ما بين ألبٙير كامُو وكمال داوود : قراءة نقدية مقارنة
10 November 2015 No comments
(الغريب) ما بين ألبٙير كامُو وكمال داوود:
قراءة نقدية مقارنة
محمد بشير حامد*
تقديم:
نُشرت قبل عامين فى الجزائر رواية بعنوان “مورسو: تحقيق مضاد”Mersault, contre-enquête) ) للكاتب الجزائرى كمال داوود وأعيد نشرها فى فرنسا العام الماضى وترجمت لعدة لغات ليس من بينها اللغة العربية حتى الآن. (ويبدو لى–وقد أكون مخطئاً–أن السبب هو تخوف دور النشر العربية من ترجمة ونشر الرواية بعد أن دعا شيخ سلفى فى الجزائر باهدار دم المؤلف وقتله علانية “لتطاوله” فيها على الاسلام وبالطبع لعمالته للغرب وللصهيونية العالمية). أثارت الرواية زوبعة فى الوسط الأدبى فى فرنسا والجزائر حيث فازت بعدد من أرقى الجوائز الأدبية وكانت ضمن القائمة النهائية المرشحة لجائزة “غونكور”(Prix Goncourt) الشهيرة للآداب فى فرنسا. والمثير حقا هو نجاح كمال داوود فى روايته الأولى وهى تتخذ توأمة مساقها الفنى مع رواية “الغريب” (l’Étranger) لعملاق الأدب الفرنسى ألبير كامو (Albert Camus). ففى “الغريب” التى صدرت فى عام ١٩٤٢ ولا تزال ليومنا هذا معلما بارزاً فى الأدب العالمى، يقوم مورسو ((Meursault بطل الرواية وراويها بقتل جزائري لا نعرف عنه سوى هويته المُعرّفة “بالعربى” (l’Arabe) التى وصفها به كامو أو بالأحرى مورسو الراوى. وفى (تحقيقه المضاد) يقوم كمال داوود فى جرأة أدبية لا تتأتى عادة إلا عن ثقة متناهية بالنفس، ليس فقط بإعادة سرد رواية (الغريب) من منظور معاكس ومكمل فى آن بل بجعل الجزائر نفسها أكثر من مجرد البيئة التى اتخذها كامو ديكوراً مسرحياً لا غير لروايته. ويبدأ بإعطاء العربى القتيل اسما (موسى) ويجعل من بطل روايته وراويها (هارون) الشقيق الأصغر له والذى يقضى سنوات عمره مدفوعاً من قبل والدته المفجوعة سعياً وراء الانتقام لابنها. وفى بداية (التحقيق المضاد) يبدو وكأنه ادانة واضحة للأُسطورة التى جعلها كامو تحيط بقصة مورسو بجعله قاتلا وضحية فى وقت واحد بينما ترك (العربى) القتيل صفرا بلا اسم يُنادى به ولا صوت يُسمع له. ولكن عندما نضع الكتاب جانبا نشعر بأن هناك أكثر من ضحية وأكثر من قاتل وربما انتظم بلداً بأكمله.
نحو إستراتيجية أشمل للحركة الطلابية فى السودان
01 March 2015 No comments
نحو إستراتيجية أشمل للحركة الطلابية فى السودان:
“القطاع الثالث” وإمكانية الانتقال إلى الحراك الاجتماعى
محمد بشير حامد
نشرت هذه الدراسة فى مطلع 2015 فى مجلة (كتابات سودانية) التى يصدرها مركز الدراسات السودانية فى القاهرة
تمهيد:
قُدمت هذه الدراسة للمنتدى البيئى للجمعية السودانية لحماية البيئة فى۲۱ نوفمبر ۲۰۱۲ وكانت امتداداً۫ لبحث باللغة الإنجليزية عن The Rise and Decline of Student Political Activism in the Sudan (تصاعد وانحسار الحراك السياسى الطلابى فى السودان ) قُدم فى مؤتمر:
National Conference on Fostering Political Participation of University Students in Development
(المؤتمر القومى لرعاية المشاركة السياسية لطلاب الجامعات فى التنمية) والذى نظمه مركز السودان للبحوث التربوية بدعم من الاتحاد الأوربى فى ديسمبر ۲۰۰۹.
