New Relationships with the Place
Disparity/Divergence:
New Relationships with the Place
Recapture of the City: The Sit-in in front of the Military Headquarters
Sikka: Mamoun Eljak
Translated by: Salah Mohamed Khair
In Khartoum, rebels established new relationships with the place, from their central processions in the center of the capital to the spread of processions and expansion of the barricades in the residential neighborhoods. The relationship with the place was completed at the sit-in in front of the military headquarters, where the streets surrounding the headquarters turned into an area of continuous residence, guarded by about 450 barricades built by the rebels. About the relationship of the rebels with the place in processions of the neighborhoods, Ammar Jamal wrote: "The revolution has taken its authentic element from the place, reforming, identifying, demarcating and closing it, partially or completely, in accordance with the need of movement." Jamal believes that the rebels have redrawn their city.
According to Jamal, the architecture of Khartoum no longer resembles the former architecture of the city. Khartoum has become a new city, where high-rise barricades have erected; walls have been painted with revolutionary graffiti; and bridges crossing the Nile between the capital's neighborhoods and roads connecting the capital to states and states to states have been closed. The city has been "carefully preplanned in a way only the rebels can recognize."1
Bahaaldeen Muhammad describes the first phase of the revolution, namely the central processions as being similar to a nomadic wandering. He says: "December has begun as a nomadic traveler walking the earth, volatile in in its relationship with the place, and practicing solo dance with a collective musical rhythm, coming from all sides."2
Bahaaldeen Muhammad goes on to describe the moments of the procession and the transformations of the place during this. He says:
"December Revolution has been the desired game of life since the childhood. With its nomadic wanderings, the December Revolution has outlined new and varied relationships with the place, from residential neighborhoods to power centers with their economic and political symbolism and to the Arab Market demonstration headed towards the Republican Palace. These processions continued to exercise the place to a new kind of life; and intense lifestyle that these areas have not witnessed by their traditional or economic nature. The torrent of processions was moving, with these invisible bodies in the space of power, to conquer and liberate the place from the power of the tyrant and from each power. The moment at which the revolutionary chants and the ululations of the female revolutionaries go off, announcing the beginning of the procession, is a new starting point in our relationship with the place. The place turns into an untypical place. Buildings turn from offices and commercial markets into shelters that protect demonstrators from arrest and murder, and corridors turn into escape routes. The procession moves to its predetermined destination with some changes in the route, at the will of revolutionary necessity and strict security grip."3
The two authors are on the same opinion in the description of the tactics used by the rebels, such as barricades and trenches, as being closer to the tactics of guerrilla warfare. Ammar Jamal says: "The Sudanese have rediscovered traditional tactics, such as guerrilla warfare, clashes within the cities, and maneuvers of attrition, but under the banner of peaceful revolution."4 According to Bahaaldeen Muhammad, neighborhood demonstrations are like neighborhood wars "because the demonstrators practiced the tactics of wars, such tunneling and roadblocks."5
Barricades of the Residential Neighborhoods
The Sudanese people have known about the barricades and used them in their old and modern history. One of the nights of October 1964 Revolution was called "Barricades Night." In December – April Revolution, the presence of the barricades has been overwhelming and their effect has been irreversible, as described by the writer, Reem Abbas, when she says:
"Barricades are temporary barriers erected on the streets to stop traffic before and during a protest. The barricades are used to slow down the speed of the police vehicles and heavily armed security forces firing tear gas grenades. Barricades are also erected in alleyways and side streets to restrict the movement of the riot police movement, thus protecting protestors when they run through side streets to avoid arrest and protect themselves from tear gas. They used during civil disobedience to close the city's streets and to restrict the movement in the revolution. During those days, all high streets were fortified to curb the counter-revolutionary movement."6
Barricades have been "the pinnacle of collective action because society contributes to building something that will protect its members against arrest and expected physical violence and spare them from raiding their homes."7
