Sudan

The Genocide in Sudan African Americans struggled for independence from genocide and slavery for centuries; yet slavery is still a foot in Africa. Sudan is the largest country inside the Motherland of Africa with over 39 million people. Sudan is the Arabic word for black. Well, how did this genocide begin? In the 1800s, the Turks and Egyptians subdued Sudan then the nationalist Mahdist revolt existed in 1881. By 1898, Anglo-Egyptian rule reigned supreme and gravitated a policy of preventing Southern Sudan off limits to Arabic-Islamic influence. Sudan finally reached independence in January 1, 1956, but civil war immediately commenced between radical Arab Muslims and my black brothers and sisters. The first civil war ended by 1972 with a federation proposal. In 1972, a cessation of the northsouth conflict was agreed upon under the terms of the Addis Ababa Agreement, following talks which were sponsored by the World Council of Churches. This led to an eleven-year hiatus in the national conflict. It fell apart by the mid-1980s with human rights violations continuing on both sides, but the Arab Muslim extremists are obviously much worse in their violence. President Gaafar Nimeiry attempted to create a federated Sudan including states in southern Sudan, which violated the Addis Ababa Agreement that had granted the south considerable autonomy in 1983. In a span of 20 years from 1983-2003, 2 million black Sudanese Christians and animists (those are blacks who follow traditional, pagan religions) died by the radicals

from Northern Sudan. One of the mean of this occurring is by Sharia Islamic law implemented by President Nineiri of Sudan in 1983. Sharia is an Islamic form of theocracy in a nation. Theocracies that’s man-made for the most part lead into tyranny. That is why I’m oppose to any form of a man-made theocracy. For over two decades the Sudanese Government and the Sudanese Peoples Liberation Army (SPLA) were involved in a civil war in southern Sudan.

Sharia law orders all non-Muslims to convert to Islam or die. At 1989, Lt. General Omar Hassin Bashir and the Sudanese Peoples Armed Forces overthrew Sudans democratic government. The new government has a Popular Defense Fund (PDF), which is controlled by the National Islamic Front, a fundamentalist Islamic group. They’ve dissolved all political institutions. As a result, John Garang (a Dinka resister) headed the Sudanese People Liberation Army (SPLA) to fight for Southern Sudan. Tons of raids have transpired to force northern Sudanese economic, cultural, and religious expansion onto the citizens of the South. Louis Farrakhan, who meets with the National Islamic front dictator General Al Bashir in Sudan years ago, denied that slavery even exists in Sudan, which is a total lie. There is tons of proof of slavery in Sudan. Francois van Deventer, vice President of United Christian Action, in a press release admitted to slavery on Christian black people. According to the London Economist at January 6, 1990, in 1989, a woman or child could be brought for $90 and in 1990 it was $15 for raid increases. In April 1996, U.N. Special Representative for Sudan, Gaspar Biro reported that an alarming increasein cases of slavery, servitude, slave trade, and forced labor. Two reporters in June 1996 illegally visited Sudan. They’ve produced Witness to Slavery, a series of articles that documented slavery in Sudan plus they brought tow young slaves and set them free. Jacobs (Director of Researcher of AASG) and Athie also exposed folks in bondage. Dr. Peter Harmond’s Christian Organization, Anti-Slavery International, Christian groups, African American groups, congressmen, and others have exposed slavery within Sudan for many years. Why is there little outcry from the media and the majority of America? Its for 2 main reasons. One is about a bias against the problems of Africa (i.e. little radical help is given to Africa because of the mindset of the leaders of America having not interest that they need except for oil and natural resources not freedom). Wherefore millions are dying by madmen with no mighty U.S. intervention, yet in the Middle East, we send thousands of troops to a country in an illegal war