وقد اثارت الدراسة بعض الجدل عند مناقشتها فى المنتدى فقد رأى البعض فيها دعوة انصرافية للتخلى عن الحراك السياسى من اجل حراك اجتماعى لم تكتمل اركانه ولا ندرى بعد مقدرتنا على ادارته أو تحقيقه. وكان هذا النقد فى حد ذاته اجابة صريحة وجادة لتساؤل اثارته الدراسة نفسها حول اذا كانت هناك اصلا امكانية لمثل هذه النقلة بين الحراكين أو حتى الجمع بينهما أم أنها مجرد تصورنظرى قد يصعب أو يستحيل ترجمته على أرض الواقع؟ وبعد تقديم الورقة بعدة شهور جاء نفير الشباب فى خريف ٢٠١٣ ليضع ذلك النقد ذاته امام تساؤلات جديدة وهامة: هل وضعت هبة النفير حدا لشكوكنا فى مقدرة الشباب فى تنظيم حراك مجتمعى فاعل أو أن النفير كان انفلاتا عفويا وحدثا عابرا يصعب أو يستحيل تكراره لمقدرة قوى السلطة على اجهاضه، كما فسر البعض غيابه خريف ٢٠١٤؟ وهل كان تفجر انتفاضة سبتمبر فى اعقاب النفير مباشرة مجرد مصادفة زمنية (بسبب رفع اسعارالمحروقات مثلا) أو ان تجربة النفير مهدت لها تنظيميا وزادت من نطاق دعمها شعبيا واتساع رقعتها جغرافيا؟ وهل كان سبب محاولات النظام افشال حملة النفير بدلا من تشجيعها ان السلطات رصدت الابعاد السياسية والامنية لذلك الحراك المجتمعى وتحسبت لها فنشطت فى تفعيل آليات القهر والعنف مع اول ارهاصات انتفاضة سبتمبرأم أن مثل ذلك التحسب والتفعيل الأمنى كان اصلا فى استراتيجية النظام القمعية فى التصدى لأى بادرة تحرك شعبى كماحدث فى ٢٠١٢؟
قد يجد البعض سهولة فى الرد على هذه التساؤلات ايجابا أو نفيا وقد يبدى البعض تحفظات فى الربط بين الحراكين أو الفعل وردود الفعل وقد يرى آخرون ان الوقت لم يحن بعد لتقييمهما علميا فى غياب افادات من قام بالتنظيم أو الاشترك وانعدام المساءلة الجنائية لمن قاموا بعمليات الاغتيال والقمع الدموى. ومهما يكن من امر وبغض النظر عن التقديرات لما تحويه وجهات النظر المختلفة من صواب اوخطأ على ضوء ما حدث سابقا أو استجد لاحقا فقد رأيت نشر الدراسة فى نصها الأصلى مع أقل قدر ممكن من التعديلات والتى انحصرت فى بعض الاختصارات التى لا تخل بالمعنى واضافة عدة فقرات عن نفير خريف٢٠١٣ فى الموقع الذى اشرت فيه أصلا لمفهوم “النفير” بشكل عام فى الدراسة الأصلية، مع اضافة بعض المعلومات الجديدة فى الهوامش والمراجع.
