The Sudan Revolution: The Reclamation of a National Identity

Mahadist flag of Sudan (1956 - 1970)

At this point most of us have heard about the details of the Sudan revolution, how it was triggered by austerity cuts to bread, and the subsequent development of an anti-regime movement lead by the Sudanese Professionals Association (SPA) consisting of doctors, lawyers, judges e.c.t. The reign of ousted president Omar el Bashir began when he and several allied military officials carried out a violent and undemocratic military coup on the reigning multi-party system in 1989. Through the designation of a faux Arab identity to northern inhabitants, later bolstered by the legal legitimization of Islamic fundamentalist ideology, Bashir was able to use this amalgamation of mythical ethnic premises to successfully separate the country along lines of religion and ethnicity. The irony of this being of course, that northern Sudanese have never been Arab and that southern, western and eastern Sudanese have always occupied all areas within region including in the north even prior to the arrival of Islamic and British imperialists.

The conflation of Islam with an Arab identity is partially rooted in Sudan's colonial history as we had been colonized initially by a joint alliance between Egypt, Turkey and the UK forming Anglo-Egyptian Sudan from the late 1800's through till 1956, initiated when Turkish Ottoman commander Mohamed Ali Pasha arrived on Sudanese soil and declared himself official Viceroy of the new state. Many Egyptian Coptic Christians, Muslim Egyptians, and Ottoman Turks  remained in Sudan after independence and had began intermarrying with Sudanese citizens. However, such practices did not take place in all parts of Sudan and did not produce a majority mixed population as had occurred in places such as Mexico, within which intermarrying led to the creation of an entire mixed mestizo ethnicity forming a majority. Thus, most Sudanese are, and have always been ethnically bred from African pastoral and nomadic tribes in the region from countries such as Chad, and further traveling nomadic tribes from west Africa such as the Nigerian Fulani. Subsequently, the continuous labeling of northern Sudan as "The Arab Muslim North" is not only inaccurate but works to lend itself to the subversive politics of the ex-regime, which sought to manipulate the general population into an Arab allegiance which was put in place solely to marginalize the south, west and eastern regions along lines of race and religion.

Eventually marginalization led by the north in the form of violent genocide, pillaging and economic exploitation in South Sudan lead to the division of the country into north and south in 2011. Ironically supported by the United States at the time who were never knowledgeable enough on the political history of the region to impose themselves as momentary saviors of the south, finalized the decision ending in the creation of a separate southern state. Although the division was rightfully rooted in liberation for southerners from northern oppression as well as the exploitation of southern oil reserves from which southerners saw little to no profits, the division marked the first amputation to the Sudanese state but more than this, did not fulfill its intended purpose of ethical resource management in either state. In the end the Obama administration unfortunately only ended up legitimizing division along ethnic lines in the region.

Although it was in moral interest that the south divide for their own safety, I cannot help but feel as a northerner who grew up in both Sudan's, and who witnessed the same national rhetoric of  regional reconciliation come from the mouth of respected SPLA (Sudan People's liberation Army) leader john Garang (may he rest in peace) being used by northerners for liberation today, my heart becomes heavy with grief. There should have been more northern resistance to the division, we should have fought harder for southern justice when we had the chance. The cultural and political contributions of southerners to our country is of immeasurable significance. Yet overnight, we saw some of our most respected professionals who had been living in the north and who had identified themselves with a holistic and secular Sudanese identity be forced out of their own spaces. In the end the forced subscription of many through suppressive laws to a second hand Arab Muslim identity, ended up depriving only the north of true cultural authenticity, which was always sourced in our rich and diverse culture as a multi-ethnic society. Best articulated in my opinion by Dr Garang's own philosophy of "Sudanism", which sought a secular Sudan that could accommodate its proudly multi-ethnic origins. This failure of our state was the first of many to be committed by the Bashir regime to the detriment of our culture.

