Sudanese leaders again leave the resolution of the country's challenges until the last moment and in the hands of the Americans, laments Gamal Nkrumah Idiosyncratic self-effacement is the incandescent light of the Sudanese character. The Sudanese have traditionally downplayed their uniqueness. There are more pyramids in Sudan than there are in Egypt, and yet most citizens of the world associate Egypt, and not Sudan, with the proliferation of pyramids. Still, Sudanese leaders continue to skirt the brink even as the country plunges headlong into Pandemonium. The one prerequisite the Sudanese politician lacks is the reluctance to push for civic engagement. Sudan's political establishment, North and South, should stay engaged and plan for all possible scenarios and contingencies. It takes a discerning mind to rethink the commonplace. Everything about Sudan is uncommon, and yet the familiarity of its famines, civil wars, catastrophes and cabalistic schisms breeds contempt. Sudan is a microcosm of the African continent, except in one regard. The country had traditionally lived a schizophrenic existence, caught between its Arab and Islamic identity and its indigenous African roots. The rulers in Khartoum have taken it for granted that they will inevitably Arabise and Islamise the peoples they regard as their cultural inferiors. Bearing this in mind, United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton quipped in a speech to Africa's leaders this week in Addis Ababa at the African Union headquarters, that Africa is on the ascendant and the "status quo has been broken", but that alas throughout the Arab world, but particularly in Sudan, as Clinton so aptly put it, the political establishment headed by the ruling National Congress Party of Sudanese President Omar Hassan Al-Bashir along with other recalcitrant Arab leaders, seems to be "sinking into the sand". Clinton's comments came ahead of this week's summit meeting in the Ethiopian capital between Al-Bashir and Salva Kiir, his first vice president, who doubles up as president of Southern Sudan, to iron out differences over a number of critical issues including the status of the oil-rich enclave of Abyei. Also this week, internecine fighting broke out in Southern Kordofan State, administratively part of northern Sudan but inhabited in the main by non-Arab indigenous peoples, including the fiercely independent Nuba Mountains ethnic groups who have long resisted Arabisation and even among some tribes Islamisation, resulting in a humanitarian catastrophe. More than 40,000 out of the estimated 60,000 residents of Southern Kordofan's capital Kaduguli fled the embattled city. Northern Sudanese troops forcibly closed down Kaduguli's airport, cutting the city off from the rest of the country and the world. Humanitarian aid agencies, both local and international, warned of impending disaster. The ominous military build-up of warring factions and the sporadic artillery fire heard in the vicinity of Kaduguli augured ill �ê" not only for Kordofan, but also for Sudan as a whole. Northern politicians, including President Al-Bashir, are reportedly seething over the West's support of Southern Sudan and the inclusion of Western corporate access that they claim creates an uneven playing field. Khartoum suspects that Western powers are creating new realities on the ground where the nascent nation of Southern Sudan will prosper while Northern Sudan, lacking in hydrocarbons and other energy resources, will stagnate economically. It is against this melodramatic backdrop of accusations and counter-accusations that tensions between Khartoum and the Southern Sudanese capital Juba are mounting. The Sudanese government vigorously denied that the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) downed two of Khartoum's warplanes in Southern Sudan in Southern Kordofan State. The mass exodus of displaced people from Southern Kordofan State to Northern Kordofan State is creating havoc. It is an open secret that in spite of its newfound oil-wealth the Sudanese government is cash strapped because soon it will be deprived of most oil revenues as the South produces 75 per cent of Sudan's oil. Khartoum therefore cannot cope with a vicious cycle of protracted warfare in outlying regions, lawlessness and decreasing government legitimacy. There are precious few signs that Khartoum is ready to play a constructive role. Medical facilities are incapable of coping with the catastrophe. Thousands of people are at risk of starvation and hundreds are in need of urgent medical attention. Cronyism and corruption are even more pronounced in provincial outposts such as Kaduguli than they are in Khartoum. The Sudanese political landscape is ingrained with vested interests. Tribal leaders pretend to represent their impoverished people. Revenge taking is requisite. Endemic kleptocracy and nepotism encourage a dependence on ruling NCP bigwigs. The politically marginalised and oppressed indigenous peoples of the outlying backwaters of Africa's largest country know this well. They have long lost any faith in the government's willingness to deliver. This lack of trust in Khartoum's real motives largely explains Sudanese travails. In Juba, the ruling party is the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM), the political wing of the SPLA. In Khartoum, the ruling NCP holds sway. Opposition to the NCP is ruthlessly suppressed. Dissent is not tolerated. The NCP with its militant Islamist ideology projects itself as a guardian of Sudan's Arab and Muslim identity and poses as the official vigilante against alien ideological, political and social arrangements that are currently being foisted on the Sudanese people by external actors. The original ethos of the SPLM was to represent the rights of non-Arab Sudanese, politically disenfranchised even though they constitute the overwhelming majority of the population, whether they are Muslim, Christian or animist. An SPLM solution, if free and fair elections were permitted, would in many ways be preferable to the politically peripheralised peoples of Sudan, north and south. Its ideology of emancipation from Khartoum's hegemony would be more likely to command legitimacy and respect among Sudan's underdogs, the non-Arabised indigenous peoples. But for the SPLM vision to work in northern Sudan, certain conditions must be in place. First, basic services must be provided to the destitute population. This ingenious idea brings a small spot of illuminant hope to the dark worlds of western and southern Sudan. The impoverished people's expectations that funds from oil revenues would be released to give peace a chance to play out and prevent any descent into chaos must be realised. Keeping Sudan together must become a prerequisite for peace and prosperity. Even if the South secedes, the option of re-unification must remain open. We should applaud the hard work expended on the unity of Sudan by the late SPLM leader and legendary visionary John Garang. He would not have taken kindly to the secession of the South because he was a great believer in Sudanese unity, and African unity. Since Garang's untimely death, many of the problems that dogged relations between northern and southern Sudan remain, and some have actually exacerbated. I suspect that as real political decisions begin to be made about the future of northern Sudan many of the ideas conjured up by Garang will be taken seriously into consideration. Part of the explanation lies in the nature of Sudan's geography and the composition of its ethnic and cultural groups. Garang knew that ultimately Sudan is indivisible. This logic is surely right. The blame for Sudan's present predicament is not all with Al-Bashir. But the Sudanese president and Salva Kiir bear a responsibility to the Sudanese people to uphold the vision of Garang that was sadly not on display during their 12-13 June summit in Addis Ababa. The meeting was facetiously described as "an Africa-led international mission" presided over by former South African president Thabo Mbeki. Sudan has an obligation to reunite, even before it officially splits in two. Not only that, Sudan could pave the way for African continental unification. It is a worthy priority.
