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Books by Chinweizu
The West and the Rest of Us
(1975) /
Decolonising the African Mind
(1987) /
Voices from
Twentieth-century Africa (1988)
Invocations and
Admonitions (1986);
Energy Crisis and Other Poems
(1978);
Anatomy of Female Power
(1990)
Towards the Decolonization of
African Literature (1980)
* *
* * *
|
B. F.
Bankie and K. J. Mchombu, eds.
Pan-Africanism/African
Nationalism: Strengthening the Unity of
Africa and Its Diaspora (2008)
The first edition of this publication was
based on the proceedings of the 17th All
African Students Conference (AASC) held in
2005 in Windhoek, Namibia, which series
began in 1988. It covered the major issues
arising for the unity movement from the 2005
conference, with diverse contributions from
a broad range of participants, including a
head of state, the head of a liberation
movement, youth, students and various other
concerned social groups and individuals.
This second edition came about in the
context of the prior neglect of developments
in the Afro-Arab borderlands and their
impact on Africans both at home and abroad,
as well as on the unity movement.
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The books moves from continental unity to
Pan-African national unity, which is
constituted by Africa south of the Sahara
and the east [Arabia, north Africa, Gulf
states and points eastwards] and the west
[Caribbean, Americas, Europe etc] Diasporas.
It is dedicated to the Late John Garang de
Mabior, in recognition of the role played by
the Sudan Peoples Liberation Movement (SPLM)
in championing the legitimate aspirations of
the marginalized in Sudan and the
borderlands in general. This book provides
an entry point towards the reformulation of
the unity project and will be of interest to
all those who have an interest in Africa and
those who take Africans seriously.
This book needs to be taken seriously by all
Darfurians.—Yahya
Osman Mohamed (Darfur/Sudan )
An indispensable, must-to-read book, on the
various interpretations of Pan-Africanism
and African nationalism, not only for
Sudanese, but more particularly for those,
who are interested worldwide in the history
of the struggle of Black Africans against
Arab hegemony and dominance, seen from an
African nationalist point of view. It tells
the story and process through which millions
of Black Africans have come to be subjugated
and systematically marginalized by the Arabs
and later by an Arabized breed of Black
Africans.
Furthermore, it tells aspects of the
struggle for mental and physical
emancipation lead by the martyr of the
marginalized people of the Sudan, the Late
Dr John Garang de Mabior.—Muhammad
Jalal Hashim ( Nubia/Sudan )
Considering the identity crisis many
Sahelians suffer from, the relevance of Pan-Africanism/African
nationalism can not be overstated. A
millennium of massive religious/ideological
and human influx from the Middle East into
the region has not only physically pushed
the native population towards the south, but
it has also displaced their African
identity. The problem has become so profound
that many of the Sahelian people cannot tell
whether they are African, Arab or a mixture
of both. This identity crisis is the root
cause of the bloody wars of the Arabized
regimes in Africa.This book preserves an
inclusive Pan-Africanism/African nationalism
that is open and respectful of other
cultures.—Garba
Diallo ( Mauritania )
About the Authors—
Bankie Forster Bankie trained as a
lawyer and has worked variously in
administration, diplomacy, education and
research. He currently lives and works in
Juba, South Sudan, where he is associated
with the Kush Institution and is actively
interested in Afro-Arab relations and their
impact on the African unity movement.
Kingo Mchombu is
Professor and Dean, Faculty of Humanities
and Social Sciences, University of Namibia.
In addition to his Pan African interests,
his expertise is in information and
knowledge sharing for the development of
grassroots groups in Africa. |
*
* * * *
 |
Genocide, slavery, rape,
and colorism are wrong.—It
is now less than a month
since I was appointed
National Chairwoman of
the United States branch
of South Sudan's
Sudanese Sensitization
Peace Project (the SSPP).
This was a most ironic
appointment considering
the fact that I am a
half-Arab Northerner,
originally born Muslim,
a "traitor" to the
North. I did spy work
for the SPLA (South),
and now, in my job
rounding up celebrities
and politicians to take
a stance on behalf of
Darfur and the 2011
secession of South
Sudan, I find myself
greatly pained that
absolutely none of the
African Presidents of
the African Union are
doing what they should
to challenge and
confront President
Bashir's regime in
Khartoum, even as they
acknowledge that he, and
in full disclosure, my
former boyfriend, Hasan
al Turabi, are
responsible for carrying
out genocide.
