The roots of the civil war in the Nuba Mountains
D. Omar Mustafa Sharkian
Introduction to the religious issue
The role of Christianity in education and health in the Nuba Mountains
Introduction to the religious issue
Man has known religions since ancient times, after contemplating the laws of the universe and the path of life and evaluating the metaphysical phenomena in which a person finds himself confused, such as illness, fear, hunger, and a shortage of fruits and souls. Thinking and contemplating these abstract phenomena and life manifestations developed in the philosophizing of social scientists and raised questions about the secret of the existence of the universe and what it is, and the mission of man and livestock. Some have said - in words - in accordance with the noble verse: “I did not create the jinn and mankind except to worship Me” (Al-Dhariyat 51/56). This is what Islam says; For Christianity and Judaism, the meaning of man's existence on earth is not much different from Islam. Hinduism or Hinduism, which is the main religion of India and whose origins go back to the year 2000 BC, basically consists of several religions in one religion. One of the most famous adherents of Hinduism is Mahatma Gandhi, the spiritual father of Indian independence in 1947 AD. In his campaign against the British, he adopted the doctrine of non-violence, non-aggression against other countries, and the need to love peace. This does not mean that all adherents of this religion are peace lovers, as the Mahatma was assassinated by a Hindu fanatic, and we have witnessed how Hindu politicians exploited religious feelings to inflame passions and practice bloody violence. As for the Buddhism religion, and its founder, Siddhartha, who was born in 560 BC. From a Hindu family in northern India, she built her spiritual philosophy on the idea that everything is fleeting and changing. Happiness does not last, a beautiful creature may become of a bad character, a strong person may become weak, a person becomes old, gets sick, and dies, and that is the cycle of life. Therefore, we find that Buddha - that is, the enlightened person - began to teach people his doctrine, which calls for self-denial, abandoning pleasures, freeing the blameworthy soul from the things of the age, being content with a little, speaking the truth, and building integrity and honesty. Many of the inhabitants of Sri Lanka, China, Tibet, Japan, Burma and Thailand renounced - that is, converted to Buddhism - and sought “the path of the Buddha” with all its sects and sects. Confucianism (the moral teachings of Confucius) is the oldest religion in China, and its roots go back to 400 BC. It is the teachings of the wise man - Confucius - who was born in 551 BC. Confucius urged children to respect their parents, and ordered people to obey rulers. Thus, the world respects heaven, and thus parents take care of children, and rulers take care of the subjects, and heaven manages the affairs of the world. The "Path of Heaven" was based on five pillars: self-control, the extension of justice, family respect, appreciation for others, decency and politeness. When Mao Zedong and the Communist Party came to power in China, they considered Confucianism an old fashion and a useless trade. Despite this, Confucian teachings influenced the people of China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Singapore. The totemic religion of the Aborigines in Australia is no less important in the lives of the indigenous people of this continent, and the religions of the Native Americans in North America, and they have various deities such as the sun, moon, sky, earth, and thunder, which in their view are considered gods.(1) The Zoroastrian religion - which is an ancient Persian religion attributed to the Persian prophet Zoroaster or his teachings - says that there are two gods, one representing good and the other representing evil. The conflict between them does not cease.
Religions - whether heavenly or earthly - encourage human values in some of their circumstances, and encourage taking positions that may contradict sound reason in other circumstances. Therefore, we find that religions in their entirety address souls and emotions, and do not accept necessary debate except within a limited framework, as we find them in a horizontal collision with those who have been given breadth in knowledge. When we add religion - any religion - to the political conflict, we have achieved something significant. If we define politics as the activities associated with ruling a country or region, especially the debates or conflicts that arise between individuals or parties that hold the reins of power or seek it, then we do not find it necessary to include the religious issue in this sterile worldly conflict whose focus revolves between people on earth, and not between the gods in heaven, nor between gods and people between heaven and earth. We have seen how the political leaders in Afghanistan - after the Soviets evacuated - turned against each other, fighting in the name of the Islamic religion, and how women and children are slaughtered - just as sheep are slaughtered - in Algeria in the name of Islam, and defenseless civilians are bombed and terrorized in Egypt, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, Morocco, Yemen, Indonesia, the Philippines, southern Thailand and other countries of the world in the name of Islam. Likewise, the Islamists worked with their fatwas to seduce and mislead people. For example, but not limited to, acts of sectarian violence in Northern Ireland between Catholics and Protestants, in India between Hindus and Muslims, and in Nigeria between Christians and Muslims resulted in bloody massacres that chilled the body and turned children gray. In any case, politicians resort to using religion because it is an effective means to consider everyone who dares to oppose them as opponents of God’s ways, and this was what happened in Sudan in the “Mayan” era and what is happening in the current “rescue” era.
