Creations of Jamal Mohamed Ahmed

Creations of Jamal Mohamed Ahmed

Dr. Abdul Ghaffar Muhammad Ahmed

A speech presented on the fifth anniversary of the death of Professor Gamal Muhammad Ahmed

Nubian Club in Khartoum 10/10/1990

(1)

* This invitation to speak was an invitation that could not be rejected, as it provided another opportunity to visit the thought of Jamal Muhammad Ahmed and contemplate his creativity. The lean years in the first half of the last decade led me - and what are the leanest years in this time - to what can be likened to a self-imposed exile, and I vowed to myself to seek help throughout them in the company of some of what the thinkers, scholars, and writers of my country’s sons and sheikhs had produced, and what the late Jamal wrote represented the highest percentage of a writer I carried with me... and he was the best companion in foreign lands... he opened my mind to many things that were absent to me even though they fall, by classification, in the core of my field of specialization... from Here was my acquaintance with Jamal, and from here comes my great pleasure in making the greatest effort in his memory.

* I regret to admit that my personal knowledge of Jamal was very limited... I say this while I feel great regret over a rare opportunity that I wasted about 12 years ago... an opportunity provided by a great man of mine, who was in his generation as great as Jamal was in his generation... Let us say that he had beautiful qualities like Jamal’s qualities, because Jamal says: “I have not known, to this day, a straight meaning of the word greatness. The good and ascetic Othman bin Affan is great, and the treacherous and deceitful Muawiyah is great. What is the decisive factor? Beauty is more precise. I realize it in My blood can almost be touched by my hand and it is just.”

When I describe Jamal and those I liken to him as great, I tend towards the greatness of Uthman, away from the greatness of Muawiyah, as treachery or deception were not typical of the two men.

I return to the opportunity I missed. This was the first time I met Jamal at the beginning of 1978 in Juba, the bride of the Equator. As fate would have it, I was at her university while she loved her time. It also wished for Jamal to visit her, among others, at the invitation of the late Al-Samani Abdullah Yaqoub, may God have mercy on them... He was very interested in the work we were doing, wanting to know everyone’s perception of the beginning of the work, and then he would visit various topics, some of which were related to intellectual issues, and some of which touched upon scientific aspects. He gives his advice without making you feel that he is giving advice... He wants you to glimpse the idea while he leads you to it... and this is one of his innovations in everything he wrote.

* Years passed, and I did not have the opportunity to meet Jamal except occasionally, except that I was following him, following his news through what he wrote. I was one of the happiest people when I read his contributions to “Doha” magazine, and I feel that as a reader I am sharing those artistic moments with him on a trip to the United States.

It was a surprise when he sent me one day, at the end of 1984, the book “The Human Element in African Development,” which Jamal had translated, and I was outside the country at the time, to find a dedication that said: “I hope that you will be satisfied with the chapter that you helped me with so graciously.” I paused at the dedication for a long time, trying to remember what made me worthy of this honor, even though I was a “passerby” in Jamal’s life... After a lot of effort, I remembered for a few hours that rare opportunity that brought me together in Juba. The housing conditions required me to enter him every morning because his place of residence was a small room that I used for rest, and some of my personal belongings remained in it during his stay... I would always find him reading and asking me about some topics related to my field of specialization, and the conversation between us would last for a few minutes, so we would continue the topic for a few minutes. Another place during the day, under the shade of a shady tree, was, and perhaps still is, the refuge of the people of that mid-day break.

That is all the effort that Jamal did not forget to remind me that it was useful... This gratitude is only available to those of Jamal’s stature. How many times this effort have some of us wasted during our journey with the People of the Pen without hearing a mention of him... This is one of Jamal’s creations...

Jamal's modesty and gentleness are his qualities, and you do not need to be close to him to know them... But as you read what he writes, his qualities appear to you through the lines... Some people attend meetings that history does not mention, but you find him reminding us every day of them through the media or in his memoirs... but Jamal did not do that. Thought comes first... and personal things only come when they are an introduction to presenting thought... He participated in the founding meetings of the Organization of African Unity but did not brag about it... He put effort into it but did not say that I did such and such... The “Sheikh of the Arabs” Muhammad Hilmi Abusen says in this regard: “And in the humility of scholars, the friend Gamal did not increase when he published an article in Doha magazine about the establishment of the Organization of African Unity, how it was established, its negotiations and its faltering until he attended the opening ceremony and the first meeting of the organization’s council. He did not mention his prominent role until he said: I was There he concluded the article.

The pinnacle of creativity is “I was there,” but it has whatever you want according to your mental capabilities and the horizons of your imagination in imagining great historical situations.

(2)

* The source of creativity in Jamal’s writings is his introductions to his books... The five books that my personal library carries by Jamal, I consider their introductions to be among the masterpieces I have read. The pleasure of re-reading them is only matched by the pearls of my father Al-Tayyib Al-Mutanabat, whose gardens I sometimes escape to...

