The Collapse of the Jalaba State (2)

Jibril and Minnawi are playing the role of the Bazinqur, used by El-Zubeir Pasha to subjugate the Sudanese people, especially in Darfur – which formed the genetic nucleus of the Sudan Defense Force (SDF). In playing this role, they seem to be overlooking the fact that the Army they support carries within it the DNA of the genocides whose perpetrators have always viewed west of the Nile as nothing more than a place filled with slaves and servants (a genealogy of thought).

Nothing is more eloquent in demonstrating the racism of the Nile elites than the novel (Fashoda) written by Dr. Ahmed Hasaballah Al-Hajj, which quotes one of the slaves: “Only government officials can capture you, cut off your ear, and throw it in a bag of salt. And why did they do that? To prove they were working. The Shaigiya, who fought with Ismail Pasha’s Army, did it first. They would cut off the ears of the dead in order to collect their rewards, and many government officials adopted that measure. They would falsify papers and claim that they had captured two hundred slaves, when in reality they had only captured one hundred. That’s why those who monitored their work demanded proof, however, they found no better proof than the ears. A slave doesn’t die after his ear is cut off, and he continues to hear afterward. In fact, he hears better afterward, because he knows that whoever cut off his ear can do whatever they wish with him. My ear’s existence in Egypt is proof that I am a slave in Sudan.”

The arrests that included eastern Sudanese citizens and a number of Union leaders at the ports in recent days reminded me of a rather amusing incident that took place between a Hadendawa man and a waterwheel owner in Kassala. It’s well known that most of the farms in that region are owned by our Shaigiya people. The Shaigiya man came to inspect his waterwheel during the day and found Adroub asleep. He harshly reprimanded him, saying, “You’re not supposed to sleep even at night (meaning you’re supposed to be guarding the farm), so how can you be asleep during the day?” Adroub coolly responded, “If Adroub is asleep, you ought to be awake. If Adroub is awake, you wouldn’t have a farm in Kassala!”

The real story is that this incident, despite its simplicity and humor, reflects the flaws in Sudan’s political economy. Those who hold the right to employment in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Interior, the Bank of Sudan, the Regular Forces, the railway, and the land sector have the power to impoverish or enrich their people.

Utilizing this particular approach, the East has continuously been controlled by foreign groups, just as the West remained captive to unjust policies. Whenever the people of one region or the other protested, they were appeased by the appointment one of their own -a mercenary- to a position from which they could neither rule nor be bound. And if the situation deteriorated, the military is promptly deployed to suppress the will of the people, never to protect their dignity or preserve their rights. The battle is a political, intellectual, and cultural one, and it cannot be resolved militarily. Rather, it must be rationalized and controlled, lest the country slip from our grasp.

The Jalaba (defined at the beginning of the article) possess a sense of entitlement, and this feeling never leaves them. It continues to cause them psychological distress as they incessantly demand democracy and call for civil rule, supporting the concept intellectually, however, they seem to abandon it emotionally, knowing that they have become a despised and hated minority due to the tragedies they have perpetrated against the Sudanese people.

One of their elderly intellectuals, a seasoned “folklorist,” says that they preserve the Army because it is the only way to maintain control over the State. Which raises the question: Where is the State? and who caused the dysfunction it is currently afflicted with? Isn’t it the Jalaba, with their greed, stupidity, and foolishness? Moreover, where is the Army? When Khartoum, Al-Jazeera, and before them, Dar Masalit, have been violated? This racist group cares less about any region in Sudan -not even Tuti (the confluence of the two Niles)- than it does about securing the Northern and the Nile River states.

In conclusion, the Jalaba State has collapsed and was eliminated, without regret. It has instilled hatred in us and fanned the flames of enmity amongst us as well as with all our neighbors. It no longer has a moral position upon which to base its worn-out intellectual arguments. It has taken us from the far left to the far right, soaring for a time into the skies of slander and the delusions of blatant fabrications. All in order to legitimize the situation of a wretched, impoverished minority that, if left to its own devices, would find nothing but scorpion venom as a commodity to export.

Worse still, this group has confined us to the Levant and deprived us of natural expansion into our Western surroundings due to their weak insight and wretched imagination. There isn’t enough space available to address the numerous racist intellectuals of the Center, however, I will suffice with mentioning the “rabid dog” who described me in one of his lazy daily news items as “a Janjaweed in disguise.” Is there a clearer explanation of my position than this article? For what is the point of concealment and avoidance?