{"id":53931,"date":"2025-09-06T23:47:32","date_gmt":"2025-09-06T20:47:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/?p=53931"},"modified":"2025-09-06T23:47:32","modified_gmt":"2025-09-06T20:47:32","slug":"the-sparrow-and-the-air-deal-the-founding-of-sudan-between-illusion-and-memory","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/2025\/09\/06\/the-sparrow-and-the-air-deal-the-founding-of-sudan-between-illusion-and-memory\/","title":{"rendered":"The Sparrow and the Air Deal: The \u201cFounding\u201d of Sudan Between Illusion and Memory"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Aref Al-Sawi<\/strong><\/p>\n

Last Saturday, the so-called \u201cSudan Founding Alliance\u201d announced in Nyala the formal establishment of its Presidential Council. Stepping into the spotlight, Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo was sworn in as President of what was proclaimed the \u201cPresidential Council of the Republic of Sudan.\u201d He was followed by Abdelaziz Adam al-Hilu as Vice President, other members of the council, and finally Mohamed Hassan al-Ta\u2019ishi as Prime Minister of the \u201cFounding\u201d government.<\/p>\n

The entire spectacle originated not from independent reporting, but from the alliance\u2019s own pages and platforms, amplified by supporters of \u201cHis Excellency Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo.\u201d No journalists were invited to Nyala to witness the occasion or to record the reactions of ordinary people. Instead, the alliance opted to craft its own narrative, expecting the public to believe in the torrents of joy supposedly sweeping Nyala at the birth of Sudan\u2019s new government.<\/p>\n

The alliance\u2019s media platforms circulated photos and videos of Dagalo and al-Hilu walking through the streets of Nyala, clasping hands in a display of \u201cpolitical romance.\u201d It was a carefully staged image: a sudden friendship conjured to erase centuries of political conflict\u2014conflicts that had repeatedly reshaped kingdoms and governments.<\/p>\n

The alliance claims to have founded a government of unity and peace from Nyala, one that assumes responsibility for all of Sudan, caring as much for Shendi and Kassala and Khartoum as for Nyala itself. But is that claim real? Do they possess the intent, the capacity, and the resources to shoulder the burden of Sudanese welfare and progress? Or is it merely political propaganda?<\/p>\n

The oath sworn by members of the Presidential Council pledged to carry out their duties \u201cwith diligence, honesty, and transparency, for the welfare and advancement of the Sudanese people.\u201d They also committed to enshrining a secular system of governance, in deference to Abdelaziz al-Hilu, who has consistently refused to engage in any dialogue that does not explicitly enshrine secularism in the constitution\u2014sometimes even demanding it be placed \u201cabove the constitution.\u201d The alliance obliged him completely: he was allowed to swear his oath on his \u201ctrue word,\u201d without the need for any sacred text.<\/p>\n

Thus, secularism was reduced from a profound intellectual and constitutional question, one that might have been embraced through popular conviction, to a cheap prop in the propaganda of the Rapid Support Forces. Al-Hilu chose a secularism carried by RSF rocket launchers over one safeguarded by societal conviction and public awareness. In doing so, he turned secularism into a personal issue, a tool in his political rivalry. For Sudanese democrats who long considered him a strategic ally for democratic and secular governance, it was a bitter disappointment.<\/p>\n

A second disappointment struck the cause of the Nuba people in their long struggle against political and economic marginalization. Al-Hilu diluted his historic project by folding it into Hemedti\u2019s opportunistic venture, without offering a clear explanation of what tangible benefit the Nuba would gain\u2014let alone the rest of Sudan. What prize did he secure for the Nuba cause? On what basis did he make such a consequential decision?<\/p>\n

The Nuba had taken up arms for real grievances, fighting a protracted war rooted in issues of identity and resources. Yet the new \u201cFounding Constitution,\u201d while reverting to a federal system of regions, did not bother to demarcate their boundaries. If Sudan\u2019s borders were historically drawn by violence, are the Nuba now to settle for a promise and a \u201ctrue word\u201d from al-Hilu? And will that promise bear fruit this time?<\/p>\n

During the oath-taking celebrations, the government\u2019s leaders addressed a rally in Nyala, which al-Hilu hailed as the \u201ccapital of the new Sudan.\u201d The crowd had no choice in the matter; they gathered as they once had for Omar al-Bashir, sustained only by the hope that this promise, unlike previous ones, might be kept. Their presence does not confer legitimacy. But legitimacy was never the alliance\u2019s concern: convinced they know the people\u2019s interests better than the people themselves, they drafted the entire project\u2014deciding how Sudan would be ruled and by whom\u2014behind closed doors in Nairobi, long before setting foot in Nyala.<\/p>\n