However, Sudanese people have now come to recognize this failure and decidedly united with western and eastern populations under a nationalist revolutionary agenda. This decentralized structure adopted by the movement is what makes the Sudan revolution so significant. Today we disregard those allegiances legitimated by the ex regime and their desire to divide and conquer, today we recognize that Sudan must exist as a self acknowledged multi-ethnic state within which all inhabitants are treated equally under the rule of law. Marginalized regions have come together with the central north to demand justice, this solidarity and further overlooking of regional prejudices for the sake of national security forms a sharp contrast to the notion of the "Tribal African" spewed out by certain media outlets who fail to recognize that regionalisms are the product of the regionally discordant ideologies carried by colonial forces and legitimized by military leaders and not democratic one's.  We are tired of these rhetorical impositions which can appear so blatantly resentful of the notion of a democratic process taking form in Africa, they may go as far as to assume that such regionalisms had developed in a socio-political vacuum outside of imperialistic agenda's.

Although coverage of the revolution has increased significantly over the past few months as a result of on-line advocacy campaigns such as #blueforsudan as well as the international realization that the revolution itself is one largely lead and propagated by female cries for justice, several media outlets fail to interpret the revolution holistically outside of the subscribed context of "arbitrary" violence. This is problematic for a number of reasons. Firstly, one must recognize that African violence within the western media is not shrouded in the same historical heroism brought on by the history of war upheld in the west as civil and ultimately in the pursuit of peace as told historically in fictions such as the Iliad and upheld by western military culture. African resistance is thus occasionally divorced from outcome and made to seem inconclusive as it pertains to a political agenda within the media. One example of this is a recent article by the financial times which was strangely framed to make the career of mass genocidaire Hemeti look like a rags to riches military Cinderella story and more than this presented him as a rightful representative of Darfurians,  all while denouncing protesters as being spoiled and entitled. Another example is a tweet by the British Ambassador to Sudan within which he claims "June 30th" The day chosen by the Sudanese for mass military protests should instead be "a day of celebration" while calling for reconciliation, as if those hundreds who's bodies have been pulled out of the Nile, raped and beaten to death, are not deserving of just outcomes or heroic titles themselves. For some reason there is always a western paternal finger pointing at African revolution, chastising it for its misbehavior. Although for the most part the presentation of Sudan has not been totally biased, mostly thanks to a few diligent on the ground correspondents who have witnessed the growth of the movement itself.


This occasional bias comes from a convenient understanding of colonial history which indicates that African losses were material and not periodic. Sudan and other African nations did not only sacrifice their recourses to accommodate a globalist world market. They were deprived of a period of revolutionary struggle and war forming a vehicle to democratic rule that took place in nations that are fortunate enough to be afforded stability in current times. Yet in spite of this, Sudanese do no choose violence, divorcing themselves from old revolutionary structures. We have not dragged Hemeti out of the house of parliament, or sought to assassinate our dictator, which in these circumstances are not far from viable solutions. Instead the populace marches on as an exemplary foundation for the democratic structures they yearn for, they are showing their own state what legitimacy really looks like.


Sudanese citizens today are fully aligned with a single cause, the removal of the military council and any other proxy government that represents the old regime that should attempt to manifest when the military council is eventually dissolved. We will not settle for pre-mature reconciliation that does produce democratic state rule and demand the effective integration of women's rights policies into the new state agenda. Today as Sudanese march in all parts of the country, as a part of the biggest anti-government protest the state has ever witnessed, Sudanese people are not afraid of the looming threat to their life posed by the RSF and paramilitary forces. Hundreds have been lost, yet millions have become empowered by their loss, reviving the spirits of the their fallen brothers through resistance that is more coordinated and unified than it ever has been before. Current head of the military council Mohamed Hamdan Hemeti said that women would never walk the streets to protest again after the violent incidences of rape and sexual abuse perpetuated by RSF forces on June 6th.  Today women march in larger numbers than they ever have before, as having lived in Sudan and witnessed the terrors of anti-womanhood legitimated by the state for over 3 decades, there is not much left to fear but a return to old ways.