أمة البجا ـ ورقة مقدمة من المؤرخ ضرار صالح ضرار ـ THE BEJA NATION

قدمت هذه الورقة من المؤرخ
الأستاذ ضرار صالح ضرار 1968
فى مؤتمر بباريس عن محو الأمية بالدول المتخلفة
وفيها طرح قضية البجا
أعيد بعض من صياغتها حسب التاريخ
وهى تلخيص لبرامج مؤتمر البجا
ليطلع عليها كل من له تساؤل حول برامج
مؤتمر البجا
والورقة ربما إتجهت أقصى اليسار من حيث الجهوية
وهى ـ كما أرى ـ تتبع التفاوض ـوإلا
وكفانا الله ما تجر إلا


BEJA NATION
The Beja are an ancient nation with its own integrity and language and has its own high culture and distinguished history .
The ancient Beja state was a contemporary of the early pharonic era and managed to survive through all the ages until the year 1841 when they were subdued by the Turkish rule . as a result of this Turkish conquest , the Beja tribal kings were subjected to rule for the first time in historyand their royal titles were changed into nazirs , and sheikhs by the Turkish rulers . The Beja , however , were able to overthrow their Turkish foreign oppressors and regained their independence during the mahdist revolution that swept the whole of Susan in 1883 . They managed to keep their independence until 1898 when the British imperialists of the nineteenth century started their wars of colonizing the smaller nations and brought their armies and advanced war machinery that overwhelmed the Beja warriers . In 1948 they rose in revolt against the British and they lost a good number of their leaders before once again being suppressed by the British .
On the eve of British expultion from the Sudan , the English administration handed over their power and supremacy over the Beja nation to their successors – mainly the Riverian tribes whose treatment of the Beja peoples was identical with that of their masters . They formed another wave of imperialism and they became merely an extention of the British misrule and atrocities of the region . annexed by power by the English to the rest of the Sudan , the Beja territories are still held by force to the geographical expression which created by the colonizers at the end of the nineteenth century . This Sudan – a vague geographical expression used by the Arabs to denote an extensive piece of land extending from the Red Sea to the Atlantic ocean – does constitute a national link or force that will group all the inhabitants of that region to form one national entity . The British imperialists called the regions which they created from the Nile valley , the Red Sea coast and others by the name of Sudan which was previously ruled by the Turks who destroyed all Kingdoms and civilizations which existed in the region before . Among these extinguished nations was the Beja people .The British colonialists set a plan by which they destroyed the Beja nation because they resisted their occupation of their homeland and fought gallantly for seventeen years ( 1881 to 1898 ) and inflicted heavy defeats on their forces . Their warriers fought for every inch of land before retreating until they wetre finally overwhelmed by superior forces and arms .

The riverian successors of the British are by no means a better lot , because they are exploiting the Beja nation who are left only with poverty , destitude , disease and political reign of terror . The vices of the new government includein the list bribery , racialism , favouritism and oppression , and it is high time for the Beja people to rise once again to liberate their homeland from these oppressors in order to spread justice , civilization and advancement towards a better life .
The new imperialists have so far been successful in occuping the Beja youth in a futile competition to secure some government posts which would not be to the interest of the people in the future . They are following their predecessors motto of devide to rule .
But the time has come to awaken every Beja individual to see for himself and to seek his interests and those of his fellow-men . It is quite clear thatevery means of production in his region is monopolized by the Riverian people and other foreigners . They have the political as well as the financial power in their hands . The Beja become yhe human tool to build railway , roads , oil line pipes etc. which would enhance the wealth and prestige of the Riverians . The Beja national is only exploited in order to fill the pockets of his new oppressors and he is completely left to suffer from disease and poverty enjoying no rights whatsoever .

WE ARE not sessionists . WE ARE not separatists . BUT WE REFUSE to be followers with neither weight nor say . WE want equality . WE believe in open just competition . our case is a just one . its goals are well identified . For the sake of liberty and justice our ancestors fought against the PHAROAH , the HELLENICS , the ROMANS , ARABS , MAMLUKS , the TURKO-EGYPTIANS and the ENGLISH . In the war of liberationagainst the British in the nineteenth century , we lost all our fathers , and only we as orphans and our mothers as widows were the survivors of that war.

