Power is the ability to influence; it is the ability to make others act according to your will and your interest. When power is unevenly distributed in a community, conflict will doubtlessly break out in that particular community. A powerful person is the person who has the capacity to influence who has the capacity to make other people do what he or she wants. A powerful community or state is the community or state that possesses influential capabilities and potentials that make other communities or states respond to her demands. The questions are: What are the things that make individuals, communities, and states powerful? What are the things that make me powerful if I possess them? In a nutshell, what are the sources of power that make entities and states powerful? Finance is a source of power. It is just one of the sources of power. He or she who possesses financial source can influence; he can make others do what he wants them to do. Other sources of power are as follows: physical power, military (coercive) power, political power, social power, institutional power, constitutional power, spiritual/religious power, positional power, knowledge is a source of power, unity is a source of power, land is a source of power and suchlike. The more one acquires these sources of power qualitatively and quantitatively, the more powerful he or she becomes and vice versa.
America is the most powerful and influential country on this planet, the Earth. She possesses all these sources of power qualitatively and quantitatively and has, as well, the capacity and skills to manage these sources of power in a way that serves her interests and aspirations. America interferes in any country’s internal affairs. She can influence policies, politics, strategies, and ideologies of any country worldwide. she can impose sanctions on your country. She can designate you as a terrorist. She can highjack or even kill your president with impunity. She can affect the international trade; she can do all these and more simply because she possesses all these sources of power qualitatively and quantitatively and has the capacity to manage them effectively and efficiently in a way that serves her interests.
If you are not powerful you cannot influence, and if you are not influential you cannot cause the change that you want, and if you cannot cause the change that you want you cannot develop or progress, and if you cannot develop or progress you get perished, because at the end of the day survival is for the fittest, the strongest, and the most powerful. Sudanese Islamists, when they took over the power in 1989, the first thing they started with was the empowerment project through which they possessed all the above-mentioned sources of power. In the blink of an eye, they occupied all the military, political, economic, social, educational, religious, positional, constitutional, and institutional joints and pillars of the state. Within a fraction of a second, all sources of power became under their control. Empowerment is about becoming powerful. It is about becoming influential. Empowerment is about acquiring these sources of power in order to be able to actualize your strategic goals, mission, and vision. Notoriously infamous Public Interest Law was issued by the Sudanese Islamists, and due to that notorious Law, Sudanese public personnel and officials, in thousands, had unfairly been sackfired from their posts. Out of the blue, they found themselves jobless. This is the ugliest face of empowerment. Empowerment without core values and essential principles becomes evil and cursed. Empowerment without guiding principles and values convert you into an autocratic entity or leader. You will abuse this power to subordinate your own people.
The above-mentioned paragraphs are just a backdrop or an introduction to what is coming below. This backdrop will help us to fully understand the ugliest part of the Sudanization of the posts process of 1954-1956 and the extent it had contributed in empowering the Northerners at the expense of other parts of Sudan. Let us trickle down or project the above-mentioned sources of power upon the process of the Sudanization in order to come out with a conclusion. The Sudanization process was simply about empowering specific ethnic groups positionally and militarily. When certain ethnic groups are empowered positionally and military at the expense of others, they will exploit these two positions (civil and military positions) to acquire the other source of power, namely; the financial, political, educational, constitutional, institutional and other sources of power and when you acquire these sources of power the path to the Republic Palace will be furnished with the red carpet for you. The disequilibrium of power structure in Sudan is primarily attributable to this specific Sudanization process of 1954-1956. This simple analysis explains to you the socio-economic and political disparities and incompatibilities that have been created as a result of this infamous process. These huge socio-economic disparities between Zagalouna, Zalamouna, and Kabasouna residential areas on one hand and Garden city, Alsafia, and Kafoury neighborhoods on the other hand are attributable to the complicity of the Sudanization process of 1954-1956. It is the fallouts of that conspiracy. Most of the residents who are now living in those luxurious residential areas are the grandchildren of the members of two Sudanization Committees of 1954-1956 while Zagalouna group people are the grandchildren of those whose rights had been denied to be part and parcel of the two Sudanization Committees. Now, the grandchildren of the marginalized ancestors are confronting the grandchildren of the marginalizing ancestors – Zagalouna-Jabarouna group versus Manshia-Kafoury group.
I conclude this article by reiterating that, the mandate of the Committee of the Dismantling/removing of the Empowerment of the July 1989 Regime should be revisited, readjusted, and developed in a way that serves the common good of the Sudanese nations. The confines of the Dismantling Committee should be stretched to 1954-1956 to engulf the notorious Sudanization process. The period between 1954 and 2019 must be thoroughly scrutinized. It was during that period that the gross historical structural grievances and injustices have taken place. Sustainable peace calls for trustworthy diagnosis and in-depth probing and analysis of that period. Quick-fix solutions are ineffective. What is desperately needed is more than aspirin and band-aids that just mitigate and pacify the pains and suffering but do not eradicate or cure the grievances. It is unfortunate that Sudan is suffering from a real socio-economic and political cerebral paralysis that necessitates a quick, genuine intervention on the part of all of us. It is, as well, of paramount importance to share real and genuine mutual recognition, confession, and honest apologies without paying lip-service to each other. Let us be an added value to humanity rather than be a deducted value to humanity. Let us together quickly defuse the violent conflict between Zagalouna-Jabarouna group and Manshia-Kafoury group before it becomes beyond our control.
Stay well
Yes, for Peace. No, for War.
Mahjoub S. G. F.
Kampala, Uganda