Barricades of the Sit-in
No sooner had the rebels arrived at the premises of the military headquarters, having settled their opinion to stay at the place, they began to erect barricades made of stones, tree trunks, and huge cylinders. Reem Abbas writes: "Barricades were erected in the sit-in square at early hours. People organized and formed a committee composed of representatives from various neighborhoods that used to organize and protect demonstration. They began erecting barricades with materials they found at their fingertips. They used bricks and billboards."8 Before that, the barricades were present at moments of the revolution, when the movement turned to the neighborhoods. During daytime or nighty demonstrations, demonstrators erected these barricades to protect them from incursion by the regime forces into the residential neighborhoods. This would allow the protestors to have a margin time for their movement that enabled them to retreat, hide, and then return to the streets. In the early days of the sit-in square, death lay on the edges, where young women and men stood firm. The souls of some of these youth ascended to heaven, and some of them saw death and escaped it. The young women and men would not separate themselves from the barricades to walk around the sit-in square, unless to take a little rest. Thereafter, the young revolutionaries return to their positions as guards to the entrances of the sit-in square to search visitors who started arriving, frequently, after the fall of the regime, particularly at night. Barricades "turned to checkpoints to prevent infiltration of sharp weapons, poisonous food and to prevent theft."9 At those checkpoints, the moments of waiting were not anxious, but confident and defiant. The dispersal of the sit-in was a possibility prevailed by previous attempts, counter-propaganda to discredit the image of the protestors, and obvious complaining by the military and Rapid Support Forces commanders. However this possibility seemed improbable.
On May 24th, Ajjareeda Newspaper10 carried out interviews with the guards of the barricades. Member of the barricades and search committee, Abdaulrahim Haleem, said: "The idea of barricades came in anticipation of the Shadow Brigades and the security forces personnel, because they contribute to disrupt them if they arrive in the sit-in square and if they start firing bullets. He added that "The erection of the barricades started on April 6th, when the limits of the sit-in ended in Omdurman National Bank, southwest the military headquarters. In the beginning, the rebels were unable to erect the barricades, because the security forces were lurking in the entrances. When they saw a rebel carrying stone, the security forces beat and arrested him/her. After the Minister of Defense, Awad Ibnaof, stepped down, the barricades expanded and doubled again after the 8th Ramadan massacre. The barricades have been erected on the Nile Street, where the attack on the sit-in began."
In the presence of other factors contributing to the expansion of the barricades, Haleem said: "sometime, tweets or Facebook post contribute to the expansion of the barricades" He adds that the number of those stationed on the barricades depending on the locations of the barricades and it is sufficient for one person to protect the barricades despite the risk of being exposed to imminent threat in the event of an attack on the sit-in. People stationed in the barricades have the ability to alert the rebels and inform them to take caution."
Omer Abdulrahman Abdalla, one of the rebels of the Al-Abassiya district, said, "Attacking the protestors at the dawn of April 7 contributed to the strengthening and the proliferation of barricades, where each barricade has been guarded by a group of protestors belonging to a residential neighborhood of the capital. Abdalla classified the barricades into two types: inner and outer barricades. The inner barricades are useless because they hinder the movement of the protesters and the visitors, whereas the outer barricades are useful because they are considered a means of protection against any possible attack. He added that the protesters agreed to the demand of the Sudanese Professionals Association (SPA) regarding the limits of the sit-in area and the distribution of the barricades. He attributed this agreement to the demands of the SPA to the fact that the SPA has logistic capabilities that enable it to picture the sit-in area and its limits, and to determine the number of the barricades, estimate by the SPA to be at least 50 barricades.
On the Military Council's demand for the removal of the barricades in order to reach an agreement with the Forces of Freedom and Change (FFC), member of the barricades committee, Akram Abdulqadir said, "Barricades will remain until power is handed over to a civilian government." He pointed out that they had been subjected to an attack in Jama'a Street and Jamyurriya Street, but they responded to the forces and managed to push them back.