Millions
of blacks around the
world—whether their
worlds be Johannesburg,
Harlem, Dakar, London or
Los Angeles—love to
evoke the names "Nubia"
and "Cush" to the point
of overkill, yet as we
get high linking
ourselves to some
glorious ancient past,
we place little stock in
fixing our present or
constructing our future. Kola
Boof |
*
* * * *
|
International
Criminal Court Calls for the Arrest
Of Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir for Genocide A
decade after 120 states met in Rome in July 1998 to
approve a treaty creating the
International Criminal Court (ICC), its prosecutor
has moved the court to the centre of world attention.
The decision of its prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo on 14
July 2008 to charge Sudan's President Omar Hassan al-Bashir
with genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes
is a transformative event for the ICC and for the
intractable Darfur war. |
 |
* *
* * *
Many only
caught sight of the genocide in Sudan when the war
intensified in Darfur. But genocide had been long
practised in south Sudan, as well as rape as a
weapon etc. Some two million plus lost their lives
as a consequence. Please find two attachments
entitled 'bombings' which capture bombings and
aerial activity by Khartoum in south Sudan in a
window period of some 5 weeks in june/july 2002.
B.F.Bankie
* *
* * *
* *
* * *
|
The Sudan
By Andrea Barnwell
Freedom is not an afterthought
Nor is
it punctuated by a
Rare
comma
Freedom is not dismissed
From
vocabularies
Nor
ignored
Where
carnage and death
And
destruction flow
Casually as if a mother’s
Child
should always bleed
Away
her life
Screaming horror
Crying
why?
Freedom is not an afterthought
Nor is
it punctuated by a
Rare
comma
Freedom is not pushed aside
Like a
fly swat
Crushed like a roach underfoot
Abhorred like a snake
Or a
diseased rat
Rather~
Freedom is a
Gift
Given
in love
Through love
Love
June 16, 2004
* * *
* *
Poems by Andrea Barnwell |
* *
* * *
Britain and France Will
Support Freezing Indictment of Sudan President
The British and
French governments will back efforts in the UN to
stall the issuance of an arrest warrant for Sudan
President Omar Hassan Al-Bashir, the Guardian
reported today.The newspaper said that officials
from both capitals informed human rights activists
that they have taken this stance to protect the
peace process in Darfur and Southern Sudan.
The human
rights advocates said that Britain and France will
join the Arab League, African Union, China and
Russia in backing a resolution by the UN General
Assembly this month requesting a deferral of the
charges against Al-Bashir.
Arresting Bashir for Genocide
* *
* * *
Who’s Behind the Egyptian Influx
into Sudan
Letter to the Editor by Luke
Kuth Duk
The Southern
Sudanese people are in a state of shock,
bewilderment and uncertainty regarding the reasoning
of the Sudan Peoples Liberation Movement (SPLM) and
its executive branch (GOSS) in allowing the infinite
influx of Egyptians, Palestinians and other Arab
nationalities into the country.
The
preparations are well underway for the migration of
five million Egyptians into Sudan under the pretext
of coming, to return life, to the failed Al-Jazzera
Cotton Scheme. As a result of this move, one might
rightly think that the largest country in Africa is
in fact short of indigenous people who can get the
job done, or learn how to.
There are
millons of marginalized Sudanese, who are in
desparate need to work, and millions more scattered
all across the globe, who love and cherish their
country dearly, but were forced to leave when the
current Islamic regime of the tyrant Omar Al-Bashir
muscled themselves into power in 1989
The majority if
not all of those refugees would love to return home
and participate in development, but simply can’t due
to the fact that, nothing has really changed in
terms of the laws of the land and civil liberties.
