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 *** The Imperialism of Sudan Northern Arabic Language and Culture ***
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I was tantalisingly tempted to respond to a patronising and seductive argument held by a handful of elites. In its simplest form, the elites argue that the failure to OFFICIALLY recognise the pride place of Sudanese indigenous languages along with their cultural practices is not one of the NECESSARY factors that led to the socio-political marginalisation and mass murdering of minority and disadvantaged groups in Sudan. One of the devastating repercussions of such a destructive ideology is the fact that local languages and cultures have been assigned a minor consideration in the process of planning the life of local and plural polities in Sudan. Everybody with mind in the right place would see the fact that such an ideology holds its destructive seeds in its womb. Firstly, it is crystal clear that the marginalisation of local cultures and languages indicates that there’s a politically-driven package of principles put in place to serve the interests of a few elites-and power holders in Sudan. In other words, the elites’ ideology does not only disrespect consciously and intentionally the voice of peripheral groups outside the Khartoum-based centre of power, but also attempts to wipe them out of the Sudan map of existence . In their view, linguistic and cultural representations are not a priority in any LONG-TERM planning for peaceful co-habitation. More specifically, The Northern elites’ conceptualisation of human language and culture works sisterly with the ideology of the hegemonic project of nation-building. Sudanese power holders who are inspired by the venomous slogan of ‘One language, one nation, and one…..etc) are operating now under another different but related guise: a multicultural planning for unity. It is no surprise that they define language in the way that it appeals to their own socio-political needs. They think of language as no more than a vocalic tool of communication. Khartoum-based elites and even the elites of the virtual reality have employed language to brain-wash and mind-control the masses in Sudan throughout the entire post-independent history. The different types of media have institutionalised and promoted a particular language grappled with a particular culture and people (i.e. Northern Arabic culture); although some accommodation could have been offered to the ‘Other’. The elites claim that they are pro-democracy and human rights; however, it seems that they have adopted to take the wrong route. In fact the elites have recently poured much ink defending the concept of ‘International Human Rights’. They have lost sight of the fact that ‘language right’ is a fundamental human right. I can not claim that they do not have the slightest idea about what’s known as ‘fundamental linguistic human rights’. Rather, I do prefer to explicate that the Northern elites simply refuse to accept that the current dominating linguistic culture has a navy, an army and a militia. It bugged me listening to them taking the mickey out of the mannerism of those who consider language as part of the power struggle for existence. ‘NO’ categorically has been constantly our reply; this is not a Mickey Mouse stance, rather it is an ethical commitment inspired by a professional motivation to empower the powerless masses in Sudan. They misleadingly believe that we’re just ‘reversing words’, putting them up side down to make a sense out of nothing. Such a belief is an index of the fact that the Northern elites and the ruling sector who hold the same ideology suffer from a kind of imperial amnesia - The refusal or inability to confront the complexity of history from which emerged various discourses on language and education in the Sudan. I do not think I need to cite the countless instances of the imperialism of Arabic language and culture in the Sudanese arena. It may suffice to mention some of the unforgivable linguistic and cultural criminalisations conducted by Khartoum-based power holders and institutionalised by a handful of elites. We should be very well aware of the fact it is not fixed-given that Arabic language and the Northern culture are dominant but rather ideologically made to be the dominating spectre by politicians who take or snatch office. As evidence I may need to quote the first attempt to implement the Arabicisation language policy publicly promoted and ideologically funded by the first Sudanese minister of education in Sudan in 1953:
‘As the Sudan is one country sharing one set of political institutions, it is of great importance that there should be one language which is understood by all its citizens. That language could only be Arabic and Arabic must therefore be taught in all schools’ (cited in Nyombe 1997: 112: Survival or extinction: The fate of the local languages of the Southern Sudan. International Journal of the Sociology of Language, 125, 99-130)
It is absolutely clear that power holders and elites have been obsessed with the ‘One Country’ since the first days of independence. To achieve that project they opted to choose ‘ONLY’ Arabic language. The minister has forgotten that they are countless instances of countries which use the local languages as means of instruction at least in the first primary years of education. This position which supports the spread of only one language hand in glove with ‘one’ culture is not unique or special to a particular Northern political party. Here is a second example of the stance of another major Northern political party (i.e. the Democratic Unionist Party) towards the status of Arabic language and Islamic religious culture in the South and West Sudan:
‘It is extremely important to spread the use of Arabic language in the Southern Sudan and the Nuba mountains. Arabic is the most effective instrument for spreading Arabic Islamic culture. The spread of Arabic language in those areas [south and Nuba Mountains] is one of the most important arenas for struggle in the name of the God and the Arabic nation’ (Source Yokwe E. M. 1984. Arabicisation and Language Policy in the Sudan. Studies in the Linguistic Sciences, 14, 2, 149-170)
Here the power holders who took office some time ago picture the effort to spread Arabic language as a thing that is mandated by heaven and surprisingly under the name of Arab nation. In reality, the ruling elites wield the Arabic language as a social mobilisation strategy to establish or maintain their privileges and power in Sudan. Nationalists and some elites want to wipe out local identities from the grassroots for the sake of the sacred cow of ‘Arab nationalism’ through the abusive manipulation of power and the implementation of aggressive assimilatory policies. It has been their dream, but it’s a dream that has/and will never come true. History tells that power holders have been aware of the power of language, and that is why they liquidise whoever opposes their power. Some of them have told the big lie that Sudan is exclusively part of an Arab nation, and they brain-washed the people to buy into their lies. The first minister of education concludes his seductive speech in a flagrantly racist tone:
‘The Sudan is an integral part of the Arab World …. Anybody dissenting from this view must quit the country’ (Parliamentary Proceedings: second sitting of the First session of Parliament, 1958, p.3. cited in Yokwe E. M. 1984. Arabicisation and Language Policy in the Sudan. Studies in the Linguistic Sciences, 14, 2, 149-170)
I am aware that my great grand parents used to speak one of the languages of the former Nubian Kingdom; however the question has never stricken my mind whether they may have had to leave their home-land since they did not speak Arabic language and they did not consider themselves Arab. They were purely Nubian in the full sense of the word with their Nubian practices and languages. A third example of the same ideology is of Uma Party; they characterise Sudanese national image in:
‘The dominant feature of our nation is an Islamic one and its overpowering expression is Arab, and this nation will have entity identified and its prestige and pride preserved except under an Islamic revival( part of the speech of Sayed Saddig El-Mahdi (1965), cited in Yokwe 1984: 155: Yokwe E. M. 1984. Arabicisation and Language Policy in the Sudan. Studies in the Linguistic Sciences, 14, 2, 149-170).
