Interview with Abdelaziz Baraka Sakin · For Abdelaziz Baraka Sakin, “ ethnic conflicts ” in Sudan are in reality class conflicts. And the young revolutionaries have moreover identified in their slogans with the marginalized resulting from the distress of the people who haunt his novels.
Abdelaziz Baraka Sakin began writing in the 1980s, when Sudan was ruled by President Gaafar Nimeiry (sic!), who came to power in a coup in 1989 (sic!), and censorship weighed heavily on writers. Having gone to Egypt for his studies, he published his first books there, which immediately met with great success with Sudanese readers.
Returning to his native country, he carried out several jobs in the public service before being dismissed because of his refusal to do his military service. He then began to work in humanitarian work within international organizations. It was during this period that he was sent on a mission to Darfur for human rights training for NATO and African Union ( AU ) troops tasked with observing the Darfur war (2003 -2009), which opposes government armies and Arab mercenaries called janjaweed on the one hand, and local tribes defined as " insurgent " by Khartoum and composed mainly of so-called " African " tribes.
Back in Khartoum, he recounts his experience in his most famous novel and translated into several languages, The Messiah of Darfur (Zulma, 2016 ; translated from Arabic by Xavier Luffin). All his books were seized and the repeated threats he suffered forced him to leave the country. He settled in Austria where he obtained the status of political refugee. Several years later, he left for France, where he lives today.
The Messiah of Darfur is the story of a young woman who, after witnessing the massacre of her family in one of the villages of Darfur destroyed by Janjaweed militias during the war, decides to give herself the (male) name of Abdel. Rahman and enlist in the " rebel " army in order to avenge his own. Through this story with several voices, the word of the protagonist gives way in turn to her companion Shikiri, a young Darfurian forcibly recruited into the regular army then captured by the rebels ; to Ibrahim Khidr, descendant of the black slave Bakhita "the color of soot ”Who - offered to an Arab trader who pregnant her - had a child, Ibrahim, with slightly lighter skin than his neighbors, but is not for all that recognized as“ Arab ” ; to Aunt Kharifiyya who takes in and adopts young Abdel Rahman after she suffered several rapes by janjawid around the town of Nyala.
" ARABS " VS. " AFRICANS ", A CLASS DISTINCTION
The central question in the novel is the conflict between " Arabity " and " Africanness " in Sudan. Is this conflict real or was it created from scratch ?
In this region, which for centuries constituted one of the largest reservoirs of slaves on the African continent, the so-called “ Arab ” and so-called “ African ” tribes are inextricably linked by centuries of mixed marriages and common practices. The term " Arab " is used both in reference to the noble ancestry of alleged proximity to the Prophet of Islam, and as a derogatory term for poor and uneducated Bedouins, with the added paradox that some tribes say " Arabs " are tribes that do not speak Arabic. The qualifier " African Is just as problematic. Indeed, it is practically impossible to distinguish those which belong to the latter category from those which one classifies in the first. During the colonial period, two large “ Arab ” tribes of the Nile valley, the Djaaliyyin and the Danaqla, established themselves in particular thanks to the slave trade, one of the most flourishing businesses in the region.
After the country's independence in 1956, an elite from these tribes and those who revolved around them took control of the country. Darfur, an extremely poor and neglected territory on the part of the center around the Nile Valley, suddenly found itself populated, in the early 2000s, by defined groups of individuals - in opposition to the powerful in Khartoum and the “ Arabs ” who, in Darfur, represented their military support - like so many “ Africans ” who had to be tamed, silenced, even exterminated.
Marcella Rubino . - You are from Kassala, in eastern Sudan. What were the relations between “ Arab ” and “ African ” tribes in your hometown ?
Abdelaziz Baraka Sakin . - I was born in Kassala, but my story is more complex. My mother was from Chad. After a pilgrimage to Mecca, his family had stayed in Saudi Arabia, then moved to a border town between the region known as Abyssinia and Sudan. Towards the end of World War II, because of the fighting between Italians and British in the region, my maternal family moved to Sudan, to the town closest to the border with present-day Eritrea. As for my father, he comes from the Masalit tribe, whose autonomous kingdom was located between Darfur and Chad.
Kassala is a city made up of tribes from very diverse origins: from the east, west and north of Sudan, but also tribes from Nigeria who own land. There is no conflict between those who are called elsewhere in the country " Arabs " and those who are called " Africans ". Most of the tribes in this region belong to the Bedja group of tribes, also found in Ethiopia and Eritrea, which are not “ Arab ” tribes . We therefore do not have in Kassala the racism that we find in the big cities of the North and in Darfur.