The role of Christianity in education and health in the Nuba Mountains
The history of Christianity in Sudan is ancient. In the beginning, it was the conversion of a minister in the court of Queen Kandaka in the Kingdom of Meroe in northern Sudan in the year 37 AD, and the Bible tells us about the famous meeting between one of Christ’s disciples, Philip, with the Ethiopian eunuch as the first African to become a Christian. This marked the emergence of the “first church community” in Sudan, as this royal Christianization was not only considered a geographical spread of Christianity, but also its penetration into the political sphere as well, since these Nubian kings had political influence in the region. By the year 325 AD, there was a priest in Vail on the first cataract of the Nile River (present-day Egypt). The spread of Christianity reached its peak in the year 450 AD when it became the greatest religion in Sudan and was adopted by the ancient Nubian kingdoms of Noubatia, Al-Mughra, and Alwa. This era witnessed the formation of the “Second Ecclesiastical Community.” Thus, we find that Christianity was concentrated in Egypt, the Nuba kingdoms, and North Africa, which were under the yoke of Roman occupation, for the first three centuries of its appearance and before the countries of Western Europe became Christian. In Sudan, we find that the Nubian Church was able to prevail decisively for nine centuries, from the middle of the sixth century until the middle of the fifteenth century, in the face of the continuous Islamic incursion and Arab pressures from neighboring countries, such as Egypt in the north and the Arabian Peninsula across the Red Sea to the east. However, in the fourteenth century AD, the ecclesiastical influence began to decline in the ancient Sudanese kingdoms in the face of the Islam movement, and the year 1323 AD marked the beginning of the problem between Christianity and Islam, over which the Sudanese still struggle today. As for the “third church community” in Sudan, it began with the beginning of the European colonial race towards Africa in the nineteenth century. During this period, Father Daniel Comboni came to Sudan, where he worked in the fields of education. He went to Kordofan and built a Catholic mission in Dilling. This was during the Turkish-Egyptian era in Sudan (1821-1885 AD). (2)
In truth, the Nuba's social demands were very modest by all standards and measures, and they are legitimate service demands that those in power must take the initiative to implement before the people rise up to demand them. What are these service demands that the Nuba began to wonder about? In the Legislative Assembly session on April 1, 1950, Representative Nawai Muhammad Rahal called for accelerating the start of work on digging artesian wells in the Kadugli region, and in the Assembly session on April 3, Al-Amin Ali Issa demanded the construction of bridges over the large “creeks” located on the Dilling-Kadugli road, so that transport and communication traffic would not be disrupted during the rainy season. The Minister of Works promised to implement. Because a promise is one thing, and implementation is another thing, and the people in authority in Khartoum break their promises. In the first session of the Sudanese Parliament - the session of February 21, 1955 AD - the member of parliament, “Kombjo Kumi,” asked for the “Middle Mountains” constituency: Does the new educational program include increasing the number of schools in the Nuba Mountains region? In the same session, member Hammad Abu Sidr for the North-East Mountains region called for the need to improve food and beds in the boarding schools of primary schools in the Nuba Mountains region. Member Mohieddin Al-Haj Muhammad asked whether the Minister of Health intends to open a new shofkhana in the Kaloqi, Al-Liri, and Umm Hashim regions in the Nuba Mountains region? Member of Parliament “Idris Al-Zaybak” from the “North Taqli” region asked the Minister of Transportation to install a telephone “booth” in the Abbasiya area, and the Minister replied that he hoped to accomplish this during the year 1955 AD. Member Kembjo Kumi also asked - in the same session - about the steps that will be taken to create job opportunities for Nuba children who have completed their education at the secondary level. The Prime Minister replied that those who were in the 1953/1954 secondary school certificate, three, did not pass the exam and were nevertheless appointed. The first of them worked as a clerk in the works, the second as a teacher in the Central Catholic Mission in Kacha, and the third joined the Military College, and in the academic year 1954/1955 AD only one passed the secondary school certificate exam, as he was the first Nuba to join Khartoum University College, and in the year 1958 AD the first two Nuba sons graduated from the University of Khartoum (formerly Khartoum University College), and they are Musa Salem Salim (Faculty of Arts) and Abdul Salam Fadlallah (Faculty of Economics). In the session of March 14, 1955, Member Yacoub Rahal asked the Minister of Livestock about the possibility of storing medicines for cows in Kadugli, Dilling, and Talodi due to the difficulty of delivering them during the rainy season in the fall. (3) These are the requests of the Nuba people to provide potable water, build roads and bridges, improve transport and communication, rehabilitate schools, spread education, and provide equal job opportunities; They presented it to the people of the national government with some aspiration (looking forward with desire, and in the version “to yearn” with the qāf), and what has been implemented does not exceed the number of fingers on one hand. Just as the General Graduates Conference was establishing schools in Omdurman and some cities in northern Sudan, which began to bear the name of the conference, this effort was not made in the Nuba Mountains, and all the leaders of the conference were vocal about was Arabization, Islamization, stopping the teaching of Christianity in schools, and abolishing the “Closed Areas Law” without taking concrete measures by which the citizens of those “Closed Areas” would feel equality, justice, and prosperity like the Gentiles in Khartoum and the Gezira. Despite this, some of the elite in northern Sudan wrote letters denouncing the Nuba’s social and political demands, and arguing that claims of marginalization are nothing but false claims. Who are these elite? What did they write and broadcast publicly to the people?
Dr. Al-Baqir Ahmed Abdullah wrote in the newspaper “Khartoum” and under the title “Nuba Mountains... and allegations of marginalization.” He wrote claiming that “after the end of colonialism, there was not a single primary school in the Nuba Mountains region for boys or girls... and that the national government gave that region special attention and care to build dozens of schools in addition to the Kadugli Higher School inside it... and another for girls, which enabled the Nuba people to Hundreds entered the University of Khartoum, with the number of doctoral holders exceeding one hundred.” (4)
We find ourselves forced to respond to this incorrect information, which we hope is slippery, and in our response this is not a defense of colonialism, but “a confrontation with facts and figures,” as the doctor mentioned at the beginning of the liberation speech. Ahmed Othman Muhammad Ibrahim chronicles in his research on “The Crisis of British Rule in the Nuba Mountains” and says: “The (British-Egyptian) government was forced to open schools in the large cities. (5) In the year 1921-1922 AD, it decided to build schools in Talodi, Liri, Dilling, Kadugli, and Rashad. The Talodi School was delayed until 1923 AD, when it collapsed. Its management was given to the Sudan United Mission.”