Southern Sudanese Will Not Be Voting on “What If” History
Ustadh Abd-al Wahab is a good example of a well-known trend among Sudanese intellectuals, who prefer to describe an ideal Sudan as the “true” Sudan and dismiss the reality as a deviation from the reality. It is as though the last 21 years (or in Abd al-Wahab’s case, the last 40 years) are a dream and we will wake up and find ourselves in the “real” Sudan. Just remove the NCP and we will achieve democracy, justice and unity.
The well-known leaders from the civil society and the democratic parties tell the Southerners, “what if” stories – “what if we do so and so” – and each one ends with the moral, “then you will see that unity is the best option!” These colleagues explain that the Southerners are not really opposed to the north as such but only to certain policies of the north, and that whenever the Sudanese people have come together under a democratic system then the Islamists have been cut down to their real size and a democratic government has made all Sudanese feel at home in Khartoum.
I agree that the elections were rigged and politicians of the north are not interested in the needs of the people and they are oppressing and exploiting Sudanese in all corners of the country and not only the South. I dearly wish that all the Sudanese people could rise up and overthrow the NCP and usher in an age of democracy, peace, justice and voluntary unity. I believe that these are our rights and we can achieve them and that when free and fair elections are held we will see the real character of the Sudanese people and the real vision for the future of our country. I also wish our brothers and sisters in the South would be just a bit more patient and allow us to try one more time for unity, because in fact they have got everything they really need in terms of rights in the CPA and separation will not give them substantially more. In my view the day of separation will be a very sad day for the Sudanese nation and its people.
Notwithstanding all of these assertions, I also submit anyone who believes that the Southerners will be ready to wait a single day longer than they are required to under the CPA to exercise their right of separation, is fooling himself. The Southerners will not be voting on whether to unite with a Sudanese Utopia of tolerance and equality! They are not voting for or against a Sudan that might one day be created by a future President Yasir Arman just as they are not voting just on the record of the Inqaz regime. The sad truth is that when each and every Southern voter goes into that voting booth they will ask themselves, what is my experience of this unity and do I believe that it will change for the better if I vote for it?, and mark their ballot accordingly.
Sudanese intellectuals are past masters at clutching at straws. I have heard some say that the Southerners are secretly clamouring for unity and this is why they voted for Yasir Arman, even after he had been officially withdrawn. They see hope in the strong stand against separatism taken by the Deputy Chairman of the SPLM and governor of Blue Nile, Malik Aggar. The speeches of Dr John Garang are another straw, because his case for unity was persuasive to Northerners and Southerners alike, but resurrecting the ghost of the late leader is but another example of “what if” history.
The vote of the Southerners will first and foremost be a verdict on the NCP and its rule, but we the civil society and democrats of Sudan must look inside ourselves and ask what did we do ourselves to make unity attractive, because it will be a verdict on us too.
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It is true, the North has a substantial fraction of the population that is in political somnolence and self-denial about the imminent break-away.
I personally don’t believe the late Dr. Garang was a unionist, but that’s a moot point right now.
I see no reason to attack Abd-al Wahab nevertheless. Everything he has said has been very reasonable to me.
The verdict is on the NCP and not on the Northerners. Our history was filled with calamity and successive revolutions. Channel your anger in the right direction, and maybe this revolution you want may happen accordingly.
At this stage, it is essential to preserve freedom of expression. The electoral campaign period saw the most significant expansion of freedom of expression, including lifting of censorship, for a long time. It allowed Sudanese to speak far more freely about national issues. Clearly there is going to be much disagreement about these issues, and many feelings that need to be vented. Among those who are advocates for democracy and human rights, it is unsurprising that there are divergent views and sometimes acrimonious differences of opinion.
In the month following the election we have seen a number of worrying signs that the political space that opened up during this period, may not be staying open. On the basis of the article that Khalid cites, Al Haj Warraq was charged with criminal offences. Just this week there has been a return to censorship of papers. Today, Farouk Abu Issa was reportedly arrested and Baqir al Afifi was prevented from leaving the country.
I hope that this blog can maintain a healthy debate in which no-one fears to speak his or her mind, and I hope that this spirit remains strong and well-respected in the Sudanese public sphere.
Dear Khalid,
I agree with your critique of the “what if” history and your diagnosis of the “clutching at straws” phenomenon on the left. (You might add that the proclivity to attribute unwelcome developments to international conspiracies is another manifestation of this syndrome.) We must deal with the objective realities that face us and not construct an imaginary alternative as our starting point.
The disagreement between ourselves is not on this issue but instead on the relative weight that we respectively ascribe to structural historical factors as against individual agency and consciousness. I insist that historically materialist factors determine the outcomes whereas you ascribe to a Whiggish view that liberal rights, adopted as ideological norms, possess the capability of overruling those forces. I readily concede that the subjective factor can be important, but I argue that the slavish and uncritical acceptance of liberal ideology as the necessary destiny of political-economic evolution including in the Sudan is an instance of false consciousness or liberal rights fetishism. Where your analysis errs is in bracketing my own materialist analysis with others who have embraced a different variant of liberal ideology to your own, and moreover one that in actuality develops that ideological stand to a far greater extreme.
Abd al-Wahab
A very interesting article has appeared on the SudanTribune’s website: “Making the separation of Southern Sudan thinkable” by Professor Amir Idris, Associate Professor of African Studies and Associate Chair of the Department of African and African American Studies, Fordham University, New York City.
The article adds complementary arguments to that of Khalid’s about the self-inflicted denying of coming events, and the article also adds explanation to the observations made by non-Sudanese observers with respect to the shock and awe incurred by Northern Sudanese, with regards to the imminent separation.
It may be that we are all expressing our dismay at the events to come. Thank you all for your audience and time.
Dear All
I have one simple question, knowing that secession is inevitable, bitter as it may be, if it is the wish of the people of the South, expressed freely, it is acceptable,
“Are we in the South, going to vote to simply condemn the past?”.
Of course secession is inevitable, and its about time. How much can a people take before they stand up and say enough.
“I dearly wish that all the Sudanese people could rise up and overthrow the NCP and usher in an age of democracy, peace, justice and voluntary unity. I believe that these are our rights and we can achieve them and that when free and fair elections are held we will see the real character of the Sudanese people and the real vision for the future of our country. I also wish our brothers and sisters in the South would be just a bit more patient and allow us to try one more time for unity, because in fact they have got everything they really need in terms of rights in the CPA and separation will not give them substantially more. In my view the day of separation will be a very sad day for the Sudanese nation and its people.”
How much is realistic?