ALD paperg

							                                 SUDAN IN PAN-AFRICAN CONTEXT

Whereas Du Bois stated the problem of the twentieth century was the colour line; the problem for
Africans in the twenty-first century is the Afro-Arab Borderlands.

Abstract

The OAU/AU/AUC et al is a work in progress. It was noted that Pan-Africanists in general have their
own views as to how best to deconstruct neo-colonialism and create Pan-Africanism/African
Nationalism. This speaks to the democratic base of the unity movement. No one can claim a
monopoly of ideas. As regards pointers to the future, at the First Preparatory Meeting for the 8th
Pan-African Congress, held in Johannesburg, South Africa, 7-8 January 2010, the key issue was how
to achieve the objective of Pan-Africanism ( ie non-continentalism ).

Another observed characteristic of the Pan-African movement in these times was that being victims
of inappropriate historiography, Africans in general remain in the process of learning their true place
in global history. Examples being the de-legislation of Apartheid after 1994 and the admission of
South Sudan into the global African community in 2011, with the implication that in the longer term
the history of Sudan and by extension, the Nile Delta, will be re-written from the perspective of the
African majority of Sudan. As regards Egypt an admission in school curricula, that Egypt was
originally an African civilisation is long overdue.

These emerging truths effect the architecture of the unity movement. Indeed Sudan was opened up
for inspection by the people of Sudan, by their armed struggle and by Pan-African participants such
as the AU High Level Panel on Darfur. It is clear that there are others in Africa who seek to
undermine African emancipation and liberation in the Afro-Arab Borderlands, witness armed
struggle and genocide in Southern Sudan, Darfur, Abyei, Southern Kordofan, Northern Mali etc.Are
these struggles national or ethnic? It was these types of questions that resulted in the composition
and publication of The African Nation, a seminal work, defining scientifically, for the first time, the
African national constituency.

This paper addresses the issues of slavery, Arabisation/Islamisation, the Borderlands, the African
Eastern Diaspora, OAU/AU, culture and nationality.

Introduction

 The ‘Purpose and objectives of the Conference’, circulated in the Call for Papers for a meeting
scheduled in Southern Africa to celebrate African Liberation Day (ALD) 2012, referred to :-

        ‘… the formal ending of the place of colonialism and apartheid’

The convenors of the Symposium were all in southern Africa. Their choice to locate in southern
Africa ‘the formal ending of the phase of colonialism and apartheid’ raises questions as to what is
taking place in Sudan and the Afro-Arab Borderlands today and how they define ’colonialism and
apartheid’. Is not the ‘Independence’ of South Sudan part of a process of decolonisation and is not
the system of governance in Sudan and Mauritania, for that matter, not apartheid? Indeed Garba
Diallo called Mauritania ‘The other apartheid’.



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As Pan-Africanists we should see our constituency as being defined by our Nation and this Nation as
being inclusive of the African western Diaspora in the Americas, Carribean and Europe, as well as the
African eastern Diaspora in Arabia, the Gulf States and north Africa.

As part of the adjustment, based on the truths learnt from the Borderlands, we need to ask
ourselves why has the Sudan been in armed struggle for so long and why is there indifference
globally about the loss of life in that part of Africa. Again, the ‘Purpose and objectives of the
Conference’ referred to those who ‘…do not have African interests and values at heart’. This would
accurately describe those in the Afro-Arab Borderlands, who pursue a policy of denationalising
Africans and are wagging war against ancient African people such as the Nuba in Southern Kordofan.

The unity movement of the Africans is handed down to us through the history of those taken out of
Africa as slaves to the western Diaspora. Previously the experience of those who underwent slavery
in Arabia had been ignored by Pan-Africanists. There were those who were taken out either directly
from east Africa to Arabia and points beyond, as well as those who, by forced migration, crossed the
Sahara to north Africa and Arabia. Keep in mind that originally north Africa was populated by Black
Africans, a point admitted by the late Libyan leader- Gadaffi. The Arab enslavement was the first
forced migration out of Africa, following the voluntary migration of the original wo/man out of
Africa, to populate the world.

