The role of diaspora in revolution BY Amal Hassan Fadlalla

05:33 AM August, 12 2019

Sudanese Online
Amal Hassan Fadlalla-
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Sudanese living abroad are key to the uprising: raising awareness and
support for political and social transformation back home.
The uprising thattoppled Sudan’s President Omar Al-Bashir on April 11 is unique
in thatitis both a national and transnational movement. In previous Sudanese
revolutions,the capital Khartoum was the epicenter of protests. This time,
however,the protests emerged from all cities,towns, and rural areas in the Sudan.
Moreover, many Sudanese living abroad are playing important roles in supporting
this revolution and making the voices of protesters heard globally. No longer only
an economic force sending remittances back home,the diaspora community is a
powerful social and political asset with which Sudan’s rulers have to reckon.
As an immigrant myself and a professor of anthropology, I have studied the
connections thatimmigrants in general make between their new home countries
and their former ones. The notions thatimmigrants constitute a brain drain from
their countries of origin, and burden their new host countries can easily be
debunked. With vastincreases in global connections and fast routes that enable
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easy monetary and ideologicaltransfers, immigrants have been playing important
roles in their home countries from afar. The World Bank consider the remittances
immigrants send to their countries of origin an important contribution to
development eorts. Butthe various political, moral and social contributions made
by diaspora Sudanese are priceless.
Rising anti-immigration sentiments in the United States and elsewhere are built on
nativist conceptions entirely innocent of any knowledge of why immigrants are here
in the first place. Nativists failto recognize how immigrants struggle to make both
host and original countries better places. If we take the case ofthe Sudan as an
example, we first need to understand that mostimmigrants’ choices to leave their
home countries were not at all easy. Many Sudanese were forced to leave because of
the political instability in the country. Disagreements among dierent political
elites led to situations of wars and conflicts, as we have seen in the case of South
Sudan and Darfur. This political instability created new waves of Sudanese
immigration to many parts ofthe world, including to the US.
In myriad host countries, Sudanese have created unique communities called jalias.
Immigrants in general often find solace in these small communities, especially
during times of rising xenophobia and islamophobia. In most cases,these diaspora
communities also play important roles in the economic and political
transformations in their countries of origin.
Sudanese diaspora activism is not new. Such communities mobilized around the
civil war in South Sudan before it became an independent nation-state in 2011.
They also raised awareness aboutthe Darfur conflictin 2005 on university
campuses and among the public in the US and elsewhere. They mobilized many
human rights and civil society organizations and engaged various celebrities,
politicians, and other political representatives to pressure the al-Bashir
governmentto haltits military oensive and reach a series of peace agreements.
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While previous activism was framed around divisive identity politics, ethnic and
religious belonging,the current revolution confirms that dealing with questions of
equal citizenship rights in the Sudan need not splitthe nation further along gender,
ethnic, and racial lines. These important questions of equal citizenship rights can
only be achieved through a peaceful democratic transformation and power-sharing.
Such a transformation must also engage armed movements still fighting in Darfur,
Blue Nile, and the Nuba mountains to form a new vision of diversity and inclusion
in a united Sudan.
Since the beginning ofthe current revolution in December 2018, protesters in the
Sudan and their allies in the diaspora have consistently expressed this vision of
national unity. Diaspora Sudanese have been atthe forefront of raising awareness
about protesters’ demands in the US and elsewhere. In February this year, for
example, Washington, DC witnessed unprecedented demonstrations by SudaneseAmericans, who came in large numbers from dierent states to make their voices
heard and to supporttheir counterparts in the Sudan. After the violent crackdown
on protesters’ sit-in in front ofthe military headquarters in Khartoum in early June,
diaspora Sudanese again organized protests in many cities in solidarity with
activists protesting at home.
Solidarity cuts across the diaspora and draws people from all sectors and
professions to the work of global citizenship. Physicians, in particular, have played
important roles—both in and outside the Sudan. Dr. Seif Saeed-Elasad, a dual
citizen of Sudan and the US, is a long-time diaspora activist and one ofthe
leaders ofthe Sudanese American Medical Association (SAMA) established by
diaspora physicians in 2008. SAMA is a humanitarian NGO, whose goal is to share
medical knowledge with Sudanese doctors. In an interview in late June 2019, Dr.
Saeed-Elasad told me:
We donate money to help medical eorts in the Sudan… Our
meetings bring doctors from dierent states within the USA and
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sometimes from Europe.We give medical advice about cases in
Sudan where specialists may not be available…We are also
involved in treating victims of rape in Sudan and dealing with the
psychological trauma.
More recently,the Sudanese Physician Association became one ofthe strongest
forces under the umbrella ofthe Sudanese Professional Association (SPA), which is
now supported by many branches in the diaspora. When the current revolution
began, doctors in the US established the Sudanese-American Physician Association
(SAPA), which is also helping on medical fronts in the Sudan.
Diaspora activism has transformed the burden of being away from home into a gift
of giving, alliance, and moral supportfrom afar. The experiences of Sudanese in the
United States, similar to the experience of many refugees and immigrants, help us
to understand that giving back to both countries is a priority for many