ملامح من سياسة السودان الخارجية
01 August 2014 No comments
ملامح من سياسة السودان الخارجية:
من ʼالعزلة المجيدةʻ والفورة الثورية ٳلى ʼالحالة الفِنْلَنْديَّةʻ
محمد بشير حامد
ٳن السياسة الخارجية للحكومات السودانية المتعاقبة منذ فترة تقرير المصير ٳتسمت بنهج غريب تغيرت فيه السياسات أو تم ٳجهاضها بطريقة توحى بغياب أى استراتجية متجانسة أو طويلة المدى. فالحكومة الوطنية الأولى برئاسة اسماعيل الأزهرى التى جرى انتخابها تحت شعار “وحدة وادى النيل” فى نوفمبر ١٩٥٣ انتهى بها المطاف بِتبنِّى الاستقلال الكامل فى ديسمبر ١٩٥٥. وبالرغم من السجل المتناسق نسبيا فى العزلة الذاتية وتجنب الارتباطات والتعقيدات الخارجية –وقد يكون بسببها- فقد تمكنت حكومة عبود العسكرية من اهدارالسوانح الطيبة التى تمتعت بها بداية فى علاقتها مع مصر وإلى استعداء جيرانها من الدول الافريقية بسبب سياسة الكبت التى مارستها فى جنوب السودان. والسياسة الخارجية الرادكالية التى انتهجتها الحكومة الانتقالية الأولى فى أكتوبر ١٩٦٤ تحولت بحلول يوليو ١٩٦٥ الى تراجع متسارع نحو توجه يمينى محافظ. أما حكومة الرئيس النميرى فقد فاقت كل سجلات السياسة فى التحول من سياسية خارجية موالية للاتحاد السوفيتى فى نهاية ستينيات القرن ٳلى تبعية للغرب فى منتصف سبعينياته فى مسار متوازٍ – لعله لم يكن وليد الصدفة – لتوجه السياسة الخارجية لمصر الساداتية.
ان التفسير لهذه الظاهرة قد يكون فى أن السياسة السودانية قد تجاذبتها دائما مصالح داخلية وخارجية متباينة أدت الى بعض الضبابية والغموض فى علاقات السودان مع العالم الخارجى . فسياسات السودان الخارجية منذ الاستقلال لم تشكلها فى كثير من الأحيان المصلحة القومية بقدر ما أثرت فيها المصالح الذاتية للانظمة المتعاقبة والتى كانت بدورها متقلبة وفقا لمتغيرات الظروف الداخلية والتطورات الخارجية.
ما بين الصومال وسوريا
06 September 2013 No comments
ما بين الصومال وسوريا:
النهج “الأخلاقى” و”الٳنتقائي” و”الآحادي” للتدخل العسكرى الأمريكى
قبل عشرين عاماً قدمت محاضرة عامة فى مركز وودرو ويلسون للدراسين الدوليين فى واشنطون
(Woodrow Wilson Centre for International Scholars)
والذى كنت حينها أعمل فيه كباحث مقيم. وكان عنوان المحاضرة:
(The American Humanitarian Intervention in Somalia: Revisiting ‘The White Man’s Burden’?)
