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SPECIAL ISSUE ON SUDAN

“Down with the government of thieves”

Reflection on the Sudanese revolutionary dynamicsBy Clément Deshayes, Margaux Etienne and Khadidja Medani

Khartoum, 6th April: A huge crowd permeates the sidewalks and the avenues leading to the Military Forces Headquarters heralding the first day of a sit-in calling for the fall of the Bashir regime. © Elsadig Mohamed

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CLÉMENT DESHAYES is a Sudan Analyst and Co-Di-rector of the Editorial board. His research addresses social and protest movements in urban contexts. He is based between Paris and Khartoum. He is a PhD Can-didate and Research Fellow in Political Anthropology at Paris 8 University, where he also teaches, and an affil-iate of LAVUE and the CEDEJ in Khartoum. He holds a Master’s in Political Sociology from Paris-1 Pan-théon-Sorbonne University and a University Diploma in Arabic from Paris-4 Sorbonne University. He was also Project Manager at the CEDEJ, the French research center in Khartoum.

MARGAUX ETIENNE is a Sudan analyst at Noria and a photographic editor. Paris-based, she holds a master degree in Political Science and African Studies, and a master degree in Development Studies and Crisis man-agement. Her research focuses on the transformations that shaped students’ protest movements at Khartoum University of the 1989 coup. In a broader perspective, she works on political dynamics in an authoritarian context.

KHADIDJA MEDANI is Sudan analyst for Noria. She also works as the administrative manager. Her research focuses with student and religious migra-tions in Khartoum. She develops interest in islamist networks between the Arab World and Sub-Saharan Africa. She is PhD student in Geography at the Univer-sity Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbone and a fellow researcher at CEDEJ-Khartoum.

Since December 2018, Sudan has experienced demonstrations calling for the fall of Omar al-Bashir, who has led the country since 1989, as well as the whole regime. In this special issue, dedicated to the Sudanese uprisings, Noria offers an analysis of the socio-historical dynamics which underlie the unprecedented mobilizations of the past four months; the purpose of this approach is to provide a better understanding of the current situation.

In order to do this, Clément Deshayes, Margaux Etienne, Khadidja Medani and three Noria researchers working on Sudan conducted a series of interviews with other researchers, specialists of Sudan, whose works are based on first-hand data from surveys conducted in Sudan. Each interview clarifies and deepens a specific dimension of the political situation. Thus, this issue as a whole, allows us to outline the main dynamics of this revolt, while it also underlines the scope of its social, economic and political processes.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS General introduction

Class dynamics, dissemination of the Sudanese uprising. Interview with Magdi El Gizouli

The spatial dimension of the four-months-long upraising. Interview with Mohamed Bakhit, Sherein Ibrahim and Rania Madani

Political economy of the regime and revolt. Cronyism, asymmetry, and injustice in the dynamics of the protest. Interview with Raphaelle Chevrillon Guibert

The revolution of Sudanese women: the magnifying effect and centrality of the protesting women. Interview with Azza Yacoub and Katarzyna Grabska

Activism from the outside. The mechanisms of the revolutionary movement among the Sudanese of the diaspora. Interview with Alice Franck

The Sudanese revolution or the climax of a decade of challenging the political order? Interview with Clément Deshayes

The Sudanese popular uprising: from the first demonstrations to the proclamation of the state of emergency. (National chronological map)

The Sudanese diaspora, demonstrations in support of the popular uprising between December 2018 and April 2019. (Map)

Mapping of protests in the city of Khartoum. From the first demonstrations to the proclamation of the state of emergency. (Map)

