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POLITICS
A crisis of identity is now facing the people of northern Sudan
«Even if the southern people (southern Sudanese) opt for unity through self-determination, northerners may be reluctant to accept it,» says Ahmed Owrabi in an article published by the United Arab Emirates’ Al-Biyan newspaper of 24 December 2002 entitled: «The fate of Northern Sudan.»
Owrabi was reacting to the article written by Engineer Al-Tayeb Mustafa, a member of Sudan’s ruling National Congress Party and Minister of Information and Communications. The article was published in the Arabic Daily, Akhbar Al Youm on 16 December 2002 in Khartoum. Engineer Mustafa posed a number of questions, such as: «Why should northerners not be given the same right to self-determination as southerners? Who wronged whom?» He also highlighted the differences between the peoples, as manifested in language, religion, race, traditions and culture. «How can unity be achieved between two nations when what divides them outweighs what brings them together?» he questioned.
Owrabi himself recognises northern and southern Sudan as two separate nations. «I therefore believe that the ideal solution to our conflict is the complete separation of Sudan into two nations.» He represents the views of the majority of northern Sudanese who have been victims of sectarian politics. The oppressed northern Sudanese of Arab descent now seem to realize that they have been duped for decades. They are trying to take their future destiny into their hands.
«No north without south
no south without north»
Another article, published on 21 January 2003, by the English-language daily, the Khartoum Monitor, entitled, «Self-determination for Northerners», was written by Mohammed Ali Sharif Osman. The author says: «I hope and I wish in the coming year, that we will see a new Sudan or at least a new northern Sudan. Forget the song I learnt in primary school in which we sung: “There is no north without south and there is no south without north, we are all brothers.”»
This song was composed during the time of the dictator Jaafar Mohammed Nimeiri, soon after the signing of the Addis Ababa Agreement which ushered in a ten-year period of deceptive calm. That song was a slogan for the unity of the two incompatible parts of the country. The song epitomised a unity that was nothing more than a fake, characterized by deceptions, hegemony, exploitation and oppression of the south by the north.
At that time, school children were made to sing songs praising both this absurd national unity and the dictator Nimeiri. Today, northerners are the first to admit that the southern Sudanese are totally different from the northern Sudanese in almost all respects. It is also significant to hear northerners emerging from the illusions about Sudan’s unity they have been entertaining for almost five decades. This is, indeed, a break-through in modern Sudanese politics. Even President Omar Al-Bashir, in a political address has said: «We do not want unity with war». And a northern Sudanese intellectual, Abu Al-Qassim Haj Hammed, fed up with the war, also said, «There is no civilising interaction between northerners and southerners but only administrative relations imposed by colonialists. Our relation with southerners since 1955 is a relation of war only.»
An English daily, The Journalist International (now out of circulation for unknown reasons) reported last year in its opinion page that: «The present situation is not fair. Northerners must be given a chance to determine their position vis à vis the south. Why give this right to the south only?»
With all the above to go on, it’s clear that northerners are now playing the same tune as southerners. In fact, one of the objectives of the ruling National Congress Party is to let the south separate if it proves to be too much of a menace. That is why prominent figures like Al-Tayeb Mustafa, Sudan’s State Minister for Information and Communications, are ready to call for the separation of north from south.
Identity crisis
The question could be asked: how will all this effect Sudan’s membership of the Arab League? Al-Bagir al-Afif Mukhtar is a northern Sudanese who lives in the United States. He has presented a paper entitled «The Crisis of identity in Northern Sudan: a dilemma of a black people with a white culture.» He writes: «That there is a problem among the northerners can be seen in the political behaviour of the northern ruling class. One of the first decisions they took after independence, was to join the Arab League. Like any other marginalized categories, Sudan was almost forgotten by the Arab world in normal and stable times. It was only when the Arabs were demoralized and humiliated by the stunning defeat they suffered at the hands of Israel in 1967, that Sudan was remembered, was drawn close to the centre and allowed to play a significant role within the Arab League. Its neutrality, or rather its bystander status, qualified it to host the 1967 Arab Summit...Northerners think of themselves as Arabs, whereas Arabs think otherwise. The experience of northerners in the Arab world, especially in the Gulf, has proved to them beyond any doubt that the Arabs do not really consider northerners to be Arabs, but rather as abid (in Arabic, plural for slave).