Later the European capitalists, intent on profit via the industrialisation of Europe and north America
extracted large numbers of African slaves to the western Diaspora including Europe. As Rodney
states, Africa was underdeveloped in order for Europe to develop. It was these slave that laid the
foundation for the super development of north and now south America.

It was out of the experience of the enslavement of Africans in the western Diaspora and their
exposure to crude capitalism that Pan-Africanism was born, from the political options slavery
engendered. Some choose and did return to Africa. Others remained in the western hemisphere. It
was by pioneers such as Henry Sylvester Williams, Du Bois, Garvey, Robeson, Padmore and many
others, that leadership was provided to a people who found themselves exiled in a hostile
environment. Born in ‘Babylon’ their concientisation was subject to western political theory, with
African characteristics. They covered the broad spectrum of political options from capitalism to
socialism. All were essentially Africanists. As Mohammad Fayek stated, the Pan-African movement
had no place in the Arab experience. From Arabia only Duse Mohamed Ali, the Sudanese Egyptian is,
so far,recognised as having played a role in the Pan-African movement, with his sojourns in the UK
and USA, settling ultimately in Nigeria, where he participated in the emerging African nationalism.
He was at one point Head of African Affairs in Garvey’s Universal Negro Improvement Association
(UNIA), which had branches in the various parts of the world, except Arabia, where those of African
descent are found.

Historical background

Abdelwahid in his book on Duse Mohamed Ali states at page 23 ‘There is no doubt that young
Marcus Garvey learnt about African history, politics and Islam from Duse Mohamed Ali’, whose
writings provide insights on Islam and African-Americans in the early twentieth century. In Nigeria
Duse had connections with nationalists such as Azikiwe and Herbert Macaulay. He died and was
buried in Lagos at the age of 78 in 1945.

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Before Christianity arrived south of the Sahara Islam had long been there. The scholarly manuscripts
found at that centre of learning that was Timbouctou, centuries ago, were from an Arabised culture,
using Arabic as the language of transmission. It is understood that amongst the Africans taken into
slavery in the western hemisphere were those who were Muslims. Arab presence in Africa predates
the western penetration by many centuries and the first slavers of Africans on a large scale were
Arabs. The history of unequal exploitative relations between Africa and the outside world begins
with Afro-Arab relations.

One of those Africans who sojourned in the United States and drank deeply of its political currents
and who was strongly influenced by the struggle of the Africans in north America and the United
Kingdom was Kwame Nkrumah. He fulfilled secretarial duties at the 5th Pan-African Congress of 1945
in Manchester, UK. He it was who connected the Congress movement, carried forward by the likes of
Du Bois, Padmore and Makonnen, back to Africa. No study of Pan-Africanism is complete without an
inspection of it’s historical antecedents. Whatever the current mood is in north America or the
Carribean – the key link of Africa with it’s Diaspora provides the historical root of the unity of the
Africans not only those of west, east, south and central Africa, but also for those in north east Africa
and Arabia. The strength and weakness of the ‘key link’depends on the degree of the insertion of the
Diasporas in civil society in America and Arabia. African nationalism as a key factor in African
development will not diminish and will remain the driving force in the destiny of Africans going
forward. The Pan-African movement is deeper rooted in the global Black experience than Black
conscientism to which it became associated in southern Africa. The Pan-African movement is a
movement for the unity of the global African community – those in and those out of Africa. That is
the historical base and logic of the movement. It does not limit itself to unifying, say those in
southern Africa. No. It’s mission is brotherhood and sisterhood between those scattered around the
world, be they in Argentina or in India and those in Africa, be they Socialist or Capitalist – whatever
their political persuasion; be they Muslim, Christian, animist or otherwise.

