Inspired by the events in Tunisia and Egypt, Sudanese youths calling themselves Youths for Change have organized a demonstration for January 30, 2011 (Twitter: #SudanJan30). The demonstration was scattered and lacked any organization. Participants didn’t know where to go and where to start. Instead, small groups of people in different areas started marching and chanting as riot police came down hard on them.
Some will argue that this is just a start, not unlike the early beginnings of the April 6 movement in Egypt in 2008, which have culminated to what we see today. Others will point out that this is proof that the Sudanese are not even capable of organizing themselves to hold a real demonstration.
The truth, as usual, is somewhere in between. Youth movements for change can have humble beginnings and snowball into a significant force. It’s all about building momentum and it happens incrementally at first. The organizers can most certainly learn from this experience to make locations more prominently broadcast and advertised for future events.
I find the challenge to be far more trying. The grievances of the “Spark” group enumerate wide ranging issues from price increases to public flogging of women to freedom of speech. I wasn’t sure who it spoke to and if it was trying to be a platform for everyone or not. I take issue with the list of grievances and would have preferred if it was focused on one or two issues that are related.
Messages aside, there is a bigger problem. The underlying goal appears to be the overthrow of the government, but without stating so. In fact, they explicitly advise participants to not antagonize the riot police or chant anti-regime slogans. That is precisely the problem. You see, Bashir, like it or not, has his supporters among the Sudanese people. He is actually a polarizing figure, unlike Mubarak, who is almost unanimously hated. Looking at the protest event page on Facebook and reading through the comments is revealing.
So, how can you have a ‘popular’ uprising when the country is not really behind you and your core participants would like to see a regime change, no to all politicians and are unable to call for what they really want?
You have an impotent movement.
Sadly, I think Sudan is more likely to experience an all out civil war than a popular uprising uniting all Sudanese. There is a serious lack of a unifying rallying point and a chronic identity crisis that everyone is trying to ignore. We are too far behind to try and emulate what is happening in Egypt or Tunisia. Sudan has a lot of soul searching to do, a rediscovery of what it is to be Sudanese after the South voted to secede.
It’s easy to get excited and want to be a part of what we see around us. I admit being guilty of this myself. However, we have to remember that not everyone in Sudan looks at the Arab world for answers. The truth is, the Arab world doesn’t even have answers for itself, let alone for a country that has lost its identity and desperately tries to define itself as Arab.