(التدخل الأنسانى الأمريكى فى الصومال: هل يعيدنا لمفهوم “عبء الرجل الأبيض”؟) كانت المحاضرة فى بداية عام ١٩٩٣أى بعد أسابيع من التدخل الأمريكى فى ديسمبر ١٩٩٢والذى انتهى فى آخر الأمر الى كارثة للسياسة الامريكية وأدى الى حالة التشرذم والتمزق والٳقتتال الذى يعيشها الصومال حتى يومنا هذا. وقد رأيت ترجمة المحاضرة لسببين: الأول هو أن الحوار الذى يدور هذه الأيام حول التدخل العسكرى فى سوريا يجرى فى جانب منه لتفسير وتبرير التدخل بنفس الأسباب الأنسانية والأخلاقية التى وردت فى تفسير وتبرير التدخل فى الصومال. والثانى هو تصورى أن نفس السيناريو الصومالى من المتوقع تكراره فى سوريا فى حالة الضربة العسكرية الأمريكية مع الفارق فى أن التأثير المتوقع على سوريا والدول المجاورة قد يكون أكثر خطورة وأبلغ أثراً وذلك لموقع سوريا الأستراتيجى فى قلب الشرق الأوسط. ونظرة عابرة لخارطة المنطقة توضح مخاطر اللعب بالنار فى ذلك الجوار الجغرافى الملتهب سياسياً أصلاً والقابل دوماً للاشتعلال عسكرياً. فى ما يلى ترجمة مختصرة للنص الأنجليزى الذى تم تنزيله من تسجيل مركز وودرو ويلسون للمحاضرة وسأحاول فى نهاية هذا المقال توضيح ما أراه من أوجه التشابه والٳختلاف بين الأزمتين وما يمكن ان نستنتجه عن مآلات الأزمة السورية على خلفية ما حدث فى الصومال :
“القطاع الثالث”
26 January 2013 No comments
الجمعية السودانية لحماية البيئة
المنتدى البيئى
نوفمبر ۲۰۱۲
نحو إستراتيجية أشمل للحركة الطلابية فى السودان:
“القطاع الثالث” ومكانية الانتقال إلى الحراك الاجتماعى
محمد بشير حامد
رئبس شعبة العلوم السياسية بجامعة الخرطوم سابقاﹰ
مقدمة
هذه الورقة امتداد لبحث باللغة الإنجليزية بعنوان:
“تصاعد و انحسار الحراك السياسى الطلابى فى السودان”
(The Rise and Decline of Student Political Activism in the Sudan)
قدمته فى مؤتمر:
National Conference on Fostering Political Participation of University Students in Development
والذى نظمه مركز السودان للبحوث التربوية بدعم من الاتحاد اللأوربى فى ديسمبر ۲۰۰۹.
Raising the Phoenix
13 December 2009 One comment
The Rise and Decline of Student Political Activism in the Sudan
Paper presented to the National Conference on Fostering Positive Political Participation of University Students and Youth in Development
12-13 December 2009 Khartoum, Sudan
Download the full paper PDF [43 pages]
Introduction
The basic theme of this study is that the political activism of the Sudanese student movement is, at present, in a state of decline and that any remedial effort first requires an examination of the reasons and processes of regression. The focus is mainly on the University of Khartoum as the institution with a history and legacy of a once vibrant student movement. Perceptions of decline usually stem from images of extraordinary past activism that are projected and contrasted with the present. The study offers the cautiously-optimistic proposition that the present itself may yet hold some possibilities for renewal. Read more
The Federal Option
03 March 1996 No comments
Democratization and State-Building in Africa:
The Federal Option in the Sudanese Experience
Mohamed Beshir Hamid
An Arabic translation of this study was presented to the conference on Problems of Democratization in the Arab World (اشكاليات التحول الديمقراطى فى الوطن العربى) Cairo, Egypt, 2-3 March 1996. The writer is currently updating and expanding the Arabic version to cover the period from 1995 to the present as a book project.
Download the full paper PDF [29 pages]
As I was going up the stair
I met a man who wasn’t there.
He wasn’t there again to-day.
I wish, I wish he’d stay away.
Hughes Mearns, The Psychoed
Introduction
Democratization in Africa is a concern that dates back to, and was implicit in, the nationalist struggle for independence. But the parliamentary system inherited from the colonial period failed to live up to the democratic ideals. The failure was due partly to the colonial legacy and partly to the unresolved contradictions between the imperatives of democracy and the exigencies of development. “What emerged from the debris of the parliamentary model were varied forms of personal rule that achieved degrees of success, with varied degrees of coercion. Where there was success, however, it was precarious, temporary and crippled by its class and ethnic limitations; where there was failure, it was egregious, massive and tragic”.