The African people, otherwise put, the people of Africa, due to their misuse in history, as beasts of
burden, to create wealth for others, have been the systematic subjects of the falsification of their
place in global history in order to justify their gross exploitation. In north east Africa both Arab and
European co-operated,via slavery, in this super exploitation of what was called ‘Black Ivory’. An
example – in Egypt today it is not officially recognised that Egypt was originally an African civilisation
until the Arabs arrived in 639/640 AD, crossing the Sinai and points further eastwards, a people
described by European historians as Indo-Europeans, who populated north Africa and seek to
colonize all of Africa, from Cairo to the Cape, through Jihad. In north east Africa the early African
presence and contribution to world civilisation has been denied and deliberately falsified, being
expunged from the history books in Arabia and elsewhere.

Having been marginalised as human beings, the ‘civilising mission’ was used as an explanation and
justification for colonialism. Too often the death of an old man in the area means the burying of yet
another chapter in African history. The history of Africa from African perspective taught in schools in
Africa has yet to come. This explains the changing architecture of the organisation for statist unity,
which started in 1963 as the Organisation for African Unity, becoming in 2002 the African Union (AU)
and is today the African Union Commission (AUC). Until Africans research, know and write their own
history the statist structure of their unity movement will continue to be a work in progress. The



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current AUC for the past twenty years came under the influence of a north African, from a country
now leading Arabia out of Africa towards a north Atlantic alliance.

Observers have noted the many schools of thought amongst Africans about their future geopolitical
direction. This is attributed to the varying levels of our understanding of history. Again Egypt is
instructive. This is a country where the people are historically living in a time warp and a disconnect
with their origins. Dr K Nkrumah, one of the founders of the OAU, included Egypt and north Africa in
his supra unity project, even though those advising him on African Affairs, such as Du Bois, the
Father of the Congress series, well knew the origins of the movement to be a movement for
Africans, not Arabs. Padmore likewise.

The OAU through to the AUC, was taken up with decolonisation. Apart from in the Borderlands, this
has been achieved, with some degree of success. Economic integration will prove a bigger challenge.
Any collection of people – a society – which seeks to strengthen itself has to have a defined cultural
identity at its core, be it Chinese, Indian, American or European. Arab identity built around Islam is
not African identity. Besides, historically, in the fairly recent past Africans have been subjugated-
enslaved - by outsiders, be they Arab or European. Without a meaningful civilisation dialogue within
continental Africa there is no basis for peaceful co-existence. This is what on-going events in Sudan
teach us, where the main victims are always the innocent, the poor, the illiterate – those without
means of defence.

The Pan-African Conference/Congresses

As stated Pan-Africanism as an approach to African unity and development was built around a series
of meetings starting in 1900, with the Pan-African Conference held in London, the UK in 1900.
Sylvester Williams, who convened this meeting sort to obtain for Africans their rightful place in the
world order. This was a modest objective and his method ingratiating. It took over 100 years to
realize for some Africans in the western Diaspora. In the eastern Diaspora such awakenings are yet
to be experienced. In Africa a rapacious elite defined the post ‘independent’ agenda in collaboration
with outside interests and have yet to be persuaded that African nationalism - that is the unity of
the African Nation - can be achieved without allegiance to the existing neo- colonial states. A move
away from the neo-colonial state is a basic requirement if Africans are to unite, achieve equality and
cease to be providers of raw materials to others at knock down prices. The move away from neo-
colonialism should be in the direction of Pan-Africanism, not towards the consolidation or
reinforcement of the existing architecture of unviable entities resultant from the Berlin Conference
of 1884.

Those who met in London in 1900, including Du Bois, represented the African elite by then. The grass
root movement headed by Garvey came some 20 years later. This was a mass movement. Both the
Du Bois and Garveyist tendencies are in the movement today, at least in its statist structures,
providing equilibrium between the Left and the Right,to ensure continuity. The triumph of
proletarian internationalism as a hegemonic force foreseen by Dr Nkrumah, as the glue for unity, will
not be realised, at least not in our lifetimes.

The Pan-African Congresses (PAC) 1-5 were driven by Dr WEB Du Bois. The period they cover saw
Francophone Africa drawn into the movement. The 3rd Congress took place in Lisbon in 1923,
bringing in Lusophone Africa. Du Bois worked painstakingly to build the movement.

