الجيل السوداني الأول في المهاجر: الغربة كشفة حال

أتحدث اليوم إلى طالبة دراسات عليا سودانية من الجيل السوداني الأول في المهاجر حول جوانب اعتنت هي بها في تاريخ السودان. وذكرني هذا برسالة مماثلة كان بعث لي بها أحد من هذا الجيل قبل سنوات. وبدا لي دائماً أنه لم تقم فينا عناية مؤسسية بهذا الجيل الذي يرى وطناً يتخلق من فوق أحداث جسام وربما لم يعد كثير منهم يملك ناصية اللغة العربية التي تُبث بها أخبار هذه الأحداث وتحليلاتها.

وكنت رتبت خلال رئاستي لجمعية الدراسات السودانية في أمريكا لقيام إدارة تعنى بهذا الجيل في مثل تنظيم رحلات إلى السودان لزيارة معالمه ومعرفة تاريخه في حلقات دراسية للغرض. وقد شجعني على ذلك ما علمته من تشجيع أمريكا الرسمية ليعرف مثل هذا الجيل بلده الأصل لأنه أقصر الطرق ليكون مواطناُ أمريكياً جيداً.
أنشر هنا رسالة الشاب المغروض في تاريخ السودان وثقافته وردي عليه.
Dr. Abdullahi,

My name is . . . and I'm a sophomore, who studies physics and philosophy here at Columbia University. About half a year back, I stumbled upon your earlier writing on the Ja'aliyyin and was deeply impressed with the mix between historical reference, historiography, fieldwork, philosophical consideration, and the sensitivity to looking at the markers of how an identity -- especially one that had been oft-relegated to the category of "seriously dubious" -- is practiced through language, mythopoetics, etc., and thereby also challenging ideas about identity as a concept. As someone whose personal, historical knowledge of Sudan is limited, but also whose personal interests have converged, at times, with "post"-colonial thinkers, critical theory, and the investigation of concepts that fashion themselves, within discourse, to be self-apparent or a given, I wanted to seek out more of your work. Since then, I've also read your piece, "The House That Matriarchy Built," on the Sudanese Women's Union. As of right now, I'm about 2 1/2 chapters into Manichean Delirium (though my reading has forestalled temporarily with the influx of school readings, problem sets, and the time-consuming launch of Columbia's BDS campaign) and have picked up Assaulting with Words, but I'm also interested in perhaps being to get your take and advice on a couple of things, if you wouldn't mind.

1. I was curious what your take was on the current discourse -- at least the one I'm privy too -- to, what has personally seemed unsatisfying, the identity thesis (i.e., "The problem of Sudan is that we are blacks who thought themselves Arabs") that seems not only popular among western audiences, but also in contingencies of Sudanese people themselves. If you could recommend literature on the topic too (I've only read Mamdani's take on its origins), that would be amazing.

2. This question is a bit more logistical: Isma'il informed that you wrote an entire book on the identity of the Ja'aliyyin -- do you foresee or plan (coming from someone who grew up with the colloquial, but can't read a lick of Arabic) on having it ever published in English?

I want to thank you so much for taking the time to read this and to apologize for the time I've taken before emailing you. I am hoping as well that you would not mind if I could potentially contact you in the future.

Sincerely,

وهذا ردي عليه:

I am so impressed by your letter showing a breadth of knowledge and a concerned mind. I am gratified that you found my writings useful and relevant to your intellectual pursuits. I have not been read like this before and I really do not know how to thank you for making my day.
The question of whether northerners are Arabs is no-starter as you may have gathered from reading my “Breaking.” Our identity scholars have had no idea of the emerging concept of identity as a construction. They argue from a position prevalent in the 19th century, primordialism. In their wrong-headedness harnessing the identity discourse to their oppositional stance against Ingaz, they are encouraged by the flouting of the Ingaz of Arabism and Islamism as the sole identity of Sudan. If they subjected this Islamoarabism, as they call it, to criticism they will realize that it is more of regimes discipline, law, and order rather than an identity. Some have continued to believe since the “Jungle and Desert” that dropping our Arabism will sit well with the Southerners and the conflict will dissolve in thin air. The two-year old conflict in South Sudan (2013-2014) must have taught them that Africans fight like hell.
I have been arguing that the identity of Sudan cannot be resolved by answering the question of “what it is?” It is only resolvable when we succeed in making the state stop adopting an official religion or language and allow the various identities in the country to flourish. The state will only put legal and budgetary means at the disposal of various communities in the country to engage their identities freely and productively.
An attending circumstance may explain why the call to drop our “faked” Arabism is so virulent. Some of those calling for this are disgruntled immigrants to the Arab peninsula who came back crestfallen because the Arabs of this area look down upon them. Some immigrants in the USA are startled to discover their “blackness” while filling various official forms. They are confused and bitter.
I have been developing a concept of the northern Sudanese as a “hybrid” in the strict postcolonial usage. I am attaching a proposal I have been working on to research this identity called” menacing” by Homi Bhabha.
I will stop here to pick up from where I stopped next time.

Thanks for this great exchange. Kushkush has done me another great favor by introducing me to you.

Abdullahi

IbrahimA@missouri.edu

 

المصدر: سودانايل