Fragments and Footnotes…. In The Biography of Dr Mansour (1)
As I See
By Adel El Baz
1
If you are keen to know why we are still at this position right now and why our crisis persisted since after the independence of the Sudan up to this very date, then you have to read the memoires of Dr Mansour Khalid which have recently come out of the Printing House “Rueia”, under the title of (Fragments and Footnotes on his Autobiography).
The memoires come out in four volumes (parts) and in each of these volumes Dr Mansour Khalid presents a bleak picture of the dark night in which our country has dwelt since independence, that is since the times of the founding fathers, then passing through all national eras, up to-date, it continues in search for a new horizon.
2
In his autobiography, Dr Mansour Khalid has presented his testimony for the history. He related stories about the historic events in the Sudan to which he was either witness or a contributor in influencing them. Mansour khalid earnestly seeking to respond to a question that persisted since the sixties of last century: (Why Are the Northern Elite Addicted Failure).
In all the questions reviewed, Dr Mansour traces them back to their roots and origin in our modern history. He guides you from the question of slavery to the South Sudan crisis, to the tragedy of democracy, going through to the military coups and the opportunities missed in our history that makes one heart bleeds.
3
Dr. Mansour says in his fragments (Sudan’s current political problems are the result of lacking, not to say short-sightedness, of the fathers of independence to deal with the biggest problem they faced at independence: the issue of the South.) Then Dr. Mansour goes on to accuse everyone of stabbing democracy, saying (Not only by all political forces, but also by a government headed by what came to be considered the largest democrat in Sudan, Muhammad Ahmed Al-Mahjoub, who famously said (Mistakes in democracy are addressed by more (practices of) Democracy). Dr. Mansour attributes failure of democracy to intolerance and says (intolerance does not only lead to undermining democracy, but rather represents demolition of politics from the very base of its foundation, because politics is the art of compromise and compromise.)
4
Dr. Mansour touched the depth of the crisis and its wounds that have not healed, and he traces it back to the parties and governments’ neglect of their most important duties (national construction, which cannot be completed without achieving harmony between the various components of the nation, and economic, social, and cultural development, without which the well-being of the people will not be achieved.). Going in a voyage through these memoires, I will try to pick up from it the aspects that will shade light on the crisis that we have been living, then and now, and will try to then look into the various personal opinions he has expressed about certain personalities that he came to know and who have played different roles in the Sudanese politics at different eras and epochs.
To be continued