Abdalla Adam Ya'aqoub clarified that they have seized a number of shotguns and edged weapons on their way inside the sit-in square. As guards, they handed over these weapons to the security committee of the revolution. The number of the barricades around the sit-in square has been estimated at 400.
The member of the barricades committee, Ismael Hamdan, considered the barricades, in addition to their value to protect the protestors, to be a means of pressure on the Military Council. He added that the pressure is increasing with the Military Council intransigence and reluctance to hand over power to civilians.
City of the Sit-in
Bahaaldeen Muhammad describes the moments when hundreds thousands of demonstrators arrived at the military headquarters, by saying:
"After four consecutive months of demonstrating and experimenting to create a kind of broad participation, the crowds of protestors reached their predetermined target, the military headquarters. This encounter with the place was the first act of the realization of ascertainment of power field planned by the demonstrations over the past months. It was a happy encounter that was replete with personal and collective satisfaction. This common presence and the fulfilment of the desire was a huge event. There was no room. There was no room to consider this event, other than living with it. Since their arrival, these groups had begun occupying the place, demarcating its limits, setting up barricades, and distributing works between the groups. The revolution moved from the mode of travelling nomadism, by which the demonstrations were characterized, to a semi-permanent form of stability. This place was a good home to host the meeting between these selves, the energy charge they gained from the past months, and the accomplished joint act."11
On the backdrop to hold the sit-in, and whether this decision came from the masses to achieve their will or directed by opposition political forces, Bahaaldeen Muhammad says:
"The sit-in option, as the last form of resistance, was problematic and controversial in in terms of an option taken by the masses as a form of resistance and as an option taken by the leadership of the revolution. There has been a dialectical relationship between two forms of resistance: a flowing, strong and decentralized resistance (the Resistance Committees) and a static and hierarchical resistance (the political parties' alliance). This dialectical relationship has made the sit-in square the place where the wishes of all parties have been fulfilled."12 He describes the sit-in as an inevitable event, whether it was improvised by the protestors or planned by the politicians. He writes:
"One might say that the sit-in is the idea of the revolution's leadership and it has already been planned to draw definitive perspective for these demonstrations. However, I think this decision was the only possible political act. Equally, the sit-in had to be held as an essential ontological perspective to redefine ourselves and the form of the future belonging, where these diverse faces can meet each other."13
Reem Abbas describes the elements of the place distributed in its vast area. She writes:
"Sleeping tents, temporary clinic and kitchen have been equipped to prepare food for the protestors and to take care of their health. Several podiums have been prepared for politicians, musicians and singers. The sit-in square has turned into an integrated city celebrating culture through free libraries, and education through classes for street children who have not been able to enroll the general education system. Walls and pavements, close to the square, have been covered with paintings of the artists to express themselves and translate the revolution into graffiti. People had the space as they regained the power taken away from them decades earlier."14
After the nomadic wandering of the processions, the December Revolution has turned into:
"A peasant ploughs the soil, and builds new relationships with the place, accompanied by other strangers. The sit-in has not just been an agricultural stability, but the promised land of a nomad, searching, since time immemorial, for the self that has been lost between the desert of politics and the dryness of history and elites. The nomad guards this 'promised land' until the future harvest comes. The sit-in square was a 'peasant's farm', but instead of giving the fruits of this farm to life, heads and spirits were picked from it. The sit-in may seem like a form of common activity and presence centered on the place and not widespread. However, this form has a speed and slowness that are different from the forms and formulas of a common presence and actions of processions, demonstrations and vigils.15
According to Bahaaldeen Muhammad, the sit-in was not a deduction for the movement of the revolutionary act. He writes:
