I ask to be no other man than that who I am.

Please don’t despair if the article is too long or in English but its one of the best articles written regarding Identity in Sudan.


=======================================================
The Crisis of Identity in Northern Sudan: A Dilemma of a Black people with a White Culture.
A paper presented at the CODSRIA African Humanities Institute
Tenured by the Program of African Studies at the Northwestern University, Evanston.
I ask to be no other man than that who I am.
And will know who I am.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Background of the Study

In Sudan, Africa's largest land, there is a civil war, the longest in
Africa, and probably in the whole world. It has continued for thirty-six
years, claimed 1.9 million lives, and displaced five million people. Since
1989, when the current government came to power, more people have been
killed, by war and war related famine, than in the Bosnian, Rwandan and
Somalia wars combined. Attempting to understand the roots of the war,
Sudanese historians and political analysts generally adopted two main
approaches. The first generation of these focused mainly on the colonial
powers, and their "calculated measures to separate the South from the
North", by sowing the seeds of hatred in the South.

However, after more than four decades of national rule, the problem is not
only there, but has aggravated, and its latent religious tone has now taken
a full-fledged form. This matter has motivated new generations of Sudanese
to do some rethinking. Thus the second approach came into being and shifted
the focus from the enemy "without" to the enemy "within"; it identifies the
roots of the war as a conflict between the two main identities in the
country, Northern and Southern. Now there is a wide consensus among
Sudanese, Northern and Southern alike, that the country is in a state of a
crisis of national identity. The war is basically viewed as a war of
vision, and a conflict of identities, as Francis Deng, the prominent
Southern Sudanese intellectual, eloquently puts it. The North, feeling that
it is Arab and Muslim, has always sought to define the whole country in
these terms.

It did not only resist any attempts by the non-Arab segment of the country
to identify Sudan with black Africa, but also tried relentlessly to
assimilate the South through Arabization and Islamization policies, and to
turn the Southern identity into a distorted image of the Northern self. The
South, on the other hand, perceiving this scheme as a kind of cultural
cloning, has always resisted it.

However, this study goes a step further and investigates a deeper level of
the roots of the war. It focuses on the conflict "within" the Northern
identity, which underlies the conflict "between" Southern and Northern
identities. It tries to reveal the connection between the cleavage caused
by the ruling Northern elite in the country and the fissures of the
Northern self, and whether the former is both manifestation and sign of the
latter. Thus this study makes another shift of focus from the external
duality characterizing the North/South divide to the internal duality
characterizing the Northern self-divide.


A Definition of Identity

Identity is defined by The Webster's Third New Dictionary of the English
Language as "the sameness of essential genetic character in different
examples or instances. Or Sameness of all that constitutes the objective
reality of a thing: self-sameness, oneness; sameness of that which is
distinguishable only in some accidental fashion.

The sense arising in shared experience, an instance of such sameness. Or
unity and persistence of personality: unity or individual comprehensiveness
of a life or character. Or the condition of being the same with something
described, claimed or asserted, or of possessing a character claimed".
If we want to establish a person's identity, we may need to know his or her
name, color, ethnic and cultural background and the position one occupies
in the community. Thus there are two faces to identity, one primordial and
given, and the other constructed and chosen.

Identity is both subjective and objective, personal and social, and hence
its illusive nature. Individuals have a wide range of possible identities.
They can have racial or ethnic identities, national or religious
identities, or even hometown identities. The talk about personal identities
is firmly connected to the realm of genetic discourse. Although biological
characteristics are objective, personal identities mean much more than
these; they also include "a subjective sense of a continuous existence and
a coherent memory".

The subjective sense of identity is the sense of sameness and continuity as
an individual, a sense of belonging to a deep-rooted set of values which
forms one's mental and moral attitude, and gives individuals their unique
characters. It enables the individual to live life more fully and
intensely. At such moments, it can be said that an individual has become
himself or herself, and is "at home with his or her body", and in harmony
with his or her environment and symbolic order. However, what underlie such
a subjective sense are objective attributes, which can be recognized by
others.

