“FRIENDLY FORCES”
08 June 1987 No comments
SUDAN TIMES
“FRIENDLY FORCES”
The phrase ‘friendly forces’ kept cropping up in the media coverage of some of the bloody events in the South and South-West. 1 was very glad to read that these ‘friendly forces’ were helping the regular forces in their military operations. As a political analyst I assumed that these were the forces of a friendly country. Using my considerable political acumen I made a very intelligent and educated guess that these ‘friendly forces’ must be, in reality, units of the Ethiopian Army. The good old Ethiopians: you could trust them to come to our aid in times of need.
JOINT RESPONSIBILITY
07 June 1987 No comments
SUDAN TIMES
JOINT RESPONSIBILITY
Mrs. Margret Thatcher sat in her office at 10 Downing Street reading for the tenth time the dispatch from the British Embassy in Khartoum. She took off her glasses and sighed. “How stupid of me,” she murmured to herself. “Why didn’t I think of that myself”. She pressed a button and said, “Tell Lord Whitelaw to come and see me immediately.” she stood up and paced around the room. There was a knock on the door and Lord Whitelaw’s massive head appeared. “You wanted to see me, Prime Minister?” he asked.
THE SECRET AGREEMENT OF REYKJAVIK
17 December 1986 No comments
SUDAN TIMES
THE SECRET AGREEMENT OF REYKJAVIK
Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev had done it again;, they fooled the entire world. The international media was reporting that the Reykjavik summit had foundered on the Star Wan issue, thus shattering any hope of a break-through in the arms control talks. But nobody knew that the two leaden had actually reached a secret agreement of historic proportions, the most significant part of it was to pretend that no agreement was reached at all.
H.E.: The 100% Solution [3]
09 December 1986 No comments
SUDAN TIMES
THE THOUGHTS AND WORKS OF H.E. THE HIGH COMMISSIONER
THE 100% SOLUTION [3]
His Excellency the High Commissioner took his usual place in the Operations Room of the Residency, and with a gesture indicated to his assembled senior staff to take their seats. The whole place had, what Lord Acton once described as, the atmosphere of accredited mendacity.
H.E.: Exchangeable Identity [2]
18 November 1986 No comments
SUDAN TIMES
THE THOUGHTS AND WORKS OF H. E. THE HIGH COMMISSIONER
A CASE OF EXCHANGEABLE IDENTITY [2]
I sat in the Hilton’s lounge sipping a Seven-Up and wishing it were made of stronger stuff. I was about to leave when I saw Ten Percent, my old top aide and the confidential keeper of my private affairs, walking into the lobby of the hotel. For a moment it seemed unreal seeing him there, dressed in the latest fashion Pierre Cardin suit. He was, of course, supposed to be a long-term resident of Kober prison. But I guessed that he was out on one of his frequent forays into town; presumably for another family occasion to celebrate yagu aidin.
H.E.: The Great Victory [1]
04 November 1986 No comments
SUDAN TIMES
THE THOUGHTS AND WORKS OF H.E. THE HIGH COMMISSIONER
THE GREAT VICTORY [1]
[Author’s note: this is the first installment of a trilogy which has a personal background to it. Shortly after the end of the Transitional Period in 1986, the American University in Cairo renewed an offer for me to teach there (originally made before I joined the Transitional Government). But the then Egyptian Ambassador in Khartoum, who had labeled me as anti-Egyptian during his service as Minister of Culture and Information, warned his government against my sojourn in Cairo as constituting a ‘threat to national security’. The Egyptian authorities then refused the residency permit (which was not even required under treaties in effect at the time between the two countries) declaring me a persona non grata and thus blocking my teaching career at the AUC. This humor article was the first in the trilogy lambasting the activities of the Egyptian Embassy in Khartoum at the time.]
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
1979-80: Still Waiting for National Reconciliation
01 January 1980 No comments
AFRICA
CONTEMPORARY
RECORD
Volume 12
1979-1980
Annual Survey and Documents
Sudan Chapter
Mohamed Beshir Hamid
Download the FULL 1979-1980 record as PDF
Sudan: Still Waiting for National Reconciliation
Events in ·Sudan during 1979 had a distinct aura of déjà vu: domestic policy followed a familiar pattern — alternating between reconciliation and estrangement, great expectations and grave disappointments, popular participation and public apathy, potential stability and recurring crises, the promise of economic salvation and economic deterioration.1 I Even more striking was the replication of this domestic pattern in Sudan’s external relations: the fluctuating fortunes in the attempts at national reconciliation between President Numeiry and former leaders of the National Front opposition were accompanied by ups and downs in Sudan’s relations with its neighbours. Read more
1978-79: Economic and Foreign Policy Dilemmas
01 January 1979 No comments
AFRICA
CONTEMPORARY
RECORD
Volume 11
1978-1979
Annual Survey and Documents
Sudan Chapter
Mohamed Beshir Hamid
Download the FULL 1978-1979 record as PDF
Sudan: Economic and Foreign Policy Dilemmas
The Sudan was preoccupied with three major concerns in 1978: promotion of ‘national reconciliation,’ threats to the region’s security arising from developments in the Horn of Africa, and a desperate economic situation. After a promising start, the negotiations to create a new sense of political unity between the ruling Sudanese Socialist Union (SSU) and the outlawed opposition parties ran into serious difficulties in mid-year. The future of President Ja’afar Numeiry’s policy of national reconciliation thus remained uncertain in early 1979. Nor was there any improvement in the Sudan’s security position. The growing Soviet/Cuban involvement in Ethiopia was a cause of major concern for the regime, more particularly because of the problems raised by the unresolved conflict over Eritrea, with the number of Eritrean and other Ethiopian refugees in Sudan rising to several hundred thousand. Read more
1977-78 Attempts at National Reconciliation
01 January 1978 No comments
AFRICA
CONTEMPORARY
RECORD
Volume 10
1977-1978
Annual Survey and Documents
Sudan Chapter
Mohamed Beshir Hamid
Download the FULL 1977-1978 record as PDF
Sudan: Attempts at National Reconciliation
By no means uncharacteristically for the Sudan, 1977, produced a number of quite unexpected developments-notably the return of Said al·Sadiq al-Mahdi, the former Prime Minister and leader of the Ansari Muslims, from exile in London. Then, when everything seemed to be set fair for a return to national reconciliation and stability, a major political upset occurred in the elections in the Southern Sudan in February 1978, which brought the downfall of Abel Alier’s government there. While the new government is unlikely to change its relations towards the North, there were further’ unexpected developments in Khartoum. The early honeymoon with Sadiq had not gone as well as hoped, and he returned to London for a time in February 1979, but went back to Khartoum after a month. Read more