Photo essay

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I. CHRONICLE OF AN UPRISINGIt was after the demonstrations of the 16th and 19th of December, in the cities of Damazin and Atbara, that the Sudanese people’s movement gained momentum. The images of the insurgency in Atbara, where protesters set fire to a ruling party buil-ding, the National Congress Party, trave-led around the country and caused a chain reaction. The following day, demonstra-tions broke out in Port Sudan, in Gedaref, in Dongola and Berber. Some rural areas of the North and Gezira also participated largely in a movement of revolt, which appeared to be multifaceted and profound. At the begin-ning of the movement, the slogans went beyond socio-economic demands and direc-tly questioned the political order; this was embodied in the famous slogans “Tasqut bes” (Your fall, that’s all!) and “Ash -shaab yurid isqat an-nizam” (The people want the regime to fall). In the big cities, the pro-testers forcefully defied the order imposed by an ironclad ruling Islamist party, and sometimes paid a heavy price in human lives1 especially during the first days when the repression was brutal: the armed forces of the regime shot at the crowd with real ammunition. Over the weeks, the repres-sion was less deadly, but there were massive arrests of demonstrators.

1. For example, according to the NGO Independent Movement also called “almustagleen”, there were twenty victims in December 2018, twenty-three in Gedaref, three in Karima and three Atbara.2. In 1969, Jaafar al-Nimeyri, a member of the military and a politician, overthrew the civilian government of al-Azhari and remained at the head of Sudan for more than 15 years. He was himself overthrown by a coup on April 6, 1985 following a large-scale popular movement that led to the transition to civilian rule.3. Ahmed Awad Ibn Auf was the director of the military intelligence and chief of staff until 2010. He is on the list of individuals sanctioned by the US State Department since 2007 for his role in war crimes, especially in Darfur, and more remarkably for his role as intermediary between the Sudanese government and the Janjaweed militia. In 2015, he was appointed Minister of Defense, and on February 22, 2019, Vice-President.

On April 6th, 2019, on the anniversary date of the 1985 popular uprising and the fall of Nimeiri’s military regime2, militant groups which had been active since December were preparing a day of action. After weeks of preparation, they called on all Sudanese people, inside and outside the country, to join the protest movement by participa-ting in demonstrations, sit-ins and planned actions that day. In Khartoum, in particular, it was in front of the armed forces’ head-quarters that a giant sit-in, gathering more and more people every day, was organized. Despite repressive actions and the security forces’ attempts to contain the movement, the protesters have stayed in place since that date. Many other sit-ins also took place in various cities in the country which had been mobilizing and demonstrating for several months.

On April 11th, the fall of Omar al-Bashir and his arrest, by the army, was announced, as well as that of the senior regime officials. A two-year Military Transition Council (CMT) was proclaimed, directed by General Ahmed Awad Ibn Auf3, vice-president of the fallen government and former defense minis-ter. The state of emergency, declared by al-Bashir on February 22nd, was maintained by the new government, and a curfew was imposed. The Sudanese rejected these mea-sures and demanded the removal of Ibn Auf (“Tasqut tani”, “Your fall, a second time”).

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Twenty-four hours later, he resigned and was replaced by Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan, senior army officer, assisted by Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo (nicknamed Hemeti), leader of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF)4. Negotia-tions were difficult between representatives of the civil protest and the CMT, which see-mingly aspired to preserve part of the mili-tary regime at the head of Sudan since 1989.

However, sit-ins continued and protesters said they wanted to remain mobilized as long as the “third fall” (“Tasqut 3”) didn’t occur, and a civilian transitional govern-ment was established.

4. The RSF is a paramilitary force created in 2013 and first placed under the control of the security services and then the army. This force gathers and reorganizes the former janjaweed militia men from Darfur, who were heavily involved in the war crimes in Darfur. The RSF has been Omar al-Bashir’s favorite unit for the past decade and has been deployed on all fronts of the civil wars in Khartoum, but also in Yemen.

II. POLITICAL CONTEXT OF SUDAN FROM 1989 TO 2019Unprecedented in the Sunni Muslim world, Sudan experienced and maintained an Isla-mist regime in power for 30 years. In 1989, in the midst of an economic crisis, Omar al-Bashir rose to power and established a military junta centered on the Revolutionary Command for National Salvation Council (RCC-NS) in cooperation with the Islamic National Front (NIF), an Islamist party stemming from the Sudanese Muslim Bro-

In Khartoum at the site of the sit-in a demonstrator waves a Sudanese flag above a placard inscribed with the words: “Whether the government falls or not we remain entrenched here”. © Elsadig Mohamed

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therhood, led by Hassan El Turabi. In 1996, Omar al-Bashir and members of the former NIF, (it was then dissolved), founded the National Congress Party (NCP), the party that would remain in power until the fall of its leader, on April 11, 2019.