A final example is of the ideology of the current political party (National Congress Party, formerly known as the National Islamic Front). The cultural and linguistic atrocities practiced by the current power holders need not be looked for in references of documented speeches, it just needs looking for in the current reality. The present totalitarian regime has reached the extreme by implementing the policy of Arabicisation at higher educational institutions by a means of an overnight military decree. One question that may impose itself here is: what happens to those university students who are from the South or those whose linguistic background is not Arabic language? Do they have to leave the education altogether? The above four examples show that the Northern power holders in Sudan have paid most of their attention to legalise the use of one language and one culture; and thus they have automatically constituted a secret network of power. Those who are not part of the discourse of power find themselves immediately excluded if not denied the right to remain on the surface of the Earth. Thus, the output of such a utilitarian policy is that a new social class of Sudanese bourgeois has emerged at the price of those who dig the land day and night to win their bread. The ownership of SUDATEL AND MOBTEL by a few people in an arena that’s riven with power inequality and insecurity has increased the poverty of the poorer and the wealth of the richer. I do know that some of the elites have refused the accusation of being identified as a ‘nationalist’, but unfortunately their conceptualisation of language and culture falls into the same category. They fall short to recognise the fact that a language can have an imperial power. In other words, the elites do not believe that the spread of Arabic language and culture was at the price of the exclusion of innumerable cultural practices. The Northern elites do not open their eyes to see that the media in Sudan makes use of one language and the higher education system has been dictated by a top-down diktat to use Arabic language as part of the hegemonic project of the Arabicisation policy. Although power holders and the Northern elites theoretically talk about Sudan as a multicultural home-land; practically they failed to remember that there are some non-Arabic speaking groups who can not make their voice heard simply because Arabic is not their mother nor their father tongue. The Foucault’s wisdom of ‘knowledge is power’ is a reality and not a myth and is very much with us. Those who do not speak Arabic language can not get an employment in the centre of Sudan; the judicial system in Sudan makes no linguistic accommodation to non-Arabic speaking defendants. How could we expect justice to be done in such an unfair situation? Even within the three short-lived attempts to democratise the country, non-Arabic speaking groups couldn’t make their choices because the whole democratisation process was conducted almost exclusively in Arabic language. Language is more than a means of talking and communicating, it is the power itself when used to manipulate, exploit and control the masses. The Arabicisation policy that’s championed by the Independence icons and enforced by the current regime is an indication of the fact that they are power seekers at the price of the local languages and cultures of powerless people. Now, the Northern elites and current power holders have ended up with a battle on their hands as a result of introducing and perpetuating unilaterally evil policies that go in the line of their own self-interest. The political #######isation of local voices that is practised by the Northern elites can no longer be sustained. Their flagrant disregard of the importance of local identities has resulted in the degradation of children and women in the deserts of Chad. The Western Sudanese families will have no genealogies to produce any more, because families’ members are lost count of. The current disastrous condition in the West Sudan is a proof beyond a single shadow of doubt that the elites’ long-held belief in the putative enigmatic creature of ‘nationalism’ has failed them and turned the area into a dog-eat-dog situation, and a Tarzan jungle in which only the fittest could survive. I do not have a patriotic flag to raise because I do not believe in patriotism and nationalism which serve the interests of those who are part of the power network, and who want to dictate their style of life by employing whatever Machiavellian and Darwinian tactics available at their disposal. The power holders rationalise the cannibalistic war in West Sudan by having recourse to the language of the sacred myth of the patriotism and nationalism to make the people in the Centre believe that the war is against the big WEST and not the small west. Wantonly, the ruling elites have still maintained mass loyalty by employing and perpetuating particular national slogans, myths, symbols and tribal allegiances so as to legalise hunger and human catastrophes of elderly women and children in the West Sudan. The current ideology of the ruling elites has produced not only new wars but also new war entrepreneurs, commercial vampires and marauding soldiers. The rhetoric orchestrated by the environmentalists, peace makers/lovers, women/men/children rights activists, Pos-structuralists, neo-Marxists and critical theorists against the pretensions, supremacy and the flagrant triumphalism of Sudanese Northern culture and language may have failed to lead to a nagging guilt complex among the Northern elites in/outside of the Khartoum-based Centre. Yet, hats off to their outright refusal to bury their eyes ostrich-like to the very political evils and ideological temptations of the power holders; and to their rejection to divorce their moral sensibility and social consciousness from their profession and style of life. The message to the Northern ruling elites is that it is too late to get involved in the culture of guilt and romantic despair for the simple fact that physical and mental damage has been done to innocent children and women which history will never forgive nor forget. The conspiracy of silence over the mass murder and burning of thousands of mums and kids is a pure act of cowardice and is a crime of complicity; let alone giving hand in the blood-bath. The innocent and peaceful use of the human WORD has failed to get heard; now it is the language of war machines that is preaching and the WORLD is listening;
Ashraf Kamal
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Re: *** The Imperialism of Sudan Northern Arabic Language and Culture *** (Re: Foolish beat)
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Ashraf Kamal
your article/essay contained some intriguing thoughts and ideas. to my mind, the main theme of your presentation is the discourse of hegemony and domination by the elites who have been ruling sudan for the last 50 years or so. this discourse is used/abused by the dominant forces through media, education and other mass communication outlets.
I, generally, agree with your main theme. there is an ideology of Arabism and Islamism which seeks to repress other languages and cultures under the pretext of the supremacy of the Arabic language, as it is perceived to be sacrosanct and holy because of its association with Quran. hence the declarations you have kindly cited from the spokepersons of this ideology. the tragedy is that this ideology is reproduced and implemented, sometimes by force, by the state apparatus. nobody questions the official stance from other languages. arabic is taken for granted. of course, this is not to say that arabic ,per se, is bad or that the whole of the manifestations of arabic/islamic culture is undemocratic
i would like you to give us more examples of the dominant discourse
and how the general public interacts with it, and responds to its message, and ultimately participates in its reproduction
i am very impressed by your command of the english language, and the frocefulness of your arguments
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Re: *** The Imperialism of Sudan Northern Arabic Language and Culture *** (Re: Foolish beat)
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Man ohh man, all these big words and you failed to notice that Sudan after independence was built to be an arabic country!! My God, it is so trivial you provided many quotes with such meanings. There have never been an attempt to make it a multi-cultural or multi-lingual society. One big arabic culture and language with a vast multi-ethnic population. This must have been the adage. You can not blame the founders of the country for not making a multi-lingual or cultural scoiety cause they did not intend to do that to begin with. Now in the present time if you want to advocate for a multi-cultural scoiety then this is something else and we can discuss its merits and demerits
Thank you
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Re: *** The Imperialism of Sudan Northern Arabic Language and Culture *** (Re: Foolish beat)
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Salam to all
I would like to share part of the conversation between me and Insan Al-janoob -Ashraf Kamal, which I found interesting with you all
noha_g: and what about the answers to my questions
Insan - Aljanoob: your questions were about multiculturalism
noha_g: aha
Insan - Aljanoob: first we have to distinguish between pluralistic countries and monolingual countries
noha_g: aha
Insan - Aljanoob: most of the West is monolingual and all Africa is multilingual, ok
noha_g: ok
Insan - Aljanoob: the application of ONE LANGUAGE to Africa was imported from the West as a means of achieving nationalism in the 19th century
Insan - Aljanoob: because the West had the feeling that linguistic diversity could constitute a problem thus they tried to apply assimilatory policies to harmonize the already diverse polities or communities
Insan - Aljanoob: for example, here in America a great deal of Indian- American languages have been murdered and in Australia also aboriginal languages have been threatened and eradicated
noha_g: ok
noha_g: if we admitted that
Insan - Aljanoob: aha
noha_g: This means that they wanted to harmonize us?
Insan - Aljanoob: yes,
Insan - Aljanoob: because they tried to apply a unilateral policy
noha_g: ok
Insan - Aljanoob: when u make people adopt a unilateral framework that means u don’t want them to look variant in a sense that they may ask for separatism
noha_g: ok
Insan - Aljanoob: is that ok, did answer your question?
noha_g: ya
noha_g: that is for adopting one language
Insan - Aljanoob: Now Naivasha peace protocol applies a pluralistic linguistic policy
noha_g: That also means that the west from the start wanted to erase the diversity of cultures
Insan - Aljanoob: true
Insan - Aljanoob: right, now u understand the thrust of a thing.
Insan - Aljanoob: however some of them like Belgium, Netherlands, Switzerland have begun adopting a pluralistic policy
Insan - Aljanoob: giving their minorities some linguistic rights
noha_g: ok
noha_g: one question here
Insan - Aljanoob: aha
noha_g: admitting that these are minorities
noha_g: how could their language dominate?
noha_g: I mean
noha_g: here comes the official language
noha_g: that each minority should speak the language and then use that official one
noha_g: in their communication with the other minorities that constitute the society
noha_g: so
noha_g: applying an official language here does not apply to imperialism as you said be4
noha_g: even in a multilinguistic society
Insan - Aljanoob: good question, we can have a one or two official language as a common system of communication but at the same time without jeopardizing the validity of local languages,
Insan - Aljanoob: I can give you an example
Insan - Aljanoob: English and Arabic can be used as official languages across the whole country
Insan - Aljanoob: and then each state or region outside the centre could have the right to use its local language to conduct business, education etc
Insan - Aljanoob: it's just like in the North, dogolese speak their local languages in their formal translation and Arabic at the national level.