(6) In 1928 AD, while Matthew - then Secretary of Education and Health - was traveling in the mountains, he made the decision to close the Liri School on the grounds that it was not serving the purpose for which it was built. Due to the urgent need to train a sector of the Nuba people to carry out the minimum legal duties in the regional government offices and local courts, the “Makouk Clerks School” was established in Heiban in 1931-1932 AD, which was soon moved to Dalami in 1933 AD. A primary school was established in Salara - which is located south of the city of Dilling - in 1938 AD, as well as a girls’ school in Salara in 1945 AD, and the Kacha School in 1942 AD. In fact, the Salara school was a boarding school, where students studied for two years until they were enrolled in a nearby government school. By 1942, there were four government schools in the mountains: in Ibri, Kauda, Salara, and Kacha. The schools, sponsored by the United Sudan Mission, were co-ed - that is, they accepted both boys and girls. However, those established by the Church Missionary Society did not have separate schools for girls, and did not allow girls to be accommodated in these schools, which were limited to boys only. The Church Missionary Society aimed to preserve what is beautiful in Nuba culture and work to build a local church to teach theology, the principles of reading and writing, and provide health services. The missionaries were not only teachers of Christian indoctrination, but they were also organizers of humanitarian relief work. Accordingly, we find that the Nuba, who knew the Muslims as slave-hunting invaders, and who tried to resist Islamic and sectarian influence in the region, began to slowly approach the members of the Christian mission who were preaching the doctrine of love and self-sacrifice. (7) Just as Islam persecuted - and is still persecuting - the customs and traditions of the Nuba, the behavior of the United Sudan Mission towards the beliefs and morals of the Nuba was the opposite of what it had previously been. The government wants it. In 1934 AD, Douglas Newbold - the governor of Kordofan at that time - continued that the mission was not making any effort to educate boys outside the villages, and that it was not sympathetic to the Nuba legacies. She sees infidel magicians in Gujara, and in the worst cases, she describes them as cunning enemies. If we may cite just one example, it is that at the beginning of the year 1938 AD, the mission denounced marissa (local wine) as a symbol of the polytheists’ celebrations, and decided in its conference that no Nubian convert to Christianity would be baptized unless he abstained from drinking marissa and abandoned it completely. At the Heiban Center, the missionaries went a step further when they began to address the children when they saw that the adults were no longer responding to their calls. This priestly decision led to disobedience of the adults against the courts, and the children began to disrespect their parents. (8)
The call to Christianity in the Nuba Mountains has been ongoing since the beginning of the twentieth century, when a center was established in Heiban in 1920 AD and in the southern regions adjacent to the Nuba Mountains. With Mrs. Beckworth's presence in the area in 1954, there were approximately forty people who were working in the field of Christian service in the Nuba Mountains. The areas where Christian work was concentrated at that time were: Ibri, Nikama, Heiban, Shuai, Kauda, Moro and Tabania. As for religious institutions, there was a Bible school in Shuai. It was closed by decision of the government of General Ibrahim Abboud in 1962 AD after the expulsion of foreign missionaries from the region.(9) Bible training courses were held in areas such as Kadbar and Heiban, and then a secondary school was run by the Church Missionary Society in the Kacha region, as we mentioned previously. Mek Kabatjo - Mek Heiban in the 1950s - played a key role in facilitating the work of the United Sudan Mission, as he was a Christian and a member of the Sudanese Parliament at the time. Another factor that helped spread Christianity in the mountains was the ability of foreign missionaries, especially Mrs. Beckworth, to learn various local languages, write them, and translate the Bible through Bible recordings and local spiritual hymns, then teach them through Bible schools to the local people. Another factor is the nature of the professions that the missionaries practiced, as these professions contributed to establishing Christian work and reflecting spiritual and humanitarian values, such as teaching girls some handicrafts such as knitting, weaving, and housekeeping, working in nursing, treating leprosy, which was widespread at that time, and combating other endemic diseases such as schistosomiasis and malaria. Here the role of missionaries in improving health, social and educational services and developing local languages and cultures is highlighted. Of course, missionary work about salvation and Christian love was not isolated from these services and from the behavior of the missionaries themselves. An example of this is the experience of Mrs. Kwichi, through which one can understand how the message of Christ is revived and transmitted to future generations according to the will of Christ.(10) The hymns of both the Catholic and Episcopal Church are all inspired by traditional “asbar (ritual ceremonies)” songs and chants and use percussion instruments known to the people of the Nuba Mountains.
On the other hand, there were some difficulties facing missionary work in the mountains. It was represented by the reluctance of the people to accept the new call and its meaning, but the locals “one by one began to believe what they were hearing and to believe in Him and in Christ as their personal Savior.” The new believers also faced hardship and hardship, including beatings, breaking of their limbs, and mockery of them. The government expelled the Gospel Recording Team in 1962, and some residents abandoned their new faith, some followed the old ways, and others tried to mix Kujur - for example - with the Christian religion. The church in the Nyimang area was the weakest of the churches, due to the difficulties represented in the composition of the tribe itself. For example, the Nyimang believed at the time that what others might call treason was - in fact - a form of heroism and chivalry. Hence, throwing the “remains” in the church and using them as a toilet became something that Nyimang did among other things constantly. On one of the feasts of Resurrection, people - who showed suspicious silence at first - gathered to watch moving pictures, and as soon as the picture of Christ on the cross was shown to them, the people laughed loudly. When they were asked what made them laugh, they replied that Jesus had a laughable beard! So they took him in jest. The missionaries realized that the only way out of this dilemma was to train a priest from the region so that he would understand their situation and be able to persuade them.(11) Here it should be noted that “many Nuba youth refrain from the church in their youth because it frowns on some of their ritual ceremonies, especially the sound of bully, which is represented by fighting and wrestling, which is a fight that may lead to death and for this reason the church has forbidden it. These boys think that their manhood is not complete until They did not perform this sound and follow it with their well-known Kampala dance while singing.”(12)
The period before 1962 AD was the period of greatest growth in the Christian faith in Sudan, especially in the Nuba Mountains. Religious coexistence in the Nuba Mountains was characterized by tolerance and love. You will find the population in popular solidarity in (harvest wells and expelling evil spirits) for those who do not convert to Christianity or Islam, as well as in Islamic occasions (the feasts of Al-Fitr and Al-Adha) and Christian occasions (the feasts of Christ’s birth, resurrection, and baptism). In these celebrations, all members of the community mingle with each other, regardless of their age, gender, or creed, and everyone engages in local dances, wrestling, and various means of living without religion being an obstacle to that. Even intermarriage does not take into account the issue of creed with much importance, as is the case in other regions of Sudan. This religious tolerance often culminates in many members of the same family embracing different beliefs at the same time. If the Nuba Mountains region is not suitable to represent Sudan as a model of religious tolerance, then what place in Sudan can do so? (13)
These are some facts, and we have mentioned them to remove confusion or distortion, and we hope that some people will not take advantage of them in jest or as an interrogation for something bad. As for talking about the number of Nuba doctorate holders exceeding 100, it is absolutely a lie. These are the colonizers. Then successors came after them, and years passed after them, without any real development that would remove the accumulations of grievances from the people of the region. Even the wells whose water used to be excreted are not enough today to provide water for humans and animals, and their water has dried up. Were it not for the water pumping pumps that UNICEF brought in the eighties of the last century, the Nuba would have died of thirst. Most of the schools built during the era of national rule were built with local materials, and by the efforts of citizens themselves, without assistance from government authorities, except to a limited extent. As for the industrial and development aspect, the textile factory in the city of Kadugli that the doctor mentioned in his article, we ask the following natural question: What is its management? What is the benefit from it for the people of the region? (14) Why are some marginal ministries such as Transportation (Mahmoud Hasib), Tourism and Hotels (Amin Bashir Flynn and Abdul Rasoul Kujur) allocated to the Nuba and not allowed to be represented in sovereign ministries such as Defense, Foreign Affairs, Interior and others?
