Alex de Waal, “Brave Thinker”
For more than 150 years, the Atlantic has told the stories of people who commit acts of moral and intellectual bravery by espousing unpopular or controversial positions. In a special issue of the magazine, the editors have chosen 27 leaders – from business and politics to science and media – who embody this great tradition today. These are people who are risking careers, reputations, and fortunes to advance ideas that upend an established order. Making Sense of Darfur’s own Alex de Waal made this list.
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 de Waal,
I’m sure I speak on behalf of many a silent politically conscious Sudanese in saying that your work is most profoundly appreciated in its depth and breadth. Thank you for bringing clarifying and disambiguating the intricacies of Sudanese domestic and international politics. Although I am no expert consumer of all things Sudanese related, or political for that matter, I deeply appreciate that one nonpartisan westerner has a good grasp of the fundamental landscape-altering movements taking shape in my native land. Please keep up the good work for Sudan is in a state of political asphyxiation and its people’s destinies is highly volatile and uncertain.
Jamaeldin
Alex: well done – and well deserved!
The truth is always an offence – but never a sin.
Time will tell.
Ahmed Badawi
Yes indeed! Well done, Alex. Certainly deserved.
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 join my voice to those congratulating you Alex.
Your history is indeed marked with many spots that equally deserve to be celeberated and recognized, such as your brave decision to leave HRW in protest of its support to the U.S intervention in Somalia.
Your reflections and leading positions on the Rwandan Genocide is yet another brilliant spot in that history.
We do not also forget your efforts and advocacy for peace in Sudan and the extensive material and intellectual support that you extended to our cause in the period 1996 – 2000 through InterAfrica Group, Justice Africa, and African Rights, a Journey that physically took me with you down to both Sources of the Nile in search for peace and stablility. Indeed, well deserved Alex.
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 read Famine Crimes in south Africa long time ago. I did not know you then but thought WOW, here is a brave critique of the humanitarian aid industry. Very well deserved indeed. Khaled
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