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The Ever Shrinking Sudanese Citizenship
27/08/2013
The Sudan and African Union were urged to identify and seek a comprehensive and permanent solution to Sudan’s crisis of citizenship in a report published recently by the International Refugee Rights Initiative as part of its series titled Citizenship and Displacement in the Great Lakes Regions: Working Paper 9.
Broadly speaking, The Sudan as a country was stitched together by the British in the early and mid 20th century by means of combining Northern Sudan, mainly Shamalia and Al-Jazera, and Darfur in 1917, then adding South Sudan in 1954 as an afterthought. The birth of the nation was unnatural but that was typical of most African postcolonial political entities created to foster more ties with the colonizer rather than neighboring African countries.
From the dawn of the country, the Northern region, although only a small minority of the total population, dominated and gradually monopolized political power, means of economic production and the cultural sphere of the nation. All presidents from independence to date came from the same region and tribes. Ninety nine percent of ministries and other institutions of government are still headed by them and undoubtedly they control the lion’s share of the wealth. Most importantly, they seem to be the only visible Sudanese in the media spewing culturally biased information and performances. They came to call themselves Awlad Ballad, i.e., Native Sons, thereby metastasizing this exclusionary polity throughout the various organs of the larger Sudanese community. The obvious result was marginalization of all others.
The natural consequences of this exclusionary polity and marginalization were the obvious cycles of conflict in South Sudan, Southern Kordofan, Darfur and Blue Nile; continued human rights violations; the eventual secession of the Republic of South Sudan; and calls from others to secede. Of all the human rights violations, the most egregious is the crisis of citizenship and/or identity. The tools of implementation of said policies are none other than the obvious nemeses of sectarianism, tribalism, religion, ethnicity, regionalism, etc. And to that end most marginalized peoples lost not only their dignity as humans but also their rights as citizens deserving of life, security and the pursuit of happiness. You must be a Native Son to live in dignity.
The solution to the question of Sudanese citizenship for all the peoples of The Sudan is simple: a republic based on an operable democratic federalism that respects and upholds the rights of all minorities.
It is a given that there is no single ethnic group or tribe that constitutes a majority in the country, i.e., we are a nation of minorities. So it behooves us to protect the rights of all minorities.
It is also vital to remember that a true democracy is based on institutions--not mere acts of electing representatives and leaders--of the judiciary, legislation and administration that conduct their roles with genuine independence from each other without prejudice or undue influence. Furthermore, there must be, within each institution, a set of regulations that govern the performance of individuals who occupy positions within these institutions to remove their respective capricious influence and self-interest tendencies.
Democracy is not limited to the federal government; it must permeate state and local governments as well. To that end, we propose a return to the nine original states of The Sudan, or should we say six states. Each state must develop its own judiciary, legislative and administrative institutions to govern its political conduct. And each municipality should also produce its local council and mayoral procedures to govern itself independently but within the larger political entity.
A practical federal system provides each state total independence in its local affairs--except where it conflicts with federal law--including economic and business activities, political space, policing, family and social matters and the judiciary. Certainly, the wealth of one state cannot be arbitrarily transferred to another state without equitable return to the owners of such value. All states are to make a predetermined and equal percentage of contributions, aka taxes, to the federal treasury leveed from their respective annual economic productivity.
Above all, every individual citizen assumes equal rights and responsibilities regardless of creed, religion, ethnicity, region or sectarian affiliation in all matters Sudanese.
With such a democracy at work, we invite our brethren from The Republic of South Sudan to rejoin the family.
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