Whatever the claims of the two leaders, the Sudanese Church is one of the social institutions that bears increasing burdens in carrying out its humanitarian mission in a peaceful manner and without sensitivity or hatred. There are Nuba priests who spent their lives serving their families, whether it was in the Nuba Mountains, Khartoum, or Port Sudan in the Red Sea, and we mention among them Father Philip Abbas Ghabboush, Boutros Tiya Shokai, Samuel Jungoul, Mubarak Khamis Korkel, Peter Al-Barsh, and Boutros Kawa Kuri. (15) However, the extremists among the Islamic clerics were not satisfied with them, and we have learned and witnessed how They plotted against them with great deception, and caused lies and slander against some of them. We have also learned that Christian worshipers are being exposed to stones in some residential neighborhoods in Omdurman (Um Badda, for example) from obscure boys harassed by religiously obsessed parties. Also, the authorities of the Khartoum delegation do not allow Christians permits to build churches, and even the few that exist are destroyed under claims of a housing plan. In some cases, the authorities have intended to remap their plan. They made the plans several times until they were sure that the street passed through the church so that they could find an excuse to demolish it.
Have you heard about Islam in the Nuba Mountains?
Then we delve into Islam and how its preachers deal with the Nuba. The first areas to be influenced by Islam in the Nuba Mountains was the Taqli region in the north-east of the region - as we mentioned earlier - at the hands of Muhammad al-Jaali in 1530 AD, and Muhammad Taj al-Din al-Baghdadi, known as al-Bahari (1520-1600 AD), who introduced the Qadiriyya legacy into Sudan, as well as Hasan Wad Hassuna bin al-Hajj Musa, who died in 1664 AD. The merchants, the soldiers returning to their regions, and the Arab tribes in central Kordofan also had an effective role in spreading Islam among the Nuba in the six mountains (the Dilling and the Kadru). Among these tribes were: Al-Rikabiya, Al-Badiriya, Al-Dawalib, and Al-Ghadiyat, in the period between 1755-1768 AD. The latter spread south of the city of El Obeid.(16) However, this spread was very limited, and in some cases the number of converts did not exceed individuals, as the people of Dilling were able to maintain their non-Islamic rituals and customs of Kujur and believe in his spiritual abilities. The administrators used to mention that when the Nuba police returned to their areas, they took off their official uniforms, and they were walking among their families and wearing their national costumes (i.e., naked). The Nuba also believed that Islam in northern Sudan had created a distinct situation in terms of Muslim privileges, as its effects appeared in government service, trade, and recruitment into the army. The adoption of the Arabic language as a means of education and an official language helped spread Islam.
Islamic proselytization in the Nuba Mountains before the entry of the Egyptian Turks into Sudan took the form of raids that included, among other things, “slave raids.” At the head of these raids was Badawi Abu Safiya, who settled in Al-Kilab near the city of Al-Obeid. Abu Safiyya worked to encourage the Islamic religion to the kings of Taqli, not out of love for Islam, but rather as a helpful factor in warding off the possibility of enslavement for their subjects, who were aware that Islam prevented the enslavement of Muslims. However, the residents of some tribes in the mountains fell prey to the attacks of Abu Safiya, who refused to settle in his homes, as did his counterpart Sheikh Ismail Abdullah - the founder of the Ismaili order - in the city of Al-Obeid. The villagers narrate that at the end of the year 1820 AD, Abu Safiya was moving between the mountains, carrying with him a hundred of his followers, heavily armed, and if the Jabalis refused to convert to the religion of God in droves, he would attack them... killing their elders, enslaving their young men, and captivating their girls as he wished. (17) Also among the results of his conquests, Abu Safiya (died in 1848 AD), who was from Badiriyah, would go to Mountains and kidnapped Nuba children - in addition to slaves - and brought them to Al-Obeid to teach them the basics of the Islamic religion and the Prophetic hadith, and then send them to their villages to spread the Muhammadan mission. Even Sufi jurists, such as Taj al-Din al-Bahari, did not do anything without trade and slavery...they were ambitious and sought after the world. Just as the kings of the Kingdom of Taqali sought help from Islam to ward off the dangers of slavery, so the kings of the Black Sultanate (or Blue, in reference to the black color complex of some Sudanese) embraced Islam to protect themselves and their families from the scourge of war and slavery, and the humiliation of paying the jizya by hand while they were servile. During the days of Amara Dunqas, the armies of Sultan Selim came to Suakin and Massawa, captured them, and wanted to march on Sennar. So he sent Amara to Sultan Selim reminding him that the people of his country were Muslim Arabs, so there was no need to war with them or possess them. If their invasion was for a material purpose, most of them were desert Arabs who migrated to this country in search of livelihood, but they had nothing. So the Sultan was convinced and refrained from invading Sennar.(18) However, this truce did not last long; As soon as the Sultanate began to decline and engage in internal strife, the Egyptian-Turks destroyed it in 1821 AD under the leadership of Ismail Pasha.
Returning to the Nuba Mountains, where before independence the region witnessed feverish activity by the people of the north to Islamize the Nuba. Sheikh Muhammad Al-Amin Al-Qurashi Al-Halawi, perhaps related to Sheikh Al-Qurashi Wad Al-Zein, the teacher of Imam Muhammad Ahmad Al-Mahdi, came from the village of Abu Faroua in the delegation of Al-Hasahisa north to the Nuba Mountains, and he built cells to teach Qur’an recitation in both Al-Natal and some of the different areas of Nyimang (Al-Ama). In the summer of 1951 AD, Sheikh Al-Qurashi came to the village of Karmati in the Nyimang region - about seven miles west of the city of Dilling - carrying a permit to preach and preach Islam. He stayed as a guest at Makkah Salam Darfur - Makkur Karmati - who welcomed the sheikh very warmly, providing him with protection and security for himself and his family who came with him. The sheikh asked the sheikh to allow him to hold a seclusion to memorize the Qur’an and teach the sciences of Islamic religion. The sheikh not only agreed, but quickly mobilized the villagers to build the seclusion from local materials - straw and clay - and housing and annexes for the sheikh and his family. Then he commissioned each village sheikh to bring at least five children who lost the opportunity to be accepted into primary school due to limited opportunities, and of course the number of children exceeded the seclusion capabilities. As the children in the desert - from the knowledge they acquired of the Holy Qur’an and their memorization of many surahs and hadiths - began to influence their brothers in the Salara Primary School and choose Islam instead of Christianity.(19)