Identity is also dynamic and responsive to changing conditions. It is bound
to shift with changing technologies, cultures and political systems. It is
also strategic. People claim certain identity for strategic reasons, such
as empowerment. Above and underlying these factors are the historical
legacies of our ancestors which "weigh heavily on who we are and who we can
become". Identity is therefore a claim for membership based on all sorts of
typologies such as race, ethnicity, gender, class, caste, religion,
culture, etc. It is the way by which people define themselves and are
defined by others on the basis of the above typologies.
A Definition of Identification

Identification is defined by the Dictionary of Social Sciences as a
"tendency to imitate and or the process of imitating the behavior of an
object. It may also denotes the process of merging emotionally, or the
state of having so merged, with the same object". S. Freud introduced the
term into psychology in 1899. He stated that identification is "the
earliest expression of an emotional tie with another person". An individual
identifies with another person as an 'ego ideal' someone he or she would
like to be, rather than someone he or she would like to have. This is why
it is relevant to group behavior. He explained the need and capacity of the
individual to affiliate, and the strength of the emotional ties involved,
as essential attributes of human beings. He also mentions the 'infantile
origin' of the process of identification, and postulates that this
particular infantile origin accounts for its operation at the subconscious
level, for its strength as a motivational factor, and for its irrational
and, sometimes, regressive manifestation. To him identification is not
simple imitation, but rather assimilation on the basis of similar
aetiological pretension.

N. Sanford takes issues with Freud and states that, on the contrary,
identification is a conscious process, while imitation is unconscious. J.P.
Seward defines identification as "a general disposition to imitate the
behavior of a model." Freud speaks of three levels of identification. His
thesis is that, first it takes the form of emotional tie with an object.
Then it becomes a substitute for a libidinal tie, as if it takes the form
of introjection of the object into the ego. Finally it gives rise to new
perception of a common quality shared with some other person, or group.
Scheler differentiates between two types of identification, idiopathic and
heteropathic. In the first type, identification comes about "through the
total eclipse and absorption of another self by one's own", whereas in the
second type, "the identified is overwhelmed and hypnotically bound by the
model".

Identity Formation

The classical idea was that social identities are primordially given and
inherited like the biological traits. This view started to give way to the
idea that identities are constructed by choice, and are always subject to
reconstruction. However, people's choices of identities are limited or
constrained by the given and primordial factors such as their features,
families, communities, histories, cultures, etc. Identity formation,
according to Erikson, is a process by which

[T]he individual judges himself in the light of what he perceives to be the
way in which others judge him in comparison to themselves and to a typology
significant to them; while he judges their way of judging him in the light
of how he perceives himself in comparison to them and to types that become
relevant to him.
Social Psychologists hold that an individual's identification with a group,
for example, a social class, or a racial or ethnic group, is probably the
most pervasive of all the psychological processes that are directly
relevant to social behavior. Identification with a dominant group, for
instance, takes place when one "internalizes the role system of the group
and considers oneself a member of it". This happens through the process of
cultural assimilation. As David Laitin puts it:

[C]ultural assimilation is like religious conversion, and as the literature
of religion conversion makes clear, what one generation considers simple
pragmatism the next considers natural. Thus the children who are brought up
in a religious community will, egged up by religious authorities castigates
their parents for what they see as their hypocrisy.

This view corresponds to De Vos' perception of constructed identities as
"deviant". To him, they demonstrate "excessive instrumental expediency" and
a sign of "inner maladjustment", which occurs in certain social conditions
that have a huge impact on self-perception of own identity. Despite their
constructed nature, "identity categories have the power to subsume and even
to colonize individuals".

In the formation of social identities, there is always an in-group, which
represents the desired social identity, and a peripheral group, which have
to adjust in order to identify with the model. In such cases the former
represents the core, and occupies the center stage of that social identity
whereas the latter represents the outer circle and occupies the margin. The
former is privileged, and the latter seeks to be so. The former has the
power to legitimize or de-legitimize the latter. To describe a similar
concept, Chalres Taylor uses the term "recognition / misrecognition". He
postulates that people's identity is: "partly shaped by the recognition or
its absence, often by misrecognition of others".

For instance, whereas the white middle to upper class represents the center
of the American identity, the blacks, Japanese, etc., Americans represent
the peripheries of that identity. The center monopolizes the power to
recognize or misrecognize these groups. The tension between the center and
the peripheries may lay dormant or works at a low key in normal and
peaceful times. At such times the umbrella of identity seems to embrace all
the social groups that share the nation. But in times of severe conflicts
the center uses and often abuses the power of recognition.