Insan - Aljanoob: is that clear?
noha_g: ok got that
noha_g: but putting in mind
noha_g: that English is not at all one of our used languages in the country
noha_g: why accepting to apply it while refusing to adopt the Arabic from the start?
Insan - Aljanoob: intelligent question
Insan - Aljanoob: well, there's no refusal to use Arabic at all
Insan - Aljanoob: but why Arabic alone?
Insan - Aljanoob: now your question is why choosing English and nor another local language?
Insan - Aljanoob: the issue of modernization comes into play here
noha_g: no another local language will be a language of minority
Insan - Aljanoob: no
noha_g: aha
Insan - Aljanoob: there's no minorities here as such, doglese + Mahas + Halfaween are not minorities in themselves.
noha_g: aha
Insan - Aljanoob: the answer is that there are no ready-made (modernized) languages at the moment
Insan - Aljanoob: secondly,
Insan - Aljanoob: for a great deal of minorities English is a modernised language that’s more preferable than Arabic language, because they can speak English better than Arabic
Insan - Aljanoob: especially the southerners
Insan - Aljanoob: thus, for a while English can be used along side Arabic till some of the local languages get developed
noha_g: ok
Insan - Aljanoob: now I hope things are clear,
Insan - Aljanoob: good,
noha_g: clear
Insan - Aljanoob: so we have a kind of imperialism in Sudan because there is only one language , one culture, look
Insan - Aljanoob: when I was U of K, the generation who came after us witnessed arabicisation
Insan - Aljanoob: I hear a lady from the South crying that she doesn’t understand Arabic language
Insan - Aljanoob: i went with a group of people representing our department to the Dean Faculty asking them as students to stop the process , we got told off and accused as those who pro-the-west
Insan - Aljanoob: just believe it
noha_g: aha will ask you one question
noha_g: be4 we leave this area
Insan - Aljanoob: fire
noha_g: if the southern and other minorities are ready to accept English which is totally foreign for them and they have to acquire it as a studied language
noha_g: why not studying arabic and adopt it
noha_g: I know
noha_g: that this might be answered by your previous talk
Insan - Aljanoob: the answer is simple, they see in Arabic another colonizer, in fact colonization to the southerners means a change of outside masters, yes, just as an antidote to Arabic language till they get one of their local language modernized.
noha_g: aha
noha_g: then that answers my question
Insan - Aljanoob: good,
Insan - Aljanoob: I’m very happy that u came to understand the issue faster than I imagined.
noha_g: but I’ve got another question.
Insan - Aljanoob: aha
noha_g: who brought the idea that Sudan is an Arabic country?
Insan - Aljanoob: the politicians
Insan - Aljanoob: Alazharay and all the northern parties
noha_g: and what benefits were they seeking from that
noha_g: they could have committed themselves to the common wealth
noha_g: wasn;t that more beneficiary?
Insan - Aljanoob: well, a lot of things, first aliti7adeen raised the slogan of 'union of Nile' to oppose the Uma party
noha_g: aha
noha_g: and
Insan - Aljanoob: uma party uses arabic language as a means of imposing its ideology, I mentioned that in the article
noha_g: ya
Insan - Aljanoob: aha
noha_g: ok
noha_g: then Arabic was used as a tool of opposition even between the Northern parties themselves
Insan - Aljanoob: no, the unionism with Egypt and not Arabic
noha_g: ok
Insan - Aljanoob: Arabic was never a point of conflict between northern political partisans.
noha_g: ok
noha_g: but Arabic here is a tool of united Sudan
Insan - Aljanoob: this is the myth
Insan - Aljanoob: this the sacred mythology, just look at Sudan now and you’ll get the fact that it was a fantasy and not a reality
noha_g: I know it is
Insan - Aljanoob: u can say they used it to unite Sudan but they failed, because people refused to have their historical statements wiped by that myth
Insan - Aljanoob: in fact the policy has disintegrated the country since the first day of independence, i said this in the article as well.
noha_g: that makes the conflict a noble one, fighting for saving cultures
Insan - Aljanoob: great to save their cultural practices and their local identities.
noha_g: but do politicians of who are representing the minorities fight for that?
noha_g: it is
Insan - Aljanoob: good u answered.
noha_g: no I didn't
noha_g: I am asking you
Insan - Aljanoob: yes, categorically is the answer.
Insan - Aljanoob: you can’t talk about the concept of 'sharing-of-power' without asking questions such as who and why?
Insan - Aljanoob: u get the answer that because they feel unrepresented and marginalised by the centre power holders.
Insan - Aljanoob: and northern elites.hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
noha_g: ok
Insan - Aljanoob: so
Insan - Aljanoob: in a sense the struggle to have your cultural practices recognized institutionally is at the heart of the power struggle.
Insan - Aljanoob: and that's the theme of my article.
noha_g: ok
noha_g: so
Insan - Aljanoob: so what?
noha_g: I will say that the imperialistic troops ruled Sudan be4 independence were from the start making these Northern Arabic groups ready to dominate
noha_g: and they themselves started that marginalization of these minorities
Insan - Aljanoob: yes, in fact u can say if they weren’t there, paradoxically, local languages of the South could've been eradicated by Arabic language and culture.
noha_g: the selection of the capital of Sudan was also meant for making them marginalized?
Insan - Aljanoob: good point lady, but u can say in precise terms the use of centeralisation was the worst political structure.
Insan - Aljanoob: in fact real and genuine federalism under a democratic system is the appropriate system not as the one applied theoretically by the current regime
noha_g: aha ok
noha_g: ok
noha_g: if democracy failed then these minorities are given their choice to separate, the thing they might be doing now
Insan - Aljanoob: democracy never fails.
noha_g:
Insan - Aljanoob: it's people who fail to apply it faithfully.
noha_g: I mean Sudanese failed to adopt it
Insan - Aljanoob: well, that means we'll be living in the dark ages for ever.
noha_g: aren’t we?
Insan - Aljanoob: and we'll never see the light of freedom of whatever type it might be.
noha_g: well
Insan - Aljanoob: we'll be imprisoned by northern partisans and elites to labour for their own self-interests.
noha_g: why should they be referred to as Northern?
noha_g: I mean were they all Northern from the start?
noha_g: I mean weren’t there any western or eastern? Or Northern here refers to any part of Sudan rather than southern?
Insan - Aljanoob: Northern is a political sense is used for those who are above the equatorial, to distinguish them from the very African tribes the southerners.
noha_g: ya ok
Insan - Aljanoob: and also because all the major political parties are from the North,
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Re: *** The Imperialism of Sudan Northern Arabic Language and Culture *** (Re: Foolish beat)
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Multi-lingualism leads to multi-culturalism leading to bigger and bigger problems over and over and over. Let us learn from multi-lingual societies and see how they are struggling to keep their countries together. Look at Canada, Belgium and the other rest. No body should be forced to learn, study or communicate with a language other than his choice. Seperation is a good option for those who might not want to live under one arabic language and culture. If the south separates, there is also going to be many languages spoken in the south and it is not going to be a unilingual community
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 Re: *** The Imperialism of Sudan Northern Arabic Language and Culture *** (Re: zoul"ibn"zoul)
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First, I would like to thank my friends ‘Foolish beat’ and ‘Mohammed Ashraf’ for gratefully publishing the article in their spaces. First I need to say to Adil Osman : Thumbs up to you man not only because you put the thrust of the matter in the right track but also because you put three challenging and fantastic questions each of which may need a PhD size to tackle:
1. Exemplification of the dominant discourse in Sudan.
2. The way the general public interacts with it and responds to its message
3. How the public participates in its reproduction.
We will debate them in the very near future.
To my friend Mohamed Ashraf: Yes you are right, the article my need translation into Arabic to avoid any linguistic imperialism on my part and to widen the scope of participation, I will see to it.