Governments - both civilian and military - focused on policies of Islamization and Arabization in a persistent attempt to dissolve the culture of the Nuba people. They sent some of the Nuba people to the Holy Qur’an Institutes in Khartoum and Al-Azhar in Cairo to receive the foundations of religion and the rules of the Arabic language, and to return to work among their rural communities to change their features as these “Khartoumi” rulers wished. Since there was a small presence of some Sufi orders in the mountains, the intensity of organized missionary campaigns began to grow in the seventies of the twentieth century with the emergence of the Ansar al-Sunnah Muhammadiyah group who followed this order in Khartoum. Despite their small number, the sudden appearance of this group in the region caused a clash between the conservative villagers and these new disciples. Most of the charitable projects that were established in South Kordofan with Gulf money and aid went to building mosques without focusing on development projects, health and educational services. Mrs. Fatima Al-Ali Khaled from Kuwait donated $49,734 for the construction of the Kadugli City Mosque and Al-Rawda, and Mr. Khaled Ibrahim Khaled from Kuwait donated the cost of building the Dilling Educational Institute Mosque, valued at $22,000. Sheikh Khaled Al-Marzouq from Kuwait also pledged the costs of constructing an Islamic center in Umm Durin, valued at $255,000, and donated A philanthropist from the State of Qatar donated $12,500 to build a mosque in the village of Troji. Sheikh Mohammed bin Shaiban - may God have mercy on him - from the UAE donated $100,000 to build the Abu Sunun Mosque in South Kordofan. The African Muslim Committee, based in Kuwait, donated $12,500 to build the Mosque in the village of Dumba. Sheikh Hassan Al Thani from the State of Qatar donated the cost and value of constructing the mosque in the village of Kilak. $13,700. As for service areas, Mrs. Ghanima Al-Marzouq from Kuwait donated $40,000 to dig a well in Kadugli, Sarah Al-Marzouq from Kuwait donated $35,000 to dig a well in the Heiban area, and Sheikh Saif Al-Ghurair from the UAE donated $39,000 to maintain Kadugli schools.(20) Some officials in Khartoum were enriched by Nuba quotas. Islamization has great wealth. After all this, the jurists of the twentieth century, from the ignorant commoners and the pretenders of the nation in the city of El-Obeid, come to declare that the Nuba are renegade infidels and apostate racists who must be fought, and they dispose of the armies and prepare equipment to fight them and deprive them of their blood, money, and honour, until they pushed them and forced them to seek help and protection against these and those from the international community by signing the ceasefire agreement in the mountains. Nubia in Switzerland in January 2002. In any case, this glorious interest in mosques is worthy of graduating mosque imams, who in turn - also - graduate mosque imams, and so this closed circle continues. What we need in the Nuba Mountains are engineers, agronomists, veterinarians, economists, doctors, and educators to improve roads and bridges, raise agricultural and livestock production, improve health and educational services, and so on.
The concept of spreading the faith - whether we are Christian or Islamic - on an international level is achieved through preaching, and for this purpose the Christian Europeans took up Christian missionary missions. Christian preachers were sources of intelligence information for the colonial invaders. As for Muslim preachers today, they use the same methods as Christians before, even though they claim that their way to convey the Muhammadan call is invitation. We do not think that any of the African countries has sent an invitation - written or verbally - to the Islamic countries to send Islamic missionaries. All we know is that Muslims and Islamists are working to replace the Christian West in Africa and the countries of South-East Asia, as this feeling on the part of Islamic missionaries is shrouded in contempt for the beliefs of the Gentiles, their cultures, customs and ancient traditions. Likewise, when people are exposed to humanitarian disasters, we find that it is the Christian West and the “arrogant states” who mobilize their popular and governmental capabilities to provide relief to those seeking help in the countries concerned, and we do not find Muslims’ alms and zakat, and we have been taught in Islamic education lessons since childhood that in their wealth there is a known right for the beggar and the deprived.
The roots of the civil war in the Nuba Mountains
A journalist in the magazine "Africa" wrote in the 1980s that the people of the south were able to convince the Nuba that the Jonglei Canal would draw groundwater from under the Nuba Mountains, thus making their areas barren. Based on this interpretation, the Nuba people joined the Popular Movement and the Sudan People's Liberation Army. However, some of the phrases and testimonies contained in the journalistic text seemed to be an addition to the context and an exaggeration that was not required by his article. All of them are transgressions that harm the truth, and simplification that distorts the Sudanese problem in its impact, and nothing harms the truth like exaggeration when it deviates from its logical limits, or as the Franks say (Too good to be true) and its translation into Arabic: “So beautiful that it cannot be real.” Whatever the journalist claimed about the people’s affairs, this was not the actual reason that made the Nuba seek to seize their freedom in a language that the authorities do not understand other than that, which is the language of force of arms. So, what prompted the Nuba to engage in armed struggle and raise the flag of the new Sudan flying over their mountains?
In the late 1930s, a national entity was formed in Khartoum to represent a broad sector of the Sudanese people and reflect the aspirations and dreams of the vast majority of them. The two sectarian parties whispered into the souls of the colonizers that this organization was nothing but a racist grouping that should be uprooted and its sources dried up. The colonizers complied with the plot of the two sects and refused to register that entity as a political party. (21) As soon as the atmosphere cleared for them, some of the northern parties formed the Northern Sudan Advisory Council in 1943, and the Assembly Legislative Council in 1948 AD, and they participated in the Constitution Amendment Committee in 1951 AD, then their delegations traveled to Cairo in 1953 AD to negotiate with the two authorities of the dual government regarding the independence of Sudan. This delegation did not include representatives from the south or the Nuba. Then came the stage of Sudanization, in the light of which 600 jobs were Sudanized, of which the people of the south were given 6 jobs - equivalent to only 1% - the largest of which was the job of a warden, and the name of the Nuba did not appear in all this nonsense. This is what happened to the Nuba “in the early fifties... the years of changes and momentum, the years of searching for national identity and independence, which meant nothing more than the flag, the anthem, and obtaining a seat in the United Nations...” (22)
After independence, the Nuba people began to appeal to the rulers in Khartoum to improve health, educational and development services in the mountains. Some of them tried - in desperation - to solve the region's problems by joining the northern parties in order to work from within and curb the Sudanese state, but they failed. Some of them participated in the South Sudan Liberation Movement under the leadership of Major General (Ma'ash) Joseph Lagu, and we were informed that government soldiers were bombing the Heiban areas during the first years of the civil war. However, the participation of the Nuba as individuals in the first Anyanya movement no longer granted them political rights similar to their counterparts from the south. How did successive governments interact with the region’s crucial issues after repeated calls? After the outbreak of the revolution of October 21, 1964 AD, the Nuba melted into the General Union of the Nuba Mountains under the leadership of Father Philip Abbas Ghaboush, who worked hard to bring justice to the Nuba who were oppressed in the land. When the popular uprising broke out on April 6, 1985, the Nuba organized into the General Union of the Nuba Mountains and the Sudanese National Party. The two organizations tried - through democratic and constitutional methods - to remind the government that political, religious and social persecution had reached the limit. We cannot quickly review all the examples of the daily oppression to which the Nuba are subjected, whether in the mountains or in the various cities of Sudan. The matter was made worse by the policies followed by the transitional authority (1985-1986 AD). We witnessed what the transitional military did to us, and Mr. Al-Sadiq Al-Mahdi (1986-1989 AD) followed in their footsteps, until we ended up with daily mass killings, brutal torture, the destruction of homes, churches and mosques, continuous displacement, and daily suffering during the era of the National Islamic Front government that touched the threshold of Islam.