It can withdraw the umbrella from any of the peripheral social groups
whenever it sees it necessary to do so. This actually had happened during
World War 11, when the Japanese Americans were detained in concentration
camps, for their loyalty to America was questioned by the center of the
American identity. The selectivity of the center in using the power of
recognition and misrecognition can be demonstrated by the fact that German
Americans were not detained, despite the fact that Germany was the major
force of the European Axis.

Thus the center decided to misrecognize the Japanese Americans during the
war, and to restore recognition to them after the war. The same thing can
be said about Britain, where the English identity represents the center of
the British identity. It is noticed that the term English is frequently
used by the media community in Britain when it means British, the matter
which irritates nationalists in Scotland and Wales. It is also observed by
the black British community that the mainstream British media some times
refer to Afro-Caribbean athletes as "British" when they won medals for
Britain, and as "Caribbean" when they lost. These examples illustrate the
tensions between the center and the peripheries in each identity as well as
the dynamics and processes of recognition and misrecognition that operate
between the center and the peripheries.

Change of Identity


Relying on a model developed by Thomas Schelling, Laitin interprets
identity shifts in terms of "cascades" and "tips". Cascades occur when
people's behavior and actions are motivated by or based on their
anticipation of what other people will do. When so many people in the
community think that others will think on the same lines and behave
accordingly, suddenly the community "tips" from its stable order before the
cascade to a new stable order. To demonstrate how communities tip and
cascade, Laitin gives the following example: "Consider the case of one or
two African Americans who buy homes in a stable "white" neighborhood.
Suddenly the white families, fearing that they will be the last whites in
the neighborhood, all seek to sell out at the same time. But only African
Americans who are willing to buy. Very quickly the neighborhood "tips" from
a stable white to a stable African American".

Identity shifts in the same manner, i.e. it can also cascade. In his
empirical study of the Russian community in Astonia, after the collapse of
the USSR, and the shrinkage of its borders, David Laitin gives us a clear
example of how identity shifts. He described the efforts Russian
individuals, who found themselves foreigners in the communities they once
dominated, were exerting in order to accommodate to the new realities.
Russians in Astonia struggled to obtain the Astonian nationality.

They started to learn the Estonian language, which they did not feel the
need to learn before the collapse of the union, as the Estonian were
compelled to speak Russian. Laitin concludes that the quest of these people
to keep their families intact, and to avoid deportation, gave then an
incentive for an identity shift. This in turn lays the foundation for the
construction of an Estonian identity for their grandchildren, and that, as
a community, they are moving towards an identity tip.
Communities normally live in equilibrium.

In such situations communities feel that the world is completely stable.
Identities do not come under question, and there will be no incentive for
change. All people share a tacit understanding of who they are. Cultural
and political elite of such a group step in to give meaning to this
equilibrium by providing it with beliefs, constraints, principles, myth,
and a symbolic order. At this stage the community can be described as being
itself, i.e. it lives in harmony with its environment, and sees the world
through their own eyes. However, turbulent events can shake the
equilibrium, bring instability to the community, result in an identity
crisis, and motivate some people to explore new identities. At this stage
cultural and political elite normally split between those who try to defend
the status quo, and those who will seek to induce a cascade towards a new
equilibrium.

Three Dimensions of Identity

None of the identity theories summarized above can alone explain the
complexities of the Northern Sudanese identity, and a synthesis of them is
therefore essential for that purpose. Thus on the basis of the foregoing
one can identify three elements that interact to define any social
identity. The first element is a group's perception of itself. The second
is the others' perception of the group.

The third is recognition or lack of recognition of the group by the center
of identity. If these three elements interact in a harmonious way, i.e. if
people's definition of themselves matches with other people's definition of
them, and that the center of that identity grants them recognition, then
this particular community is said to be living in equilibrium. Here is
where the cultural and political elite steps in to give meaning to this
equilibrium by providing it with a set of beliefs, constraints, principle,
myth, and symbolic order.

The symbolic order seeks to harmonize the whole universe around the
community's identity, or in other words, to make the universe looks as
though emanating from the community's collective self, or as if it is an
extension of their identity. At this stage the community can be described
as being itself, and as seeing the world through their own eyes. An example
of how the symbolic order works is the way by which western cultures have
reconstructed the image of Jesus Christ to make him look like an Anglo
Saxonian. This happened regardless of the fact that he was a Jew, and by no
means that he had blonde hair and green eyes. But nevertheless, this
reconstruction is essential for harmonizing the white people's identity,
for people make better sense of the universe when they worship a God that
looks like them, not one that is alien to them.

