I know a little bit about the history of Sudan and
Sudanese – Egyptian relations. I’m also honored to have Sudanese friends of various
ideological orientations and different levels of education and culture. We also
have common things allowing us to be sheer frank and exchange jokes over the
contradictions in the behavior of some Egyptians and Sudanese. I also
understand the reservations some Sudanese have over some policies and stances
of the Egyptian governments, also regarding how the Egyptian intellectuals perceive
the mutual relations with Sudan and its reality.
Despite all that and although I’m always keen on
understanding what happened and is happening, I can hardly understand what is
happening now and what has been happening for several years, as it’s like a logarithm
for me unable to decipher and is getting more and more complicated. As I can
see a zigzag wiggly graphical line representing the mutual relation between the
two countries with tops affirming the eternity and depth of relationship
between the two countries or one can say the one people distributed between
north and south and who have one common history; past, present and future, also
strong connections in affinities and blood spilt in field battles against the
Zionists and before this against the British occupation. Then suddenly and
unexpectedly the line drops to bottoms telling of a strained present full of
all kinds of problems and alerting of a gloomy future
My Sudanese friends used to criticize us, Egyptians,
for using a feminine form when talking about Sudan like we do with Iraq,
Lebanon and Yemen. And also because we talk about it as if it’s the backyard of
the River Nile valley or Egypt, moreover, because our movies and TV series in
the past used to cast dark-skinned people in roles personating characters of
inferior jobs or works, hinting that they are Sudanese or Nubian. Also, some of
my Sudanese friends used to trace history back to the time of slavery and how
some Egyptian traders were involved in such thing, and that many Sudanese
houses still keep the robes, shackles and stakes hanged on its walls. In addition,
some other friends used to talk in pain about how the Egyptian intellectuals
and politicians are ignorant of the Sudanese cultural, ethnic and demographic
composition… etc.
In return, my Sudanese friends did not hide their
ridicule over that, as they regard the Egyptians as the ones with the “fair
complexion” whom al-Mahdi rejected. They also call the Egyptians “Halab”,
meaning thieves that do not live up to the Sudanese race. I used to always share
the joke they tell describing the Egyptians’ ignorance of Sudan saying that: “a
Sudanese man once asked his friend an exclaiming rhetorical question: Why do
the Egyptians not understand the situation of Sudan and are always mistaken in
their policies towards us despite their ancient civilization, modernization and
pioneering in more than one field starting from music and singing and not
ending by literature and arts? His friend answers: It’s very simple; some
Sudanese pee in the Nile and Egyptians drink its water!”
However, the behavior and stances of the ruling regime
in Sudan towards many issues, most importantly the relations with Egypt, are
really hard to understand as the Sudanese leadership is deliberately angering
its neighboring country to the north by allowing the Qatari and Turkish existence
on its lands, the thing that reached to what we knew about Sawaken island and
the military coordination with Egypt’s enemies. Before Sawaken there was that
thing of the Ethiopian dams, atop of them is the Renaissance Dam, and the
Sudanese situation siding with Ethiopia to the detriment of the deal that is not
only guaranteeing Egypt’s share of the Nile waters, but it also has to do with Egypt’s
life!
Faced by this dilemma or entangled roll of thread, we
should start away from the concerned Egyptian official institutions and
entities and launch a popular initiative to try to catch the beginning of the
thread and detangle it bit by bit until we get things right once again. There are
preliminary things to start with, for example, to start talking about Sudan as
the Arab country heading the Arab nation towards Africa and not the backyard of
Egypt. Also we can help broaden circles of Sudanese – Egyptian communication so
that ordinary Egyptian people can taste and listen to the Sudanese music and
singing, read the Sudanese literature written by great eminent writers, know
about the cultural, political, demographic and geographic composition of Sudan
even if just broad lines… etc. We should also widen the scope of studies
specialized over Sudan in specific and over Africa in general.
Before ending my article, I call upon any entity keen
on maintaining the relationship between the two countries, in light of what
that means regarding the danger threatening Egypt’s life and security, to start
by organizing a series of seminars with Sudanese figures of academia,
intellectuals and artists in the first place participating, hoping that with
enlightening popular efforts we can find solutions to what the official
policies on both sides complicated. I wonder if Almasry alyoum institution can
adopt such initiative?!
Translated into English by: Dalia Elnaggar
This article was published in
Almasry alyoum newspaper on January 3, 2018.
To see the original article,
go to:
#almasry_alyoum
#ahmed_elgammal #Sudan #Egypt #Sawaken_island
No comments:
Post a Comment