We, the Sudanese nations, in particular the politicians and pseudo-politicians are notoriously accustomed to manipulating and sugar-coating the facts. We rarely call a spade a spade. We keep beating around the bush. Such behaviours have negatively contributed in flaring up violent conflicts among Sudanese nations instead of de-escalating them. Calling a spade a spade is in an acute supply in the politicians’ lexicon and culture. Instead of striking at the taproot of the evil, they go for hacking at the leaves of the evil.
The barbaric ongoing war that has swept the whole country that does not have any precedent in the far or recent history of Sudan. Our politicians and pseudo-politicians as usual, have kept focusing on the notoriety of the war and its negative impacts rather than addressing the reasons that led to that war. They have kept hacking at the leaves of the conflict instead of striking at the root causes of the conflict
Johan Vincent Galtung, this renowned Norwegian sociologist, founder of Peace and Conflict Studies, often referred to as the father of peace studies (24 Oct. 1930 – 17 Feb. 2024), talked a lot about violence. He divided violence into two parts, namely; direct violence (physical violence) and indirect violence. He also divided the indirect violence into two parts, namely; structural violence and cultural violence. Briefly, he divided violence into three types, namely; physical violence, structural violence, and cultural violence. I will try to, briefly, define these three types of violence so that we, all, can clearly and fully understand them and then be able to, jontly, handle them.
Structural Violence is the violence that some social institutions or structures intentionally aim at harming people through preventing them from reaching or realizing their basic and abstract needs. Social injustices, cultural injustices, economic injustices, political injustices, lop-sided development are all categorized as structural violence. Structural injustices are the injustices that are intentionally imbedded in the constitutions, laws, by-laws, policies, strategic plans, curriculums, and syllabus. It is an insidious type of violence, one cannot see it or touch it but you can feel it or observe it through the luxurious manifestations and lack of access to quality services and lack of access to equal treatment and opportunities. Structural violence or structural injustices are the taproots for physical violence to flar up. Structural violence is the main cause for the wars’ eruption worldwide. When somebody denies you the right to healthcare, you will hate him or her. When he or she denies you the access to quality education, you will hate him or her. When he or she denies you, the right to clean potable water you will hate him or her. Generally, when somebody denies you the right to the basic needs it is as bad as denying you the right to existence and survival. When intentional structured social inequities, political injustices, social inequalities, and economic unfairness exist, structural violence exists. Structural violence is correspondingly associated with injustice. When there is intentional unequal access to quality educational services and opportunities, this is a structural violence. When there is intentional unequal access to quality health services, this is a structural violence. When there is intentional unequal access to quality roads, this is a structural violence. When there is intentional unequal access to quality electricity services, this is a structural violence. When there is intentional unequal access to improved development interventions, this is a structural violence. When there is intentional unequal access to good quality security services, this is a structural violence. When there is intentional unequal access to quality housing facilities and services, this is a structural violence. When there is intentional unequal access to political power, this is a structural violence. Structural Violence is the source of our catastrophic crisis in Sudan.
Cultural Violence refers to the parts of the cultural and social aspects such as religion, ideology, language, arts, law, and science that are intentionally used by certain socio-cultural or political institutions in order to justify or legitimize, or support the exercise of the direct and structural violence. Structural violence and cultural violence combine and interweave into flaring up the physical violence. War is just one aspect of physical violence.
Physical Violence is the product of the structural cultural violence. Physical violence is the legitimate son of the structural violence. When one exhausts all sorts of peaceful means, one resorts to physical violence in order to restore or protect their rights. War is just one sort of violence, killing, raping, beating, looting, destructing, burning, stealing, hijacking, imprisoning, forcible displacement, torturing, and suchlike, are all sorts of physical violence
Sadly, our politicians and pseudo-politicians are obsessed by the thin of the thickness of the physical part of the violence, the war. They wittingly or unwittingly avoid striking the taproot or the root causes of the war, which are the cultural and structural violence, the structural injustices. Hacking the leaves of the evil serves their interests and ambitions. They have kept imprisoning themselves within the box; they do not have the capacities to think outside the box. Albert Einstein had an idiom that says ’we cannot solve our problems with the same level of thinking that created them.’ Our politicians and pseudo-politicians, so far, keep the same level of thinking and the same obsolete tools of 1956 for settling the current challenges encountering the nations of this country. They are reluctant to rise to the upper level of thinking.
The above-mentioned paragraphs are just a backdrop to the title ‘Let Us Call a Spade a Spade.’ I restore some violent and nonviolent names of some residential neighbourhoods in Sudan in my memory that I really want to share with you in order to help us to, truly, call a spade a spade. These names of residential neighbourhoods carry some important connotations and hints. I honestly beg you to, thoroughly and objectively, scroll your eyes on these names in order to come up with certain conclusions and insights that might help you make your contributions when it comes to building the proposed Sudan National Project. The names of these residential neighbourhoods are as follows: Zagalouna. Salabouna. Zalamouna. Taradouna. Jabarouna. Kabasouna. Kartoun Barouna. Kartoun Kasala. Zindia. Karour. Haj Manfa. Atla Barra. Rojal Mafi, Kooshat Aljaba. Ras Elshetan. Aldilema. Aldikhenat. Akhir Mokalma and suchlike whereas on the other hand you find other residential neighbourhoods carrying the following names; Alryat. Altaif. Garden City. Kafoury. Alsafia. Alfyhaa. Almaamoura. Alfordous. Almanshia. Arkaweet. Madenet Alneel. Alazhar. Almohandiseen. Amogtarebeen. Alamarat. Hai alzouhoor. How do you feel when you read these names of residential neighbourhoods? Can you imagine or believe that all these residential neighbourhoods are in one country called Sudan and that they are asked to, peacefully, coexist? The first residential neighbourhoods are densely populated with nations coming from certain geographical area of the country whereas the other residential neighbourhoods’ inhabitants belong to another specific geographical area of the same one country. Alas, what is a paradoxical context! What a real ticking bomb! Is it not a strong justification and fertile soil for wars to germinate? Is not a clear call and invitation for rebellion and disobedience? Is it a real temptation for the youth to burn the tyres in the streets and barricade the roads? I do not want to make any analysis I just want to provoke you, to stimulate you in order to call a spade a spade. If a spade is not called a spade, I am afraid that this country will not comfortably accommodate its nations.
No glory for gun, yes glory for peace
Stay well,
Mahjoub
Kampala, Uganda
