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 Wardi's Return: Ringing the Bells of Freedom
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Dear Ahmed Al-Tohami,
Salamun Salaam, to you,
To all Salooners
To the Sudanese People
And to all FREEDOM lovers on Earth,
I appreciate, Ahmed, the comments you have made on Wardi's return. I partially agree with you seeing the perspective you are coming from. However, I beg to differ in your assessment of Ward's character and comparing him to Sadig Al-Mahdi and his party's reported secret deals with the government.
I know Wardi personally through his friendships with several of my uncles from my mother's side. When he came to Khartoum in the fifties he lodged with two of them and from there he sprung into fame. I recall vividly having seen him frequently during a week-long marriage festivities spree of one of my uncles in the late sixties in our village in Khashm El-Girba. He refused to charge my uncle any fees, as he told me in Qatar in 1998, where and when I was working at the time. He stayed in Qatar for more than two month, during which we have extensively met and reminisced about the Sudan and discussed our extensive unwanted, and forced absence from the country. Of special interest to me, as you can imagine, was his sixties week-long stay with us in "Village 23" of Khashm Al-Girba. I , of late, also met him in London in 1995, and in 1996, once at his home and once in the commemoration of Dr. Al-Tigani Amer,a prominent member of the Communist Party. From this long relationship, since I was 5 or 6 years old, and from my extensive discussions and observations, I believe, I know the weaknesses of Wardi as well as his strengths.
In my judgment Sadig is a dwarf compared to Wardi. Wardi, I believe, would never agree to a secret political deal with the government, even if his party did. His stand in refusing to ride the government vehicle at the airport upon arrival is more an indicative of the character of the Wardi that I know than anything else. Another thing that he confided to me was that El-Tayeb Sikha repeatedly tried to persuade him since his departure to go back to the Sudan, with the understanding that he will be allowed to do "whatever" he wants, telling him that he is his -Sikha's- favorite artist. Wardi steadfastly refused. That is the Wardi that I know.
Having said this, I don't exclude the probability that an old sickly man would want, for the sake of seeing his country one last time, to sacrifice a little bit of his pride to get a perk here or there. Since Wardi is a supremely, and extremely proud person, one of his well known weaknesses at times, yet one of his best qualities at other times, I extremely doubt that he got any perk, or even any permission, from the government as the vehicle refusal incident entails.
In my judgment, Ward is not just a singer, he is a political stance, and he is a stark representative of the resilience of the Sudanese people and their sacred love for freedom. Yet another example to support this point from my own heated arguments was this. knowing, of course, that I am a Republican, one day in Qatar, he confided to me that he began to experiment with his voice by reciting Quran and chanting "Madih" showing me the picture of his grandfather which was prominently hanged in the room. That ancestor, he said pointing to the picture, was a respected religious leader in their village, who immensely encouraged him to attach himself with Quran and Madih. In another warm discussion, that soon became a heated one, as usually happens with Wardi and many other Nubians of my, and his kind, he stormed with his wrath and extreme anger when I pointed to his religious background in the context of critiquing the NIF failed experiment of governance in the Sudan. He told me to "shut up" and not to allow this to be sneaked into political debate. He rightly, feared, the bigots governing the Sudan today will use his background for political ends. Such a shrewd man can never be compared to Sadig Al-Mahadi, who sought every opportunity to show these same bigots that they -the Umma Party and the NIF- in fact share the same ends and thoughts, and only differ in some fringe means of governance.