I find it a matter of urgency to respond to ZOOL ‘ibn’ ZOOL.
Dear Zool ‘ibin-Zool.
In the beginning, I noticed that you are claiming that ‘multilgualism’ leads to multiculturalism’. Although it’s unclear to me where you get this fallacy from, it still reflects an opinion that deserves to get right. Firstly, the compartmentalisation between the ‘culture’ and ‘language’, or the causal relationship you’ve drawn between them ‘i.e. one leads to another’ is a faulty conception. In fact it indicates a historically inherited myth introduced by nationalists in the beginning of 19th and implemented blindly to build nations in Africa. To put in another way, the hegemonic rhetoric was that people can adopt a national language that is dictated by whoever in power without losing their historical statements or cultural practices. Although, I’m not claiming that there is a NECESSARY one-to-one correlation between a language and its culture so as to avoid any sense of determinism (i.e. we are made to think the way we do because of the language we speak), there is still a relativism that governs the bond between them. You could have recalled the classical definition that language reflects and refracts power and class struggle (you can see Voloshinov 1973: Marxism and Philosophy of Language), let alone the discoursal one that language produces and reproduces power. Although you don’t have to align yourself politically with each school of thought, you still need to speculate. It is no surprise that you see multiculturalism as problematic and as an obstacle in the process of understanding and uniting. In fact this is another fantasy introduced and perpetuated by the nation-builders and their cronies in Sudan through the manipulation of the machineries of education and mass media. They believed that when disparate people are made to speak one language, the sense of nationalism could easily be cultivated. But you can adopt a problmetising practice and asks yourself: why on earth do the southerners or even the westerners have to adopt a particular package of linguistic and cultural practices that are not theirs? Why do they have to cry their local languages and cultures for the sake of the ‘Otherness’? This is an essentialism that leads to some kind of Hitlerism as practised by current power holders. Secondly, I noticed that your rhetoric lacks historicism (i.e. the tendency to regard historical development as the most basic aspect of human existence) which may be a by-product of some sort of histrionics. More specifically, you restrict multiculturalism exclusively to the south and that is not true. The North itself was and still is multicultural in that there are at least three living languages in the very North of Sudan (Dongolese + Mahas + Halfaween’s), let alone the plethora of languages in west Sudan. In fact the Ethnologue (an official website which lists the living languages of the world) reports that in Sudan there are 142 languages, of which 134 are living languages and eight are extinct (asp?name=Sudan>Ethnologue, 2004). Thirdly, your claim that Canada and Belgium are suffering because of the multiculturalism puzzles me. You could have backed up your claim by whatever means you can. In Canada, the region of Quebec is the main region which applies a bilingual policy in that it uses French besides English. In fact the Canadian constitution itself has safeguarded the lingo-cultural ecology of the region. Belgium has set a fantastic example not only in that it has applied a pluralistic policy (Flemish + French+ German) but also because it has applied a decentralised (federal) structural system. Finally, you conclude your mock-serious comments by declaring that “Separation is a good option for those who might not want to live under one Arabic language and culture”. It is remarkable there is flagrant linguicism (parallel to racism) in this sentence. May I ask you a simple question: who you are to put such an essentialist proclamation? Where did you get this god-given right to decide on behalf of the masses? The aloofness in your tone says that the country has a particular owner who decides who to join in and under what conditions. No my friend, the marginalised and disadvantaged people had enough and they have no tears to cry over the spilt milk, and they are not prepared to cry their beloved history any more. No categorically to the centralisation that is coupled with the illegitimate power which serve the interests of a particular class of power holders and elites, and which grants itself the god-given power to decide the fate of local cultural and linguistic practices of the country. Neither the south nor the west has delegated the right to secessionism to a handful of power holders and mythical nation-builders.
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Re: *** The Imperialism of Sudan Northern Arabic Language and Culture *** (Re: Foolish beat)
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Ashraf
| Quote: Thirdly, your claim that Canada and Belgium are suffering because of the multiculturalism puzzles me. You could have backed up your claim by whatever means you can. In Canada, the region of Quebec is the main region which applies a bilingual policy in that it uses French besides English. |
Please check the accuracy of the information you post before writing it. Quebec is a unilingual French province in Canada. The government of Quebec recognizes only the French language as the only medium within its territory. Perhaps you meant to say the government of Canada which is bilingual in all of its institution and the services it provides to its citizens. But regardless, whether the federal government is bilinigual or unilingual, separatist movements are moving well towards their goal. The recent election have given them way too much seats in the federal elections. Had the policy of federal (not provincial) bilingualism been that successful you would have unlikely seen such a lingering seperation aspirations. Now you know where your puzzlement is coming from. It is the accuracy of your information my dear. You will not solve the problems of multi-culturalism by simply envisioning sudan to among the many you mentioned as a multi-lingual society.
| Quote: May I ask you a simple question: who you are to put such an essentialist proclamation? Where did you get this god-given right to decide on behalf of the masses? The aloofness in your tone says that the country has a particular owner who decides who to join in and under what conditions. |
I speak of behalf of nobody but myself and call on people who share my similar views. I did not appoint my self to speak on behalf of the masses nor you is also here to speak on behalf of anybody. We both speak our opinions. You are welcomed to create or build any multi-cultural or multi-lingual society as you wish, but I also have the right to agree or decide not to join such a group. See this thing of rights works both ways. You will not come and impose on me a multi-cultural or multi-ethnic/lingual government as you see fits. May along the same line ask who are you to come and dictate upon me a multi-cultural or lingual society. I have no interest in living in such a country nor my tax money will go to fund multi-lingual programs and all the associated jargon that comes with it. That applies to both north or south.
| Quote: No my friend, the marginalised and disadvantaged people had enough and they have no tears to cry over the spilt milk, and they are not prepared to cry their beloved history any more. |
Marginalized people have every right to speak on behalf of their problems, but not mine. They can advocate and call for whatever solution they find to meet their goals. I also have the right to accept and join them, or the right to reject and leave any union that will not be up to the best of my interests.
| Quote: Neither the south nor the west has delegated the right to secessionism to a handful of power holders and mythical nation-builders |
Nor did I. So now you gave yourself the right to speak on behalf of the masses of the south and north as I see
| Quote: But you can adopt a problmetising practice and asks yourself: why on earth do the southerners or even the westerners have to adopt a particular package of linguistic and cultural practices that are not theirs? Why do they have to cry their local languages and cultures for the sake of the ‘Otherness’? |
This is why to relieve them from the agony I am putting seperation as an option for all. Southerners or others who have no interest in living within an arabic sudan are welcomed not to. In a similar fashion the other way round applies
| Quote: Finally, you conclude your mock-serious comments by declaring that “Separation is a good option for those who might not want to live under one Arabic language and culture”. It is remarkable there is flagrant linguicism (parallel to racism) in this sentence. |
It is very easy to attribute racism to an seperation movement. Would you do the same for vast majority of the bases of the SPLM, IRA or PQ, I doubt!