There is no doubt that the Nuba Mountains region witnessed, throughout history, an armed conflict between the Nuba and the Baggara. Central authorities and local governments - whether colonial or national - exploited these deposits for their political purposes. In the seventies of the last century, the regional government in Kordofan sought to incite tribal strife and provoke the peoples of the region. The government - at that time - established, trained and armed the Marahil militias to attack the Nuba and Dinka in order to expel them from their homes and rob them of their property. As promised, a delegation from the Baggara - using a government vehicle - made a secret tour around the region to turn the Arab tribes against the Nuba. The tour included the Hawazma in the north of Dilling, my ally in the north of Rashad and some of the Baggara houses around the city of Kadugli. Following this circumambulation, the phase of state-backed tribal raids on Nuba and Dinka villages and farms began. Thus began the unraveling of the security complex. If this government move is a harbinger of a coming war in the Nuba Mountains, then what about some of the factors that killed the Nuba? How did the rulers of Sudan behave in the Nuba lands? What path should be taken to do justice to farmers in the mountains?
Rainfed commercial agriculture or mechanized agriculture appeared, specifically in 1947 AD, and the productive relationship at first was closer to a partnership between the government and farmers. The mechanized agriculture project did not achieve the expected success until 1953 AD, which was the beginning of opening the field to the private sector. The project area was distributed in the form of holdings that amounted to 1,000 acres on average, with a specific lease contract for a period that sometimes reached eight years. Local residents and farmers did not benefit from enterprise ownership because they did not have the capital to run the business. Certain conditions have been set for the distribution of projects:
(1) The applicant must be Sudanese.
(2) That he has or can possess sufficient agricultural equipment that qualifies him to cultivate 1,500 acres, which is the project area.
(3) He must have sufficient agricultural experience and the administrative ability to manage the project.
The result of these conditions was that a large number of merchants and old civil and military service employees were able to acquire projects, forcing some residents to emigrate from the region. When the Agricultural Bank was established, it helped the wealthy class more because of its ability to meet the conditions of facilities and loans and any guarantees it could provide. After independence, the Sudanese bureaucracy began to establish a relationship with the national bourgeoisie, due to the former’s control over the state apparatus and thus providing administrative services. For example, issuing licenses, dividing agricultural enterprise holdings, and other official transactions.(23)
The British administration worked to introduce cotton cultivation in the Nuba Mountains region as a cash crop to develop the region economically. However, British companies had a monopoly on its marketing, and this situation continued even after independence, and northern merchants replaced foreign companies, and the central government and local authorities supported this policy. The World Bank has financed mechanized agriculture projects in South Kordofan, the White Nile, and Upper Nile since 1968 AD. By 1975, the World Bank was providing half of the loans to support the private sector in mechanized rain-fed agriculture projects. Government plans included expanding mechanized agriculture westward, using loans from oil countries that were readily available to urban elites and businessmen. It was natural for the Nuba people not to benefit from this Dzi division, and they ended up becoming wage laborers and forced laborers at the same time. As for agricultural projects in the region - the Habila project, for example - their investors are merchants sent to the region from North Kordofan, the Gezira, and even Khartoum. Let us see what these traders do with Nuba workers in these projects under the National Islamic Front government? The Nuba people carry out all the stages of agriculture, including planting, plowing, and harvesting, and then the day their wages are paid comes, and then the merchants spread a rumor that “rebels are present in the project.” When the army comes, it shoots every Nubawi, except for those who escape and survive, in which case their reward is lost. This is a small picture of what is happening in agricultural institutions in South Kordofan at a time when the grievances of those with racist tendencies are being felt on the shoulders of all those who opposed this policy.
It was not long before the spread of mechanized agriculture in the mountains brought corruption and persecution to the Nuba, and did not achieve food security for them at first or last. In some areas, the Nuba were subjected to harassment by wealthy merchants, and government officials forced them to leave their lands to these powerful merchants. As a result of this agricultural expansion, the Nuba people rose up to defend the land of their ancestors, and some of them entered prisons. We mention, for example, Mek Hussein Karbus Al-Ahimar - the resident of the Sabt district in Dalami District - who was imprisoned for 65 days when he objected to the authorities’ violent seizure of his family’s lands. The attempts of the Nuba Mountains Agricultural Foundation by Daling and the local government to bribe him with a plot of land for a new project were unsuccessful. The environment in which Mek Hussein grew up may have had a great impact on the formation of his fighting personality. He came with his head as tall as the Dalami Mountains, solid in his principles, courageous in his pursuit of them, and bold in matters of rights against the rulers. In 1981, mechanized agriculture projects spread around the village of Vayo, also in Dalami District. These projects tightened the stranglehold on the village and all its agricultural and pastoral lands were confiscated. In many cases, Arab herders drove their herds of camels, sheep, and livestock to Nuba farms, avoiding mechanized agricultural projects. This was not only a legal transgression, but this aggression produced the phenomenon of overgrazing, and was one of the causes of friction and fighting between the Arabs and the Nuba. These are the Nuba, and they saw their land - where they lived for ages - being usurped. The war turned from battles against usurping merchants and herdsmen to a complicit authority. This was the matter of the Nuba and the land of their ancestors... Just as they loved to live in it, they loved to die in its resting place. There are multiple ways to help the Nuba reconstruct their lands according to a scientific and political plan. This long-term plan is based on self-sufficiency, and the state’s role in it - as said by Ian McKee, an agricultural expert who worked in the Nuba Mountains region in the 1940s - is limited to the following (24):
(1) Digging wells and providing agricultural inputs, health, educational and other services.
(2) Providing soft loans and long-term loans to purchase agricultural grains, equipment, and livestock.
(3) Peasants must manage their own affairs and elect their own leaders.
(4) The role of the authority is to provide advice to ensure an increase in the production rate.