Sadig Al-Mahdi is an opportunist leader par excellence, who leads from behind, and who does not refrain from even lying to advance cheap political ends. If any reader of this account wants proof of what I have just said, look into Republican books on this miserably, morally, failed leader called Al-Sadiq Al-Mahdi. I have never been a communist "Wa Lilahi Al-Hammd," but I challenge Al-Sadig to defend his stance of the late sixties, when I was 4 years old, during the shameful episode of the expulsion of the Sudanese Communist Party members from the parliament. We all know what Al-Ustaz Mahmoud's stand was. He emphatically stood for the right of the Communists, with whom he immensely differed in opinion, to express their right to organize, to express their opinions, and to take part in the political future of their country, as long as they did that through peaceful means. I am crying as I write these words, fiercely fighting tears to continue ya Habibi Ya Ahmed. Our Father was a great MAN I am extremely proud of HIM. With Him even Wardi and all other great men dim, and fail, in comparison. But Wardi is a great man, whose spirit is an extension of OUR Father's, and the Sudanese, Nubian, spirit. You don't need to be told that Al-Ustaz Mahmoud is a Nubian. He was extremely proud to call himself an African as well. No Sadig, Mahdi or not, comes even near Al-Ustaz, even though, ironically, Sadig himself is a Nubian, who could have made a better person of himself, if he had realized that he was to be a proud African-Arab, not just as an Arab as he portrays himself to be, paying only lip service to his African ancestry. Al-Sadiq is a huge political, and moral failue, Ahmed, While Wardi is a humongous singer and moral tower.
I have always loved Wardi for who he is, and I love him a million times more because I love Al-Ustaz, and he-Wardi- loves HIM too. On the infamous Day of Execution, Jan. 18, 1985, Ward received the sad news in Cairo. He wept and locked himself up in a room, with Al-Ustaz and his Oud, and came out with "Ya Shab'an Tasama Ya Haza El-Humam." I am uncontrobally crying again ya Habibi ya Ahmed. How can you compare such a man with Sadig, who failed to retain the essential trait that his name carries.
To Sadig I say, I don't hate you. On the contrary, I deeply love and respect you, that is why I think you merited my time and attentions today. In fact I admire your very kind demeanor and courteous style of conversation. You are a polite politician, working with extremely impolite ones in your party and other parties. But I have to say this. As a young diplomat in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Sudan, I met you as I was the person in charge of arranging visits by American and Canadian diplomats. My dear former boss Ambassador El-Rasheed Abu-Shama entrusted me with this huge task, because he trusted me, and may be, he deeply mistrusted you. I don't know. But one thing I know, you have miserably failed me and my generation, three dear times in your political career, twice in the sixties, and once in the eighties. With your characheterisitic blurred vision, you handed the Sudan, and its supremely good people, to the most venomous kinds of religious fanatics, who swept all greenery and light to replace them with drought and darkness. Their day of reckoning has come. And may be yours with them, if you don't clean up your act, and fast. And Wardi is and his return are only milestones in that direction, in spite of him, in spite of me, and in spite of El-Tayeb Sikhas and Osama Bin Ladens of the world. We have not forgotten the rupture one Sikha has caused to one of my Republican Brother's ear drums. He will stand for trial for that, hopefully, sooner than we expect.
To the NIF leaders I say, again, the lion is rising. The roar of the Sudanese people is heard by those of us who hear. You don't hear. No deaf hears. The light is seen by those who can see. Blind people don't see. You are blind and deaf. While you slept on the wealth of the Sudanese people thinking they are naive, and can be governed only by the stick and the sword, we the lions and lionesses of the Sudan, the Wardies, the Garangs, the Majaks, the Sarahs, the Haydars, the Samahs, the Mohameds, the Haddifs, the Asmaas, the Tyseers, the millions, were not sleeping as you did. We were suffering, and a sufferer cannot sleep. Yet suffering has yielded endurance. And endurance has yielded hope. Hope has yielded thoughtfulness, and thoughtfulness has yielded resolve. We the Sudanese people, has resolved, to remove you, and your brand of thinking from power. You are either with us or against us.