Critical Dialogue versus Sanctions
01 January 1996 No comments
Instruments of International Politics – Critical Dialogue versus Sanctions:
The Role of the United Nations Reconsidered
Mohamed Beshir Hamid
Paper presented to the Bertelsman Foundation and Munich University Workshop Project on Critical Dialogue and Economic Sanctions, Munich, Germany, 1996
Abstract
The post-Cold War period has seen the emergence of a number of approaches that seek to reexamine some of the strategies for international security and organization in the light of the transformation taking place in the international system. The renewed focus on a dialogue approach can be seen as a reaction to the increased multilateral and unilateral recourse to the sanctions regime. But while sanctions raise difficult questions in terms of practical application as well as of tensions with humanitarian concerns, the European critical dialogue is conceptually vague to the point of abstraction. The experience of economic sanctions demonstrates the need, first, to balance the humanitarian implications of sanctions with their expected political gains and, second, to avoid obscuring their explicit political goals with implicit agenda. Since there is no consensus on an alternative to economic sanctions, the challenge is how to refine them to reduce their negative impacts. In this context, the dialogue approach can come into play as a complement of, rather than a counterpoint to, the sanctions approach. The goal should be not to inflict collective punishment but to signal international censure in a process of gradual and limited application that places more premium on incentives than on coercion. Such a combined sanctions-and-dialogue approach might more readily bring about the desired changes of behavior by reinforcing recognition of mutual interests in observing international norms and in reintegrating the sanctioned state. This international reintegration, in turn, might encourage a similar process of internal reintegration. But just as the sanctions approach needs to be precisely clear in determining its target and goals, a dialogue policy should be unambiguous in defining its means and objectives. The focus of this dual process must be on its multilateral and not unilateral application. The United Nations constitutes a comprehensive forum that facilitates both dialogue and sanctions and provides the legitimating authority to endow the combined approach with political and moral force. But the tensions arising from new power realities and relations can no longer be effectively contained by Cold War security arrangements. For the international community to meet these challenges, the United Nations has to be reformed to make it more democratic and representative and more effective in transmitting its constitutive norms. The process of restructuring the emergent power relations of the new international order would likely be less disruptive if it is placed within the context of reforming the UN system.
Perspectives on Democratization
30 March 1994 No comments
This chapter was published in Population and Economic Growth: Perspectives from the Global South: (Reports and Papers No 7), Center for the Study of the Global South, School of International Service, The American University in Washington D.C. (March 30. 1994)
Some African Perspectives on Democratization and Development:
The Implications of Adjustment and Conditionality
Mohamed Beshir Hamid
Download the full paper PDF [14 pages]
I. Introduction
The end of the Cold War, and subsequent transformations in the global order, has given rise to new external pressures on African states to democratize. These pressures have taken the form of political conditionality – the linkage of bilateral and multilateral aid to political and economic liberalization. The rationalization of this new approach – the so-called “democratization carrot” – is that political reform is necessary for economic development. This reform is usually envisaged in the form of multiparty liberal democracy with the emphasis on cultivating a political culture anchored in Western democratic values. Read more
Traditionism and Modernization
14 August 1993 No comments
Download the full paper PDF [18 pages] Original scan in French
Traditionalisme et Modernisation:
Une Perspective Politique
Lecture: U.S. Intervention in Somalia
01 March 1993 No comments
The U.S. Intervention in Somalia:
Revisiting the ‘White Man’s Burden’?
Public Lecture given to the Woodrow Wilson Centre for International Scholars in March 1993
The U.S. military intervention in Somalia was unique in many as aspects. It was an action invoked and justified as a moral imperative. According to Newsweek, President Bush told the American troops departing for Somalia they were doing “God’s work”. An article in the Wall Street Journal entitled “Bring Back Lord Kitchener?” commented that “what Desert storm did for America’s military credibility, Somalia may do for America’s moral credibility”. An editorial in the Christian Science Monitor equates the national interest of the United States with the moral imperative to move “the international community towards a policy of responding to humanitarian and human-rights crises before they breed larger conflicts.” An essay in Time magazine entitled “sometimes Right Makes Might” observes that “what makes America’s intervention into Somalia seem so inspiring and also so dangerously slippery is that this might be the first time since the Crusades that an invasion has been launched for a purely moral rationale”.