I will reply some other time to your culture language relation
Thank you
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Re: *** The Imperialism of Sudan Northern Arabic Language and Culture *** (Re: zoul"ibn"zoul)
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Dear Zool-ibin Zool
To begin from the beginning, regarding the point of Québec I thought I was stating the known that is why I didn’t wait to expand on the example of Quebec but it seems things were not the way I thought. First you are absolutely right that constitutionally speaking Québec is a Francised province taking into consideration the number of the Franco-phones who make up the majority of the area. Yet, it would be completely unfair to lose sight of the fact that the Franco-phones in Canada generally constitute a minority in a majority Anglo-phonic country. In fact the linguistic needs of the Franco-phones living in Canada are constitutionally protected in other Canadian provinces such as New Brunswick. Thus the Canadian federal constitution illustrates the utopian linguistic justice based on liberal democratic principles (for more in-depth information you can read: Language Rights and Political Theory edited by Kymlicka and Patten 2003). Therefore, Québec and New Brunswick are cases of a majority protecting a minority’s interests. Now the question that immediately gets raised is: what about the Anglo-phones who live in Québec, do they have their needs catered for such as the educational need? The answer is yes, where numbers warrant. This is a territorialised type of language planning which gives a particular territory within a feral system the right to choose its main language and to provide linguistic accommodation rights to other speakers depending on the circumstances (e.g the number of students, number of qualified teachers,...etc). And I think I hinted at this piece of information by my use of the expression “the Canadian constitution itself has safeguarded the lingo-cultural ecology of the region”. The point then is that the Anglo-phones constitute a minority in Québec and have their linguistic rights protected by the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms (1982) and which forms part of the Canadian Constitution. The Charter draws on the United Nation Human Rights and the universal Declaration of Human Rights. The language-in-education related article stipulates:
minority language education rights: generally, French and English minorities in every province and territory have the right to be educated in their own language (for the complete charter see: Quebec\Canadia_Charter-of-Rights-and –Freedoms.htm, or any google search will show you the charter.
Now I have to move to the theme of your reasoning and the quality value behind using the example of Québec. You put a claim that multiculturalism leads to separatism, and you used Québec as an example to prove the case. First it seems that you lost sight for the second time that the region refused self independece from the fedral state when they voted twice (1980 and 1982) by means of a referedom. The expectation, according to your claim, should be that once the Quebecers are lingusitically variant, they were expected to vote a landslide ‘Yes’. But your putative opinionated conviction has gone awry, and has muted your argument that multilingualism will be accompanied by corresponding separatism. Hence, the inextricable correlation you have drawn between multiculturalism and separatism using the example of Québec and Belgium has rendered your argument a load of old cobblers. You’ve got to know that Europe itself is moving towards multiculturalism, and some African countries have already taken this route such as South Africa which has already constitutionalised eleven languages as official working languages and has become more united than ever. To your surprise, the language policy proposed in the Naivasha Peace Protocols replicates the Canadian example in very much the same vein and even adds more language and cultural rights, for example: Part of clause 2.8 stipulates (I do not need to reproduce the whole language policy here, you can see the whole policy at the SPLM’S official website: www.splm.com, the protocol of power sharing, 2. :
2.8.1 Arabic, as a major language at the national level, and English shall be the official working languages of the National Government business and languages of instruction for higher education.
2.8.2 In addition to Arabic and English, the legislature of any sub-national level of government may adopt any other national language(s) as additional official working language(s) at its level.
| Quote: I speak of behalf of nobody but myself and call on people who share my similar views. I did not appoint my self to speak on behalf of the masses nor you is also here to speak on behalf of anybody. We both speak our opinions. |
The claim that any identification of a particular social situation is a little more than a personal view pointing is a mesmerizing positivism which dominates other ways of possible thinking, and which makes the possibility of the critical engagement with questions of social and linguistic injustices impossible because of your absolute subjectivism that we are all terribly opinionating people. Accordingly we have to free ourselves from the culture of guilt and do not have to show a shred of remorse over the mass murdering of cultures and human beings because demarcations between the right and wrong would be interpreted as a reflection of our personal sense-experience which itself lacks a modicum of truth. Needless to say, this attitude is a paralyzing folly since it turns the world into a mess and disorders the natural order such as the inescapable reality in Sudan. Of course you are entitled to put your own thinking stamp on any social matter provided that it does not constitute a menace to the very livelihood of other sectors of the society, and does not violate their fundamental human rights including their cultural and language rights. Now I guess the conundrum that has to be faced is how we can protect particular rights of a particular minority from the tyranny of the other minority or even a majority? The simple reply that appeals to the common sense of the labouring people and to the sense of a fair play is that minority rights can be preserved and protected by giving the people a life chance to decide on the language they speak, the God they worship, the leaders they elect and …etc. It is clear that the most appropriate political structural system is a form of ‘federal democracy’ such as the one practiced in Belgium, India, Nigeria, Canada, the USA and others. The simple point is that indigenous polities should have a say on their fate, and the authoritarian power brokers should keep their noses out, and should take their hands off the business of the people’s local life styles. This not a demand of the absolute political libertarianism, it is a natural right and the peoples should fully exercise it, and it should not be curtailed or affected in any way. Only in that way can we say that peoples are making and writing their historical biographies. It is sad that any attempt to give the local people what has been taken from them is considered by the ruling-elites as a compromisation of national principles.
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It is very easy to attribute racism to an seperation movement. Would you do the same for vast majority of the bases of the SPLM, IRA or PQ, I doubt!
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Apart from discussing whether separatist movements are motivated by racial motivations, I see that you have put incompatible eggs in one basket: Firstly, you are passing an implication that the SPLM is a separatist movement. I am saying it is an implication because you referred to the movement with its official name ‘SPLM’ which is an abbreviation of the ‘Sudan People’s Liberation Movement’. It literally holds the name of the whole of the country ‘Sudan’ as part of its emblematic name, which can suffice to say that the name itself provides a stoning counterargument that it is not a separatist movement, let alone the ideology which governs the workings of the movement. It has become like a statement of the known that the SPLM makes use of a variant of socialism as its theoretical base (for more details about the ideological orientation of the SPLM see Hurreiz and AbdelSalam (eds). 1989. Ethnicity, Conflict and National Integration in the Sudan, the Institute of African and Asian Studied, published by Khartoum University Press), and I do not think you are unaware of the basic tenets of theories of the Socialism and the Marxism that are oriented massively towards opposing the social stratification and racial hierarchisation resulting from the colonial ideology of the building of nations using a particular ethnic and linguistic stereotype as the norm. Hence, it is an unpardonable blunder that you pass a moral judgement that is not implied nor explicitly stated by the SPLM. In fact employing the SLPM in this context reminds us of some dark points in our decisive history when a claim for self-determination or self-adminsteration was equated with secessionism by the independence icons and their successive cubs. I need not expound this point since you can refer to any of the countless print sources.
It is also remarkable that your patriotic vision operates on the basis of ‘black or white distinction’ and ‘all or nothing’ since those who do not want to accept the police state of linguistic injustice (i.e., only Arabic language) have to show their back and leave their home land to master-class, whose innate competence in Arabic and spiritual induction in the Northern culture, grant them the divine right to own the country. In fact your open self-confession that you are exclusively and utterly pro-Arabic speaking Sudan reflects a kind of fundamental racial narcissism and cynicism at its extreme. Your Hitlerite perception of language is quite cringe-making. In fact it returns us fully circle back to the post-world war era when human language was seen as a medium of expression of nationalist ideologies and a vehicle of the creation of the Aryan state: “the mother tongue is the symbol of the fatherland”. Thus I suspect history keeps reminding us that the 21st century is still pregnant with a bunch of cloned Hitlers. The top-down imposition and the perpetuation of a unilateral monolingual policy in an inherently pluralistic country is an impulsive act of betrayal of the very African superstructural (i.e. cultural) system of the Sudan.
More importantly, debating the issue of local cultures and languages should not deflect our attention from facing the status of the disparate Arabic-speaking groups at the internal and the external levels. In fact a complex web of questions cannot go unnoticed: If we were to agree in principle that any human language is destined by the dynamism of history to exhibit a kind of internal variation and to be in a constant flux of change, then we would be in a confident position to say that Arabic language is no different, and if this premise holds true then the vanguard of the Arabic language Academy in Khartoum (i.e., Mujamaa Al-Luga Al-Arabia) will not be able to protect the purity of the language. To simplify things, we can not talk about the Arabic language as a single building block, rather we talk about Arabic as a language that exists in a form of varieties and dialects (e.g Khartoum Arabic, Juba Arabic, Shaigia Arabic, etc…). Now the questions that immediately spring into one’s mind are: Are all the speakers of the Sudanese Arabic language recognised, respected and treated equally? Could an Arabic speaking peasant from Al-Jazira get stigmatized, prejudiced and looked down on on the basis of his pronunciation of the Arabic language words? What about Juba Arabic? Is it a language that deserves developing for the use as a means of learning and teaching purposes, or is it considered a baby-talk form of the master Khartoum Arabic language? What about the distinguishing stylistic production of the ruling-elites, does it not make whoever comes in contact with them feel insecure and worry about their future wants? What about the relationship between the Sudanese Arabic speakers and the other speakers of Arabic dialects in the Middle East, a political body which Northern politicians chose to align the country with? Are our people granted a pride of place and not lowered at the bottom of the social and racial ladder depending on the way they talk and the way they genealogically look? Any confrontation with the reality will make the answers to these questions be in the affirmative. The Arabic language, as Adil Osman congently confirmed in his comments, possesses no power per se, but it is the political power of the ruling-elites supported by the machinery of the state that made it a killer language in Sudan. Thus what is rejected wholesale is not Arabic language itself, but the racial supremacy and the social privilege that is attached to it.