On the other hand, if the three elements interact contradictorily, i.e. if
people's perception of themselves does not match with the way other people
define them, or, more seriously, if the legitimizing powers did not
recognize the community's definition of itself, then this particular
community is said to live in disharmony. In such a case, the symbolic order
does not emanate from the community's collective self, but is usually
borrowed from the center of the identity that the community is aspiring
for, and wants to "be". These conditions set the scene for the paradoxes of
identity to become visible, for instability to creep into the community,
and for the crisis of identity to loom in the horizon.

Crisis of Identity

A crisis of identity can occur at both the personal and the social levels.
At the personal level, a crisis ensues when infantile identifications are
brought to conform to urgent new self-definition and irreversible role
choices. Also, personal identity is a lifetime quest, as Erikson
postulates, and failure to attain it represents a crisis, which can have a
damaging effect on individuals.

At the social level, a crisis may ensue when people, while constructing
their identities, fail to find a label that adequately fits them, or "when
they do not like the identity they have chosen or were compelled to go by".
And because social identities are usually "constructed from the available
repertoire of social categories, misfits are inevitable". Also a crisis may
occur when people are ambiguous about their identity, or lack a clear
identity. A crisis may also ensue when there is a disparity between
self-perception of one's identity and others' perception of the same
identity. Finally a crisis may exist if the center of identity, i.e. the
legitimizing power, does not recognize the peripheral's claims.
Elements of the Crisis in Northern Sudan

Among the elements that constitute a crisis of identity in any community,
one can identify three that are applicable to the Northern Sudanese. First,
there is a disparity between Northerners' self-perception of their identity
and others' perception of them. Northerners think of themselves as Arabs,
whereas the Arabs think otherwise. Northerners' experience in the Arab
world, and especially in the Gulf, proved to them beyond any doubt that the
Arabs do not really consider them as Arabs, but rather as abid, (sing.
abd), slaves. Almost every Northerner in the Gulf has had the unpleasant
experience of being called abd. The Arabs of the Middle East, and
especially those of the Arab Peninsula, and the Fertile Crescent, represent
the in-group of the Arab identity that Northerners aspire to.

These "real Arabs" occupy the center stage of this identity, and enjoy the
power of legitimizing or de-legitimizing the peripheries' claims. The
Northerners, on the other hand, represent the outer circle of the Arab
identity, occupy the periphery and wait to be drawn closer to the center,
as a sign of recognition. Mis-recognition of any group by others,
especially if these others represent the center of identity, can inflict
serious damage in that group. In Charles Taylor's own words, "a person or a
group of people can suffer real damage, real distortion, if the people or
society around them mirrors back to them a confining or demeaning or
contemptible picture of themselves". Far from recognizing Northerners as
Arabs, the center dubbed them 'abid, and thus kept them, to use Taylor's
term, in a "reduced mode of being".


The second element of the crisis of identity in Northern Sudan is
concerning "ambiguity" about identity. Northerners came face to face with
this symptom especially in Europe and America where people are classified
into ethnic and social categories. In 1990, a group of Northern Sudanese in
Birmingham in Britain convened a meeting to discuss how to fill in the
Local Council's Form, and especially the question about the social
category. They felt that they did not fit in any of the categories that
include, among others, "White, Afro-Caribbean, Asian, Black African, and
Others". It was clear to them to tick on "Others", but what was not clear
was whether to specify as "Sudanese, Sudanese Arab, or just Arab". There
was a heated discussion before they finally settled on "Sudanese Arab".

When the question why not to tick on the category of Black African was
raised, the immediate response was that, "but we are not blacks". When
another question raised the point why not just say Sudanese, the answer was
that: "Sudanese include Northerners and Southerners, and, therefore, does
not give an accurate description of us".

Ambiguity about identity was also observed in the feeling of dismay
Northerners usually experience when they discover, for the first time, that
they are considered blacks in Europe and America. It is also observed in
their attitude towards the black communities there. To be called black was
a shocking experience to the average Northern individual. Southerners
usually joke by saying to their Northern friends "thank God here we are all
blacks" and its variant "here we are all abid". Northerners attitude
towards the black population in these countries is similar to their
attitude towards the Southerners. They usually refer to them by the word
"abid", and one of my interviewees, once, referred to the Afro Caribbeans
as Southerners "janubiyyin".