We believe that this is the strategic option that we should push towards and develop our agricultural potential towards, in order to move beyond the situation to the hope and the reality to the ambition. One of the basic principles of economic development in any place is to provide social development for the residents of the country. Establishing an agricultural project in an area should be accompanied by health centers, veterinary services, schools for both children and adults, and paved roads to facilitate the process of transportation and marketing of the crops produced, and self-sufficiency in the crops produced to meet poverty. This was what the Nuba expected when constructing mechanized agriculture projects in Habila, Kartala, and around Laqwa, but the exact opposite happened, as the region’s resources were plundered from what the land took out of gum, short-staple cotton, corn, oilseeds, fruits, and livestock outside the region. This was the secret of the “built palace” in Khartoum and the “broken well” in the mountains. After this hadith, they will not believe!
Whatever the case, Arab racism and British-Egyptian colonialism (1898-1956 AD) placed the Nuba Mountains in closed areas that made it difficult for them to move from a state of social misery to a state that enables them to benefit harmoniously from their human and economic potential. The Nuba lived in this situation until the emergence of mechanized agricultural projects, which were often owned by the immigrant immigrants and financed by the World Bank, which - with its expansion - threw them into the abyss of expulsion and widespread displacement. During the era of the Mayo regime, the South Kordofan region was a place for productive, service and administrative economic development, despite its distortions, which were the result of the struggles of the forces of the October 21, 1964 revolution of the national democratic, communist and regional forces for the rights of the oppressed Sudanese nationalities and regions (marginalized in the language of the era). This injustice is what prompted Professor Yusuf Kawa Makki, after his graduation from the University of Khartoum, to explain to his students in Kordofan Higher Schools that the weakening of nations and races is a feature of the systems of some individuals’ ownership of the means of production and the functioning of societies, and that the system associated with these conditions is based on oppression and can only be overthrown by popular war that can uproot the roots of exploitation and dry up the sources of tyranny. After the intensification of tyranny and the arrival of civil resistance to such high levels that it was unable to change the situation, it was logical for a resistance of a military nature to arise and develop and gradually rise to the ranks of a popular liberation movement that purifies the land of the filth of the monopoly of power and wealth, the possession of the means of production, and the exploitation and marginalization associated with it. However, Commander Yusuf Kawa Makki confirmed that the problem of Sudan does not lie in backwardness, but rather lies in the lack of revolution against the conditions that produce this backwardness, which are represented by the theses of the old powers and traditional methods. (25)
In fact, the cultural and ethnic diversity in Sudan is a fact that cannot be denied or fallacious. Decentralization of governance is the ideal formula for achieving a central bond while satisfying regional ambition. Such regionalism is not a political necessity necessitated by the distinctive situation of a particular region, but rather it is also an administrative necessity to rule every region whose people feel that they represent a marginal number in society. Regional injustices will remain with us, pushing the forces affected by them to exploit all the means of political pressure they have in every position they occupy, even within sensitive institutions, including the army. It will not be of much use in political analysis to call this a conspiracy of racists, even if such talk is useful in the field of agitation and mobilization against it. (26) Some of those described as racists have unjustly joined the Popular Movement and the Sudan People's Liberation Army. On the other hand, there are basic concepts that govern the relationship between the ruler and the ruled in any organized society. On top of these concepts is that for every responsibility exercised by the ruler, there is a corresponding and known right for the ruled. If the citizen pays his work and tax(27) on land, royalties, and taxes on livestock and other animals that he owns, he expects medical and veterinary services and drinking water as a provision for himself and his livestock. If his wife goes into labor, he expects the midwife to rush to her. If he sets out to travel, he expects means of transportation with a reasonable fee and paved roads. He also expects free education for his children, who are the fuel of the future. If the citizen does not find this or that, then this is the social deterioration that we kept calling on the people of power to restore without finding a listening ear. Moreover, some countries did not go further in order to make their citizens happy in welfare states, by providing social security for those who could not find work. This was known in Sudan on the eve of the departure of colonialism as the job-seekers allowance clause. The just governors know this, and they provide security, development, and the necessities of decent living. Among them is the Commander of the Faithful, Omar bin Abdulaziz, who always reminded his workers of his saying: “Whoever seeks tax without building will ruin the country, destroy the people, and will only slightly improve his affairs.”
Conclusion
There is no doubt that the civil war in the Nuba Mountains arose as a result of the accumulation of historical injustice in the political, economic, and social spheres on the local and national levels. The ruling people in Khartoum quickly added the religious factor until the war became jihadist, as we will see in other pages of this research, and thus the blood of innocents was made permissible under the claims of fighting apostates and claims of upholding the banner of God. It also played a role in the policy of confiscating Nuba agricultural lands, and the problems that arose between farmers and Arabs due to the latter’s release of livestock into Nuba farms with the intention of destroying them. Any peaceful solution to the problem of war in Sudan must address the land issue.
The Nuba Mountains were afflicted with successive disasters, some of which took the lives of others: they were afflicted with the catastrophe of enslavement and slavery... slavery is a savage barbarism, committed by the dehumanization of man and the abolition of his dignity... The Nuba left the stone (in the mountains) and migrated to the sea (in the island, Khartoum, and Port Sudan) in search of ways to make a living in Sudan. Thus, the process of chanting disapproving slogans did not make us rich or fattening, because any slogan or statement of position does not in itself constitute a fence to ward off or erase disaster, whatever its type. Consequently, we find that the Nuba began to contemplate two options, not a third, in the words of William Shakespeare: “Is it better for nobility to suffer the lashes of angry fate and remain calm? Or do we take up arms against a sea of troubles and defeat them? This is the issue of the peoples.” So they chose to take up arms, and tomorrow they will be victorious... Isn't the morning coming soon?
Footnotes and referrals
(1) Charlesworth, M and Ingpen, R, Religious World, Melbourne, 1985.
(2) Kirwan, L P, A Contemporary Account of the Conversion of the Sudan to Christianity, Vol 20, Part II, 1937; Garcereri, S, The Nuba Mountains, in Toniolo, E and Hill, R (editors), The Opening of the Nile Basin, London, 1974; Vantini, G, Christianity in Sudan: The First Continuous Narrative of the Life of Christianity in the Sudan from the Beginning to the 20th Century, Bologna, 1981; and Mazzolari, C, The Church in Sudan: Journeying Towards Justice and Peace, Nairobi, 2003.
(3) Dr. Zaki Al-Behairi, The Democratic Movement in Sudan (1943-1985 AD), Cairo, 1996 AD.
(4) “Khartoum” newspaper: 1/24/1994 AD.
(5) Ibrahim, A O M, The Dilemma of the British Rule in the Nuba Mountains (1898 – 1947), Khartoum University Press, 1985.
