Let Us Call a Spade a Spade (2)

In article (1) I hurriedly touched some aspects of violence according to Johan Galtung perspective. He divided violence into three parts, namely; physical violence, structural violence, and cultural violence. The most dangerous one is the structural violence but because of its insidiousness people hardly observe and notice it. Structural violence represents more than 80% of the violence

Physical violence is the one that is clearly noticed and felt by people. It represents only 5% of the violence nevertheless its impacts are widely manifested, whereas cultural violence represents almost 13% of the violence. Due to the physical detrimental damaging impacts of physical violence, people hardly pay attention to the other two types of violence, namely structural and cultural violence.

I am in the business of pressurizing you to call a spade a spade without any sugar-coating the facts. Structural violence, as we previously said, is the source of agony, suffering, and hardship. Structural violence is the cause whereas the physical violence is the impact. The first is the process whereas the second is the product. The germination and proliferation of the Revolutionary Armed Movements in the country is attributable to the notorious practice of structural violence in its ugliest form in Khartoum by the successive civil governments and military regimes. Armed Revolutionary Movements erected as a reaction to structure violence practiced by the central government in Khartoum.

Poverty, hunger, disease, illiteracy, discrimination, inequality, and inequity are just some manifestations of structural violence. Bad governments establish bad social structures and institutions that practice structural violence on behalf of them. It is the structural violence that hatches karour, Zagalouna, Salabouna, Zalamouna, and Ras elshetan as well as Garden City, Alsafia, Almanshia, and Almamoura. When our women, the tea and food makers, are brutally chased and their productive assets are destroyed or confiscated, this is a sort of structural violence. When government authorities launched oppressive crackdown on the marginalized people and start damaging and destructing their houses under the pretext that those houses are illegally built, this is a sort of structural violence but they don’t call it structural violence, they call it a campaign for removing illegally built houses or a campaign for removing ugly manifestations from the capital, they don’t call a spade a spade.

Extreme centralism is a sort of structural violence. When the central government is reluctant to decentralize its power and authorities to the peripheral regions, this is a sort of structural violence. When all good facilities are centralized in the capital whereas rural areas are deprived of or denied such facilities, this is a structural violence. When all resources are collected from the peripheral regions and areas and siphoned into the capital treasury without equitable and fair distribution to the all parts of the country, this is a sort of structural violence. At family level, when a family denied its daughter her right to go to school while allowing its son to go to school, this a sort of structural violence. When a certain ethnic group monopolizes the power since the independence of the country, this is a sort structural violence in its ugliest face. When certain residential neighbourhoods in Khartoum, the capital, are well covered with tarmac roads, light, quality running water, and security facilities whereas other residential neighbourhoods in the same Khartoum and the same capital are deprived of such services and facilities, this is a stark sort of structural violence

It is not a secret that bad governments establish structural forces and institutions to exercise corruption, exploitation and oppression on the people on her behalf but under sugar-coating names, this is, as well, a sort of structural violence. When the government subjectively distributes residential plots or lands to her citizens, where unfair or inequitable distribution processes are exercised like giving good locations and lands to certain privileged people while giving bad locations and plots to the other poor and marginalized people, this is a sort of structural violence. Why are certain citizens living in the centre, where all good service facilities are within their reach whereas other citizens are living in the peripheral belt of the city with no access to light, quality water, quality healthcare, improved sanitation services, and improved education facilities? Such a structural question is forbidden to be asked or raised.

Structural violence is a real obstacle that suffocates and cripples the progress of any country that aspires for making itself a better place to its people. Structural reformation’s interventions become a necessity for the structural violence-ridden country in order to disentangle themselves from the negative impacts of the structural violence. Two important things are needed to be in place before structural violence disappears, namely; national project and constant democratic constitution. Therefore, it is advisable for genuine Sudanese political parties, revolutionary movements, civil society organizations, indigenous entities, community representatives and leaders, professionals, and intellectuals to, fully, prepare themselves to shoulder the burden of building these two important pillars; the national project and the constant democratic constitution. This process should be embarked upon, immediately after the peace process.

I conclude by saying that physical violence is just the tip of the iceberg; the real destructive violence is the one below the ocean surface, namely; the structural and cultural violence. Therefore, instead of wasting time in hacking at the leaves of the physical violence why not you concentrate your efforts in striking at the taproot of the structural and cultural violence through developing constant democratic constitution and sound national project. It is also of paramount importance for the Sudanese politicians to stop chasing the mice. If you are a student or a researcher of violence and conflict studies and you want to see structural violence with your naked eyes I advise you to pay just a quick visit to Zagalouna residential neighbourhood or any one of her sisters and you will lively see with your naked eyes the structural violence walking upon its two legs.

No glory for gun, yes glory for peace

Stay well,

Mahjoub S. G.
Kampala, Uganda