and its genocide cause by U.S. given WMDs plus American/U.N. sanctions. The other is fear that the truth will be shown of Arab racism against black people. In the 1990s even the Black Caucus criticized a relief groups at March 25 when relief groups called for stepped up pressure to the Sudanese government. Black congressman Floyd Flake (D-NY), Congressman Barney Frank, Frank Torricelli (D-NJ) all proposed hearings on the slave trade and improvements to the Sudan. By 2003, a treaty is in the works to end the violence, but only time will tell if a real peace is authentic and carry forward. Freedom, the abolition of slavery, and Religious Freedom must subsist in Sudan if true peace prevails. More African Americans are awoke to this immorality, uncovering it, and helping out the Sudanese now, which is a good thing to do. Darfur is a region where it’s a mostly black Muslim population. Yet, the mostly Muslim people in Darfur are being murdered in genocide by the racist Muslim forces called the Janjaweed, a Sudanese militia group recruited mostly from the Afro-Arab Abbala tribes of the northern Rizeigat region in Sudan. They are mainly camel-herding nomads. The causes of this conflict are environmental and political. So, it’s Muslim radicals killing innocent Muslim black people. That is wrong. That is why many people from across the political spectrum even have done a lot to help the victims in Darfur. Some refugees have escaped Darfur into the neighboring African country of Chad. While the United States government has described the conflict as genocide, the UN has continuously stopped short of using such language. As many as 2.5 million are thought to have been displaced as of October 2006. The ICC's prosecutor for Darfur, Luis Moreno-Ocampo, asked a panel of ICC judges to issue an arrest warrant for al-Bashir. Violence in Darfur spread over the border to Chad and the Central African Republic. In Chad, notably, the Janjaweed were accused of incursions and attacks. Fresh Sudanese offensive by government soldiers and Arab militiamen against Darfur rebels has trapped thousands of refugees along the Chadian border, the rebels and humanitarian workers said on February 20, 2008. Classes occur among both sides to this day. Just because slavery is gone from this country, doesn’t mean its extinct worldwide and this oppression is alive and well in Africa. The genocide in Sudan doesn’t mean I support neo cons or Western imperialism trying to impose their will in Sudan (when Sudan has an abundance of oil resources). Imperialism by radical Muslims is just as evil as imperialism done by the Western elite. So, I’m not naïve about competing hegemonies in the region. Sudan does need regime, but it ought to be peacefully done by its own people (without Western interference at all). Also, all forms of suffering is evil from Israelis suffering, Palestinians suffering, ca. 3.5 million people in Congo, and people dying in Uganda as well.

Mauritania Black slavery still flourishes in Mauritania as well. The slave raiders are Arabs and Berbers (known as beydanes=whites) against the black ethnic communities of the South (most sedentary farmers of the Tukulor, the Fulani, and the Wolof tribes brought over to the North by Arab/Berber tribes). After Newsweek conducted a year long, 4 continent investigation of slavery; it exposed the fact that More than 100,000 descendants of Africans conquered by Arabs during the 12th century are still thought to be living as old-fashioned chattel slavery in Mauritania. A person named Jacobs is on the trail again agreeing to the U.S. State Department estimate of 92,000 black slaves under the Berbers as a conservative estimate. Mauritania even outlawed slavery in 1905, then at 1960 when it had its independence, and most recently in 1980. All of these edicts were lip service to consolidate economic and political power in the hands of beydanes. Africa Watch also exposed torture unto blacks like using camels to tear apart slaves, burning coals, and genital mutilation. There is even a psychological plan of racism against blacks. In 1992, Newsweek spoke to a slave named Doba Ould Mbarek in Mauritania who said that “A master is a master and a slave is a slave. Masters are white, slaves are black. Is this just? Naturally, we blacks should be the slaves of whites.” This manifests the effects of psychological hurt to convince them of the lie of some blacks in Mauritania of being inferior to whites. Samuel Cotton wrote a book entitled, “Silent Terror: A Journey into Contemporary African Slavery.” In 1995, he visited Mauritania and writes of the racism there in his firsthand observations. He exposed that there is a

white ruling class called the white Moors (who are a produce of the Berbers and Arabic people who moved there centuries ago). Historically, many Arabic people had slaves. According to Cotton, the white Moors look down upon black Africans. When the colony became independent in 1960, Mauritania was one of nine republics carved out of the area that had been French West Africa. The Senegal River became the border between Mauritania and Senegal. This is an area where the black population was concentrated; those living north of the river became countrymen of the Moors. Mauritiania officially bans slavery, but it still goes on. The Haratines or black Moors are black slaves back centuries ago (who spoke Arabic or the local derivation of Hassaniya. Later, they lost much of their black African cultural roots). Three main population groups include "Beydannes" (literally, "whites" - Arabs and Berber tribes - who control the government), "Haratines" (the black slave caste that makes up roughly 40% of the population), and free blacks.

Gaspar Biro, Frank Kiehre, the Black Caucus, and others condemned the oppression in Mauritania for many years, which is great. Muslims and groups like Dr. Ushari Ahmad Mahmud, Dr. Suleyman Ali Baldo, etc. have condemned both the immoral behavior in Sudan and Mauritania despite the fact the Muhammad owned numerous black slaves.

Just recently in January 2004, the U.S. government had tried to beef up the border in Mauritania. The purpose is to enhance the military industrial complex and promote the major oil companies and drilling operations like Kerr McGhee across West Africa. The U.S. is even sending troops and defense contractors to the Sahara Desert as a new front on the war on terror in a $100 million plan to bolster the security forces and border controls of Mauritania, Mali, Chad, and

Niger. Yeah, while people are enslaved, women oppressed, child labor abused, and dictatorial rule reigns in Mauritania, the U.S. government supports them to this day. This is anti-American. Its true that America has gone and gave grand help to aid the Third World and other nations in health, standard of living, the starving and the sick, but we still have a continued struggle to let the oppressed go free indeed. There was the recent coup of the Government of President Sidi Ould Cheikh Abdallahi. The coup was organized by General Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz, former chief of staff of the Mauritanian army and head of the Presidential Guard, whom the president had just dismissed. A presidential election will be held in Mauritania on June 6, 2009.

By Timothy