The Sudan

“We are the only people who permit people to stay in our house without pledging their allegiance to us. One must be either loyal to the African house or leave it.” John H. Clark


On Saturday, April 18, 2009 my girlfriend and her husband hosted a “Save Darfur” awareness program. Her goals were small; a campaign to send three hundred (300) postcards to President Obama in order to place a moral obligation on the problem.

Being the person I am, as I sat watching the video, questions came to mind. Who are the players in this genocide? How long has there been a conflict in this region and why? Who started “Save Darfur,” who controls it, how much aide has gone to the victims and what does this organization feel would stop the genocide? Once the campaign to send postcards to the President is over then what? How do we (who have become involved emotionally & spiritually) gauge progress? What would be the next step? I soon found out that the questions I had were not going to be a part of this forum.

I went home and began my research of Darfur which produced more questions. There are many wars/conflicts throughout the Motherland and I think they should be looked at country by country to see the worst perpetrator in the destruction of a continent

INTERJECTION: Many people of African decent do not identify with Africa; I believe it is because many of us are brainwashed to despise the richest continent on the planet. If we do not identify with the Motherland, then anything can be done to her and its people, which leads to another topic that I will have to investigate one day.

Here is a brief summary of the history of Darfur, which is in no way complete but if you need a complete history you will have to study it on your own. I have tried to condense this study for an easier read.

The first recorded history, the Daju, appeared to have been the dominant people in Darfur in the earliest recordings. The Daju Dynasty was replaced by the Tunjur and Islam was introduced around the 14th century. Arabs were nomadic cattle/camel herders. There was peaceful coexistence between Africans and Arabs partly because there was intermarriage and Darfurians are now of mixed ancestry. The Keira Dynasty and was responsible for Islam becoming the religion of the state.

INTERJECTION: The African people have “spirituality!” African people have religions. My study shows that in Sudan which is now mainly Muslim then why haven’t Arab nations condemned the attacks on Darfur?

In the 18th century, a Khartoum businessman, Al-Zubayer Rahma began operations in Darfur by trading slaves and ivory with Egypt and North Africa. Al-Zurbr redirected the operation to Khartoum and the Nile. In 1820, Turkey and Egypt conquered the Sudan. The British invaded the Sudan. By 1899, Darfurians were resistant to British-Egyptian rule/colonization. In 1899, the new Anglo-Egyptian Sudanese government, lead by Ali Dinar, was recognized for a annual tribute of 500 British pounds. The resources were still going to Khartoum and the Nile, leaving the rest of the country undeveloped.

In the 19th century defeat of the Keyra Dynasty spurred local armies to terrorize communities. The Islamic “Maddist” forces were fighting British Colonial control of the region. Ali Dinar fought British forces for about six months before being killed. In 1917, Darfur became a part of the British Empire and the Sudan.

In 1935, Darfur had four schools, no clinics, no railroad or major roads.

Independence was achieved in 1956. A major power base that emerged was the Umma Party; a secular Islamic Centrist Political Party.

In 1962, the first civil war was mainly in the Christian/African parts of the Sudan. The emergence of the Democratic Unionist party in the East, and the Darfur Development Front along Umma in the West had discussions that included a proposed Islamic Constitution. The Constitution was perceived as a ploy to consolidate their dominance. There was an attempt to split the Africans from the Arabs in the 1968 elections. The distinction between “Arab” and “African” in Darfur is defined more by lifestyle than any physical difference: Arabs are generally herders and Africans are typically farmers. The two groups are not racially distinct.

By 1978, large deposits of oil were found in Bentiu, Southern Sudan, and it became an important factor in this dispute, defining the conflict as a resource war. Then in 1983, with a shift towards imposing political Islam on people, along with the discovery of oil, Darfur had various conflicts raging around it.

