Last year I was asked to give a talk to my bible study group on the Sudan. I agreed to it because it was so close to Libya. I thought that when I took this on it would be about the water problems in the area. When I was in college, I took a hydrology class. The professor that taught it was Moid Ahmed. He was a wonderful man and a great teacher. I learned so much from him. When I knew him he had worked on designing the water retrieval system for a certain aquifer in Libya. He had to abandon that work when Qaddafi came into power and the United States government put sanctions against Libya. Since he was so familiar with that area, needless to say I studied it a bit. I felt like talking about the water problems in this region would be right up my alley and it would be something easy for me to do (even though it had been 34 years since I studied it- I felt it couldn't have changed too much) so I didn't mind volunteering for the talk.
To be honest, before I agreed to this talk I knew very little about Sudan. All I could tell you was the fact it was a country in Africa. I wasn't even sure where in Africa it was except it was in a desert region. Then when I started to read about it I became fascinated with it. My church provided me with some material so I could give the talk, and I could have just used that but I didn't- I went digging for more. Since the talk I have been trying to find out as much information as I can and was glad that I had kept up with it because it was such a hit they asked me to give it again this year to the women of my church. I used these notes in giving the talk last year. I was glad I had saved them and was able to use them as a basis again. I got such a favorable response from it, I thought I'd share it with others because some of my friends (who were not there) heard what a great job I had done and wanted to know more about the situation too. I will admit I did rely heavily on the material that was given to me by the Methodist and am biased by it.
The Sudan
(from the Beauty and courage of Sudan)
Official Name : Republic of the Sudan
Area: 967,490 sq. mi. (largest country in Africa)
Capital: Khartoum (Where the White Nile meets the Blue Nile to form the Nile River)
Population: 40218455 (Jl 2008)
Khartoum City pop: 2.731 million
Darfur region pop: 7.4 million
Major Language: Arabic, Nubian,Beja, other
Religion Muslim 70%, Christian 5% Traditional 25%
Ave life expectancy 50 -58 yrs
Medium age 18.9
Main occupations: Agriculture 80%, Industry 7%, Services 13%
Main exports - oil, cotton, sesame, livestock, hides, gum arabic.
GNI per Capita - US $960 (World Bank 2007)
Literacy rate: Mandatory education for men is 8 yrs. In 2004 the literacy rate was 62%. But woman are treated differently and were not included in the survey it is estimated that Woman over 15 who can read and write 6 mil.
Sudan was a British Colony with its boarders randomly draw based on agreement with the French and Germany. It is the largest country in Africa. The boarders were not based on religious differences, tribal boundaries or language boundaries. In 1956 it gain its independence from the British. Since then it has been a place that is in constant conflict.
Basically there has been two civil wars that have been going on in the Sudan. The first one started in 1955 and that was between the northern part verses the southern part. This is a religious war. The northern part is Muslin while the southern is Christian and what they call traditional groups. Traditional groups are where the tribes try to keep their identity and some of their ancient religious beliefs and incorporate certain aspects of the Christian beliefs. But because they don't incorporate all the major points that most christian believe in they are not considered to be true christian recognize groups like the Methodist vs the Catholics or Baptists.
In 1972 A peace agreement was reached, but there is still a lot of tension and scrimmages going on. The biggest problem is the north doesn't want the south to leave since most of the food and oil production comes from the south.
In 1983 the war returned in full force.
1989- Omar Hassan Al-Bashir takes power. He is an Arab Muslim from the Khartoum region. Part of the peace agreement is that they have to have a general election. That election just occurred this pass month (April 2010) and guess what - Al-Bashir was elected president even though The International Criminal Court has recommended to prosecute Al-Bashir for crimes against humanity and genocide.
There is also a second war going on in the north and this is not a religious war. Basically there are two different types of Muslims in the area -The Arab who are nomadic and then there is the African who are the ones that live off the land - the ones that build villages and settle down permanently. They are both fighting for water rights and land usage. Since there are more Arab Muslims than African basically the government is run by the Arab ones and always rule in favor of the Arab Muslims. The region that is getting hit the hardest is the western part called the Darfur region. The Darfur are mostly considered to be African Muslims. It has been estimated that 2.5 million people have been displaced and that another 1/2 million killed, but even with these figures they have no way of knowing how accurate they are since all the records are destroyed to.
The Arabs now come in and basically have a slash and burn mentality where they just destroy everything about the village. The Arab intent is genocide where they are trying to wipe these people off the face of the earth. They come in and kill the adult men, rape the women, take hostage the teenage youth and slaughter the young children. The raping and destroying the land is also a psychological warfare too, because it destroys their social structure. In the Muslim faith the men feel like the woman should be able to resist the rape. When that happens to her she is usually divorced and shunned from society. This leads to the break down of the family structure.
When the villages get destroyed the people migrate to refugee camps that are tent cities that have been set up. There they have shelter, food and medical care but no standard of living. These places are not meant to be permanent places to live yet some of them have been around for 25 years. The men get very discourage, they drink and have a tendency to take out their frustrations on their spouses. For some of the people this is the only way of life they have ever known. What's frustrating to relief workers is the fact that the women are expected to do it all. Raise the crops take care of the kids, and get the water and fuel while the men just sit around and do nothing. Its because the women have to go and get the water that's when the Arab Muslims like to come and attack the women. They go without protection.