(6) Dr. Ahmed Al-Ali (South Sudan: The Truth of the Problem and its Origins, Al-Sunnah Magazine, No. 23, Dhul-Hijjah 1412 AH) says that the United Sudanese Mission was formed in the year 1904 AD, and the south was divided into multiple sections between different missions and schools and churches were established.
(7) Glesthorpe, A H, Introducing the Diocese of the Sudan, London, 1946.
(8) Nasr, A A, British Policy Towards Islam in the Nuba Mountains (1920-1940), Sudan Notes and Records, Vol 52, 1971.
(9) A law prohibiting Christian missionary work in Sudan was issued in May 1962 AD and was amended in November of that year, after the government of Lieutenant General Ibrahim Abboud accused foreign Christian missionaries of working to fan the flames of rebellion in South Sudan. The authorities expelled them, restricted the work of churches, placed obstacles in front of Christians, and often persecuted them.
Ahmed, H M M, Sudan: The Christian Design, London, 1989.
(10) Pickworth, M, It came to Pass, Maryborough, Australia, 1992.
(11) Spartalis, P J, To the Nile and Beyond: the Work of the Sudan United Mission, Netley, Australia, 1981.
(12) Dr. Mansour Khaled, The False Dawn: Numeiri and the Perversion of Sharia, 1986 AD.
(13) My interlocutor - Awad Khamis Warn, says: “They were threatened and ordered to stop campaigning for elections in the local councils in the rural Dalami region in the year 1979-1980 AD, because they stood with the Christian candidate - Father Jonathan Hammad - against Al-Nour Kassour Abu Salib.” Jonathan's supporters did not submit to this threat, and in the end, Al-Nour Kasur Abu Salib won, receiving 50% of the votes. During the year 1988-1989 AD, the Islamic Dawa Organization recruited a group of young men in Kadbar, and among the actions that this group carried out was circumambulating around the Kadbar Church during Sunday prayers, shouting “Allahu Akbar” while beating the “Nuba” (drum). This group was rebuked by the fathers (Christians and Muslims), so this clowning stopped.
(14) “Khartoum” newspaper: 3/10/1994 AD.
(15) Kayanga, S E and Wheeler, A C, “But God is not Defeated”: Celebrating the Centenary of the Episcopal Church of the Sudan (1899-1999), Nairobi, 1999.
(16) Stevenson, R C, Some Aspects of the Spread of Islam in the Nuba Mountains, Sudan Notes and Records, Vol 44, 1963.
(17) Ewald, J J, Soldiers, Traders and Slaves: State Formation and Economic Transformation in Greater Nile Valley (1700-1885), London, 1990.
(18) Dr. Abdul Aziz Amin Abdul Majeed, Education in Sudan, Part One, Cairo, 1949 AD. Sawakin is originally from Shawakhan. It consists of Shawa. Betray. As for Shoa, it is the name of a province in Abyssinia. As for Khan, it is a Pharaonic word that means a storehouse. When the inhabitants of that region used to pronounce the “kha” as “kafa,” the word became Shawakin, then it was corrupted to Sawakin, meaning a storehouse or port of Shawa.
(19) See Siraj al-Din Abdel Ghaffar Omar: History of the Conflict in the Nuba Mountains: The Period 1984-1996 AD, Khartoum, 1996 AD; Al-Sahafa Newspaper: 11/7/2003, Issue No. 3757.
(20) Al-Yamamah Magazine: 10/17/1990 - Issue No. 1126.
(21) The “Black Bloc” was founded under the leadership of Dr. Muhammad Adam Adham in 1938 AD. The bloc found strong opposition from the “Black Liberals” in the city of Wad Medani to coordinate the bloc with the Umma Party in some districts in the Legislative Assembly elections. Yahya Muhammad Abdel-Wahhab says in his book Personalities from Sudan: Secrets Behind the Men, published in Khartoum in October 1952, that Adham founded the Black Bloc and then became its secretary...and then transformed it into what was called the Socialist Republican People’s Party. He then became its secretary and was elected, with the help of the Umma and Ansar Party, as a member of the Legislative Assembly and published a monthly newspaper called Africa, which soon disappeared. See Dr. Yoshiko Kurita (translated by Magdy Al-Naim), Ali Abdul Latif and the 1924 Revolution: Research into the Sources of the Sudanese Revolution, Center for Sudanese Studies, Cairo, 1997 AD.
Sikainga, A A, Slaves into Workers: Emancipation and Labour in Colonial Sudan, University of Texas Press, Austin, 1996.
(22) Talha Jibril, On the Path with Tayeb Salih, Cairo, 1997 AD.
(23) Dr. Haider Ibrahim Ali, Civil Society and Democratic Transition in Sudan, Cairo, 1996 AD.
Segal, R, Islam’s Black Slaves: A History of Africa’s other Black Diaspora, London, 2002.
In Article 7 of the Mauritanian Land Law, the ruling authorities from Al-Baidhan were able to enact legislation depriving Africans of customary rights to own land. In Article Nine, dead land is defined as state land, which is land that has not been rehabilitated or that was rehabilitated before but no trace was left on it, such as waste land. In the Trarza region of Mauritania, we find that the land is owned by 56 people, and the area of land owned by each individual ranges between 100-600 hectares. Of this number, we find that five of them are Moroccans, only one is African, and the rest are from Beidan. The unfairness in the distribution of land in Mauritania between the whites and the Africans (blacks) is similar to what is happening in Sudan. Perhaps this Dizi division reminds us of the recent census carried out by the people of the Funj region of the owners of agricultural projects in the south of the Blue Nile. They found that all the owners of fertile agricultural lands are from outside the region, that is, from northern and central Sudan (Khartoum and the Gezira), except for one person among them, who is from Bahr al-Ghazal in southern Sudan. We learned that one of the Saudi princes owned an agricultural project in the region, as did Osama bin Laden.
(24) From a lecture given by Ian McKee at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, at a conference held by the Nuba Solidarity Organization Abroad on April 20, 1996.
(25) From Al-Mansour Jaafar’s speech in London, United Kingdom, on May 12, 2001, to celebrate the death of Commander Yusuf Kawa Makki, 40 days after his death.
(26) Dr. Mansour Khaled, There is no good in us if we do not quote them, Department of Writing and Publishing, University of Khartoum, from articles published in “Al-Sahafa” and “Al-Ayyam” newspapers in the period between 1978-1980 AD.
(27) What the land produces in terms of crops, as well as the royalty on people’s money.