The underdevelopment and political tension added to the cross-border instability of Chad. The FROLINAT (a guerilla movement) tried to overthrow Chadian President Tombalbaye while Premiere Al-Mahdi allowed them to have bases in Darfur. FROLINAT killed many people in Darfur, which lead Sudanese President Nimeiry to expel the group. The new Libyan President Al-Gaddafi was obsessed with creating a Sahelian nation that was both Muslim & culturally Arab. President Numeiry was removed from power and Omar Al-Bashir and the Islamic Front seized power. His fundamentalist Islamic government declared a holy war against African groups – the Dinka, Nuba & Neur peoples.

INTERJECTION: African Sudan should have NEVER let Arabs migrate into Africa with their religion, and intermarriage. Now, centuries later, they want to separate blood lines; “African” and “Arab!” If the majority of the country is now Islamic, why would color/nationalism come into play? The expansion/invasion by Arabs into Africa was done to spread Islam. (This is not a history lesson on Islam, but the story in the Sudan has to have a side note). In fact all the major religions believe they have a monopoly on God. If you are not doing what they do, then you will not be saved. One of those things I think Satan did well – religious confusion.

In 1998, the USA launched a missile attack on a chemical plant in Khartoum assumed to be developing chemical weapons in cooperation with the Al’Qaeeda terror network. The Sudanese government denied the link to terror and chemical weapons. Starting around 1999, Sudan started exporting oil with the assistance of China, Canada, Sweden, and other countries.

Late in 2001, it was reported that 3 million people suffered from hunger and famine. From the years of late 2001 and early 2003 there were peace talks, and continued warfare. By 2003, the rebel groups that represented the African population started to rebel against the government by protesting against neglect and suppression. Peace negotiations were based on sharing oil resources. Between Dec. 2003 and June 2004, the government army struck down an uprising in the Darfur region in the Western Sudan. It was seen as ethnic cleansing in Darfur. UN officials reported that systematic killings of villagers were taking place in Darfur. The UN failed to take action. Even the African leaders refused to take action on the problem. A historic peace agreement was signed, but the situation in Darfur remains unchanged and extremely critical. By 2005, 1.5 million people had lost their homes since the conflict began. The United Nations Security Council agreed to send 10,000 peace keeping soldiers to Southern Sudan, but they did not cover the Darfur region. Darfur is part of an oil driven crisis in northern Africa. Racism and ethnic cleansing play a part in this conflict.

INTERJECTION: Africa has been torn apart for slaves, ivory, mineral, gold, diamonds, (and I could go on) and now in 2009, we can add oil to the long list.
On August, 2006, the United Nations Security Council approved Resolution 1706 which called for a new 26,000-troop UN peacekeeping force called UNAMID to supplant or supplement a poorly funded and ill-equipped 7,000-troop African Union Mission in Sudan peacekeeping force. Sudan strongly objected to the resolution and said that it would see the UN forces in the region as foreign invaders. The following day, the Sudanese military launched a major offensive in the region.
In March 2007, the UN mission accused Sudan's government of orchestrating and taking part in "gross violations" in Darfur and called for urgent international action to protect civilians there.
On July, 2008, prosecutors at the International Criminal Court (ICC) filed ten charges of war crimes – three counts of genocide, five counts of crimes against humanity, and two of murder – against Sudan's President Omar Al-Bashir. The ICC's prosecutors claimed that Al-Bashir "masterminded and implemented a plan to destroy a substantial part" of three tribal groups in Darfur because of their ethnicity. In March 4, 2009, the ICC issued an arrest warrant for president Al-Bashir, without the genocide charges.[21]
In February 2009, Darfur's UNAMID tried to persuade the rebel group, Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), and the Sudanese government to sign a peace agreement.
INTERJECTION: Genocide is the deliberate and systematic destruction, in whole or in part, of an ethnic, racial, religious, or national group. The violence and killings continues in Darfur and though the conflict is, in reality, genocide nothing is being done about it. China blocks any decisions in the UN and it appears the world is not applying the necessary political pressure on the governments of the Sudan and China.
What is the answer to end this conflict? Shall we just continue to condemn the fighting? Shall we allow China to continue to protect a corrupt government? Wait a minute; did I say China is protecting a government in AFRICA that migrated from Saudi Arabia? In my limited view, that is the problem.