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In ‘Sustaining the new wave. .’ your author states (at p. 224 ):-

        ‘Some date the continental project from 1945 and note
        that the three principal architects of that project after 1945
        were W.E.B.Du Bois, George Padmore and Kwame Nkrumah.
        In the self- governing Ghana they convened the first
        Pan-African meeting of substance, the All Africa Peoples
        Conference (AAPC) in Accra, Ghana in 1958.They formed
        the core of the Secretariat of the 5 [Pan-African Congress] PAC’.

At the 5th PAC Kwame Nkrumah was Rapporteur of the two sessions on ‘Imperialism in North and
West Africa’, held October 16 and 19 in 1945. After the 1945 Congress Nkrumah was named
Secretary of the Working Committee under Du Bois’ presidency, to give effect to the resolutions of
the Congress. This was before he left Britain to return to the Gold Coast in 1947. He was to liaise
with the emerging movements for self government in the colonies. Padmore in his book ‘Pan-
Africanism or Communism’ published in 1956 at page 22 had opted for the ‘creation of a United
States of Africa’. Immediately after the Congress Nkrumah became the leader of the ‘Circle’, a secret
revolutionary organisation dedicated to establishing a Union of African Socialist Republics. It is
humbly suggested that this approach to African unity based on socialist principles provided the basis
for Nkrumah’s continentalist approach to African unity. It is in conformity with an idea of unity – an
approach based on proletarian internationalism. However socialist solidarity in Africa, as elsewhere,
has often failed close scrutiny, which in no way weakens it’s validity as a political ideal. Post –
Apartheid South Africa is cluttered with ‘Socialists’ who found it convenient to abandon the Freedom
Charter once in office- a sine qua non for Africanism in South Africa and who were unable to
embrace, for example, the idea of solidarity with oppressed Africans in Congo, under Mobutu, due
to their class interests.

At the PACs 5-6 the tensions between Pan-Africanism and continentalism did not reach the surface.
These meetings rather sort to complete the decolonisation project as a priority and failed to
consider in any depth the issues arising from the Afro-Arab Borderlands. The Late John Garang in his
address to the 7th Congress presented a definitive statement on the issues arising in his area of
Africa, placing emphasis on the concept of the African Nation, drawn from his experience in Sudan.
The 7th was where the Sudan issues became visible. The main proponents in the war then taking
place in Sudan were in Kampala for that meeting. Not only that but the Khartoum government was
present and it provided, along with others, notably Libya, funds for the convening of the meeting. As
an astute observer of the African scene Khartoum was interested in the meeting, which was also
attended by Riak Machar, who had by then splintered from the SPLM. For the observant a
qualitative shift had taken place, with Sudan moving towards centre stage in the contestation
around African nationalism, it being a case study for similar struggles in the Afro-Arab Borderlands,
such as Mauritania, Tchad, Mali and Niger.

Nyaba’s seminal paper ‘The Afro-Arab conflict in the 21st century. A Sudanese viewpoint’ brings the
Sudan issues from the sidelines to the centre, where all indications are that they will remain for the
foreseeable future. To say that the issues of colonialism and apartheid in Africa are gone is
disingenuous at best, dangerous at worst. Due to distortions and lies in the past, as history was


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written to serve the purpose of the powerful of those days, many Africans do not know or
understand areas outside their immediate purview.

Nyaba’s paper subtitled ‘The racial and religious dimensions of the Sudanese conflict and it’s
possible ramifications in East, Central and Southern Africa in the next millennium’ is a pointer to the
future of north-east Africa – an area which, apparently escaped the attention of the first generation
of ‘Independence’ leaders in Africa, even thought the war in South Sudan, lead by the Anya-Nya had
begun in 1956, one year before Ghana became ‘Independent’. Nyaba explains that earlier Sudan, as
a member of the Arab League, was considered an Arab , not an African issue, by Arab states within
the OAU, so that the fighting in the south was not addressed by the Pan-African body.

