Analysis: Wk 4 - Exploring Sudan's Political Structures
So this week I’m focusing on the
political groups and parties existing in the Sudan. I figure to assess power structures affecting the region and contributing to the genocide there, it’s best to have an understanding of the physical power structures in conflict. The websites listed give both a history of the existence of several of such structures in the region and address their goals.
So far, I’ve been very focused on aid organizations, like
Save Darfur, and what the international community is doing or failing to do to help, without looking to the groups already in existence on the home front. One of the concerns in looking to the Sudanese groups for guidance for the church is the issue of corruption, but this is just as prevelant in looking to the US (even the
Embassy of the Sudan within) and international political groups (like the
United Nations). This link to the UN is actually a website for the United Nations System in the Sudan and contains facts pertaining to UN action specifically in that country.
But just this brief amount of research admits that both of the main political/military opposing groups in Sudan, the
National Islamic Front (NIF) and the
Sudanese Peoples Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) reportedly manipulate the media. Both are reportedly active in violent fronts against the other parties contributing to the violence and civil unrest in the region. Granted, the SPLM/A was proposedly formed to resist the NIF’s Arabic regime in the a country that is predominantly African in population. Research suggests that most Southern Sudan organizations, like the
Sudan Liberation Movement/Army are promoters of unity in diversity; that is, a democratic unity that reflects the countries varied racial and religious make-up.
I was delighted to find a Christian organization called
South Sudanese Friends International which exists to promote “grassroots peacemaking and self-reliant living for Southern Sudan.” Interestingly, the founder of this organization served and resigned in 2004 as Chairman of the South Sudan Liberation Movement (SSLM – one of many southern Sudanese military/political groups) citing a desire to serve as an activist outside of a political military group. He had grown disheartened by the other Southern Sudanese parties that sought self-seeking power over the welfare of the civilians. The problem of corruption is clear. These resources will definitely assist in identifying smaller practices that may lend to a discussion of how the church can respond to the social problem of corruption in Africa.
Another strand that keeps recurring is this issue of oil in the region. Maybe next week I’ll get into that. But there’s something more to that story and my fear of economics is keeping me out of it, but I think I’ll have to jump in and see what’s really going on. Stay tuned.
More general background information regarding the political structures in the Sudan can be found at the following websites:
Wikipedia gives a good overview for those wanting to familiarize themselves with the Darfur conflict in a more general way.
Sudan.net gives a more cultural look at the region.
Note: Without a real knowledge of the conflict, many of these political groups sound very familiar because the names are really similar. I assure you, each are different, and I myself continue to process the distinctions between each faction.
Analysis: Beginning to Identify Practices
This week I’m trying to focus by looking at how our government responds or fails to respond to genocide. I’m trying to identify practices – doings and saying and/or shared understandings and while those terms are still quite new to me, several of the articles listed below address the issue of Practices of Silence, Avoidance, Aversion, etc. that contribute to the development of our (US) governmental Foreign and Defense policies.
Now, by taking into consideration Tracy’s note about practices being fallen, and therefore being “good” at one point in creation, I’m not finished really processing through this all. So some of these ideas may seem like a stretch, but I’ll narrow it down in time. But my overall understanding of this is that if social problems are the result or consequence of structures, then by identifying practices that give rise to those structures, in coming weeks I hope to better identify what those structures are. Right now it is rather loose and/or obvious, like structures of government, but I plan to dig deeper than that. The most specific example of a practice I’ve found, from the perspective of corruption in Africa (and Tracy I seriously note your admonishment that we are careful to look at both how the West contributes to this and Africa) is the issue of systematic rape. On the surface level, it is rape, but for the purpose of this study, it is the practice of sex, corrupted.
So in consciously not focusing on our government alone, several articles address practices of the Sudanese and Rwandan government officials and rebel groups that contribute to the rise of corruption through various practices. The most egregious of which is the structure of systematic rape used in genocide – rape being the practice of sex corrupted. I hope to identify more in the coming weeks.
Since corruption is such a massive and layered problem, I am beginning to understand how identifying the practices and narrowing our focus to smaller, possibly more manageable issues, we can identify action points for the church. And by identifying action points, the church can then participate in God’s work of redemption.
What follows are sources that point to fallen structures and/or practices, but I admit I need a bit of time to really flesh out which falls in to which category.
http://globetrotter.berkeley.edu/people2/Power/power-con0.html
Interview with Samantha Power, author, “A Problem from Hell”: America and the Age of Genocide. An interview with Powers regarding the Structure of Silence shaping US Foreign policy regarding genocide in Rwanda and throughout history.
http://yaleglobal.yale.edu/display.article?id=5227
An article highlighting the international debate over whether or not to call crisis in Sudan genocide and failure of international community powers (including US) to approve the new permanent International Crime Court which will hold the authority to convict perpetrators of genocide and other war crime cases – including those involving the US. Practice of Aversion and Avoidance.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/evil/interviews/gourevitch.html
Frontline interview with Philip Gourevitch.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A16001-2004Jun29.html
We Want to Make a Light Baby – Washington Post article
Dicussion of systematic rape used as a tool by Janjaweed militia men in ethnic cleansing.
http://www.africaaction.org/newsroom/index.php?op=read&documentid=634&type=14&issues=1152
Africa Action: Africa Action Talking Points on How to Stop Genocide in Sudan
Defines genocide in general, in relation to Darfur, and how US government fails to act.
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L07394830.htm
Bandits beat, whip aid workers in Sudan's Darfur, Opheera McDoom. Self-explanatory. The Sudanese government is working to deter food delivery to refugees in Chad and other displaced people in the Sudan. I’m looking at this to identify some practice, but I can’t fully identify it right now.
http://www.pbs.org/frontlineworld/stories/sudan/thestory.html
Sudan the Quick and the Terrible, Amy Costello. Frontline video news report emphasizing political crisis and addressing internal potential sources of corruption on Sudanese government denial of involvement in Janjaweed terror attacks.
http://www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/cabs/sudan.html
Sudan Country Analysis Brief
Information about oil reserves and US sanctions imposed on the Sudan due to civil war. Human Rights orgs accuse Sudanese government of using oil profits to finance genocide.
Books/Articles:We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will be Killed With Our Families: Stories from Rwanda by Philip Gourevitch.
Documenting stories of victims interviewed by author and the authors account of his post-genocide visits to Rwanda.
“Cloud of Smoke, Pillar of Fire.”
Interesting article by Irving Greenburg in Holocaust : Religious and Philosophical Implications. This is kind of off topic, but addresses that larger issue of the church’s response to genocide by looking at Jewish/Christian responses to the Holocaust. Perhaps useful for later discussions, but I just read it for class and thought it would be useful to our research.