Most of the world has not gotten involved with the situation in Darfur because they view it as Muslim fighting again Muslim and they should let their religious believes deal with the problem. One of the things that I found very interesting was the fact that most of the arms that the Arabs get come from China. The reason that is so is because most of the oil that they export goes to China not the U.S. U.S. doesn't want to get involved because China is so heavily involved and it could escalate into a war with China.
Summary of the key issues are;
- High intensity conflict - There needs to be a North and South Sudan.
- Widespread displacement - There really isn't a true accurate number of people in the regions because of all the displacement that is going on.
- Destruction of Livelihoods- Men don't have permanent places to pursue their livelihoods. They have no way of passing their skills down to their children.
- Chronic drought and climate change- The Sahara dessert is growing about 3.4 miles a year due to climate change and the destruction of the land.
- Addition strain on resources - With people moving around they to to areas that are not set up to accommodate so many people. This creates a tension between 'the haves' and 'the have-nots'- the existing people vs the displaced.
- Difficulty of consensus - no one can figure out what to do. Most of the attempted solutions are not working.
- Problems of exclusion from power sharing -- the crippling effects of poverty. The African Muslims have no one to turn to because it is their government as the ones that are trying to wipe them off the face of the earth.
Here are some solutions that were int the peace agreement:
- Armed Forces
- Autonomy
- Oil Wealth
- Economic Issues
- Administration
- Islamic law
- Other
Women are viewed as a key issue. Items dealing with women:
- Better Education for the women
- Better protection for them as they get water and wood.
- More wells drilled - There is water underground but its a matter of getting it out of the ground.
- Need their gardens enclosed and protected.
- Have the men take more responsibilities in the raising of the children.
- Need to see the world more involved thus having these types of lessons.
What UMCOR is doing in the region:
They are trying to help with
- Agriculture - Making sure the land is more fertile and can produce more crops in the same area.
- Working on Educating and child protection
- Emergency response and Intervention when needed. (trouble is there are some areas where they are not allowed.)
- Peace Building
- Reconstruction of destroyed villages
- Safe water and sanitation
- Making the world aware of problem
Conclusion : There is no true solution, but the world does need to be aware and see to it that the government represents all the people in the region and not just one particular group.
One year later:
The Big news is that Southern Sudan will gain its independence on 7-9-2011.
The other disturbing news is that the rebels have been attacking the peace keepers in the Darfur regions so now the flow of humanitarian aid had been greatly diminished.
Unfortunately most of the other stuff has stayed the same.
Ref:
Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia - Sudan
Books:
"Where Mercy Fails - Daffur's Struggle to Survive" by Chris Helinger & Paul Jeffery (2009) pgs 149.
"The Beauty and Courage of Sudan - Why a Dream of Peace is Possible" Mission Study by Linda Beher (2009) pgs 148
Magazines:
Response -"Sudan at a Crossroad' May 2010. 'Sudan - Sliding toward destruction' by Paul Jeffrey pgs 35-38.
Response -"Do No Harm - That means Us, Too" by Sidney Traynham (May 2009) pgs 34-36.
Response - 'Waging Peace in Sudan" April 2009 pgs 8-40.
New World Outlook -"Mission Study - Sudan" May/June 2009 pgs 6-44.
AAPG Bulletin Vol.93 # 8 August 2009 - "Three-dimensional seismic geomorphology of a deep-water slope-channel system: The Sequoia field, offshore west Nile Delta, Egypt." by Nigel E. Cross, Alan Cunningham, Robert J. Cook, Amal Taha, Eslam Esmale, and Nasar El Swidan. Pgs 1063-1086.
Newspaper:
The Shreveport Times - Sudan's Bashir Re-Elected, Secession Vote Looms by Sarah Childress (this article was handed to me and the date was not on it but it was in May 2010.)
A year has gone by and I still kept on looking for things. Here are some other items I've come across during the year that had something related to the Sudan.
Books:
'Half the Sky' by Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl W. Dean (2008).
"They Poured Fire on Us From the Sky- the True Story of 3 Lost Boys from Sudan" by Benson Deng, Alephonsian Deng, Benjamin Ajak and Judy Bernstein (2005).
"What is the What" by Dave Eggers (2007) A novel about Valentino Achak Deng.
Magazines:
Sports Illustrated 'The Beautiful Game - What soccer meas to the world' by Grant Wahl, (May 24, 2010) pgs 40-63.
Interpreter 'Let my people Go - fighting modern day slavery' by Cecile Holmes (Jan/Feb 2011)pgs 10-13.
Newsweek 'Mr Clooney, The President is on Line 1 - on the ground in Sudan with a new kind of statesman' by John Avlon (Feb 28, 2011) pg 16-23.
Newspaper:
The Shreveport Times 'Early Sudan returns show vote to Secede' in around the world (1-15-2011).
The Shreveport Times '105 dead in 5 days of clashes in Sudan' by Philip Mablor - The associated press, front page (4-25-2011).
And a very good source of information that I've looked at numerous times over the past year on the internet is http://allafrica.com/sudan/
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