Thursday, August 23, 2007

Darfurian Diaries: Contested Identities

“Sudan is an arab country and whoever doesn’t feel Arab should quit” Ali Abdel Rahman, first minister of interior
In the 1980’s, the Arab gathering, the first organization or group to harbor racist arab ideologies was formed.
They distributed cassettes and pamphlets arguing that the blacks ruled Darfur long enough and now it was time for the Arabs to rule. People ignored them for a while.

Things started happening. People were killed.

"Fight-or lose your land and be destroyed" Musa Hilal-leader of Janjaweed and a member of the Arab Gathering.

In 1982, a market near Awal was attacked. People were separated according to their tribe.
The Arabs had the chance to leave unharmed but the non-Arabs were brutalized. Other attacks were carried out as well; the victims were always “Non-Arabs”.

In 1987, the Arab gathering wrote a letter to the president asking him to stop neglecting the Darfur Arabs. They argued that they are the majority and they should rule Darfur.
This is how the letter ended. Threatening?
“Should the neglect of the Arab race continue, and the Arabs be denied their share in government, we are afraid that things may escape the control of wise men and revert to ignorant people and the mob. Then there could be catastrophe, with dire consequences. ” (De Waal)
They were honest.

Note:-I’m guessing the president didn’t; take their letter seriously because a Fur was assigned governor of Darfur after this letter.
The Arab gathering decided to take action. Qoreish 1 (a group with similar ideas)
was born out of the Arab gathering.
They had 2 immediate goals
1- Cripple the new non-Arab governor’s regional government
2- Recruit volunteers to create problems between black tribes.
-This was a battle plan for the Janjaweed.
In the late 1990’s, their plan was expanded and it was published in more detail. The date for completing this plan was 2020.

As some of you know, the name Qoreish is the prophet’s tribe. They chose this name because they believe that they (The Baggara Arabs)are descendants of the prophet’s tribe. This supposedly gives them the right to rule Muslim lands. Their ancestors crossed from Libya to Darfur a long time ago and they should rule from the Nile to Lake Chad.

7 comments:

Unknown said...

Kizzie,

R u back? Nice to c u around anyway.

I am not sure if I'm angered or just sad to learn of the quotes you noted. To make it worse, they let the government know of their terrorist and unpatriotic plans, yet the government does nothing to them. The should have never gotten support, indeed they should have been imprisoned for harbouring such thoughts and even carrying out some of them.

This kinda proves what I suspected all alone: the 'arabs' of Sudan will not be happy until all blacks are wipe off the face of their land, the beloved Sudan. Conversion to Islam will not rescue anyone.

Crushed said...

Blame the Khedives.

I think Egypt still thinks of the Sudan as its natural extension.

Maybe the answer really is two states?

Dalu said...

Sadly, I concur with Sudanreturnee.

But what is black enough/arab enough? That's what I want to know. It's true that in the north there are many arabs, however at the same time, they look very much "black" to me.

What percentage is considered "arab" enough? do family trees get picked apart to prove or disprove ones arab identity?

Something in there just doesn't make enough sense.

Reem said...

I am not sure if I'm angered or just sad to learn of the quotes you noted.
I didn't want to post the quotes because they really angered me but I had to.
now, I know why we had probs since independance..our leaders are our problems really!

"To make it worse, they let the government know of their terrorist and unpatriotic plans, yet the government does nothing to them."
Yes and sometimes the government actually supports them!


"The should have never gotten support, indeed they should have been imprisoned for harbouring such thoughts and even carrying out some of them."
I know god..their letter was a threat!

"his kinda proves what I suspected all alone: the 'arabs' of Sudan will not be happy until all blacks are wipe off the face of their land, the beloved Sudan."
I don't think this will happen, the definition of Arab is Sudan is weird anyways!
I believe we really really need to raise money for shrinks for the whole country. We all need some therapy to accept ourselves the way we r and accept others.

We all need a shrink!
r.konyoknoyo should study psychology

Dalu said...

Hehehe, It's not hard to start non profit organizations around these parts...

Maybe I should start an Identity Crisis Therapy fund... :'P

Welshcakes Limoncello said...

I knew nothing of all this, Kizzie, so thank you. I am learning.

FO said...

This is interesting. A lot of what is currently happening in Sudan has happened and is still happening in Nigeria. Certain groups imposing their superiority at the expense of others. We have three major tribes who have divided the country amongst themselves pushing those of us who are minorities to the fringes.

The common denominator is there are those who stand to gain from the people being disenfranchised. If not I believe the govenment could have quelled the tensions if they really wanted to... just my opinion.

Nice blog... stubled upon it while searching for African bloggers. :)