On the Sudan issue another important factor is the apparent disinterest of African Americans in
Sudan matters. Traditionally African America acted as a lobby in the United States, supportive of
African interests. Sudan was to prove the exception. It was noticeable that the Darfur sensitisation
campaign in north America had few African Americans in attendance. This was directly related to the
deliberate implantation of Islam in North America ( Tourabi had famously stated ‘we will Islamize
(black) America and Arabize Africa ‘).The consequence was to neutralize the interest of African
Americans in the on-going Afro-Arab interchange. Of note is the fact that neither the African
American community nor Africans in Africa were aware at the time of the long term implications of
the implantation of Islam in Black America. We can be sure that the Federal Bureau of Investigation
(FBI) was not indifferent to these goings on.

An illustration of this deception is the following extract from a paper by Luwezi Kinshasa, Secretary
General of the US based African Socialist International, in which he inaccurately observes :-

        In Sudan, the electoral process was effectively used by US-led
        imperialism to balkanise Sudan, transforming ethnic differences
         and peaceful contradictions into antagonistic contradictions
        that made it easier for imperialists to further their own interests
        in the region.

Your author resided in Juba, South Sudan 2006-8 and observed the Referendum on Southern
Independence in Juba in January 2011. In the last year in particular, but even whilst he was still in
Juba, he tried to understand Afro-American indifference to the Afro-Arab Borderlands. There is no
record of African- American involvement in the area from Mauritania to Sudan on the Red Sea, in
which Africans are under attack from Arab expansion. In 2009 this issue was taken up publically at an
international Conference in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, with Runoko Rashidi, the African American
historian, specialist in Diaspora studies, after he had visited the author in Juba around 2007. Whilst
Rashidi was in Juba your author observed at close quarters his difficulties in hiding his hostile
reactions to the underdeveloped conditions in South Sudan, resultant from marginalisation and the
long war. Your author has since come to believe that this hostility or lack of sympathy amongst
African Americans to the Sudan reality is in part the result of Islamic implantation in North America.

The above-mentioned article says 'the electoral process was effectively used by US-led imperialism
to balkanise Sudan'. This is incorrect. Rather the Sudan Peoples Liberation Movement
( SPLM)continues to pursue Garang's vision of a New Sudan, step by step, so that after the war is
over in Southern Kordofan, Blue Nile and Darfur, as well as all the marginalised of Sudan, including
South Sudan, will unite in a new federal state.



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These allegations about Africans in Sudan actively chopping up Sudan into independent pieces is a lie
perpetuated by certain circles in North America and other places, who have their own interests in
perpetuating the war in Sudan and who consequently give succour to the program of ethnic
cleansing of Africans in Sudan by way of Arab/Islamic expansion in the Borderlands of Africa.

Africans, internally and globally, have been, caught off-guard by the emergence in April 2012 of the
state of Azawad in northern Mali and are in denial in their handling of issues arising from the
Borderlands, be they Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Mahgreb and in Mali/Mauritania, Boko Haram in
Nigeria, Al Shabab in Somalia or the National Islamic Front (NIF)/National Congress Party (NCP) in
Sudan and it’s war today in Southern Kordofan, Blue Nile and Darfur. In Africa the middle-classes
plead ignorance about the Afro-Arab borderlands. In the western Diaspora there is indifference
amongst those of African descent, resulting from the miss-direction of their leaders. It is as if
Africans everywhere are afraid to defend kith and kin in their struggle in the Borderlands. The NCP
represents the radical wing of Pan-Arab ideology. It’s interest in Africa south of the Sahara is limited
to research and action ( eg aerial bombardment – South Sudan, Darfur, Southern Kordofan ) in order
to keep Black Africa on the defensive. Otherwise Khartoum socially, culturally, at economic level and
politically is aligned to Arabia, having more in common with Saudi Arabia, the heartland of Islamic
fundamentalism than, for instance, neighbouring states such as Kenya, Uganda and Ethiopia.

