Prelude - On the Methodology of Monitoring and Analysis

Prelude:

On the Methodology of Monitoring and Analysis

Every utopia is a pressing nostalgia for a past experience that was aborted, but the utopia of this generation of young Sudanese men and women is a past experience which lasted for two months, or a little bit less. This past experience had spanned in a space that all the moments and events of the Sudanese Revolution before it was an obsession with that past experience, and an establishment of its architecture and mapping, as well as all subsequent events related to it and coincided with the moments of its brutal crackdown and elimination. In other words, this past experience had been turned, due to its loss, into a symbol that embodied the modalities of its collectivity, its self-definition, and the definition of each individual to his/her self. This resembles the fact that all the days of the Sudanese state and all the efforts of its people had been condensed in the settings of this event, namely the sit-in in front of the military headquarters in the capital Khartoum and the sit-ins in front of the military garrisons in the other cities of the country.

Ironically, these times and places are difficult to regain and are present with ferocity in the minds and imagination of the Sudanese people, who participated in the sit-in, or even their enemies who later sought to stop democratic transition and tried to imitate the sit-in. The enemies of the Sudanese people tried to imitate the sit-in not because it was the means to realize their aspirations, but because they wanted to live that moment, but how could they? How could they regain moments that were significantly replete with symbolic significations, where the Sudanese people were enthusiastic without any pretense, abuse or discrimination? Those were moments where the Sudanese people shared unbroken giving and generously granted their efforts and time. They went into unrelenting and genuine singing for freedom and practiced within their singing the political act as a daily practice which was truly inseparable from their selves, or as something which was previously practiced by a small group of people. In this context, we will attempt to document this revolutionary event, namely when the rebels arrived at resided around the military headquarters. We will undoubtedly go back to the long path with multiple times, places and events leading up to that peak.

Our sources in this documentation are scarce. We will initially be content with the writings of some Sudanese newspapers issued in the two months during which the sit-in took place. We all remember that before the fall of the regime, the impartial press was shackled by the restrictions of confiscation, arrests and prohibiting publication. Even after the partial fall of the old regime, the two newspapers of Al-Jareeda and Assudani, which we intended to collect and monitor their materials to be subsequently edited, did not publish on daily and regular basis. Although the writings published in these two newspapers were few, they were not without importance because they were positioned, with their different journalistic genres, within the revolutionary moment. The historians and specialists in humanities acknowledge their inability to write within the revolutionary moment, except in the case of necessity, because the research material is still moving and unremitting. To study the revolutionary moment thoroughly, the historians and specialists must wait for the end of this moment to perceive its result. The second source of this documentation is the two magazines of Al-Hadatha Assudaniya and Bidayat, published in a form of a book outside the country. According to its editorial, the writings of Al-Hadatha Assudaniya had been recorded at the moment of the revolution itself through description, analysis and research, if the publishing process and distribution were not possible and resulted to publish the issue later in September 2020.

The second magazine, Bidayat, published in Lebanon, devoted a part of its issue of 2019 to writings on the Sudanese revolution, where some Sudanese writers contributed. This documentation dropped a source that cannot be overlooked and cannot be taken into consideration, at the same time, due to its enormous vastness. This source is the social media writings, where there are indispensable blogs and publications dedicated to careful tracking of the revolution's moments, turns and landmark events. Since its beginning, this revolution had found its written and visual representation in the collective writings involved in transmitting all its details. There is also a manifestation of the rhetorical discourse of the revolution embodied in its innovation of its shouts, slogans and metaphors so as to be traded.

Tasqot Bas (Just Fall, That is All), the motto of the revolution, had been nothing but a message from a lover to his beloved when the government's partial blocking of the internet denied him from sharing the day with her via messages and conversations. There is also the page of the Sudanese Professional Association (SPA) specifying times and pathways of the processions and mobilizing them through the statements which derive their rhetorics from the popular conscience and imagination, which are replete with songs and poems. The social media have played, according to the Sudanese researcher in the field of enlightenment and religious reform, Shamsaldeen Dawalbait, "the role of the framing committee of the revolution and have assumed the intellectual and cultural leadership.

The social media have posted information with unusual speed; have innovated the slogans, have transmitted appeals, have called for demonstrations, disobediences and sit-ins; have shared joys and sorrows; have stood against the feelings of despair and frustration; have spread and incited the culture of peace; and have prompted outrage after certain events. All of this has been carried out with the participation of members distributed on every spot in the Sudan that is accessible to the internet, and on all continents of the world."1

Revolution, by natures, is a mysterious and mystical event, and perhaps its causes and motivations are becoming clearer over the days. The essence of this event remains ambiguous, just like the river which is not only recognized by its upstream and downstream, but also by its relentless movement. This revolutionary metaphor, which is derived from the river or the roaring masses of humanity and which is like the rumbling torrents, has something of a truth and it is common and used. We will address the metaphors of the revolution later. These metaphors include: "a desirable garden"; "a flaming ember"; "travelling Bedouins"; "an agricultural settlement"; and "a sail the got the boat to the shore at dawn." These revolutionary metaphors have been described in accordance with their different stages, and some of them have been realized at certain points. In other words, the poetic expression had replaced the daily mobility and metaphor had replaced the place, as in the case of the ruling party's office burning in the city of Atbara, 19 December 2018.

The revolution is poetic moments, which are approached sometimes by the metaphor, sometimes by the careful deliberation. It is impossible to combine metaphor with careful deliberation. The attempt to describe the revolution is a pointless effort. To describe the revolution is like the attempt to describe a painting, which cannot be surrounded by words. Once you have found a language to describe it, the painting would surprise you with its incredible and intuitive presence that is impassable through language, but through a metaphorical way. Perhaps there is something elusive in the oral presence of the revolution. This happens when the moment of restoring the events of the revolution, or remembering its events and reflecting on them, namely the event of the sit-in.

As we have been taught by the ululations of the girls and the cheers of the rebels, the revolution is a long song on narrow paths. These paths are similar to the roads of the Arab popular poet, Al-Mutannabi: On the roads in which there is height, The intimate companion is idle when they are mentioned. At such roads and streets which are characterized by sublime meanings and intention, and difficult accesses, the Sudanese revolution processions marched, and they are still marching to realize their objectives. 

These roads are not inactive and not uninhabited by intimate companions, but they present and named after the souls of martyrs ascended on the sides of them. Those processions, which lasted for four months and spread across the country's various regions, were stressful and painful reuniting of the dispersion of the people of the country. The picture of the country's map consisting of the photos of the martyrs or their names was not only a visual metaphor. The blood that was shed all over the country had already redrawn the country's map. Each drop of blood was a thread that connected with the masses of the Sudanese and brought them together so as to unite them and put an end to their old dispersion.

1 Shamsaldeen Dawalbait, The Sudanese Revolution: The Brilliance of Rebellion and the Vision of Establishment, Al-Hadatha Assudaniya, September, 2020.