The Model of the Sudanese Unity

African Intellect, Between Political Preconception and Human Consciousness

By Mahmoud E. Yousif

September 29, 2010 — The African continent is moving through an era of formation and re-formation, in expectation to achieve advanced stages of human societies, as observed these formations are carried with lack of African conscience, while intellect and intellectuals are orientated by politicians and militarisms, which may accompanied with distortion and degradation of values aimed by the continent.

During all these, the gap is widening between us Africans and what dominates Western societies as they consolidates human values and laying bases of human societies call upon by celestial values and Platonism principles in different positive frame of thoughts.

Trying to tackle this serious issues while our country is moving through such critical period, it represents good example for this formation, thus there is need for truthful reviews by oneself to bring these thoughts into open, to make a contribution and a starting point for many reviews, which could help knowing facts to change present state of mental and immanence defeat which overwhelmed the Sudanese people since the death of Dr. John Garang in July 30, 2005, and the present feelings that the Sudanese people got itself between vice and hammer, and felt hopeless towards current situations, while the two poles of the conflicts exploits all resources to achieve what it thought may gain supporters (or the Sudanese interests from narrow angle), within this swirl, an observer may asked, where is Sudanese intellects and thinkers? And where are African intellects and thinkers?

I finished writing the first phase of this article in the first week of January 2010, before reading some of the great articles by Dr. Mansur Khalid (Reading in the chronic conflict of country .. Sudan …. To where is the destiny? At: http://www.sudaneseonline.com/cgi-bin/sdb/2bb.cgi?seq=msg&board=260&msg=1263361016), he tackled some. Where I found his upholding for rights is identical to what our lives have been based upon with principles, he wrote:

If Senses or mistakes of people are according to desires or Horrors, we don’t have what to desire or scare of, thanks God, our aspirations didn’t shrinkage in aspirations of some politicians who doesn’t have lives beyond that aspirations›

First of all who is the African, in order to be accounted as African thinker? In the seventh Pan African Congress in Kampala held on 4-11 April 1994, which was an extension to congresses that have formulated great African leaders such as Kwame Nkrumah, Patrice Lumumba, Jomo Kenyatta and Julius Nyerere. It was a serious conference as some African leaders, many civil Societies organizations, and liberation movements gathered to deliberate in problems and aspirations of the content, outside the narrow channel of the Organization of African Union (AOU), it was important in many aspects, because it re-defined who is Africans? The definition was formulated in the following manner:

“An African, is the native inhabitant of the African continent, the Arabs who came to the continent, the Indo Asian and Europeans who settled the continent”

All these are Africans, no one should think he loves the continent more than that, whose grandfathers came from other continent, only there are differences in degrees of love towards the continent among different groups, the best example for that, the African National Congress (ANC) in South Africa and its composition from white ethnicity, nobody can claimed they are less loyalty towards South Africa than Nelson Mandela, who can’t even accept such comparison, on the other hand all of us knows what Magesito Butelizi stand for, through whom we know greatness of Mandela, who appointed him ministry of internal affairs, and he was in charge of the country during an external visit by Mandela in nineties! From what we hear and saw, Mandela overcome many human shortages, and he raised through idealness to stages of Gandhi, which is embodiment of what humanity and perfect soul may aimed at.

Tchobei, Mobuto and Bukasa were African natives, we know what they did towards their people, meanwhile on the other hand there were Nkrumah, Lumumba, Garang and great Mandela, therefore an African is whoever believes in the continent and people’s aspirations towards dignified life.

We know African, but who is the thinker? The thinker, known as a philosopher or the one who think, occupied himself with many questions, which not worrying ordinary people, such as, from where we came, and to where we are heading? What are forces controlling our destiny? Are they natural forces such as the Sun, wind, rains, hurricanes, earthquakes and volcanoes, are the only one controlling us or there are other forces, the supernatural? And what is the degrees of that control? Why things look as they are? And many of such questions, Some of those working in intellects, whose soul rise above normality, thinking hard in what may bring welfare and happiness to humanity, while there are others whose souls degraded, by what they sucked from hatred, animosity and racism, so their thoughts overwhelmed by what could bring miseries to humanity!

From that definition, African thinker, is any African who think to uplift African concepts, values and human towards that dignified living, represented in what perfection reached to by his thoughts, and direction towards wide human society. Such thinker may support an intellects, intellect movement, military movement or political system he thinks could help achieving what he perceived to be a dignified manner for living and happiness, the type of such regimes reflects the eminence of his state of thought.

All human activities required some intellective efforts, facilitating manner of achievements and continuation for these activities, the higher the efforts exerted, the greater and effective achieved results, this is what history taught us, opposite to this, whenever activities lost intellective efforts, it could die, for that reason we found most military governments, wherever it is, doesn’t have intellects supports, it doesn’t have guidance, thus fast finished or ruins in misery, in Sudan Ibrahim Aboud experiment ended in 1964 without intellective supports. Regardless of some developmental achievements, it didn’t got intellectuals who can transform it into effects in the street, some may remember opposition propaganda about, the Althora Newspaper “Revolution”, it was named, grass mat (for sleeping) with cost only one piaster, as a propaganda against the regime newspaper. Nimary was a good example for swing relations and attitudes in different schools of thought, from Communists in extreme left, to Pan Arabism then to extreme right, and the Islam without inner convictions where he finally removed without any popular supports.

Mahmoud E. Yousif, is a former SPLM member and independent researcher; he can be reached at [email protected]