These and other similar sentiment reflect perhaps the American tendency—some will say obsession—to ascribe morality to American actions, a morality that is always “self-defined” and often “self-righteous”. There is obviously nothing new in this. The best examples go back not exactly to the Crusades, but to the Wilsonian idealistic notion of “making the world safe for democracy”. The Cold War was always described by the United States in moral terms from Kennedy’s call to “pay any price and bear any burden” to Reagan’s uncharitable reference to the “Evil Empire”. But the real motivation was not morality but self-interest.
1987-1988: The Never-Ending Crisis
01 January 1988 No comments
AFRICA
CONTEMPORARY
RECORD
Volume 12
1987-1988
Annual Survey and Documents
Sudan Chapter
Mohamed Beshir Hamid
Download the FULL 1987-1988record as PDF
The Never-Ending Crisis
Events in Sudan during 1987-88 were like a slow motion replay not only of the political scene in 1986-87 but, more ominously, of the situation that had prevailed more than 20 years earlier between 1965 and 1969.1 The similarities were indeed striking, even to the prevailing feeling of frustration over the ongoing crises and the constant sense of impending disaster. The unfolding events were almost identical: the strained relationship of the Coalition Governments of the Umma Party and the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP); the ineffectiveness of the Constituent Assembly as a national forum; the constant political Pickering between Government and Opposition; the lack of direction and purpose in foreign policy; and the economic malaise that had practically crippled the country. In the background of these daunting problems and, indeed, overshadowing them all, is the running sore in the south that seems to be inexorably seeping to the north, as though it is enacting a bizarre self-fulfilling nightmare.
In this almost surrealistic atmosphere ‘the long-running, downward spiral of politics threatens to do permanent damage to political life and institutions in the country’2.
Read more
الشرعية وممارسة السلطة
14 December 1986 No comments
Download the full paper PDF [18 pages] Original scan in Arabic
الشرعية وممارسة السلطة
Sudan’s Foreign Policy
14 August 1986 No comments
Aspects of Sudanese Foreign Policy:
‘Splendid Isolation’, Radicalization and ‘Finlandization’
Mohamed Beshir Hamid
This chapter is an extract from Sudan since Independence: Studies of the Political Development since 1956, (R.K. Badal et al eds., Gower, London, 1986). The last section draws extensively from an article by the author, “the ‘Finlandization’ of Sudan Foreign Policy: Sudanese-Egyptian Relations since the Camp David Accords” in Journal of Arab Affairs, Vol. 2 No. 2, Spring, 1983 (Fresno, California) and from his contributions of the Sudan annual chapter to Africa Contemporary Record (London) from 1976 to 1985.