Sudanese from all walks of life, and especially from
the marginalized regions, are still being subjected
to racial profiling, harassed and arrested without
reasons other than the colour of their skins. So, if
Sudan is indeed one nation for all of its peoples,
then why is it that one side of the coin could be
able to arrive at such a drastic and highly
suspicious immigration decision, without first
consulting with the general public or even its
partners in the government of national unity.
Infusing this
large number of Arab nationalities is particularly
suspicious and alarming considering the elections
and the referendum are nearing. More disturbingly,
the Sudanese nationality is no longer the sacred
document it once was. Under the extremist Islamic
regime, it is being issued even to those who didn’t
ask for it, let alone qualify, as long as they are
Arabs or fanatical Muslims. This has been going on
for the length of this regime. So do your maths!
There is no
other force in Sudan that has the authority and
legality to put an end to the Arab’s immigration
crisis other than the Sudan People’s Liberation
Movement. It’s time that the SPLM makes its stance
very clear on this serious issue before they become
suspect themselves. It’s that simple.
Source: Sudan Mirror,
Nairobi/Juba, 18-28th July 2008, page 7
* *
* * *
U.S. Fund Cultural Preservation Award Presented
in Southern Sudan
By Isaac Billy
The US
Government presented to the Government of Southern
Sudan Ministry of Culture. Youth and Sports a check
of 145 thousand Sudanese Pounds to allow for the
preservation of Southern Sudan’s government
archives.
In the
project’s first phase, the Ministry and its
partners, the British Institute of East Africa and
the Kenya National Archives, will catalog and list
the archive holdings. In the second phase, the
Ministry and the Rift Valley Institute will proceed
with digitization of documents.
This written
history of Southern Sudan is currently stored in
Juba in special shelters provided by the USAID
Office of Transition Initiatives. Many documents
were damaged and destroyed during the decades of
civil war.
The Embassy and
the Ministry signed a grant agreement earlier this
year.
The grant was
made possible by the Ambassador’s Fund for Cultural
Preservation, which supports cultural preservation
projects around the world each year. The projects
represent the heritage of all geographic regions and
encompass the preservation of museum collections and
archives, historic building restoration and
ethnographic documentation.
The Fund,
created by the United States Congress in 2001, aims
to assist developing countries in preserving museum
collections, ancient and historic sites, and
traditional forms of expression.
The Cultural
Heritage Centre of the US Bureau of Education and
Cultural Affairs, US Department of State,
administers the US Ambassador’s Fund for Cultural
Preservation. This particular project is
administered with the assistance of the Office of
Public Affairs of the Embassy in Khartoum.
Through a range
of cultural preservation activities, the Bureau
promotes cooperation with other countries to reduce
the threat of pillage of irreplaceable cultural
heritage, and to develop long-term strategies for
preserving cultural property.
Source:
The Juba Post, 4-7 August 2008, J uba, South Sudan,
page 4.
* *
* * *
* *
* * *
No Printing
Press in South Sudan
Juba, South
Sudan
South Sudan does not posses a printing press. All
newspapers are printed in Khartoum or in Nairobi.
English language papers serve the southern community
in the South or those living in the Khartoum area.
There used to be three main English language papers
for Southerners. Some ten days ago the Sudan
Tribune, headquartered in Khartoum, was closed down
by the Khartoum government, who complained about its
tone and specifically about some of its writers. The
Tribune is looking at the possibility of printing in
Kampala.It used to print in Khartoum.
The Citizen has just been closed down by
Khartoum. The Citizen maintains its main
editorial team in Juba and prints in Khartoum. The
reasons for its closure was that it had recently
appointed a Darfurian as its Khartoum based editor,
whom the Khartoum authorities do not like Nhial Bol,
its Editor in Chief has just travelled from Juba to
Khartoum. He states that these incidents are typical
of the climate in which the press operates in Sudan.
According to him the press is now under pressure
prior to the 2009 national elections.
This leaves only one English language daily serving
Southerners—this is the Khartoum Monitor, which has
its editorial team in Khartoum where it prints.
