Al Tayyib Salih: A Southern Point of View
Al Tayyib Salih:
A Southern Point of View
I have translated below a piece published by the Sudanese novelist, Tayyib Salih, in his column Aakher Waraqa (the last page). It is his Khawatir from Washington #11 "Impression on Visit to Washington." (Al-Majallat of August 30, 1996.) In it he has included a letter sent to him by Ms A. Sabino Saferyio ( I am transliterating from the Arabic, so the actual spelling of her name will most likely be different) in which she was critical of some points he had previously raised in the column. The Editor of SSA newsletter .
"I usually do not publish the correspondence I receive from (my) steam readers. Though many of these letters deserve to be published, I regret I can not do so here because of space limitation. I do, however, thank those who wrote them. Nonetheless, a particular letter from a southern sister living in Vienna (Virginia) caught my attention. As the reader can see, her message to me reflects enormous bitterness, which is common among many of our brothers and sisters from the South. It does not matter whether (the causes of ) such bitterness are true or not, Northerners must take this bitterness very seriously in their future relations with the south.I do not want to enter into an argument here with the respectable lady. It suffices to say that she appears not to have been following my writings, or if she did, has failed to understand where I stand (with regard to the current crisis in the Sudan). Had she read my writings carefully, she would not have confused me with the policies of the Sudan government, or accused me of being indifferent to the suffering of the orphans and the widows (in southern Sudan.) Didn't I cry enough (in my novels) at least twenty years earlier (over the fate of the poor and the powerless).
I have never put myself as a defender of the policies of the various governments in the Sudan, specially the policies of the current government. On the contrary, I expressed my opinion, an opinion shared by most Sudanese, that the successive governments (in the Sudan), specially military regimes, committed unforgivable atrocities (against civilians) in the south. I also made known on several occasions, explicitly or implicitly, my opinion (also shared by many) that the war fought now by the current government under the slogan of jihad is a stupid undertaking which will complicate further the problem rather than solve it. On the history of slavery in Africa, all I did was to criticize the wrong impressions perpetuated by some southerners that it were the Arabs, all Arabs, including Arabs in northern Sudan, who were solely responsible for the trade. It is wrong (to blame the Arabs alone for slavery in Africa). All unbiased accounts of slavery in Africa by Europeans like Professor Basil Davidson, Frank Mark Linon Stanley and the Sale of the Congo, or Dr James Walfin's book "the Black Ivory" (all testify to the fact that slavery was an international business.) Again, this honorable lady thinks that what the governments in Khartoum do is what most ordinary people in the North want, and thus believes that all Northerners are party to the sins and atrocities committed in the South by the various governments, specially the military. In reality, northern Sudanese, just like their southern counterparts, were and continue to be victimized by those who abuse power. I said on many occasions that it is improper for southerners to reserve for themselves the role of the "victimized" and ascribe to the Northerners the epithet of the "Victimizer", or the "Aggressor". It is more complicated than this simple dichotomy, and many thinking men and women in both the north and the south began to realize this fact. Below is Ms Agnes Sabino's letter, written in good Arabic and in clear handwriting."
"Greetings:
I have read with interest your recent articles published in al-Majalla under the title "Impressions from Washington", and I was not surprised that you have expressed those opinions on southerners and their problem. As a traditional Northerner, You, like many other Northerners, have the great propensity to put the blame on others in a clever way. As usual, the blame, this time, was on the British. Why can't you blame the British? Aren't they, at this very hour, destroying the villages in the South and in the Nuba Mountains?. Aren't they the ones who are executing ethnic cleansing there? Aren't they the ones who gave license to their Arab malitia (those form the Baggara tribes known for their hostility to the Nilotics because of competition over water and grazing lands, and to whom the Sudanese government {sorry, the British government} provides arms and food) to rape women, after spilling the blood of their men and children? The goal of what is going on now in the south is very clear, even the blind can see it, and the stupid can understand it.
The question of renewal of slavery in the Sudan, and the violation of human rights has been repeatedly reported recently by human rights organizations, by neutral eye-witnesses who have no ax to grind. These stories are not fictitious. They are stories reported by individuals who fell victims but managed to run away, or bought back their freedom from their slavers. Do you (Mr Salih) think that these people are confused? Do you believe they made a mistake of not identifying the British as the perpetuators of these heinous crimes? Instead they blamed the Sudanese government which is as innocent as the wolf which was alleged to have killed Joseph (reference here is to the story told in the Quran. Editor.) If this is what you think, then you are right, Oh our eminent Teacher, in what you have written: "they (southerners) see the elephant, but prefer to stab its shadow instead".
The important question, though, is still who are they? Who are these people who see the elephant, but aim at its shadow instead? Do you realize that the big problem is with Sudanese like yourself, people who know all these facts, yet try every thing possible to prove that they were false, or, failing that, to find a scape goat? Sudanese like yourself who can not stand seeing Carolyn Fluehr Lobban crying (over the fate of the Sudan. Editor.), yet are quite indifferent to the tears of thousand and thousand of orphans and widows who shed tears every second and every minute all over the Sudan, but specially in the south and the Nuba Mountains. But why should their tears be important to you any way? After all, whatever tears they may shed, they are cheep tears. They were better off if they accepted their fate, and agreed to the dictates of people like Mrs Lobban (on the unity of the Sudan, Editor), even if that means their continued slavement, their being despised by Northerners who treat them like citizens of the tenth class, since the status of (even) the second-class citizenship is considered too honorable for them. To Islamize them, to Arabicize them? Why not. All people are born free, except these southerners, for they are deemed slaves even before they are born. Every adventurer in their lands wanted to control their destiny as he wished. He would like to mould them and shape them in any way he desired, or believed fitting to do. All hell brakes loose if these southerners, with their stern faces and red eyes, choose to hold on to their identity and beliefs, and begin to resist being dominated by you, Oh Masters of the land. When they do, you accuse them of aiming at the shadow of the elephant instead of the elephant itself. And why are you surprised if some one doubted that you were African? Aren't you the same person who made fun of Black Americans calling themselves "Afro-American"? You accused that black American immigration officer of all sorts of things, simply because he was doing his job as thoroughly as he was told to do. Of course it would have been different if the immigration officer was a white person with blond hair and blue eyes, named Mrs Lobban. Then you would have thanked him immensely, even if he denied you entry into the United States, and sent you back to Britain instead. Who knows, you might even have probably written us a nice piece about him praising him and his family. Finally, I respectfully ask you that next time do not shout at the top of your voice that "they see the elephant, but decide to pierce its shadow". Just make sure that you do not have a block of wood in your eyes before telling others that they have twigs in theirs. Agnes Sabino. I am not aware if Mr Yayyib Salih has responded to this letter, as he promissed to do. If he has, I appreciate if you let me know so I may publish his response the next time.
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