Download the full paper PDF [18 pages]
The foreign policies of successive Sudanese governments since the period of self-determination had been characterized by a curious pattern in which policies changed course, or were aborted or reversed in a way that indicated the lack of any consistent or long-term foreign policy strategy. The first national government of Isma’il al-Azhari, elected in November 1953 on a platform calling for union with Egypt under the slogan of ‘Unity of the Nile Valley’ had by December 1955 opted for Sudan’s complete independence. The military regime of General Ibrahim ‘Abbud – despite, or perhaps because of, its rather consistent record of passive withdrawal and non- involvement in foreign affairs – had managed by 1964 to dissipate the goodwill it had initially generated with Egypt, and to alienate Sudan’s African neighbours by its harsh and brutal policy in southern Sudan. The radical foreign policy initiated by the first provisional government in October 1964, had ended by July 1965 in a new retreat to conservatism. The Numayri regime undoubtedly beat all records for policy reversal by making a complete U-turn from a pro-Soviet stance in 1969 to a pro-Western posture by 1976 – a reversal of policy which, not coincidentally, ran parallel to that of Egypt. Read more
Anti-Americanism 3rd World
14 August 1985 No comments
ANTI-AMERICANISM IN THE THIRD WORLD:
Implications for U.S. Foreign Policy
Edited by Alvin Z. Rubinstein and Donald E. Smith PRAEGER
(New York 1985)
Download the full paper PDF [33 pages]
Perception, Preference, and Policy:
An Afro-Arab Perspective of Anti-Americanism
Mohammad Beshir Hamid
The evil in the world almost always comes of ignorance, and good intentions may do
as much harm as malevolence, if they lack understanding. On the whole, men are more good
than bad; that, however, isn’t the real point. But they are more or less ignorant and it is
that we call vice or virtue; the most incorrigible vice being that of an ignorance which
fancies it knows everything and therefore claims for itself the right to kill…
Albert Camus, Le Peste (1947)
Anti-Americanism, as such, is not a new phenomenon. Nor is it one originating in, or confined to, Third World countries. Consider the following expressions: “Degraded thinking, lying deception and unlimited greed are the natural and inescapable consequences of the commercial spirit, a spirit that like a tidal wave inundates the highest and lowest elements of American society”. “In this [American] society composed of a mixture of all peoples, freedom is purely materialistic and lacking in all idealism”. “Just read the newspapers of opposing parties during a presidential campaign, and rest assured, you would believe the candidate for this highest honor in the United States deserved life-imprisonment sooner than residence in the White House”. “Cheating is an old American custom”.
_____________________________________________
For going over the preliminary draft of this paper and for their valuable advice and comments, I am grateful to Professor L. Carl Brown, Director of the Program in Near Eastern Studies, Princeton University, Princeton, N.J.; to Professor Richard P. Stevens of the Center (or Contemporary Arab Studies. Georgetown University, Washington, D.C.; to Professor Alvin Z. Rubinstein of the Department of Political Science, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pa.; and to Professors Richard and Carolyn Lobban of the Department of Anthropology and African Studies, Rhode Island College, Providence R. l. Needless to say, I am solely responsible for the perspective and the shortcomings.
National Reconciliation
01 November 1984 No comments
Occasional Papers Series
THE POLITICS OF NATIONAL RECONCILIATION IN THE SUDAN:
THE NUMAYRI REGIME AND THE NATIONAL FRONT OPPOSITION
Mohamed Beshir Hamid
November 1984
Center for Contemporary Arab Studies
Georgetown University Washington D.C. 20057
Download the full paper PDF [24 pages]
“I don’t see much sense in that.” said Rabbit.
“No,” said Pooh humbly, “there isn’t.
But there was going to be when I began it.
It’s just that something happened to it on the way.”
A.A. Milne. The House at Pooh Corner
INTRODUCTION
The Historical and Political Background
Located astride a number of significant cultural and strategic boundaries, the Sudan occupies a key position between the Arab and African worlds. Its modem history can be traced to the Egyptian invasion in 1820, under the nominal sovereignty of the Ottoman Empire. The Turco- Egyptian occupation lasted for over sixty years and was ended in 1885 by an Islamic nationalist movement under the leadership of Muhammad Ahmad al-Mahdi. The Mahdist revolution succeeded in the reconstruction of a politically independent and unified Sudan; but the Mahdist state itself was short-lived. Al-Mahdi’s successor, the khalifa ‘Abdullahi, was defeated in 1898 by the combined forces of Britain and Egypt, and the Sudan came to be ruled under the so-called Anglo-Egyptian “condominium.”
