Tuesday 21 April 2015
Sudan
We, in Egypt, have always reiterated a phrase
expressing our great hope in a complete Arab renaissance based over the union
of the golden triangle; Egypt, Libya and Sudan, then we start elaborating on this
saying: “Egypt has the knowledge, experience and working force, while Libya has
the oil and financial resources and Sudan has the vast arable land, rich nature
and abundant water resources”.
We keep repeating such words without paying
attention to the grave negative effect resulted from such saying, even among
the supporters of this thought in Libya and Sudan. Libyans and Sudanese simply see
an inflated Egyptian ego when we say such thing, and maybe they also see ignorance
and shallow way of thinking when we talk about Libya and Sudan in such way that
sees nothing of them but their natural and financial resources, as if no people
or humans exist there.
It is even worse on the Sudanese side in particular
because we keep reiterating what we think is an eternal truth expressing Egypt’s
relation to Sudan when we say that Sudan is the backyard of Egypt and that both
countries have been ever one until separation took place at the July 23rd
ruling era. Moreover, some of us consider Sudan an Egyptian governorate… and maybe
things worsen more when the Egyptians, and intellectuals in specific, address
Sudan using the feminine form “she”. They also do the same thing with Iraq,
Lebanon, Jordan and Yemen although all these nations have masculine form.
I remember all this while I am following the hot argument
between Newton and Dr. Haider Ibrahim after the former wrote in his column in
Almasry alyoum newspaper what the latter thought was an affront towards Sudan
as Newton cited Sudan as an example for the deterioration of civilization.
Newton apologized in his reply to Dr. Haider’s
message but complicated the matter even more when he said that he considers
Sudan an Egyptian governorate, which has the same meaning of affiliating and
considering Sudan part of Egypt. As t Dr. Haider, he is an old friend, university
professor and prestigious Sudanese intellectual. He is one of the academics
always trying to bridge the gap between scientific research and academic
curricula on one side and politics practice on the other side. He was, and
still is, one of the staunch supporters of freedoms and democracy and one of
those who paid the price for committing to their stances.
After receiving a call from the common friend; Eng.
Nabil Morkos, I called Dr. Haider to placate him and conciliate his angry
stance taken against the haughty stand of some Egyptian intellectuals. To do
so, I reminded him of the joke some Sudanese say. The joke says a Sudanese once
asked his fellow: “hey, Zoal[1]… how
could our fellow Egyptians not understand Sudan; its history, composition,
reality and culture while they have an ancient civilization very old in history…
they built the pyramids… they have figures like Um Kulthoum, Muhammed
Abdel-Wahab and others?” Then the other Sudanese fellow said: “I’m amazed you
don’t know the reason!”. The first then asked: “what is it?” The second then replied:
“it’s very simple… we pee in the Nile then they drink from it!”.
There is also in the relatively-extremist Sudanese
heritage some sayings about “the redness Mahdi refused”; meaning the white
complexion of Egyptians and Englishmen that Muhammed Ahmed el-Mahdi; leader of the
Mahdist War, disliked… another talk about “King Nammar” and his ability to
defeat the Egyptian military campaign… a third one about some Sudanese keen on
keeping at their homes the shackles which some Egyptian slave traders used to fetter
the Sudanese slaves in slave markets
What I want to say here is, if we searched for negativities
in the old relations between the two countries, we would find many things to
tell at such situations of misunderstanding like the moment when Dr. Haider
picked what Newton wrote whom I think did not mean to insult the Sudanese
people since he immediately apologized.
There are also some Egyptians, especially opponents
of July, 23rd revolution and Nasser, who consider Sudan’s separation
from Egypt a big crime committed by the revolution and add this to the crime of
Sinai occupation after 1967. Meaning they considered that pre-July, 1952-Egypt was
extending from the Mediterranean Sea in the north to beyond the Equator in the
south and from Palestine’s borders in the east to Libya’s borders in the west, but
then everything changed and Egypt lost a lot of land after 1952, in their
opinion of course. It is in vain when you try to tell them that Nasser was one
of the pioneering figures calling for National Liberation and nations’ right of
self-determination and that it was not impossible, while the national Sudanese
desire to separate from Egypt was growing, that Egypt denies the Sudanese will…
and hence came the referendum that resulted in separation.
I do not want to go on discussing the answer to the
question asking: was Royal Egypt really ruling Sudan and had control over it during
the British occupation? There is also what Mahdi said when he decided – that was
before the July, 23rd revolution era – to deal directly with the
British and not the Egyptians. He said: I want to deal with the carriage driver
and not the horses drawing it.
Let us forget about the past and think of the
present… and future if possible. In such regard, we cannot take any step
forward for the benefit of both countries until the Egyptian elite bunch in all
fields are fully knowledgeable of Sudan; its history, composition, culture,
arts, people nature, capabilities and the possibilities, here in Egypt and
there in Sudan, of having common interests, projects…etc. As I believe that the
absence of such knowledge concerning Egypt’s neighboring countries westward,
eastward and southward is the reason behind our unjustifiable and serious delay
in achieving the integration between the golden triangle and the rest of the
Arab countries in the Arabian Peninsula and Levant.
Regarding this point – lack of knowledge and
information – I remember and would like to remind you of a very important
factor behind our defeat against the Zionist enemy; that is the lack of information
we had over this enemy. Therefore, studies and research centres concerned with
the Israeli, Zionist and Jewish matters were established after 1967. These studies
even flourished in Hebrew language departments in the Egyptian universities. Matters
even developed to the extent that we have some figures of researchers, experts
and novelists active in communicating with the Hebrew state and its community. They
even get mad at whoever disagrees to their orientation and accuse anyone
opposing normalization of relations with the Zionist society of being ignorant,
fanatic and even psychopath.
Let us deal with Sudan, Libya and the rest of the neighboring
Arab countries in the same way those pro-normalization with the Hebrew state want
us to do. Here, I know some of them will say that we can make use of what the Zionists
achieved in science, scientific research and its applications, but what can the
other neighbors provide us with as compared to the Hebrew state?
The answer to this question will need much more
space than this one allowed here. It is enough to say what I said at the
beginning; because those Arab neighbors are rich of the oil, financial
resources, arable lands and other natural resources, not to mention that their
peoples love Egypt and have endless strong connections to it. These Arab
countries also have a heritage of civilization, cultural richness and valuable
human experiences in more than one field, not to mention that Sudan in
particular is the cultural gate of Egypt, Arab countries and Islam into the
African continent. This will always be the truth.
In addition to Newton’s apology, I would like to
apologize to Dr. Haider for the misunderstanding that occurred.
This article was published in Almasry alyoum newspaper
in April 21, 2015.
To see the original article, go to:
http://ahmadelgammal.blogspot.com/2015/04/blog-post_21.html
#almasry_alyoum #ahmed_elgammal #Egypt #Sudan
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