As soon as they seized power, the military and militants of the Islamist movement esta-blished a radical and revolutionary policy of political rupture and re-foundation of society. Political parties, trade unions, and professional associations were banned and their activists violently repressed. The state was purged of all elements which could potentially be hostile to the new political orientation of the regime and the adminis-trative apparatus was greatly reorganized. The new authorities in power mobilized the population around the issue of the Islami-zation of society, mainly through the esta-blishment of popular militias, the Popular Defense Forces (FDP), which were intended to lead the Jihad against the rebellion in the South. The Islamization of laws and society, which began in 1983 under Jafaar Nimeiri, was accentuated by educational reforms as well as by the Ministry of Social Planning, and by the application of public order laws, which allowed control of public areas by means of religious norms.

These social processes went along with a policy of austerity and privatization of public enterprises, conducted since the early 1990s. One of the objectives of the new regime was to marginalize the old elites and

5. The majority of the leaders of the former NIF make an alliance with Omar al-Bashir in order to isolate Hassan el Turabi. This is notably the case for Ali Osman Taha, Nafi Ali Nafi, Awad el Jaz, etc.6. The majority of the opposition’s political parties gradually come out of hiding and resume their activities in the country. This short and very relative political liberalization will not last long.

to forge a new educated middle class that would adhere to the project of reshaping society, and on which it could rely.

In the late 1990s and after a long standoff, the Islamists split. Hassan El Turabi, then president of the National Assembly, was removed from office before being arrested.5 This division was the first in a long series of conflicts within the regime and the Isla-mists.

The 2000s were marked by important eco-nomic and political changes. The oil income allowed the regime to fund big development programs.6 At the same time, the rebellion in southern Sudan, led by the Sudanese People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) ceased, and a peace agreement was concluded in 2005. If a certain lull was established in the South, other conflicts persisted, especially in the west of the country. Since 2003, a war of great violence has taken place in Darfur. It has killed more than 300,000 people and dis-placed millions of others.

Furthermore, after the massacres perpe-trated during this conflict, the Internatio-nal Criminal Court launched prosecutions against Omar al-Bashir and many officials of the regime.

The years 2010 and 2011 finally embodied a rupture in the political history of the country. In 2010, Omar al-Bashir was re-elected Pre-sident of the Republic of Sudan. In 2011, following a referendum of self-determina-tion, South Sudan became an independent

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state. These events left the military-Islamist coalition in power, without any armed and powerful opponents. However, these same events drove Sudan into an economic and financial crisis. The extractive industries economic model was bankrupt by the loss of oil resources because most of them were located in the southern part of the country. This crisis continues today and is now a factor in the current revolutionary move-ment.

III. CONVERGING PERSPECTIVES ON THE UPRISING IN SUDAN (DECEMBER 2018 - APRIL 2019)In a context of deep economic crisis, and fol-lowing the announcement of new austerity policies, the Sudanese protest movement took root in many sectors of the popula-tion, and mobilized them during demons-trations that have lasted now for more than four months. The demonstrators’ resilience, coupled with the locations where these demonstrations took place raises questions about two aspects of the revolt: on one hand, the social mapping of these demonstrations in terms of generations, classes, gender, and different affiliations, and, on the other hand, the mechanisms of long-term mobilization in an authoritarian context.

Therefore, we conducted interviews with several researchers, anthropologists, geo-

7. This is an elusive category but it corresponds here to employees, who are often graduates of higher education, and live mainly in urban areas.

graphers, and political scientists, asking them about the current revolt from their respective perspectives and subjects studied in their fieldwork.