The third element of the crisis is concerning "misfits" of identity.
Northerners live in a split world. While they believe that they are the
descendants of an "Arab father" and an "African mother", they seem to
identify with the father, albeit invisible, and despise the mother who is
so visible in their features. There is an internal fissure in the Northern
self between the looks and the outlook, the body and the mind, the skin
color and the culture, and, in one word, between the "mother" and the
"father". Arabic culture standardizes the white color, and despises the
black color. Northerners, in using the signification system of the Arabic
language, and the value system and symbolic order of the Arabic culture, do
not find themselves, but they find the embodiment of the center. The
Northern self is absent as a subject in this order. It is only seen, as an
object, through the eyes of the center, and hence the "misfits".

The Impact of Marginal Identity on the Northern Psyche


This inferior position has undoubtedly had its impact on the psychology of
the Northern individual. Recognizing that the standard features of the
in-group as white or light complexion, soft straight hair, and non-flat
nose, the average Northern individual has a sense of lacking in some of
these traits and attributes, and a desire to complement or compensate for
them. The understanding was that the lighter the color of the skin, the
closer the person is to the center, and the more authentic his or her claim
to Arab ancestry. Failing to comply with the standard color, as is the case
with most of the Northerners, the individual seeks a second resort in the
hair, in order to prove his or her Arab descent; the softer the hair the
closer the individual to the center. Failing to meet the hair criteria, the
individual takes the last resort in the shape of the nose, the closer to
the standard the better, for, at least, it can stand as a prove of
non-Negroid origin.

Color Consciousness

An individual lacking in the standard features normally seeks to compensate
or complement them. And because marriage offers these individuals an
opportunity to compensate and complement, the average Northerner aspires
and seeks, as far as possible, to marry a partner who is closer to the
standard features and color. Such a union gives the individual an immediate
compensation for his or her darkness and offers an opportunity of recovery
from it in his or her offspring. In her remarkable study of a Northern
Sudanese village that she gave the pseudo name Hofriyat, Janice Boddy found
out how the villagers are color conscious. She learned from them that the
ranking of skin color according to desirability "ranges from 'yellow' or
light through increasingly darker shades called 'red', 'green', and
'blue'". She then continues to say that the term aswad (black) is usually
reserved for Southern Sudanese or Africans".

Whereas Boddy's quotation proves the point of desirability of the lighter
color among Northerners, her literal translation of the terms of the
Northern color codes asfar, asmar, akhdar, and azrag, may cause some
confusion, if not explained. And in order to explain it, one would rephrase
Boddy's quotation as follows. The first color in ranking is asfar. This
literally means "yellow", but used interchangeably with ahmar to denote
"whiteness". The second in ranking is asmar. This literally means reddish,
but it is used to describe a range of color shades from light to dark
brown. This range usually includes subdivisions such as dahabi (golden),
gamhi (the color of ripe wheat), and khamri (the color of red wine). The
third in ranking is akhdar. This literally means green, but it is used as a
polite alternative of the word "black" in describing the color of a dark
Northerner. Last and least is azrag. This literally means "blue", but it is
used interchangeably with aswad to mean "black", which is the color of the
'abid.

The average Northerner views dark color as a problem that should be dealt
with. Whereas females deal with it directly through local or imported color
lighteners, males usually resort to indirect methods, i.e. a conjugal union
with a light-colored partner. But whatever satisfaction this latter
complementary and compensatory measure may offer the individual, still
there remains a great deal of anxiety generated by the consciousness that
one is moving around with the wrong color.

In order to counter such an anxiety, defense mechanisms must be put to
work; thus the color brown becomes the standard, and the color black takes
a different name. In order to avoid describing the self as aswad (black),
the collective Northern consciousness renamed the word as akhdar, which
originally used to describe the dark color of the soil. Thus, accordingly,
whereas a very dark Northerner is only akhdar, an equally dark Southerner
is bluntly aswad.
In discussing the Northerners' color concept, Deng writes the following:

Northern racial pride focuses on the right brown color of the skin,
considered the standard for the North and therefore for the Sudan. To be
too light for a Sudanese is to risk being considered a foreigner, a khawaja
(European), a Middle Eastern Arab, or worse, a Halabi, a term used for the
Gypsy-type racial group, considered among the lowest of the light-skinned
races. The other side of the coin is of course, looking down on the black
race as inferior, a condition from which one has mercifully been redeemed.
Northern Sudanese racism and cultural chauvinism, therefore, condemns both
the very dark and the very light.

