“Al-Halnaqi”…and the born again “Tajouj”

Abdul Hafeez Maryoud

In 2009, i was Director of the Political Department at Sudan TV station. Our schedule included a program that dealt with international issues. The focus of which was naturally on Sudan’s Arab and African surrounding States, but it expanded to touch on major issues. We were looking for a presenter. A trusted individual suggested a presenter who possesses special specifications. One of Kosti’s sons, whe holds a doctorate in international relations, an unknown face on television, and he studied in Russia, as I recall.
I proposed the name to the Director of the General Department of News and Political Affairs, and he approved. He submitted the proposal to the senior management and they agreed. Thereafter, we started the initial tests…

There were some minor observations, but not enough to raise an issue. The first and second episodes were recorded and broadcasted, and we were waiting for its advancement “Down the River”, as they say in the industry.
The Director of the General Department conveyed to me the comments and recommendations of the General Director: “He told you not to include too many of those people”…
My investigations revealed that: The doctor, the program presenter, who is from “Kosti”, belongs to the “Messiria” tribe. Therefore the “People” in question, who i was not to include too many of, are “those people”.

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Dr. Mohammed Sharaf El-Din wasn’t the program presenter for long. There were constant obstacles. Hence, he chose to withdraw. We remained friends on “Facebook”. But -God knows- I didn’t know him prior, nor did I ask him about his tribe, for it wasn’t and will never be a criteria to determine my relationship with the sons of Adam…

In 2020, while I was Program Manager at the “Sudania 24” TV Channel, our director, colleague and friend, Dr. Hatem Babikir, suggested to me a promising young man by the name is Yassin Saad, a promising individual in the field of news. And since we had a shortage in this direction, he sent him my way.

The results of the conducted tests and evaluation were very positive, as the young man possesses admirable abilities.. I submitted a request for his appointment and it was approved… However, later on, during bouts of internal arguments and schemes, it was leaked to news sites and newspapers, that the Program Manager in “Sudania 24” TV Channel was a “racist” who attracts “people from the West.” As it turns out, the new broadcaster was from “El-Obeid”.

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“Such actions -always- places the country in conflict with itself.”…the phrase was mentioned by Maulana Abel Alier, the prominent South Sudanese politician and famous judge, in his book “Southern Sudan: Too Many Agreements Dishonoured” translated by Bashir Mohammed Saeed, where he mentions similar incidents that happened, and is happening on multiple levels in Sudan, exploding, even after a hundred years and expressing itself, in such a violent, bloody as well as destructive manner.

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Did “Al-Buza’i”, the Director of
Sudan Radio and Television Corporation, know that his casual “remarks” on the Bejawi girl’s dress would garner this reaction?

of course not.

But “Al-Buza’i” assumes an imaginary person, named “Sudan”. Who remains imaginative, delusional, in an arbitrary kingdom, he must be offered sacrifices and agreed with, lest he become angry with us. It is a creation of a group of sick people, and an eternal disability that is eating away at the body of the nation.

Al-Buza’i knows that the aspects of presentation and identity management don’t require a specific outfit to appear on the screen, unless it is indecent or clearly ugly. All Sudanese fashions that don’t violate “customs and traditions” are acceptable fashions. This is on the theoretical, written level. Just as there are no requirements that specify your appearance or color in order to appear on screen.

However, the -unwritten and undeclared- agreements may risk passing on an “internal identity”, which is the one that must prevail on Sudanese screens, in uniform, shape and colour.

The television that gave birth to Awad Ibrahim Awad, Mohammed Suliman Dhaw al-Bayt, Omar al-Jezoli, al-Sabbagh, Ishaq Othman and others. Wasn’t that sick. Rather, until recently, thirty years or less, it was earnestly striving to be -as much as possible- an embodiment of Sudan.

There is a lovely and honestly beautiful story in which General Hassan Fadl Al-Mawla, the former Program Manager, opened doors and lured the broadcaster Adel Fares to become one of the brightest television stars in Sudan and South Sudan.

But this doesn’t negate the fact that the sick and the mentally ill place “the country in conflict with itself”, as Abel Alier once said. They assume that “the Sudanese” must be “Me” or -at best- it must be consistent with the imagined conditions, as we arbitrarily condition “the others” to conform to them.

Do you see ?

The Beja incident in the television buildings in Port Sudan, and the demand for dismissal and appointment, is not isolated. It won’t be the last in a series of conflict between narrow identities and the universal identity… or the struggle of narrow identities amongst each other in the context of the quest to realize “a comprehensive identity”.

The East has previously -since independence- risen up in order to prove itself, or to prove, confirm and demand its rights. However, the East -up until now- hasn’t attended the political, cultural, and social action in Sudan. And when it does, its presence will be very fatal.