It goes without saying that it was a leap in the dark trying to achieve the project of the construction of a Sudanese national identity using the tool of Arabic as the sole national language without an arranged linguistic accommodation to the non-Arabic speaking communities. The heavy-handed use of the tool of the Arabic language as a means of social control has cultivated a sense of disintegration rather than vertical integration. Time is telling of war stories: yesterday was the South, today is the West, and the narration is looming over the East. Not a single day passes without war and battle cries of the hegemonic forces galvanizing their crooks in the West part of the country, despite of the global voices of protest against them. The inhumane physical Abuses and the mental seduction continue to be committed in the name of the enigmatic national unification which is characterised by the intermarriage between the Arabic tongue, the politicisation of the Islamic word of God and the Northern modernisation. The present dramatic and volatile scenario in the West Sudan was an anticipated product of Northern policies fraught with evil ethicalities and controlled by a network of power holders along those who swore allegiance to their ideological flag, and even those who support the ruling class unwittingly and knowingly. Yet, the linguicism that gives no room to the ‘other’, which is triumphalised in your discourse, is a spooky proof that the message of the current disastrous stasis is not getting through, the message to be drawn is that crimes on the basis of language, race and privileges will not pay permanently because the offspring of the currently long-suffering poacher will one day turn gamekeeper and will ask for a double repayment.
I conclude by mourning with pain the terrible luck that we are living in a world of guided missiles in which individual liberties are made into scapegoats for the sake of national security. It is a terrible world since deals are made between global powers and governments whose legitimacy are in constant questioning, and it’s the weakened indigenous groups that have to pay the price: the price is an innocent human life, once it is gone, it is gone for ever. I do heartfelt invite you to cast a passing glance at the pictures of the toothless, dispossessed and disempowered starving non-Arabic speaking Sudanese polities who have marked the genesis of the revolutionary discord that has emerged as a tragic repercussion of the totalitarian mercenary practices of the self-interested elites and power seekers (including the hegemonic practice of the Arabicisation policy), because I hope the moving scenes may inspire you to think of adopting the holly ethic of penitential self-flagellation for preaching performatively self-destructive gospel.
Ashraf
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Re: *** The Imperialism of Sudan Northern Arabic Language and Culture *** (Re: Foolish beat)
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Ashraf
I am glad that now you are becoming more careful with the accuracy of the information you include in your postings and recognizing the errors when they do exist. I believe whenever one builds arguements on false information the results are nothing but a fairy-tale. Also happy to see that the tone has softened a bit otherwise we do not want to drag this discussion into internet jargon
The points you have raised in your recent comments and before are quite interesting to discuss and hopefully we can have some enjoyable discussion. I will come back to you tomorrow on them. x
Thank you
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Re: *** The Imperialism of Sudan Northern Arabic Language and Culture *** (Re: zoul"ibn"zoul)
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My very dear, zool-ibin zool
How are things, I hope you are well and doing fine. Firstly,there can never be found an argument that's error-free, errors occur for abundle of reasons for example forgetfulness, memory lapse and even a physical tiring can result in a mistake, let alone a mental one, and I think one of the main binding principles of a committed debating of conceptions is to get things right where they have gone wrong at the practical or the theoretical level.I mean no one is beyond imperfection, and suffice to say that the platonic world of perfection has failed to make the mastermind survive the self-selected death penalty. Thus if you doubted any piece of information just tell me staight away and I can double-check it and cite its source for you. Secondly, I might often be too critical but believe me not of your personality rather of particular articulations of particular positions. Man, non of us is certain whether he is going to witness, using Fukuyama's expressin, the end of the history , may be our ideas since they dont sleep especially if they are green. Hence personalities go and ideas remain to become ideologies and recipies of life. And I'm very well aware that people do not usually adhere blindly to the ideas they voice unless they subject them to a one 100% rigorous and careful examination, and since we are not conducting a laboratorial empirical experimentation, then the possibility of developing and modifying our ideas is always going to be there or will be adamant. and I think the issues we are putting on the debating table touch on the ways of understanding, revealing and even changing our reality. It is brilliant that you are putting your concerns and fears on the table at least you can know, through a detailed discussion, their validity . So please do not get offended If I was a bit harsh in my language, it's just meant to get the most out of the argumentation. In fact I'm glad that you are pursuing things because that will in turn motivate me to participate and this will definitely lead to the defeat of the culture of blind comsumerism,and most importantly will achieve the bi- or-the multi-laterality of the act of writing otherwise one will find himself doing the act of a monologue-like behaviour. In a word, I'm really enjoying the discussion and you are heartfelt welcome to debunk anything you see awkwad.
Stay well
Ashraf
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Re: *** The Imperialism of Sudan Northern Arabic Language and Culture *** (Re: Foolish beat)
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سلام عليكم و رحمة الله و بركاته
ربما الحديث شيق عن اهمية الاحتفاظ باللغة كمؤشر هوية للأقليات المهمشة في السودان و استخدامها في مناحي الحياة المختلفة لضمان عدم انطماسهاوسط سيادة اللغة العربية التي تعتبر بعض الأقليات سياداتها ضربا من ضروب الاستعمار و الإمبريالية المفروضة عليها ضمن الصراعات التي سادات السودان زمنا
و قد يرى البعض التطرق إلى هذا الموضوع هامشيا و قد لا يدركون أهمية اللغة في احتفاظ الأقليات بكيوننتها الثقافية و هويتها ضمن البيئة التي تختارها هي دونما أي إحساس بالإرغام
و عندما نتحدث عن مشكلة الأقليات في السودان نرى أنها ليست مشكلة يختص بها الشعب السوداني فقط و قد واجهت كثيرا من الدول لا سيما الأفريقية منها و ذلك لللتعددية التي تمتاز بها هذه المجتمعات
و كذلك تقف هذه الدول أمام مشكلة سيادة لغات خلفتها الإمبريالية
و إن كان أشرف كمال قد تطرق إلى أن بعض الجماعات تفضل استخدامها اللغة الإنجليزية دون العربية
إذا كنا نستغرب لما لا تقبل هذه الأقليات بتسييد اللغة العربية في السودان باعتبار أنها لغة رئيسية و تقبل باستخدام لغة تعتبر دخيلة على المجتمع السوداني
لقد قرأت مقالا عن أن الأقليات المهمشة عموما تفضل استخدام لغة تمكنها من تأكيد الترابط بينها و بين الجماعات التي تجاورها أو الترابط بينها و بين العالم الخارجي بحيث يشعرها ذلك بأن لها صوتا مسوعايمكنها من التعبير عن قضاياها التي قد تعتبرها هي مهمشة ضمن الصراعات و النزاعات السائدة في المجتمع الذي تمنتي إليه و التي وقع عليها الظلم بالتهميش من قبله
و للأخ زول بن زول إذا كنا نرى في التباين مشكلة تستدعي الانفصالية و تدعو إلى تفرد كل جماعة بسماحتها الجغرافية و التاريخية
أنا أختلف معك في هذا إذ أننا دوما اتعبرنا التباين اللغوي و الثقافي و التاريخي ملمحا مهما في السودان يتميز به و لطالما ربما تفخرنا به ولو عاطفيا