Standing as \u201cPrime Minister of the Republic of Sudan,\u201d Mohamed Hassan al-Ta\u2019ishi pledged with his colleagues to build a \u201cnew Sudan\u201d upon the ruins of \u201cthe State of \u201956.\u201d Yet why does al-Ta\u2019ishi harbor such resentment toward \u201cthe State of \u201956\u201d? He is himself a product of the University of Khartoum\u2014the intellectual seedbed of that very state\u2014a son of the Umma Party, the party of independence, who lived in Britain on the legacy of that state. He even once led the University of Khartoum Students\u2019 Union on the opposition lists against the Bashir regime. If the people of Nyala cannot understand the roots of this \u201cresentment,\u201d it will be difficult for them to buy into the alliance\u2019s project.<\/p>\n

When al-Hilu, Hemedti\u2019s deputy, rose to speak to the people of Nyala, he seemed hesitant, his thoughts unclear. He felt compelled to justify his alliance with the RSF, recounting how they once stood as adversaries but now shared a common fate. In a veiled apology, he admitted they had once been \u201cblind.\u201d He then told the parable of the black and white bulls who stood together against a lion\u2014until the lion divided them and devoured them one by one.<\/p>\n

Al-Hilu revealed that the Port Sudan government had reached out to him before his pact with the RSF, but he had disclosed those contacts to Hemedti, explaining that what bound them together was \u201cmarginalization\u201d\u2014that both suffered at the hands of the \u201cState of \u201956.\u201d Yet this claim collapses under scrutiny: the RSF were never marginalized. On the contrary, their leader was until recently one of Sudan\u2019s richest men, controlling banks, mining companies, and vast herds, commanding armies across the land. He was the darling of the Bashir regime, selling fighters to its cause, once boasting: \u201cI\u2019m just holding on to the president\u2019s tail.\u201d<\/p>\n

Al-Hilu offered no details of his understandings with the RSF, dismissing them as \u201cunimportant.\u201d The truth is that his stance defies explanation: neither his comrades nor his followers, and certainly not the Sudanese public, can make sense of it. What it amounts to is a bargain between two generals, flanked by an elite whose only rallying cry is a tattered scrap of thought called the \u201cState of \u201956.\u201d<\/p>\n

When al-Ta\u2019ishi, al-Hilu, and their alliance leaders promised the people of Nyala that development, services, electricity, skyscrapers, and railways would come tomorrow, their pledges rang hollow. Such promises can be realized only through politics and dialogue\u2014or through extreme violence.<\/p>\n

And violence is the RSF\u2019s only path. Their project cannot stand without demolishing the legacy of the \u201cState of \u201956\u201d and erasing the collective memory that has shaped Sudan\u2019s identity. That can only be achieved through overwhelming violence\u2014the same kind of violence with which the Turko-Egyptian state once established its rule in Sudan, only to face gradual resistance until the Mahdiyya arose. When Khalifa Abdallah himself overindulged in violence, people withdrew their support, weakened the Mahdist state, just as they had earlier resisted Soba and the Funj kingdom of Sennar.<\/p>\n

This quotation from philosopher Immanuel Kant, cited by Adonis and later by historian Mohamed Saeed al-Qaddal in Belonging and Alienation (Dar al-Jeel, 1992), was followed by critic Mahmoud Amin al-Alam\u2019s comment: \u201cThere is no progress or creativity out of nothing; the path can only pass through the memory of heritage.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ideas exert influence not because of their grandeur, but because they resonate with people\u2019s aspirations at a given historical moment. The leaders of the \u201cSudan Founding Alliance,\u201d however, are in one valley\u2014while the people of Nyala are in another.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Aref Al-Sawi Last Saturday, the so-called \u201cSudan Founding Alliance\u201d announced in Nyala the formal establishment of its Presidential Council. Stepping into the spotlight, Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo was sworn in as President of what was proclaimed the \u201cPresidential Council of the Republic of Sudan.\u201d He was followed by Abdelaziz Adam al-Hilu as Vice President, other …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":53932,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-53931","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-opinion"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53931","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=53931"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53931\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":53933,"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53931\/revisions\/53933"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/53932"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53931"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53931"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53931"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}