The defence of our liberty is now entrusted to us , like our forefathers we shall die fighting rather than experience oppression and justice . If we have to fight the Riverians and Kharoumites we shall do so . Our sacred ideals come first and our swords will forever be brandished ready to defend the homeland against any invasion . WE do not believe in the boundaries drawn by the English imperialists because they are drawn in such a way that it will always lead to conflicts between the neighbouring people . Such conflicts always give the colonizer an chance to comeback in one form or other . We do not want to encroach on the territories of others , but we want our own homeland with its historical boundaries to be under our supremacy . In plain words we want to form our own country . The country of the BEJA NATION – with its recognized boundaries and political independence . OUR reasons for these are :

1 - THE BEJA nation ethnically have nothing in common with the other natives of the sudan . WE have existed in our country as a nation for more than five thousand years .
2 - OUR language is different .
3 - OUR cutoms are different .
4 - OUR culture and history are deeply rooted in history and we have never been touched by Arabic culture .
5 - WE are moslems but nothing else .

THE Khartoumites and riverians , like the British before them have given rise to this attitude because of the following :

1 =- Their way of oppressing the BEJA nationals in every way , and the government does not give any services to them . the responsible government officials who are KHartoumitesor riverians have always been racialistic in their attitude towards Beja individuals and always favoured their lot .
2 =- There is neither equality in educational nor appointment opportunities . The Beja needs arwe always ignored and the Riverians exercise is always satisfied , heading posts are given to the Riverians while the Beja nationalhas to complete even in the mineal jobs . And this is usually given to others who come of river-stock .
3 =- All revenues from the port , customs duties , pipe-line , railways services etc. , became a monopoly of the government centered in Khartoum . The Beja receive nothing in order to improve their state of living .
4 =- Being in powerful posts , the Riverians and Khartoumites took all residential and industrial lands in the Beja region for themselves . They became the biggest propertyholders in the vicinity and became clients and agents to foreigners in securing bigger plots in free ports.
5 =- Political and social vices became in abundance in the country and this like an epidemic may spread in our poverty – stricken area causing great social and moral damage amonge the Beja nation .
6 =- WE do not want to change the old master – the British whom we have driven out in order to have a replacement by another exploiter –the Riverian. We want to be our own masters in our own territory .
7 =- We refuse to be subjected to the political parties , the unions and societies which were created by old regimes and now want to survive by exploiting our people and linking them to their machinery . WE do not want to fight for others , but want to secure our own interests .
8 =- WE want to keep the homeland of the Beja nation away from international spheres of interest . its strategic position makes it a good means of bargaining with superior forces who would take to obtain a foothold in its land . We aim at keeping it in the non-aligned camp .
9 =- We want self determination which international organizations believe , and we shall ask for a plebiscite under the supervision of the United Nations to be carried out in our region to enable the Beja nation to determine their own political future .
10 =- For almost fifty years , the case of the Beja nation has been brought forward before the rulers of Khartoum, but all their attempts were of no avail . It was put before the party leaders and government bodies but here was no favourable response . The call of the Beja people was met with arrogance and deaf ears . A new , more dynamic

أخى وصديقى الاستاذ والشاعر صديق ضرار ...... تحياتى وحبى
أظنها 35 عاما لم نتلتق خلالها ... ولكن صدقنى لم تغب عن الخاطر .. ولا غاب ذلك الزمان الزين.
ماقدمته اسرتكم الكريمه لاهلك البجه يستحق منا كل التقدير .... ولكن .... هل تشاهد الفضائيه السودانيه ومايقدم عن البجه من خلال برنامج ثراثيات الذى يقدمه جراهام... اعرف الضيوف الذين يتحدثون عن البجه وتراثهم فهل نضبت الديار من احد يعرف تاريخ البجه وتراثهم
بدلا من الاجتهاد الخامل الذى يقوم به الضيوف ام ان الاتحاد الاشتراكى قد دبت فيه الحياة من جديد فجاؤا يبحثون عن مكان وسط الهيصه ... لايهمنى حجم الفتات الذى سينالهم من الكعكه ... فقط ارجوهم ان يتركوا البجه وشأنهم حتى يأتى احد فى قامة الاساتذه صالح ضرار .. وضرار صالح ضرار .. و استاذى وشيخى مولانا محمد الامين شريف وهناك
محمد ادروب اوهاج والدكتور اوشيك وغيرهم ... أنت أهل ياصديقى لحمل الرايه لتعريف الشعب السودانى بأهلك البجه بدلا من هؤلا ,,,لك الشكر وعفوا...

صديق العمر
الفارس أحمد طه

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