و إن فشلنا في الإقرار بحق هذه الجماعات أو الأقليات في أن تتختار الاحتفاظ بكينونتها ضمن ذات البقعة أو الدولة فإننا نملي عليها بطريقة أو بأخرى البحث لها عن تاريخ جديد و عن مسمى دولة جديدة يجتثها من التاريخ القديم التي كانت تعيش فيه
نعم لنا الحق في تقرير مصيرناكما لهم كل الحق في تقرير مصيرهم و لكن يبقى سؤال
لماذا لا نتفق جميعا على احترام الأخر ضمن ذات المساحة و على التعايش السلمي في دولة واحدة و لماذا لا نتفق ضمن هذا الإطار على اختيار لغاتنا المتداولة ضمن قراءات علمية لكم اللغات المنتشرة في السودان و كيفية الخروج بلغات يتفق عليها معظم السودانيين دونما المساس بهوياتهم
و قبلها دعونا نتفق على أن موات اللغات قد يطمس الحقائق الثقافية و التاريخية للجماعات و بالتالي يعني موات جزء أو عضو من الدولة صغيرا كان أم كبيرا
و لذا ربما نتفق أيضا على أن أي جماعة من حقها استخدام لغتها الأصلية ضمن إطارها الجغرافي و استبدال هذه بلغة رسمية متفق عليها في التعامل مع الجماعات الأخرى الشيء الذي ذكر ضمن الفدرالية في التعامل مع التباينات الموجودة داخل الدولة
حقيقية لا قبل لي بالنقاش العلمي المستميت في هذا الموضوع و لكن ربما قليل من التفكير قد يودي بنا إلى أننا علينا أن ندرك نفسية الجماعات التي تعتبر مهمشة و تعاملها مع اللغة العربية و الثقافة العربية
هنا يتبادر إلى ذهني تساؤل
إذا ما تركنا الأمور دونما تدخل من قبل الساسة أو القائمين على الأمر و إذا كانت الأمور متروكة للتداخل و التزواج بين الجماعات التي تعيش في السودان ألم يمكن ذلك موديا بنا إلى سيادة لغة ما و أتساءل ماذا كانت ستكون هذه اللغة؟
و هل في السودان تم من قبل التطرق إلى استحداث نظام اختيار اللغات المتداولة في الدولة ضمن قراءة علمية و تاريخية و ثقافية لضمان عدم التعدي على الحقوق بالنسبة للجماعات التي تعيش داخل السودان؟
و ربما تساؤل أخير
إذا كانت بعض الجماعات ترى أن من حقها الاحتفاظ بلغاتها و استخدامها في معاملاتها الداخلية و حتى أن يدرس أبناؤها بها هل بالامكان الوقوف على تنفيذ رغباتها مع الأخذ بالاعتبار متطلبات هذا التحقيق؟
و لكم التحية يا أبناء بلادي
و تصبحون على وفاق
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Re: *** The Imperialism of Sudan Northern Arabic Language and Culture *** (Re: noha_g)
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To Noha:
First your contribution is remarkable, but I just have some reservation on the way you put a few things which Deng dealt with them in a quite convincingly narrative manner. I understand that you were doing a ‘recap’ to the debate and bringing the divisive points to the forefront. There are three points you need to take into your account:
1) Arabic language and culture WERE not only alien, in terms of history, but also ARE still alien to some Afro-rooted polities. In fact, independence to some non Arabic-speaking polities means the replacement of outside colonial masters with Northern ruling masters which have rendered the past and current wars as wars of incompatible ideologies.
2)I see that you put sudan into the Middle Eastern group which is a matter of political fact, however, the way you phraseologically put it lacks an ‘agent’: WHO is the DOER of the act of making the Sudan be categorised politically as a Middle Eastern state? Taking into consideration the fact that who’s attempting to save peoples lives in the West Sudan are African protection forces and not Middle Eastern ones? The point is this: political classifications, by contrast to geographical, are man-made and not a product of nature. So, that part of the statement is in fact representative of only a minority of elites in the Sudan. So we need to know whether you are raising this point as a matter of issue or it is you view. If the latter is the case then you are required to defend your stance.
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3) When all is said and done, the linguistic optionality at the disposal of politicians is not restricted to English and Arabic as such. If the argument went on to propose English as a replacement of Arabic, then we have done nothing more than moving in the endless vicious circle since English means a symbol of oppression to other polities. Thus, the point is that the country is a pluralistic country and it shoudnt be dominated by one language. The choice of English is momentary for modernisation purposes at the National level besides Arabic, within a proposed federal system, and not at a local level, until local languages get modernised by designing them a writing system, vocabulary extention..etc(I mentioned this when I was reflecting on Naivasha peace protocols). What I suppose I’m saying is that neither of us has the divine right to dictate on people what language they speak or life they lead, and I said this in 'people should be given the life chance' to decide on the language they speak, the God they worship ..etc.’
To zool
It is good that you pursue things to that level. It seems clear that A. Aleer meant by '8awa3id'
particular persons,and I guess it was true that there are some pioneering members wanted a complete independece from the North. But still he hints at the general policy governing the workings of the movement by 'New Sudan'. The interpretation COULD be that although the movement calls for a 'New United Sudan', there are some who want the opposite and he warned in the text you quoted against such a trend. In fact I heard that a prominent member asked for the withdrawl of the movement from the Democratic Alliance altogether. In all, the quote should be read as a warning against any worms that may turn inside the movement itself.
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Re: *** The Imperialism of Sudan Northern Arabic Language and Culture *** (Re: Foolish beat)
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Dear Ashraf
I will continue our previous discussion. But before that I will try to summarize the issues we are debating and then carry on to address the points you raised before.
We are basically discussing the issue of multi-cultural and multi-lingual societies at large and paying particular attention to the case in Sudan. We both agree that language is among the very critical components of any cultural arabic, english or nubian. For me I am limiting my discussion to the language part in particular.
You as a liberal person, or so it seems, believe that a multi-lingual and multi-cultural Sudan is the best it should follow to cleanse all the imperialism of the northern arabic langauage and culture. You believe that the other ethnic groups and cultures in Sudan have not been given a fair share in terms of furthering their language and culture.You believe that this an imperialism from the northern arabic sudanese imposing their culture and language on the marginalized masses. Definitely you see a democratic system that will create a multi-cultural or multi-lingual society if the best way to cleanse this imperialism.
On the other hand, I stand strongly against creating a multi-cultural or multi-lingual society in Sudan. I strongly believe the current Sudan (specially based on what have been cited at the beginning of this posting after independence, pls check it one more time) was not built to be a multi-lingual society. In its foundation after independence as it seems was intended to be an arabic country with vast multi-ethnic composition that will eventually assimilate within the larger arabic population. While all governments in Sudan military or democratic did not ban any use of other language no government worked in furthering the development of other languages in Sudan but arabic. This to further my intial point that Sudan was never meant to be a multi-lingual country.
I also strongly believe that multi-lingual/cultural societies are bound to failure for a variety of reasons. I brought the example of Canada versus Quebec as a good example for the impeding declaration of the failure of multi-cultural societies. I also brought the example of Belgium but did not elborate on that. I clearly said that we should learn from such societies not to repeat the same mistakes and we end up again on square zero than square one.
