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HELLO ALL, SORRY ABOUT THE DELAY, BUT THIS WAS LOCKED UP IN
A COMPUTER
THAT NEEDED SOME WORK.
SITREP 15 14 JAN 05
GENERAL SITUATION:
A peace agreement of sorts was in fact signed in Naivasha,
Kenya last week. Unfortunately, many key items
were apparently unresolved at the time of signing. Notable among these was
the entire Darfur issue which
continues to be the slobbering drunk at the Temperance Union tea party. By the
time I return to Sudan in a week
the ramifications and realities will hopefully be more apparent and I will
have more substantial information
for all you SITREP readers.
SECTOR 3 OPERATIONS:
NTR this week. I will have us all up to speed next week, Insh’allah.
MICHAEL’S WORLD:
I am enjoying myself immensely. Being with Karen and seeing
friends has been a rejuvenating experience.
I even did a little horseback riding yesterday! Just enough to fall off
once and discover some muscles that had
obviously been underused while monitoring the CFA. (Thanks again, Carol and
Betsy.)
I’ll pass on a philosophical thought or two in this issue, since it’s perforce a bit shorter SITREP than usual.
The first thought regards age. After sitting through a
number of village meetings in the company of more
experienced monitors, I began conducting my own and was pleasantly surprised
at the positive reception
I got from the sheiks, omdas and elders with whom I was dealing. I must
confess that I had anticipated a certain
level of wariness (if not skepticism) as the new guy in the game. I never
experienced these reactions from the
people I met and it caused me to wonder why. I suddenly realized that I was no
longer in the West where youth
and beauty are the standards by which people are all too frequently judged,
but rather in a part of the world in which
age and its hopefully attendant wisdom are respected. I enjoyed the benefit of
being seen as an elder myself.
I must confess that it is refreshing to deal with those who see no
necessity to use Botox to obtain the esteem
and respect of the populace.
T
he second thought regards the affects of tribalism in African life and politics. Tribalism pervades every aspectof African life. There is seldom if ever the sense of “nation” unifying disparate sub groups in Africa similar
to that which we take for granted in America. Many of the problems in Africa stem from the territorial divisions
imposed by the colonial powers without regard for tribal/geographical considerations. Current national borders
encompass traditional enemies in some cases and divide traditionally homogeneous tribal groupings in others.
It should be noted that while ancient tribal rivalries can make nation building difficult in some situations, it can be
a positive force in reuniting politically divided but traditionally homogeneous groups. I see this constantly in Sudan,
where the reunification of the warring factions is facilitated by an overriding traditional tribal unity. But make no error;
no one who does not understand tribalism and all its implications cannot and will not enjoy any more success in
Third World nation building than the colonialists had in building nations in these areas.
The third thought is that the common people of Sudan are
being particularly ill served by the leadership of both factions.
I will deal with this in some depth at some future time, but the biggest
problem in the “top down” governmental structure
of Sudan may be the dearth of good leadership on either side. And I think
I’ll leave this consideration at this point
for now. For those who would like to know more about the background to
today’s Sudan, profiles of the leaders
of both factions, and about the genuine genocide that took place in Rwanda as
well as the events in Somalia I highly
recommend a book entitled Me Against My Brother by Scott Peterson
(published by Routledge).
Please let me extend my sincere wish for a wonderful 2005
for everyone. More from Sudan next week.
And that’s it for this week from Clarke County, VA, U.S.A. Michael
SITREP 16 28 JAN 05
GENERAL SITUATION:
The Comprehensive Peace Agreement has been signed, at
least in principle. This is a good thing, and long overdue.
Now only time will tell if it will be enough.
My main concern is that the implementation may have to be
driven from the bottom up in a country in which the
declared will of the people, taken for granted in the First World, is seldom
the force for change and action that it
should be. Six months of fairly close interaction with the ordinary people
of the Nuba have only reinforced my initial
opinion that they truly desire peace. Whether that will be sufficient in
the face of tribalism and the interests of those
with much to lose if the peace does not favor them and their interests is
up in the air now.
Politics at village level are handled by sitting in
council and discussing issues until consensus or something
approaching it is reached. 51% won’t get you too far here. Total agreement
is the goal; 90% will usually work;
less than 75% will probably not suffice. But that is where democracy in
Africa normally ends. Starting at district
government level it is top down and authoritarian. It has always been this
way, and the colonial powers did little
if anything to introduce bottom to top democratic traditions or methods.
There is little tradition of, or experience
with, representative national or state government. In addition there is
little concept of an overarching national
entity which supersedes local or tribal interests.
I think a bit of explanation of what “tribalism” means may
be in order here. A tribe here is the largest grouping
of voluntarily associated people to which the people will turn of their
own will for adjudication and problem resolution.
It is not necessarily an ethnic grouping (although it can be), but rather
more of a political entity. The ethnic homogeneity
which westerners ascribe to the tribe is more a clan function. In the Nuba,
for instance, the Moro people are often split
in their loyalties between GOS and SPLM. While their ethnic heritage is
Moro, they will have separate sheiks and
councils depending upon where their political allegiances lie. Some
Muslims, supportive of the SPLM, can be said to
have tribal ties to the SPLM sympathetic local faction as this is the
political entity to which they turn for issue resolution.
This is an anomaly in a place where fundamentalist Islam is practiced.
Think of the splits among families during the
American Civil War, with “tribal” loyalties to North or South, and it may
be easier to grasp the implications.
The loyalty precedence tends to be the same throughout the
continent. It goes (highest to lowest) Family> Clan>
Tribe> Nation. Compare and contrast this to the developed world, where
treason against the national government
might well result in repudiation by the perpetrator’s own family. This
follows custom and practice throughout
the Third World. Isolation and limited communications combine to create
local focus and commitment. Outside
authority is usually visited upon the local communities to the detriment of
the visited. “I’m from the government
and I’m here to help you” on steroids, if you will.
The political structure in Sudan is such that
authoritarianism and disregard for the will of the common people are
not only to a large extent de jure ,but also part of the traditional
and social history since “the memory of man runneth
not to the contrary”. Therefore, I am not certain that the people believe
in, nor are those in power inclined to pay heed to,
the will of the common folk as manifested by their votes. There is reason
to believe that change will truly only come to
those who can seize and hold power by force. With such a tradition in
place it is not hard to see why both governors
and the governed hold the democratic process in lower regard than those
who have had the benefit of centuries of the
freedom and democratic process normally taken for granted in the West. The
people do seem willing to give the process
a fair chance, however, so if the holders of power even approach keeping
their end of the bargain there may be hope.
All that can be said of the CPA and transition to UN
control is that the process is unclear at every level and
behind schedule already.
SECTOR 3 OPERATIONS:
We continue to operate as usual. At Sector level, all is
going very well indeed. We are spreading the glad tidings
to a happy population, explaining what we can in greater depth, carrying
out our regular military inspections and
conducting ever increasing numbers of village visits. We are also attempting
for the first time to codify the village,
payam (next level UP in the SPLM areas) and district, and county civilian
structure.
Needless to say we would all like to have a better handle
on what may be forthcoming, but we are all experienced
enough to not get involved in idle speculation about the potentialities of
groundless (or even possibly grounded) rumors.
MICHAEL’S WORLD:
I’m back in harness and hard at it. For those of you whom
I missed when I was on leave, I’m sorry not to have
seen you all. But there just wasn’t enough time to do all that I needed
to, let alone all that I wanted to. Next leave
I really have to get organized! I am planning it during the end of May-
beginning of June time frame. And that should
do it for another week. Michael