While Deng's observation is generally true, his conclusion needs many
qualifications. It is my contention that ahmar (white) is the ultimate
standard color for the average Northerner. It is considered the standard
color of the in-group, i.e. the center of the Arab identity. Whereas the
brown color is standard only at a lower level, and as a way of defense
mechanism that had to accommodate it as an inescapable reality. Unlike the
white color, brown is good not on its own right, but only as a second best
alternative. Although popular music frequently flatters the magical looks
of the brown sweet heart asmar ya sahir al-manzar, the overriding
signification system of the Arabic Islamic culture standardizes the white
color, as we will demonstrate later. Had Northerners developed a
comprehensive and consistent signification system that standardizes the
brown color, they could have solved a great deal of their identity crisis.

Although it is true that Northerners stigmatize the very light ahmar and
the very dark, aswad or azrag, this stigma is not at the same level. The
social stigma attached to the color aswad is because it is associated with
the color of the 'abid (slaves). Whereas the social stigma attached to the
color ahmar (white) is because it is associated with color of the halab
(Gypsies). The halab, who are looked upon as people with lax morality and
demeaning behavior, are considered as "social outcasts".

The cultural formulations that prejudice the color aswad are overwhelmingly
abundant and deeply rooted in the Arabic culture and literature, unlike
those that prejudice the color ahmar which are scant and only developed
later on, during the Turkish occupation of the Sudan. These latter cultural
formulations came about as a result of the atrocities inflicted by the
Turks upon the population, for Northerners came to view the Turks as the
embodiment of corruption, greed, and cowardice. The Mahdist revolution
against the Turks and his decisive victory over them intensified and
augmented their contemptible image in the eyes of Northerners. This was
when the popular catch phrase "al-humra al-abaha al-Mahdi", came into
usage. The phrase can be translated as "the redness, (meaning whiteness)
that the Mahdi had detested".

Ahmar is therefore condemned, with these limitations and connotations in
mind, not in absolute terms. Indeed ahmar is essentially viewed, by both
the Arabic culture and by the Sudanese local culture, as the embodiment of
beauty. In his Qamus al-Lahja al-'Amiyyah fil-Sudan, A Dictionary of
Colloquial Arabic in Sudan, 'Awn ash-Sharif Qasim has this to say about the
white color.

They [the Arabs] call an individual with a white complexion ahmar. 'Aisha,
wife of the Prophet, was called al-humaira, (a diminutive form of the word
ahmar) because her skin was white. The Arabs also used to call the Persians
and the Romans humr (plural of ahmar) because the color of their skins is
white. And they mean the white color when they say al-husnu ahmar (beauty
is white).

Janice Boddy shows how the women of Hofriyat village are conscious of skin
color. To them, "white skin is clean, beautiful, and a mark of potential
holiness". They repeatedly told her that, as a white woman, she had far
greater chances to get into heaven, if she converted to Islam, than them or
any other Sudanese. Their reasoning was that "this is because the Prophet
Mohammad was white, and all white-skinned peoples are in the favored
position of belonging to his tribal group".

Also, condemnation of ahmar (white) remains only at the level of discourse
and is not reflected in the social behavior of the Northern Sudanese. For
instance, Northerners showed readiness to intermarry with white people, be
they Europeans or Arabs, but they demonstrated reluctance to intermarry
with black people, be they Southerners or Africans in general. More
precisely, whereas Northerners do not have problems in marrying off their
daughters to the first category, they do not even contemplate marrying them
off to second category.
Marginality Consciousness

Another sign of the impact of the marginal identity on the Northern psyche
might be observed in the political behavior of Northern ruling class. One
of the first decisions to be taken by the Northern ruling class after
independence was to join the Arab League. Mohamed Ahmed Mahgoub tells us
that "we had hasten to join the Arab League immediately on the declaration
of our independence". Recognizing its place in the margin of the Arab
world, this government kept a low profile within the Arab world, and did
not take sides in the Arab internal dis

___________________________________________________

طولوا بالكم
المقال جدير بالقراءة