M. R. - What is the history of this distinction between “ Arabs ” and “ Africans ” in Sudan ?
A. B. S. - The Arabs arrived in Sudan in several waves. According to local traditions, a wave dates from the fall of Al-Andalus in the XV th century. If we refer to this version, it is for about six centuries that Arab tribes have settled in Darfur and mingled with local African tribes, such as Masalit, Four, Dajo, Zaghawa and others. Mixed marriages resulted in a mixture of these populations who have shared for centuries the same land and the same skin color, so much so that it was almost impossible to distinguish who is “ Arab ” and who is “ African ”. Some tribes later defined as " Arab " did not even speak this language, but local languages such as, for example, Farta in the Blue Nile region.
The distinction between “ Arabs ” and “ Africans ” arose after independence, with the coming to power of successive governments which imposed the Arabization and Islamization of the country, decreeing that the identity of Sudan boiled down to the two. arabic and islamic elements. Since then, the question of the alleged Arabity of part of the population and the ruling elite has been linked to the desire to control the administration and the resources of the country. The Arabization policy was carried out in particular by co-opting in Darfur other Arab tribes from Niger, Chad and other Sahelian countries, which the Arab-Islamic governments of the north have gradually armed and trained in war against those which they now scornfully called the zurga (black).
HEIRS OF SLAVERY
M. R. - The question of race in Sudan is also linked to the history of slavery. Can we say that there are still residues of slavery in Sudan ?
A. B. S. - Today, there is no longer any slavery proper in Sudan. On the other hand, the consequences of this practice are still very important there. One of the first elements of distinction between social classes is based on skin color (everyone is black, but with nuances given by possible mixtures with ethnic elements with “ less black ” skin ). For example, if the Masalit were never slaves, because of their " very black " skin color they are often called until today 'abd (slave). It is paradoxical, because we know that the slaves were not all characterized by a particularly dark skin. As seen in The Messiah of Darfur,many of them were the result of unions between female slaves and " white " masters (such as the Ottoman Turks or the Egyptians for example). Another effect of slavery is that the slavers of old still hold the country's wealth. Power has played much of this opposition between 'abd " African " and hurr (free individual) " Arab ". Sudanese literature talks a lot about this issue, because it is fundamental and complex at the same time. It is still a taboo in Sudanese society today.
M. R. - Why do you choose to deal so often with this opposition constructed between " Arabs " and " Africans ", even if your novels tackle other themes ?
A. B. S. - My experience in Darfur during the training mission for which I was in charge inspired my novel. I wanted to show that the war described by the propaganda of the government of the time as a conflict between " Arabs " and " zurga ", between " whites " and " blacks ", between shepherds and peasants, was nothing other than a conflict. between " center " and " periphery ", in the case of Darfur a periphery neglected for decades. My other novel Les Jango (Zulma, 2020 ; translated from Arabic by Xavier Luffin) deals with another form of marginalization, which is that of seasonal land workers. They are both the pariahs of the society which has its center in Khartoum, and the pivot around which its survival revolves. Without this exploited working class, the country - and especially its richer and more developed center - would not have enough to eat. It is for this reason that I call them " the nails of the earth " ( masamir al-ard ), that is to say those which make it stable and without whom it would dry up.
LITERATURE AND REVOLUTION
M. R. - Does literature have the power to rectify this fictitious identity representation constructed by political power ?
A. B. S. - It could if it were accessible to as many people as possible. But in Sudan the majority of the population has no access to education, and among those who do have very little interest in literature. However, within the small intellectual and educated elite, my novels have left a very strong mark. When I wrote Les Jango, intellectuals across the country discovered the existence of the seasonal workers who are the subject of this novel. Today, university studies are carried out on them and youth associations bear their name. During the demonstrations which led to the fall of the Omar Al-Bashir regime in 2019 , demonstrators held up placards which read: " the Jango, the nails of the earth », Thus marking an identification of revolutionary youth with those marginalized in society, resulting from the plight of the Sudanese people.
The Darfur Messiah also had a very important echo within this Sudanese intellectual elite. She discovered through this novel that the conflict in Darfur was not of an ethnic nature, but a political one and that the ethnic element had been forged there only to serve the strategic objectives of the power in Khartoum.
Literature may also have had an influence - albeit a very limited and occasional one - on the social, cultural and political structures in Sudan. However, it remains inaccessible to the vast majority of citizens, and in particular to those who nevertheless represent its main object. Its role will remain minor as long as it does not benefit from a large readership, a successful publishing field and a freedom of expression which remains very limited in Sudan today.