Since my initially the meeting was a “Save Darfur” event I also looked at the organization itself. I would like to learn what the postcard campaign will produce. What they recommend will stop this war.

The Save Darfur Coalition has built a worldwide movement that has brought the crisis in Darfur to the world’s attention. It has advocated for increased pressure on China to ensure that they, as the Sudan’s predominant diplomatic protector, does all it can to end the crisis in Darfur.

This organization was founded at the “Darfur Emergency Summit in NYC” on July 14, 2004. Started by the US Holocaust Memorial Museum, the American Jewish World Service organized this event at CUNY in Manhattan. This million dollar organization does not provide direct aide to the people of Darfur. So, taken from their website:



How does the Save Darfur Coalition help the people of Darfur?
We utilize media outreach, public education, targeted coalition building and grassroots mobilization to pressure policymakers and other decision-makers in the United States and abroad to help the people of Darfur.

Do you accept clothing and food donations?
We only accept monetary donations, as we do not provide on the ground humanitarian services.

The coalition has grown into an alliance of more than 180 religious, political, and human rights organizations committed to ending the genocide in Darfur. It is headquartered in Washington, DC with a staff of 30 professional organizers, policy advisors, and communications specialist.

On January 12, 2006, they launched the “Million Voices for Darfur” with the goal of collecting 1 million postcards to be sent to the president to support a larger, stronger, multinational force to protect the civilians of Darfur. On April 30, 2006, a “Save Darfur: Rally to Stop Genocide” took place on the National Mall. It was a call for the withdrawal of any objection to a UN peacekeeping force, better humanitarian access to refugees, adhesion to existing treaties, and ceasefire agreements.

The movement has been accused of distorting the situation in Darfur by depicting the conflict as a dispute between “Arabs” and “Blacks” even though the population is predominantly Arab Muslim. There is criticism that “Save Darfur” avoids any path to a political settlement among the Sudanese and leaves only the road of US military aggression.

On June 2, 2007, the NY Times ran “Advocacy Group’s Publicity Campaign on Darfur Angers Relief Organizations,” which addressed that “Save Darfur” spent 1.5 million in 2006 and none of it went to aid groups on the ground and that “some relief agencies said they were horrified when ads in February reported that international relief organizations” among others, had agreed that the time for negotiating with the Sudanese government had ended.”


In closing, my study has brought me full circle. We are the only people who allow others to come into our country; exploit, steal, kill, rape, and control the politics and resources. Even though the Sudan is comprised of mainly Muslims, my thought is this: those that consider themselves “Arabs” and have not pledged allegiance to Africa; those who want to turn the Sudan into something other than a country in Africa should be forced to move to an Arab country. There will not be any peace in the Sudan until an allegiance has been made for the whole country. The revenue from oil and other resources should be controlled by the Africa, not China or India. The money should be used to build the infrastructure of the country; schools, medical facilities, and roads. I thank “Save Darfur” for making me aware of the continuing crisis, but I would not give money to a group that does not represent its goals clearly or gives direct aide to those who need it.

Memories of youth

Memories of youth are slipping away
My friend, menopause has taken hold of me
and won’t let go.

I feel like a 25 year old most of the time
till I try to get up from a chair, I’ve sat in too long.
What I liked then I like now, the music, the men and the food.

I use to enjoy listening to the old folks tell the stories of
their youth and could imagine the Cotton Club, The Savoy
Harlem and Newark.

Now I want to tell someone about my hay day and there’s no one
to listen.

Children 10 and younger think I was a slave and beyond that I’m
just old. Relics aren’t suppose to talk – old people should be seen
and not heard and they really don’t want to see you.

So here I sit alone with my memories, aging gracefully

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