Regards, B.F.Bankie (2 September 2008)
* *
* * *
Web links:
Restriction
of Humanitarian Aid Eric
Reeves on Sudan
Counter-Insurgency
on the Cheap
* *
* * *
The drift back to
war: insecurity and militarization in the Nuba mountains
The Brief provides the context for understanding current
tensions in the Nuba Mountains region of South Kordofan,
where Nuba and Arab groups are becoming increasing
militarized. It finds that:
|
* The area is highly
militarized with both parties to the
conflict actively violating the
Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA),
including by recruiting members of armed
groups.
* Khartoum's paramilitary Popular Defence
Forces (PDF) are being reorganized in the
region on a sharper ethnic basis than in the
past.
* Arabs returning to animal migration routes
closed by the war are being armed, often
through the PDF, with a corresponding
mobilization by some settled tribes.
* UNMIS has done little to calm tensions, in
contrast to the active efforts of the much
smaller number of unarmed ceasefire
monitors, the Joint Military Commission (JMC),
which were present from 200205.
* There is considerable resentment among
Nuba about how the CPA protocol on South
Kordofan dealt with the region, providing
little in the way of enforceable autonomy
and deferring the most important questions
on land ownership and access and security
arrangements. |
The Brief concludes
that discontent is turning to anger, and many now view
war in the Nuba Mountains as inevitable.
The Issue Brief, Number 12 in the HSBA series, can be
downloaded from:
http://www.smallarmssurvey.org/files/portal/spotlight/sudan/sudan_publications.html
For further information about the publication and the
project, contact Claire Mc Evoy, HSBA Project Manager,
at
claire.mcevoy@smallarmssurvey.org
Please let us know if you wish to be removed from this
mailing list.
Sincerely, The HSBA
Team Small Arms Survey / 47 Avenue Blanc / 1202 Geneva /
Switzerland /
http://www.smallarmssurvey.org
* * * *
*
SOUTHERN SUDAN LEGISLATIVE
ASSEMBLY (SSLA): MARTYRS,WAR-VETERANS AND WOUNDED HEROES
TO BE REGISTERED by Ladiong Anthony, extract from page
3, Juba Post, Juba, South Sudan, 30 June-3 July 2008
The Southern Sudan
Legislative Assembly (SSLA) Monday 23 June passed a
recommendation demanding that the Ministry of Sudan
Peoples’ Liberation Army (SPLA) Affairs make a roster
of victims of the 21 year old civil war in Sudan. The
victims specifically include widows, orphans, martyrs,
war veterans and wounded heroes.
The resolution was
passed after the findings of the SLAA Security and
Public Order Committee, that nothing has been done for
the fallen heroes about their post service benefits.
SSLA passed the recommendations on the Report on the
SPLA White Paper on Defence, through the leadership of
the acting SSLA Speaker Hon Daniel Deng Monydit.
* * * *
*
SSLA RECOMMENDS IMMEDIATE
DISARMAMENT by Lodiong Anthony, extract from page 3,Juba
Post, Juba, South Sudan, 30 June-3 July 2008
The Southern Sudan
Legislative Assembly (SSLA) has on Monday, June 23
recommended immediate disarmament of the civil armed
population without distinction, concurrently with army
encampment. The resolution was passed following a report
on the Sudan Peoples Liberation Army (SPLA) White Paper
on Defence presented by the SSLA Security and Public
Order Committee chaired by Hon Retired General Ayoub
Phillip Gaza
Reading that their
general observations on the transformation, roles and
functions of SPLA, Hon Ayoub lauded that the process of
disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration (DDR),
assembling of forces, integration and deployment still
faces difficulties and delays. Under the Chair of Acting
SSLA Speaker Hon Daniel Deng Monydit, the august house
passed the disarmament resolution including speedy
screening, training and deployment of the undeployed
officers and unassembled army to ease the
implementation of DDR and budget processes. Two weeks
ago the Government of South Sudan (GOSS) President H.E
Salva Kiir Mayardit issued a decree asking for the
disarmament of Southern Sudan communities carrying
arms. In Jonglei State, the process has started in Akobo
County. It has also commenced in Western and Northern
Bar El Ghazal States. According to Upper Nile State DDR
Coordinator Peter Gatwech, his state is getting prepared
to conduct the disarmament exercise.
