Book Name : Sudan / Wars of Resources and Identity. Author : Dr. Muhammad Suleiman Muhammad. Co-author and investigator: Dr. Salah Al Bandar. Publisher : Cambridge Publishing - United Kingdom. Deposit number : British Library: 1861640528 Number of pages : 431 pages Medium size
Presented by: Muhammad Al-Hafiz Hamid Abdullah
The book is an integrated project that monitors the roots of the causes of conflicts and wars in Sudan according to a deep and new analytical vision that penetrates the depth of the causes of conflicts and presents an objective explanation for them.
§ The author of the book is the well-known researcher Dr. Mohamed Suleiman Mohamed, a former professor at the Universities of Khartoum and Juba, currently runs the Institute for Africa Alternatives in London, which is one of the most important centers for studies of conflicts in Africa and methods for resolving them (Conflict Resolution), as a new procedural science concerned with identifying the real causes of conflicts (diagnosis) and finding scientific methods and procedures to resolve them (treatment). The study of conflicts is receiving increasing interest from the most important research centers and universities in the first world.
§ That is why, in my opinion, Dr. Muhammad Suleiman and the institute he runs are a great asset to Sudan and Africa, especially since Sudan is rife with conflicts and civil wars.
§ The book leans in its analysis of the causes of conflicts and wars in Sudan from a different perspective than what is prevalent or understood by analysts, as the conflict over natural resources and the ecological factor emerges as one of the most important causes of the conflicts currently taking place in Sudan, and this perspective, which has been called (Political Ecology) “as the author stated,” where most analysts reduce the causes of conflicts to identity, religious beliefs, and legacies of the colonial era only, isolating them from their economic and environmental causes, such as wars and conflicts that occur. Primarily about competition and conflict over natural resources, the book consists of eight main chapters that deal with conflicts in Africa, detailing a large aspect of the conflicts in Sudan from several axes: the south, the Nuba Mountains, eastern Sudan, Darfur, in addition to a chapter that deals with the displaced and the paths of wars and peace in Sudan.
§ The book presents to researchers and those interested in the war currently taking place in the Darfur region, the causes and basic starting points for it according to an accurate information base and a deep comprehensive analytical vision that is very useful in understanding the nature and roots of the problem in Darfur. Although the book was published in May 2000 AD, that is, before the armed movements clearly appeared in Darfur, it surprisingly and accurately predicted the explosion of the situation in Darfur, a proactive vision that confirms the validity of its analytical tools, and it also provides extremely accurate information about Darfur that is rare to find in any research center. Another, where the information included Darfur in terms of geographical location, demographic composition, ethnic groups, intersecting relationships between them and the nature of the climate, and devoted a large part to the ecological transformations in the region, environmental degradation and development, and the link between them and the increasing frequency of conflicts in the region according to a graphic chart.
§ He also drew attention to the negative role of the current government in the region and the absence of comprehensive development in the region.
§ The writer supported his analytical visions of Darfur with illustrative maps explaining the homes and areas of the Hawakir ethnic groups, their ecological classification, the nomads’ paths and movement, and the locations that witness severe levels of conflict and clashes in terms of time and place, as well as a survey of the built-up cover, resources, climate, and rainfall rates in those areas.
§ The writer addressed in many aspects the structural imbalances between the center and the margins regarding the distribution of power and wealth and the historical injustices of the people of the margins according to the following axes: q The structural imbalance in the distribution of wealth and power.
* Lack of comprehensive development and services in these areas. * The dominance of the center’s elites over Sudan’s capabilities and resources. * Historical errors and the attempt of the center’s elites to impose a monoculture in areas of cultural differentiation. * The absence of offering permanent solutions based on the foundations of justice, freedom and democracy.
§ This book, as stated in its introduction, is unique in that it is distinguished by going beyond the prevailing concepts about the nature of armed conflicts in Sudan (the bloody continent) by relying on an analytical and comprehensive vision of the paths of armed conflicts, which enabled it to propose radical solutions based on studying the multiple aspects of these conflicts in terms of the economic and environmental factors as well as the political, social and cultural aspects. It also presents a pioneering attempt in the science of political ecology to consider and reflect on the origin of civil wars and conflicts and ways to address them.
§ This book, as mentioned in its introduction, is necessary for all Sudanese men and women who are concerned about just peace, development and democracy in their homeland.
§ Dr. Salah Al Bandar, one of the research elites in the diaspora and an expert in development and national security affairs, edited the book and participated in preparing the chapter on Eastern Sudan. He has worked since 1996 as director of the Sudanese Civil Society Foundation in Cambridge, Britain, which is a respectable institution that monitors research and documents all information related to Sudanese affairs.
§ Author: Dr. Muhammad Suleiman Muhammad: An expert in political ecology affairs, he has worked since 1990 as director of the African Alternative Center in London. He is a professional researcher and specialist in the fields of conflict resolution in Africa. Dr. Muhammad Suleiman also has important studies in all areas of Sudanese affairs.
§ I can bet that the researchers and their institutions will have a major role in arranging to address the conflicts currently taking place in Darfur and eastern Sudan, especially since the issue of resolving conflicts is not the concern of politicians alone, but has become a science with its own mechanisms and methodological methods. This is in the event that the parties to the conflict agree and the view of the Salvation Government changes to find sustainable solutions based on justice and democracy according to a vision of a new Sudan that accommodates everyone. We have seen the negotiation mediators in Naivasha seek the assistance of institutions specialized in the matter of resources and oil. Workshops presented the foundations of dividing Wealth is another specialized group from the World Bank to lay the foundations for negotiations on the division of revenues, and these institutions played a major role in the two parties reaching the current agreement in Naivasha.
§ Therefore, despite all the tragedies that are happening now in western Sudan (Darfur), we have great hope that the parties will sit down to negotiate because the collective conscience of the international community and the Sudanese people strongly rejects the continuation of these tragedies, and the government must reconsider to make Sudan a continent that accommodates everyone.
§ I conclude with a quote by Bernold Brecht that the writer Muhammad Suleiman began with: “The coming war is not the first war. It has been preceded in history by wars and wars. The previous war ended with victors and vanquished. For the vanquished, the common people became hungry, and the common people became hungry for the victors.”