1983-84: Sharia in the North, Anya Nya in the South
01 January 1984 No comments
AFRICA
CONTEMPORARY
RECORD
Volume 15
1983-1984
Annual Survey and Documents
Sudan Chapter
Mohamed Beshir Hamid
Download the FULL 1983-1984 record as PDF
Sudan: Sharia in the North, Anya Nya in the South
The Sudan continued during 1983/84 to drift deeper into political instability and economic decline that seemed to evolve with the inevitability of some malevolent natural force.1 Indeed. in more than one sense, the country was moving backwards on more than one front. The arbitrary and controversial policy decisions to re-divide Southern Sudan into three separate regions and to adopt the Islamic shari’a code were unnecessarily divisive and disruptive within the existing economic and political context. The high-handed way in which these decisions were imposed on a population increasingly wary of the politics of despair and rhetoric, only served to reawaken the forces of division between the North and South and to strain relations within each region. The tensions and discontent in Southern Sudan spilled over into wide-scale violent confrontation. Read more
Devolution & National Integration
12 December 1983 No comments
Devolution and National Integration in the Sudan
Mohamed Beshir Hamid
This study appeared as a chapter in Sudan since Independence: Studies of the Political Development since 1956, (R. K. Badal et al eds. Gower, London, 1986). The original draft was presented at the Marga Institute Dialogues on Devolution and Ethnicity, Colombo, Sri Lanka (12-17 December 1983) and was published in Ethnic Studies Report, Vol. 2, No. 2, Kandy, Sri Lanka (July 1984).
Download the full paper PDF [24 pages]
Would it not then
Be simpler for the government
To dissolve the People and
Elect another?
Bertolt Brecht, The Solution (1954)
The problems of national integration have plagued many countries, particularly in the third world where ethnic, religious and cultural differences have in some instances brought the state to the verge, if not actually into the abyss, of national disintegration. These problems are by no means confined to developing countries; in some of the most developed ones the traditional fabric of society has been threatened by similar forces, as in the case of Britain, Canada and the USA.
1981-82: The Martial Arts of Survival
01 January 1982 No comments
AFRICA
CONTEMPORARY
RECORD
Volume 12
1981-1982
Annual Survey and Documents
Sudan Chapter
Mohamed Beshir Hamid
Download the FULL 1981-1982 record as PDF
The Martial Arts of Survival
The one tangible and incredible achievement by President Ja’far Muhammad Numeiry during 1981/82 was the fact that he managed to survive.1 It was not just simply the question of surviving the unraveling of the country’s virtually bankrupt economy, the explosive tensions between the North and South regions and discord in the latter, the politically risky posture of an unabashedly pro-American foreign policy, and the wave of popular discontent that seemed to grip all levels of Sudanese society; Numeiry’s survival was all the more remarkable in that almost all these crises were largely self-inflicted.
The adoption of the stringent austerity measures demanded by the IMF was tantamount to an act of political hara-kiri. Ntimeiry’s proposal to redivide Southern Sudan into three regions, and his constitutionally questionable interventions in Southern politics had the undesirable effect of arousing Southern suspicions and of eroding his important power base there. His strident denunciations of Libya and the Soviet Union were almost an invitation to retaliation and subversion from his pro-Soviet neighbours and, at home fed a latent anti-American and anti-Egyptian backlash. In the face of the groundswell of protest to his policies, President Numeiry proceeded to effect the amazing feat of demolishing his entire regime, which he blamed for all the ills afflicting the country- and, then, rising phoenix-like from the ashes to proclaim his own political immortality.
Read more
1980-81: A Year of Wavering Indecision
01 January 1981 No comments
AFRICA
CONTEMPORARY
RECORD
Volume 13
1980-1981
Annual Survey and Documents
Sudan Chapter
Mohamed Beshir Hamid
Download the FULL 1980-1981 record as PDF
Sudan: A Year of Wavering Indecision
Only two new developments of significance occurred during 1980: the dramatic attempt at rapprochement with Ethiopia, and the inauguration of regional government as a step towards administrative devolution. Controversy continued over the issue of ‘national reconciliation’, with the former opposition leader, Sadiq aI-Mahdi, still calling for radical changes in the political system, and Numeiry’s hard-line supporters in the Sudanese Socialist Union (SSU) accusing the former opposition of using public forums for ends contrary to their own revolutionary goals. Read more