* * * *
*
The Sudan Sensitization
Peace Project (SSPP)
SSPP raises the
levels of consciousness within the global African
community on Sudan issues and so impacts positively on
the destinies of those involved in its interactive
process.
SSPP is conceived,
and implemented by concerned Africans, on the basis that
Sudan is geo-strategically placed to impart a number of
lessons relevant to the African experience.
SSPP is conceived
as a two-way learning process bringing to Sudan the
experience of the global African community.
The configuration
of Sudan, the largest country in Africa, is not well
known by Africans in general, both within the Continent
and in the Western ( Americas, Europe etc ) and Eastern
( Gulf states, Arabia etc ) Diasporas, yet today
Sudanese issues are world headlines. Their resolution
provide solutions for similar problems in the
Borderlands, from the Red Sea through to Mauritania, on
the Atlantic.
SSPP will empower
Sudanese to talk internationally to their issues, from
their perspectives, to their fellow Africans, on the
understanding that ultimately that constituency is the
most effected by how the issues are resolved and how
peace is attained.
Historical records
establish the significance of the land which was and
today is known as Sudan. Whether considered from the
Asiatic or Western perspective, civilizations existed
which impacted humanity in general. It was later that
this initial sharing became an extractive process with
people and materials being taken out and ideas put in.
Similar historical patterns were experienced by Africans
at home and abroad.
The challenge in
the new period is to bring peace and development from
within, in the face of external countervailing forces.
Other parts of the world have realized national
auto-development, on a sustained collective basis. The
lessons from the component parts of the unity concept
are not only relevant, but vital. Such microscopic
scrutiny can only advance understanding, co-operation
and integration.
January 2008
* * * *
*
* * * *
*
Africom: The new US military
command for Africa—A series of
consultations with the governments of a
number of African countries—including
Morocco, Algeria, Libya, Egypt,
Djibouti, Kenya—following the
announcement of Africom found than none
of them were willing to commit to
hosting the new command. As a result,
the Pentagon has been forced to
reconsider its plans and in June 2007
Ryan Henry, the Principal Deputy
Under-Secretary of Defense for Policy
told reporters that the Bush
administration now intended to establish
what he called “a distributed command”
that would be “networked” in several
countries in different regions of the
continent. Under questioning before the
Senate Africa Subcommittee on 1 August
2007, Assistant Secretary Whelan said
that Liberia, Botswana, Senegal, and
Djibouti were among the countries that
had expressed support for Africom—although
only Liberia has publicly expressed a
willingness to play host to Africom
personnel—which clearly suggests that
these countries are likely to
accommodate elements of Africom’s
headquarters staff when they eventually
establish a presence on the continent
sometime after October 2008.
Pambazuka
|
Roba
Gibia was born in Singo, Southern Sudan.
He received his Bachelor of Arts & Education
in Ain Shams University, Egypt (1987). He
writes on Sudan affairs and publishes widely
in newspapers in Sudan and websites at Sudan
Tribune, Khartoum Monitor, Gurtong Peace
Trust, Google International News, and Sudan
MonitorMagazine in Uganda.
Gibia is author of
John Garang and the Vision of NEW SUDAN
(Fall 2008):
The objective of this new book is to tackle
the crux of Dr. John Grang’s vision of the
new Sudan. Roba Gibia shows the power greed
and inhumane behaviour of the ruling elites
in the central government are the causes to
the marginalization, suffering, war, deaths
and destruction of the majority of the
Sudanese people. |
 |
* * * *
*
 |
Daunting
Documentary Details Ethnic Cleansing in
Sudan—While the U.S. has seen fit to
intervene to save the citizens of Iraq from
Saddam Hussein, it’s sad to think that
nothing is being done about the ongoing
ethnic cleansing in Sudan. At last count,
over 2000 villages had been destroyed and
about 400,000 people had perished in the
government-sanctioned slaughter which has
sent hundreds of thousands scurrying across
the border to refugee camps and 2,000,000
more simply on the run. As delineated in
Darfur Diaries, the problem stems from
Sudan’s Arab-run government giving free rein
to the Janjaweed, a federation of nomadic
Muslim tribes to pillage Africa’s largest
nation’s black communities. Sudan’s air
force actively assists the aggressors in
this endeavor by bombing and strafing not
only villages, but even the refugee camps.