The mobilization which started first of all in the provincial cities, quickly reached the capital, where the middle class7 demons-trated in the streets, answering the call of the Sudanese Professional Association (SPA). In the interview, Magdi El Gizouli, associate researcher at the Rift Valley Ins-titute, highlights the social dynamics of the Sudanese revolutionary movement as a whole. Effectively, the geographical spread of the protest was coupled with the social diversification of the demonstrators whose political references, modes of action and interactions with the government and the armed forces, were different.

In urban areas, women have emerged at the forefront of the demonstrations and have participated widely in various forms of protest since December, to the extent that their participation has become an emblem of the current protest movement. Although this participation appears as unexpected for many observers, especially in this country where women’s access to the public areas is governed by restrictive laws, this reality is however part of a historical dynamic of women’s movements (feminists/commu-nists/islamists), and can also be explained by the overrepresentation of women in institu-tions of higher education. This emblem of a massive participation of Sudanese women, which is analyzed for us by Azza Yacoub, an anthropologist associated with SOAS and

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Cedej Khartoum, should not, however, let us forget the kinds of domination of gender and class which are still at work in Sudanese society.

In Khartoum different neighbourhoods have participated in the demonstrations and in the call for revolution in varying degrees.   As  Mohamed Bakhit, the head of the department of  sociology and social anthropology at the University of Khartoum, explains the populations inhabiting the peri-pheral zones of Khartoum have largely kept away from the demonstrations. He under-scores the multiple constellations of poli-tical mobilization throughout the capital city. For example the demonstrations orga-nized by the SPA have been accompanied by

several other forms of demonstration orga-nized within diverse neighbourhoods.

The protest movement against the Isla-mist regime of al-Bashir produced signifi-cant echoes beyond the national borders. In many places, the Sudanese diaspora mobilized to show support for local acti-vists. Alice Franck, geographer at Paris 1 University, and former coordinator of the CEDEJ-Khartoum, highlights the involve-ment of all generations in exile against the regime, the diversity of modes of action, and the way in which the participation of the Sudanese residing abroad is a resource for the activists in Sudan.

The current protest is rooted in a long decade of distrust and expression of strong

In the crowd assembled opposite the Military Forces Headquarters in Khartoum, a demonstrator raises the initial flag of independent Sudan. © Elsadig Mohamed

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dissatisfaction with the regime. This wide protest movement stands out for its creati-vity as well as its ability to reclaim practices of struggle and resistance developed for years by many actors. Clément Deshayes, PhD student in anthropology at Paris 8 University, underlines the massive protest movements in Sudan over the past decade, including the June-July 2012 protests, the ones of September 2013 and the 2016 general strike. Thus, he records this movement in a history of conflict, learning processes and the spread of popular resistance practices.

Along with Elena Vezzadini, historian at the Centre National de la Recherche Scienti-fique (CNRS), we address the question of the central role played by leftist forces, mostly Marxist and socialist, within the protest movements in Sudan since the 1960s. She explains that although their structures were forcibly weakened by the 30-year dicta-torship, and that they are today almost non-existent, the practices inherited from these mobilizations persist. Progressive forces rooted in popular culture have survived the formal party and nourish the revolt even today.

Tracing the history of the various econo-mic policy models established by Omar al-Bashir’s regime, Raphaëlle Chevril-lon-Guibert, a political scientist at the IRD, underlines the asymmetry of the develop-ment between regions and its consequences on the mobilization cycles during the last decade. She stresses the economic crisis which has been continuing for many years, and shows that the most recent symptoms of this crisis (inflation in prices of commo-dities, shortages) are partly a reason for the outbreak of the protests. Indeed, factors such as the disappearance of the oil income, which stemmed from the exploitation of the wells in the South, and which were lost after the independence of South Sudan in 2011, along with the drying up of patro-nage networks and their tightening around smaller groups, have consequences on the lives of the entire Sudanese population. Raphaëlle Chevrillon-Guibert invites us to look at future developments by questioning the place of members of the security appara-tus (and supporters of the old regime) within patronage networks and in the national eco-nomic structure.

Noria is a network of researchers and analysts which promotes the work of a new generation of specialists in international politics.noria-research.com