BAN OF AFRICAN CLOTHES IN SUDAN UNIVERSITIES BY IZZADINE ABDUL RASOUL NOUL ARBAB

Master teacher; Professor; John Henrick Clarke said; “all religions without exception are political and cultural tools meant to enslave other people”.

Yesterday I was reading a notice of warning for the students at the University of Bahri in Khartoum/ Sudan; that caution the students not to wear T-shirts and African clothes of any type. Why African clothes specifically? I asked myself; and other some close African brothers and sisters. Is it a part of old campaigns to erase our African memories particularly in Sudan and Africa; and maintain Arab Islamic culture?

The anthropologists define culture as glue that brings our people together. When you destroy the culture then you destroy the social structure of those people; whereby clothing is part of that culture distinguishes the group of people from other groups. So Let us assume that that Bahri University in Sudan; is a private institution; but does that give them rights to disrespect the culture of Africans, including their traditional dress code? The implication of the directives of the university is that African clothing is prohibited, and Arab Islamic clothing is indorsed and allowed! Yes if the case was miniskirts which is not African attires; I would have agreed with university directives! Nevertheless; if the idea of the university as an institution is that; it’s the education that goes to mind, not in clothing system; then the system is at work to change our culture that carries the memories of our history.

On the other hand; Sudan is physically in Africa and it’s the mother of African civilization thousands of years. It also carries the name of Africa the black continent ( Alkebuland) which means black. Therefore; I cannot be a true African in Sudan, if I do not see anything wrong in a directive that explicitly discourages the wearing of African clothes.

Sister Sarah Blackstock from Sao Tom Islands in South West Africa, called me and said; “ brother Abdul; to me when I read the notice translated from Arabic in to English Bull, they seem to think we are saying Christianity is preferable to Islam? They are both foreign religions. There is no forcing of any religion on us. It would be better if Islam could stay in the Middle East and leave Africa alone. It's just that all mainstream, Abrahamic religions have brought terror to Mother Africa and Her children”.
I hope the brothers can open their eyes to the deceptive oppression of Afrikans at the hands of Arabs in the guise of righteousness. It's just white supremacy east. What's the difference between the Arabized Afrikan and our coons in the west? She concluded.

The issue here is not Islam versus other religions; but Arab imposed culture versus African indigenous culture! My opinion is about the dangers of adopting foreign cultures that often in turn become anti African culture. Thus we have the Arabized Africans in Sudan and coon comparison. They are both dangers to Black African cultures, albeit they are themselves blacks.

When the founder of Islamic Front Sheikh Hassan Alturabi visited Darfur in 1997; before they split in to two groups which now became National Congress Party led by current President Omer Al Bashir; he told the people there that; its ( Haram) or forbidden in Islam for people to dance African traditional dances; because they are vestiges of the paganism; however; he distributed cassettes of songs in Arabic and recorder players in villages to dance on those tunes and rhythms.

Education system that turns someone against his people and his culture is a dangerous indoctrination. Though I came to conclusion that all wars waged in Sudan whereby; estimated 2 million people were killed in twenty years of civil war in South Sudan, the genocide in Darfur that lost 500,000 lives of innocent civilians and wars in Blue Nile and Nuba Mountains that are still continuous; are all cultural indoctrination wars to boost Arab culture in areas of the indigenous people of the Sudan then deeper in Africa.

Am not here to please anybody; but am here to show people where the dog jumps the wall; then it’s up to the people to take care of it. Therefore; I suggest for the future Sudan to be as country and as people of different religions and cultures, there must be a just agreed system that could be able to reinforce; justice, balance, order, righteousness and harmony that would equalize between the ruler and the layman regardless of which part or group he or she does belong.

“The ignorant man knows everything and knowledgeable man knows very little” African proverb.

Arabic Forum