The rule of law will exonerate those of you who may rightfully claim to be innocent. But no guilty party or person will be exonerated after the various warnings you have had from good conscience, and from Al-Ustaz Mahmoud. You were told "Haza Aw Al-Tawafan." This TWAFAN is yet to come. It was not the overthrow of Nimeri, which was a huge job, initiated, single handedly by my Father, Al-Ustaz Mahmoud Mohamed Taha. The good Sudanese people obeyed the call. They overthrew Nimeri in only seventy six days, when some of its consciousness opinion leaders, including some of us as Republican Brothers worked hand in hand with Mohamed Yousif Al-Digair, Prof. Adlan Hardallou, and others, to finish the job. When some of you, were asleep, deaf, and blind, then the Sudanese mighty rage led us all to overthrow Nimeri, whose relevance at that time had expired.
To both Sadig and the bigots in the NIF I say, this time we rise with an immense global might, in sight of the international conscience, consciousness, and light, thanks to the technological advancements in communication. Your failure had led me, a Sudanese citizen, diplomat, and patriot, to become an American through political asylum. I am extremely, I mean extremely proud to be a Sudanese-American. Thousands of the millions of us in the Diaspora, resulting from your utter failure, have now become citizens of the countries in which they live. NONE of us is less of a patriotic Sudanese than all of you.
We spire to come back, as Wardi did. Wardi has come to the Sudan by his own calling. No one needs a permission to go to his country. And you know today that Ward is more popular in the Sudan today than any of you, and all those who led the Sudan up to this very minute, presidents, prime ministers, ministers, and all bigots included.
Why?
Because Wardi summons and commands, as he is summoned and commanded, by the Sudanese spirit that all of you have so far shamefully crushed. But you cannot crush the ungraspable. Spirit, the Sudanese spirit for that matter, is unshakable. Again I say, the lion has risen, the might giant, the Sudanese, the real Sudanese, has come. Even Hussein Khojalai, one of you, is touching a glimpse, of this Return of the Sudanese Spirit. You are either with us or against us. This time we "won't falter, we won't tire, we won't fail" as our American president says commenting on the war on terrorism and terrorists who you have embraced and nourished.
We know the full story of Afghanistan now. We know that some of you are shamefully, fully, co-operating with U.S. intelligence agencies, while denouncing America and its people in your double-talking sneaky ways. We know that you are secretly trying to undermine America, while deceiving it by showing a cooperative face. The Sudanese people, some of whom are now Sudanese -American, will not forget the "America Qad Danna Azaboha" slogans you have carried, and some of you still carry at heart. We know that you say something to the Sudanese, and do quite another in its back, while talking with the American officials. Only thieves and liars engage in such shameful behavior. You are either with us, or you are thieves and liars. Now is the time of reckoning, and the Sudanese Wrath, the Wrath of Allah, is Upon You. You are either with us or against us. Only lions and lionesses, like Wardi and Asmaa, my Sudanese Republican and American wife, are the leaders of this Thogthful Wrath. I personally, will not sleep at will, from this moment on ward. Let us roll people. Let us roll Sudan. Let us roll Freedom. Let us roll Ahmed. Let us roll Tayseer, the Sudanese-British-American daughter of my dear brother Dr. Abdullahi Ahmed Al-Maim, one of the mighty giants of this world, a proud Sudanese-American as well. Let us roll for FREEDOM!!! AND LET FREEDOM WRING, PEOPLE!!
Akhoy Al-Habib Ahmed:
Would you please have this account sent to any Sudanese list that you know of. I would like us to engage in the debates of our country, the beautiful, and once peaceful, country. I am crying again. This time controllably though. I am wiping my tears now.
And I would also appreciate it if you, or anyone, can have an able translator convert it into Arabic. I have some constraints of time, some minor health problems, and unfortunately, I don't have Arabic software in my system. If any of the Ballooners would take up this task of translating it, I would appreciate it, with the only condition of consulting with me on what he or she produces as translation of this piece. If not I will press myself, and do it in Omer's computer.
Haydar Badawi Sadig
2708 Wingdale Dr.
Chalotte, NC 28213
May 26, 2002
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بكرى ابوبكر
فيس بوك
تويتر
انستقرام
يوتيوب
بنتيريست