Contrary to what you think, I did not say that multi-culturalism leads to sepearation per se, I am saying that as per the example of Quebec, though the French language is protected by the constitution and the second official language of the country still THAT did not stop the French Canadians from seeking seperation. And contrary to what you think, the seperatist movement is very close to achieving the francophone independent state (less than few thousands votes in 1995). In all cases of their failure they were knocked down by the ethnic vote (predominantly francophone and non-francophone immigrants), a truth that all sides agree to. The latest elections in the country (not sure June or July) has given the seperatist party a wide victory in the federal elections. This of course is a good gauge as to the mood of the Franco phone community to seek seperation. There is something wrong with this model of multi-lingualism here. My question then what would make this community be so eager to seperate though all the right of their language and culture are protected. Why this multi-cultural society struggling to keep itself united? The fear of breaking up is present at everyday life.?? These are genuine questions people who advocate for multi-lingual societies should look into. These days some Sudanese are very much jubilant about painting the rosy pictures of a lovely multi-cultural and multi-ethnic/lingual sudan without the slightest critical thinking of what is good and bad about such scenarios. You are also still to bring few examples where multi-cultural and multilingual societies.
I have always been a jubilant person about one cultural paradigm for Sudan. I strongly believe one arabic culture through out the country is vital for its unity and strength. Such a society is much more efficient and economically vibrant than all the jargon (excuse my French) that a multi-lingual society brings. In a unilingual society we have more attention to solve our social economic problems than pay attention to bilingual or multi-lingual programs. I am against a multi-cultural/lingual Sudanese society. I think such a country will carry the seeds of its demise at birth. As arabic speaking sudanese are a vast number of the population the arabic culture will still stand to be dominant while the smaller cultures, e.g. nubians, or zagawa will find themselves surrounded by seas and oceans of arabic. We will then come back again to square one where the cultural minorities will complain about the dominance of the arabic language. For these reasons I believe other cultures should assimilate in this arabic culture and language. Sounds tooo bossy and disrespectful at other cultures, isn't! How could I advocate for my culture and language to dominate and others to die!! Well here comes what I have been calling for apriori. Seperation among the different ethnic and cultural groups of Sudan. Certainly some groups have no interest in assimilating in a culture they see foreign to them and they have every right to say and do so. Arabic speaking sudanese also have the same token of not joining any country that will demise there language, culture or religion. Ethnic minorities do not have to suffer from the imperialism of dominant inferior cultures to their own, we can all live happily within our own geographic regions and make our cultures live and healthy. And please save me the agony of your Hilteristics labeling, within the same tune as non-arabic sudanese are working to protect and further their cultural heritages I am doing the same.
Quick notes to some pints you raised earlier:
**My declarion of SPLM as being a seperatist movement is not made by me, but by Abel Alair. I will later provide you with the exact quote from another posting
** I do sympathize terribly with those whom you described as "toothless, dispossessed and disempowered starving non-Arabic speaking Sudanese" I am not a heartless man. And add to that , it disturbs me immensly that people of my own are creating such tragedies. But I still do believe that the best for all is to each go his separate way than we stay in this endless cycle of I kill you and you kill me.
I am getting tired man I will stop here and will continue some other time
Thank you
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Re: *** The Imperialism of Sudan Northern Arabic Language and Culture *** (Re: Foolish beat)
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| Quote: إذا كنا نستغرب لما لا تقبل هذه الأقليات بتسييد اللغة العربية في السودان باعتبار أنها لغة رئيسية و تقبل باستخدام لغة تعتبر دخيلة على المجتمع السوداني |
الأخت/ نهى.
أعتقد أن اللغتين العربية والإنجليزية تعتبر لغات " دخيلة" على السودان وليس الإنجليزية وحدها.
دعيني أحكي لك عن تجربة مماثلة حصلت لي مع ضابط جوازات سوداني بإدارة الجوازات والهجرة بالخرطوم. عندما أطلع هذا الضابط صاحب الرتبة المتوسطة (مقدم) حينما أطلع على جوازي وقراء أسمي , بدأت نظراته لي تتغير بعض الشئ ففهمت أنه يريد أن يقول شئ. فعندما هم بتسليمي جوازي قال لي أن أسمك غير سوداني, فنظرت للاسم الذي كان يرتديه بزيه وقرأت أسمه الأول وقد كان محمد, فرديت عليه بنفس الطريقة ونبهته بأن أسمه أيضا غير سوداني. أستغرب الرجل وتغير وجه فلقد كان لسان حاله يقول كيف لهذا الشاب الصغير أن يصف اسمي الذي أحمله بأنه أسم غير سوداني. وبعد ذلك سألني وقال لي ذلك الضابط مستغرباً كيف!!!!
وبطريقة بسيطة جداً شرحت له ما هي الأسماء السودانية الحقيقية في السودان وعلى ما أذكر ذكرت له بعض الأسماء الشهيرة مثل ملوال, وأدروب , دلدوم . ضحك الضابط بشدة وقال لي منكم نستفيد. وطبعاً دي كانت أول وأخر مرة أمشي الجوازات بنفسي.
دينق.
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Re: *** The Imperialism of Sudan Northern Arabic Language and Culture *** (Re: zoul"ibn"zoul)
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الأخ زول بن زول
برأيي يا عزيزي أن الاختلاف و التباين في الثقافات و اللغات هو من الخصائص التي تجعل السودان مميزا و إن كنا نتحدث عن استقلال كل ثقافة برقعتها الجغرافية و كيوننتها السياسية فإنني أصر إلى أننا نسعى لانقراض الكائن المسمى السودان و إن كان ما نعاصره الآن محاولات للتسريع من هذا الانقراض أيضا
قلت في حديث لك سابق أنك ضد creation of multiculturism and multilinguistic sudan
و أقول لك إنها ليست قضية خلق لأن السودان أساسا متعدد الثقافات و اللغات
كل الذي نحتاجه هو خلق ألية تعامل مع هذا الواقع الذي وجدنا أنفسنا نعيش فيه
و ترى أنت أنه ليس بالامكان للإنسان أن يعيش وسط جماعة تخالفه المبادئ و الموروثات و الخلفيات السياسية
و لكن دعنا أنا و أنت نرى كم من الأفراد الآن في العالم يعيشون في بلدان تخالفهم الإيمان بمبادئهم و عقائدهم و اهتمامتهم الدينية و الثقافية؟
هل كل منا الآن يعيش وسط مجموعته المتجانسة معه في كل شيء؟
في اعتقادي لا
لكن ما يحكمنا دوما هو الحقوق و الواجبات و الدراية بها وعدم تعارض ممارساتنا لحرياتنا الشخصية مع حريات الأخرين ممن حولنا
إن ما يلزمنا هنا هو القيمة الحقيقة للإنسان و ليس شكله أو أعجمية لسانه
صدقني شهدنا دوما نماذج لأفراد و جماعات نزحت من أماكنها و استطاعت التأقلم مع المجتمعات التي استضافتها لا لشيء غير أنهم ربما خبروا ان الأرض تسع الجميع إذا ما عرفنا القيمة الحقيقية للإنسان
What we need is having faith in the true human values
إنك لا تفرض العربية على الأخرين نعم لكنك تقر بأن اختلاف الجماعات في هذا الشأن هو ما يستدعي الانفصال و الاستقلال بالرقعة الجغرافية التي يرى فيها راحته
إذا كنا نقر بهذا الحق في التمتع بموروثاته و حقوقه إذن ماذا يمنعنا من أن نجعل هذا الإقرار بالحقوق و واجبات المراعاة للحريات هو شعار الحفنة القادمة من السنوات في السودان دونما حوجة لـ miniSudans
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Re: *** The Imperialism of Sudan Northern Arabic Language and Culture *** (Re: Foolish beat)
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Ashraf
This is the quote that I said will bring from another posting about the SPLM
| Quote: هنا أستدل بما ذهب إليه المفكر والسياسي المخضرم أبيل الير في كتابه «جنوب السودان والتمادي في نقض العهود» حينما قال: «إن الحركة الشعبية تتحدث عن السودان الجديد الموحد. ولكن قواعدها انفصالية. واذا ما انتصرت هذه القواعد وفرضت رؤيتها الانفصالية، فإن ذلك سيكون نهاية التعاون بين المثقفين الديمقراطيين في الشمال وبين الجنوبيين والحركة» |
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Adil Osman
noha_g
Deng
فيس بوك
تويتر
انستقرام
يوتيوب
بنتيريست