Let's look at some of them, and let's start with Sally Fohmar, in which he addressed his two sons, and he, as Ali Al-Mak says, "addresses, in fact, everyone who knows the clear Arabic language." In this introduction, Jamal compiled it with extreme accuracy and without repetition. “He says about himself elsewhere that he hates repetition.” He combined the father and the teacher and went beyond these two positions to the critic of the policy and curriculum of education and the media in his homeland. He is one of the most deserving people to criticize these areas, as he was one of the pioneers of their pioneers and deliberately built them. He says: “I wrote this story to fill the void. I rewrote it for this same goal and to show you something of what the Arabic tongue is capable of. I am not satisfied with much of what you read these days.” From books and newspapers, and I pity you for thinking that what you are reading represents the genius of the language, and it is not so in my estimation and I fear for you at the same time from some of the teachers of our days...”

This was not the sole goal of rewriting the stories in Sally Fouhamer, but rather through constructions that were dedicated to “all of you who are born in our Arab region, and who read Arabic in countries that share a spiritual bond with us. I do this for two reasons: to enjoy myself and to enjoy you if the words succeed, just as the composer-musician enjoys himself with his melodies. The second reason is to open for all of you a window through which you can see the African mind, how it works. For me, the stories are bright lights on the minds of those who created them.”

Here is a creativity that was not lost on those who edited the book “On the Biography of Jamal Kateb Sharq Navel,” as they did well when they made the beginning of the book the first of the two reasons.

* The introductions to “On the African Play” and “The Conscience of Africa” are a lesson on research methodology for those working in this field from the pioneers of the human sciences... The research method changes with our cognitive awareness, and therefore Jamal was never static in this field. One of his greatest innovations is the accompaniment that indicates a remarkable ability to read, comprehend, practice, and reformulate the tools so that they perform what he wants them to perform.. He says: “In our smart and clear days, the teaching curricula and the angles of view are changing, in a way that what was said yesterday or written, before it was lined up in the printing press for the people to read. Between us and my introduction to that - an introduction to studies on African affairs - is six years. The face of the earth has not changed in any way. You touch it with your hand, but the means of changing it are in your hands and mine. We feel them and see behind them.”

This was in the research of the play, but in the conscience of Africa, the approach also changes and the explanation is: “The approach could not have been the same after these years. The situation around me and inside me changed after that. I am a segment of my time and myself. That was a time with a calm mind that walked on ease. His soul is burdened and wandering, not knowing a shelter to protect it from the hurricanes of its progress, and progress in every past era has been a source of pain, giving you a lot and taking a little in return.

It is extremely accurate, enjoyable, and scientific in depicting change in societies, a work that most of those who exert themselves in the fields of human sciences are unable to do in trying to communicate such ideas in the classroom.

* As for the introduction to “The Human Element in African Development,” it is a lesson in the art of translation that is spoiled by commentary on it. Therefore, I do not try, but rather remind you of the peak of creativity contained in those ten pages. I wish it would become a prescribed part for translation students, not here, but in the Arab world in general.

(3)

* Among Jamal’s creations is his presentation of Africa, the continent whose years of rebellion against the past he lived through, and where he witnessed the handling of liberation issues, and knew closely its leaders... His preoccupation was... the issues of liberation, economic and social growth, and the meeting and dialogue of cultures in it... all of which are political issues, but one of Jamal’s innovations is that he would not write in the language of licentious politics, but rather dealt with matters in the style of discreet, artistic diplomacy... When Jamal wrote from the position of a profound Sudanese thinker, he did not need to remind us in a direct way that this tongue, despite His eloquence is the pollen of cultures and the product of dialogue and the inheritance of ages... Sudan, in which this tongue dominates most of its territory, was, is and will remain in the heart and mind of the body of Africa if the intentions are sincere and the resolve is sound.

Addressing the issues of African thought, knowledge, faith, and religions and their effects on the development of the continent, Gamal received her fair share of presentation, but in a manner of calm dialogue, not direct reporting.

In this, Jamal was more capable of presenting matters than most of the specialists in this field... “Arabs and Africans” was the most beautiful picture for presenting contemporary African issues. It was a moving painting that you could look at to see the movement of interaction on the continent without spoiling the view. Judgments and reports that may not be truthful... The Africanness of Sudan and its Arabism were a constant focus in Jamal’s writings, even if they were not directly addressed.

When Jamal was asked about the most ridiculous question he heard while traveling and traveling, he replied, “This stupid question: Is the Sudanese Arab or African? And I used to say that perhaps the genius of the Sudanese lies in the content of the question.”

Perhaps the urgency of such a question is what made Jamal write in something closer to the language of politicians, albeit with a creativity that he took into consideration, making it an art and wonderful diplomatic advice. Perhaps this is what made him write his letters to John Garang, in one of which he says: “The paths had been blocked before and it seemed to us that the change that occurred in April would mean the return of fruitful life, so the barrenness extends for another years, and we are wrong about the South and the North if we sit and watch.” "Day of peace."

(4)

In conclusion, as Al-Tayeb Salih said, “Jamal was one of the elite among the Sudanese. He lived in the city as if he had grown up there... and was saturated with English culture... and he was in love with Arabism, (and to this we add his love for Africa)... He collected all of this without the slightest effort and hardship... He was a personality free of tension and violence.”

Abdullah Al-Tayeb said about him:

He was inclined towards Al-Mazni        and detested the style of the Al-Hattab people

He reads not for the love of appearance, but for the love of literature

He was commissioned to write novels and plays while he was expatriated

Once again, the committee was profound in its understanding of Jamal’s creativity when it decided that the theatrical performance would be the conclusion of this evening.

Oh God, grant the beauty of mercy and patience and solace to his family, friends and students