It takes little imagination to understand that the NIF/NCP is the guardian of feudal Arab interests in
north east Africa. It is the defender of antiquated perceptions of ‘vital’ Arab interests in Black Africa,
such as the Nile waters et al. As Nyaba states the political tendency in Sudan utilises a survival
strategy of fomenting conflict and instability in neighbouring countries. Using punitive measures
against dissent and opposition, these fundamentalists have managed to monopolise all sectors of
the national economy, pushing out of business and the markets the traditional social bases of other
parties. During the long years of war between Khartoum and the South, Khartoum was not short of
allies ( including the Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO)) and supplies in the Arab world,
where it was seen as ’defending the line’.Arabia continues to perceive Black Africa as a ‘slave’, to be
kept in check by excessive violence, not dialogue.International terrorists such as the late Ben Laden
took up residence in Sudan, where he was protected by Tourabi. He fought physically against African
nationalism, whilst based in Juba.

Nyaba writing in 1999 foresaw Khartoum as likely to generally escalate the war in South Sudan,
which is the situation today in Sudan despite the so-called independence of South Sudan. He stated
that the Sudanese Islamic fundamentalists would take their war into East Africa in general. Nyaba
notes the contempt Arabs in general have for Africans, who they see as an inferior race deserving
nothing more than enslavement. Arab thinkers and writers believe that Africans do not have a
culture and that a cultural vacuum exists in Africa which must be filled with Islamic and Arab culture.
In response to this some Africans demand a civilisation dialogue.

Sudan and it’s implications for Africans

Africa in general and the AU in particular only became seized of the Sudan issues when the regional
organisation for East African states, The Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) in
Eastern Africa, brough about the Naivasha peace talks, which lead to the signing of the
Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) in 2005 and relative peace in South Sudan, giving way to the
Independence of South Sudan in July 2011.The Head of the AU High Level Panel, President Thabo

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Mbeki had stated that Sudan was an African issue requiring an African solution. Prior to that Africa
South of the Sahara had treated South Sudan as an Arab issue, from which they were excluded. Now
with South Sudan self governing, issues originating in Southern Sudan, such as Southern Kordofan,
receive wider international attention.

The entering of the AU into the Sudan issues, has brought a new optique into Afro-Arab relations.
Previously Africa had been in denial, as witness the attitude of the Founding Fathers of the OAU/AU,
as to the existence of contradictions in Afro-Arab relations, which were treated as harmonious and
mutually self reinforcing, whereas any body who chose to inspect the relationship was aware that
Arab and Islamic pressure had historically been pushing southwards, making the Borderlands an area
of low intensity warfare for centuries. The issue was, with the ending of apartheid in South Africa,
would the ‘other apartheid’ be addressed and by whom ? The court remains out on this one, due to
vested interests, with African governments unable to take a position of support for the African
national struggle in Sudan. Which explains why President Bashir travels more widely in Africa than
elsewhere, despite the writ of the International Criminal Court (ICC) pending against him.

Cognisance needs to take hold that Pan-Arabism has substantially changed from what it was in the
mid-twentieth century. These days it is no longer ideologically driven by capitalism v socialism. Pan-
Arabism is now firmly anchored in Islam and finds expression in the different tendencies, whether
secularist or fundamentalist, within Islam. Africans should be aware that what happens in Arabia,
it’s closest neighbour, impacts and has effect south of the Sahara.

The conflict in the Afro-Arab Borderlands has been with us since time immemorial. It will not go
away. It may erupt in one place at one moment and subside in another – but it has been a constant.
Sooner or later it will have to be addressed. The traditional solution offered by progressive Arabs has
been the civilisation dialogue. The OAU/AU has established units to undertake this work. They have
made no difference, so long as the parties remain in denial. Your author is of the view that instead of
the OAU/AU/AUC applying band aid solutions on crisis-basis to problems at the north/south border,
for instance, that it begin openly the Afro-Arab civilisation dialogue. This interaction is taking place,
but currently it is not within an open philosophical forum. The idea is not new. Sustainable peace will
only come to this area of Africa when a critical mass of Africans, understanding the issues of the
area, exist within the global African community. At base the issue is one of education, or the lack of
it.

Flowing from this analysis would be the thesis of Garang on the African Nation, being that the global
African collective of persons of African descent, within and without Africa, is the correct structural
basis for the unity of the Africans. Concomitant with that is the recognition that this Nation takes
precedent over the neo-colonial entities created in Berlin. Haiti is a member of that Nation, as are
Cuba ,Brazil and every state in which the majority population is of Africa descent.

