner of Refugees in Sudan, who never allowed the assumptions of international aid donors to pass without challenge–even though this honesty came with a price to his career. Prof. Mohamed Omar Bashir was another for whom brave thinking was a vocation, and it was at his request, shortly before his death, that I began working on human rights in Sudan.

Many other people with whom I have worked in Sudan have similarly displayed physical courage, intellectual fearlessness, and that rarest but most precious mental capability–to examine one’s own assumptions and admit and expose one’s own errors. Some have been fellow outsiders to Sudan (Julie Flint is an example) but most have been Sudanese themselves. The list is far too long but among them are Abdel Salam Hassan, Hafiz Mohamed, Safaa al Agib, Khalid el Kid, Suleiman Rahhal, Yoanes Ajawin, Amin Makki Madani, Fatima Ahmed, Peter Nyot Kok, Mansour el Agab, Yousif Kuwa Mekki, Fatima Babiker, Abdel Wahab al Effendi, Sharif Harir, Siddiq Umbadda, Yousif Takana, Francis Deng, el Hadi Abdalla, Abdalla Hamdok, Hamdan Goumaa… I could go on (and will do so at some point). Among the list are many who have disagreed with me, sometimes dramatically so.

My point is that mental courage is not exceptional in Sudan and it is inconceivable that I could have qualified as a “brave thinker” without such remarkable intellectual companionship and solidarity.

Dear Alex,

I offer my congratulations. The award is quite appropriate. While freedom is the acceptance of destiny, courage is the recognition of necessity and the rejection of illusion.

Abd al-Wahab