"The sit-in was contrary to the idea of those who believed that the sit-in had centralized the revolutionary act and abolished the decentralized resistance, distributed throughout the place. The sit-in was also contrary to those who believed that the transition from the decentralized form of demonstrations to the quasi stable form had weakened the movement and confined it to certain limits. The form of nomadism that characterized the processions was a war strategy to blockade and to deplete the state's repressive apparatuses, whereas the purpose of the sit-in was to build new relationships under the condition of experimental freedom. Protestors have always wanted to stay in the place to build stable relationships through a common presence, but in the way they wanted and without any orders from any side imposing its ways and the ways of life that are deemed absolutely true and sacred. The ceiling of demands placed via slogans of the sit-in, such as: 'I am not coming back, I have demands' and 'Even if the military junta falls or does not fall; we are still steadfast here', were clear examples of the realism of the demands and their political impossibility simultaneously. This is attributed to the local and international factors and the coalition of forces that led the revolution through non-revolutionary strategies. Another example of the shape of the relationship formed between the place and the protesters was that close relationship, which the revolutionaries wanted to be everlasting."16
It was the relative slowness of the sit-in that "made new relationships under the condition of a relative satisfaction and experimental freedom made through singularities, fulfillments and permanence. The slowness of the sit-in, on the level of fulfillment, was the fastest moment of the revolution; it was the fastest among all its fleeting moments. The sit-in's perspective was not only political, but the sit-in was a new experimental community combining free and radically different selves."17
Muhammad Khalafalla believes that the sit-in in front of the military headquarters, in Khartoum, has its own rhetorics and historic interest that "cannot be represented by fragmented individual efforts. Along with all forms of struggle for the restoration of civil rule, those interested should, as well as monitoring, codification, recording and collection of archaeological materials and residues, embark on the establishment of a museum that commemorates the effects of the Sudanese revolution. This will simultaneously motivate others to criticize the radical revolutionary movement spread throughout the world."18
Map of the Sit-in Square
According to Bahaaldeen Muhammad "the geographical map of the sit-in square cannot be understood beyond the Sudanese state map, specifically the city of Khartoum. It seems that the city map with its awful class and ethnic violence has also cast a shadow over the imagination of the revolution and resurrected itself. The presence of the residents of the unplanned housing and shacks did not change. The presence of the residents of the shack known as "Colombia" in the revolution, albite outside the sit-in square, is an extension of their presence outside the city, compared to the presence of the middle class and bourgeois in the sit-in square."19
Colombia was also "the main source of the mapping of the sit-in square in form of gatherings. The globalized sons and daughters of the middle class, who had been impoverished and dismantled, were present at the Khartoum University Deanship and the Clinic Street, near Colombia. This class was the main consumer of the products of Colombia. Areas adjacent to Burri District in the eastern direction and Al-Baladdiya Street combined the conservative class participating in the revolution."20
Footnotes
1. Ammar Jamal, Cartographers of the "guerrilla warfare" Redraw their City, Bidayat Magazine, 2019.
2. Bahaaldeen Muhammad, The Anthology of Venerable December, Al-Hadatha Assoudaniya Magazine, September, 2022.
3. Bahaaldeen Muhammad, op. cit.
4. Ammar Jamal, op. cit.
5. Bahaaldeen Muhammad, op. cit.
6. Reem Abbas, A Khartoumer Memory of the Barricades Erecting the Revolution, Al-Hadatha Assoudaniya Magazine, September, 2022.
7. Reem Abbas, op. cit.
8. Reem Abbas, op. cit.
9. Ajjareeda Newspaper, April 17, 2019.
10. Ajjareeda Newspaper, May 24, 2019.
11. Bahaaldeen Muhammad, op. cit.
12. Bahaaldeen Muhammad, op. cit.
13. Bahaaldeen Muhammad, op. cit.
14. Reem Abbas, op. cit.
15. Bahaaldeen Muhammad, op. cit.
16. Bahaaldeen Muhammad, op. cit.
17. Bahaaldeen Muhammad, op. cit.
18. Muhammad Khalafalla, A Small Moon on the Peaks of Mountain, Al-Hadatha Assoudaniya Magazine, September, 2022.
19. Bahaaldeen Muhammad, op. cit.
20. Bahaaldeen Muhammad, op. cit.