Other logical implications would be the prioritizing of the political agenda to push forward the unity
of this Nation – which Diop called ‘the cultural unity of Black Africa’. Sudan is the last major obstacle
we can see on this road. In fact the logic of Khartoum’s aggression and violence can only be
premised on it’s firm opposition and hostility to meaningful African unity and it’s wish to sustain the
current continental arrangements.




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Concerning the African eastern Diaspora, ignored in the past. The incorporation of this constituency
into the unity movement was the logical conclusion from Garang’s presentation to the 7th Pan-
African Congress (PAC ) and his paper delivered on his behalf by Dr Mariel Benjamin at the 17th All
African Students Conference (AASC) held in Windhoek, Namibia, 28-29th May 2005. Prof Kwesi Prah
in his seminal work ‘The African Nation: The state of the Nation’, has dotted the ‘I’s and crossed the
‘t’s in defining , the oft talked about ( Garvey, Blyden and others ) African Nation. It is worth pointing
out that Garang and Prah shared notes, probably around 1982, in Juba.

The Darfurian freedom fighter Osman Yahya Mohamed said in Juba in 2007, that the African eastern
Diaspora would only become a meaningful entity when Africa could hold its own in the community
of nations. Duse Mohammed Ali is the only identified Pan-Africanist in the last century coming from
north east Africa to have left a recorded contribution for humanity on political level. There must
have been millions of his type, from that area of Africa, who shared his view but were unable to
travel out of the area to make a contribution to the African struggle, dying in obscurity and
frustration, suppressing the African side of their personalities, forced to adopt an Arab identity. We
know from recent experience in Libya such Africans exist in Arabia and are subjected to
marginalisation, torture and genocide.

Points for immediate action in the current situation in Sudan

Evacuation of Abyei by Khartoum

The cessation of aerial bombardments by Khartoum of civilian targets

Stop the mistreatment of Southerners in the north and the opening of corridors for them to move
southwards

The return to negotiations and to peace.

B.F.Bankie, Windhoek, Namibia, May 2012

Mr Bankie, in the period 2007-2008, assisted the work of establishment of The Kush Institution, as
the policy research/analysis unit in The Office of the President of the Government of Southern
Sudan.

REFERENCES

Abdelwahid, M.2011. Duse Mohamed Ali 1866 – 1945 : The autobiography of a pioneer Pan African
and Afro-Asian activist.Trenton,USA: The Red Sea Press, Inc.

Bankie,B.F and Mchombu,K. 2008. Pan-Africanism / African Nationalism. Trenton, USA : The Red Sea
Press, Inc.

Bankie,B.F and Zimunya,V.C. 2010. Sustaining the new wave of Pan-Africanism. Windhoek, Namibia.
The Polytechnic Press at the Polytechnic of Namibia.

Diallo,G. 1993. Mauritania: The other Apartheid ? Uppsala: Nordiska Afrikainstitutet.

Fayek,M. 1984. The July 23 Revolution and Africa. In: Khair el-Din Haseb (ed). The Arabs and Africa.
Pp 90-91. London: Crolm Helm.

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Kinshasa,L. 2012.We are Patrice Lumumba! ( extract from Uhuru News ), in The Southern Times, P
13,Sunday 11 March 2012, Windhoek: Namzim Newspapers (Pty) Ltd.

Nyaba,P.A. 2002. The Afro-Arab conflict in the 21st century : a Sudanese viewpoint. In Tinabantu, Vol
1,No 1, P27,Cape Town: The Centre for Advanced Studies of African Society (CASAS).

Prah,K.K. 2006. The African Nation : The state of the Nation. Cape Town : The Centre for Advanced
Studies of African Society (CASAS).

Rodney,W. 1972. How Europe underdeveloped Africa. Dar Es Salaam: Tanzania Publishing House.

Sherwood, M.1996. Kwame Nkrumah : The years abroad : 1935-1947. Legon, Ghana : Freedom
Publications.




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