The film
Darfur Diaries
was shot in
2004 by three Westerners, Aisha Bain, Jen
Marlowe and Adam Shapiro, intrepid
filmmakers who risked life and limb to bring
back interviews which just tug at your
heartstrings. We hear from women who have
been brutally raped, from starving orphans
scarred by watching their parents die, and
from lost souls at their wit’s end living
under trees and with nowhere to go. An
urgent call for the world community to do
much more than merely observe this
ever-worsening humanitarian crisis as it
continues to unfold.— Excellent (4
stars). Unrated. In Arabic and English with
subtitles.
Darfur Diaries
Running time: 55 minutes. Studio: Cinema
Libre Studio. DVD Extras: Interviews, photos
and featurettes.—Kam Williams |
* * * *
*
|
Sudanese Moving North
to Israel—Excessively harsh socio-economic
conditions and racist attitudes in Egypt seem to be the
main reason why Sudanese refugees want to relocate to
Israel. Of the Sudanese refugees now resident in Israel
71 per cent report verbal and physical abuse as the main
reason for their fleeing Egypt. Some 86 per cent had
refugee status with the UNHCR in Egypt, though those
crossing the border spent an average of six months in
detention upon arrival in Israel. Others are subject to
indefinite detention. Sudan is considered an enemy state
by the Israelis and Sudanese refugees are viewed as
suspect. This is especially the case with Muslim
Sudanese from Darfur and northern Sudan. Southern
Sudanese are culturally more attuned to Israeli culture,
and Israelis warm up to them. "The Israelis are
suspicious of us because we are Muslim," complained a
Sudanese originally from Darfur. . . . There are an
estimated 400,000 Sudanese refugees in Kenya, 400,000 in
Chad and 100,000 in Egypt. Yet on the UN human
development index, Israel stands at 23, Egypt at 111 and
Kenya at 152. Chad is among the world's poorest and
least developed nations and Sudan is not far behind.
–Gamal Nkrumah.
Sudanese refugees fleeing Egypt for Israel |
 |
Diaspora and
African Slavery
Bankie, B.F.
Mchombu,K (ed). 2006. 199-207, 210.
Pan-Africanism, strengthening the unity of Africa and
its Diaspora. Windhoek: Gamsberg Macmillan
Diop, C. A. 1974.
The African origin of civilization: Myth and reality.
New York : Lawrence Hill Books
Diop, C. A. 1989.
The cultural unity of Black Africa: The domains of
matriarchy and patriarchy in classical antiquity.
London: Karnak House
Ga’le, S.F.B.T. 2002. Shaping a
free Southern Sudan: Memoirs of our struggle 1934-1985.
Torrit: Loa Catholic Parish Council
Hunwick, J.O. 1993. African slaves
in the Mediterranean world: A neglected aspect of the
African Diaspora. In Harris (ed), 1993b
Lagu, J. 2006. Sudan, odyssey
through a state, from ruin to hope. Omdurman : Omdurman
Ahlia University
Lemelle, S. 1992.14.
Pan-Africanism for beginners. New York : Writers and
Readers Publishing Inc.
Nabudere, D.W.
2007.6-34. Cheik Anta Diop : the social sciences,
humanities, physical and natural sciences and
transdisciplinarity. Pretoria. CARS/UNISA – in
International Journal of African Rennaissance Studies 2
(1) 2007, Pretoria: UNISA
Prah,K.K. (ed) 2005. 2, 8-9, X111,
147. Reflections on Arab-led slavery of Africans. Cape
Town: CASAS
Prah, K. K. 2006.196. The African
Nation. Cape Town: CASAS
Redkey,E.S. 1969.1.
Black exodus, Black nationalist and back to Africa
movements 1890-1910. New Haven: Yale University
Press
Segal, R.1995.
The Black Diaspora. London : Faber and Faber
Segal, R. 2001.
Islam’s Black slaves : The other Diaspora. New York:
Farrar, Straus and Giroux
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posted 17 March 2008 |
