I recently saw a video that absolutely broke my heart. In tears, Sudanese American mother Daad Khojali talks about how, no matter how brutal, no matter how evil what happens in Sudan is, very few people come to the protests. Daad is talking in the aftermath of an emergency protest for Sudan, when the RSF killed 1500 people in El Fasher.
1500 dead, and an emergency protest was held, and very few turned up. What is going on?
It’s heartbreaking to hear this woman talk about how people, will, quite rightly, turn out in their hundreds, even thousands, for Gaza, but will only turn out in very small numbers for Sudan. Genocide is genocide. I’m not pro-Palestine because of something inherent to Palestinians that means they shouldn’t experience genocide, I’m pro-Palestine because NOBODY should experience genocide.
What’s going on? Well, I think I can derive part of the answer, by looking at myself. I’m looking at the criticisms that could quite rightly be leveled against me. I have, I think, thirty posts on Gaza. I’m not arguing that I should have wrote less about Gaza, but I’m asking myself why I haven’t written as much about Sudan. I have three posts related to Sudan, and in the the first, spend 50% of the time addressing the fact that some people cynically bring up Sudan as a way of drawing attention away from Gaza, their interest in Sudan is basically as a diversionary tactic to allow the mass slaughter in Gaza to continue. The most recent post is about the Scramble For Africa, which is only tangentially about Sudan. So I only have one post, the entire content of which, is about the mass slaughter that is currently happening in Sudan.
I’ve been to quite a few protests for Gaza. I’ve only been to one for Sudan, and even that was a protest for both Gaza and Sudan.
What I’m going to do now, is examine the reasons I’m on average, much more Gaza focused than Sudan focused. Some of these reasons won’t contain any answer as to how to bring more attention to Sudan. But I’m hoping out of some of these reasons, I can figure out a way of ending the silence about the horrific genocide being committed by the RSF.
- The More Limited Focus On Sudan is, Sadly, Often Self Reinforcing
This is a very difficult one to navigate. I always do my best to make sure my blogposts are all properly sourced, so nobody has to simply take my word for anything. Less focus on Sudan means I have less sources to work with. I don’t have a simple answer to this, the limited focus on Sudan means the limited focus perpetuates itself. I wish I had the answer to this, but I hope somebody smarter than me can figure out how to move forward.
2. Numbers Are Important, But Individual Stories Are As If Not More Important
Did you notice how upset I was by a short video which featured a woman crying? (And just to be clear, even though society on average is more sympathetic to women crying, we should all be just as sympathetic if it’s a man crying.) This affected me as much, if not more, than learning about the more than 1500 people killed, described in the same video.
What do you think of when you think of Gaza? There’s a good chance that the first person you think of is Hind Rajab. A six year old horrifically murdered. There’s a good chance you think of this as much, if not more, than the number of people who were killed in Gaza. This is because, the human brain doesn’t know how to process large numbers.
I’ve talked a lot about Dunbar’s Number in relation to Gaza.
Basically, your brain is only capable of forming 150 friendships. You already know that many people, in all likelihood, so how does your brain even begin to comprehend hundreds of people dead, thousands of people dead, tens of thousands? The fact of the matter is, your brain can’t fully comprehend it.
That’s why I believe we need more individual stories about the suffering of people in Sudan. The numbers are important, but given how bad the brain is at processing large numbers, one story, about one person, who lived, and died in Sudan, might well make all the difference.
3. We Also Need To Know More About The Perpetrators
Who are the bad guys when it comes to Gaza? Nehenyahu, Smotrich, Ben-Gvir, as some examples. I believe that it matters that I know there names. That there is a face to the people who are perpetrating this absolute atrocity. But with regard to Sudan, while I know the name of the R.S.F, that’s just the name of the army that is responsible for the genocide. I honestly struggle to name any of the individuals responsible.
Knowing at the very least, the names of those responsible for the horrors in Sudan, would help a lot. Otherwise it’s too easy for the brain to just file it under the category of, bad thing that is happening, who knows why.
4. There Needs To Be More Information On What To Boycott, A “No Thanks” App For the United Arab Emirates Would Help
The United Arab Emirates is complicit in the genocide in Sudan. I’ve talked about that here.
But information on what UAE products to boycott is much harder to find than info on what Israeli products to boycott. With regard to Israel, there is the No Thanks app, a very useful app where you scan the barcode of a product, and you are instantly told if the maker of the product is complicit in Israel’s crimes. A similar app for the UAE, and more information on what products are UAE made in general, would be extremely useful.
5. The Way The Western Governments Are Dealing With Gaza Is Causing A Civil Liberties Crisis
Britain’s strategy with regard to Sudan has been, “Ignore, ignore, ignore”. But Britain’s strategy for dealing with Gaza has been to absolutely destroy the civil liberties of British citizens. I’ve talked in my previous post about how there are currently people on hunger strike in British jails. Their only crime is showing solidarity with Gaza:
And yes, the British media is ignoring the hunger strike, that’s the strategy they’ve chosen for this specific issue. But the British government is willing to let people die for the sake of criminalizing protesting against Israel’s crimes. So because the British government is pulling stunts like this, absolutely horrific violations of the human rights of British citizens, it’s invariably going to draw more attention to Gaza than Sudan.
But I believe that, down the line, those protesting in favour of the decriminalization of Palestine Action are going to be of great help to a hopefully growing movement of solidarity with Sudan. As protests for Sudan, hopefully, get bigger and bigger, the British government and other governments will presumably consider criminalizing solidarity with Sudan, just like they did with Palestine. My hope is that all of the protesting for Palestine Action gives the British government such a massive headache that they won’t even consider criminalizing protesting for Sudan.
6. We Need A Good Strategy For Talking About People Who Insincerely Bring Up Sudan
I’m not sure what the answer is here. Look at this video as an example of what I’m talking about:
The guy in the video’s information on how horrifying the genocide in Sudan is, is completely accurate. But he goes on to deny that what’s going on in Gaza is a genocide, and claims it’s merely a distraction.
Frankly, I’m sick, to death, of the suffering, and pain, of the people of Sudan being exploited as a strategy to remove attention from Gaza. There is one reason, and one reason only, why the genocide in Sudan should be talked about, and that’s so that the genocide can be brought to an end!
But I still don’t have a good strategy for dealing with this kind of thing. If somebody brings up Sudan as a cynical “point scoring” exercise, am I engaging in point scoring myself by responding to them? And if so, is simply ignoring people who exploit the suffering of Sudan a good strategy?
This blogpost I wrote:
Was supposed to be the first, and last, time I ever talked about the “conflict” between Palestine activism and Sudan activism. I thought, from that point on, it was time to actually talk about the genocide in Sudan, in and of itself, and not waste time addressing people who cynically say “What about Sudan?”
But, over the last few weeks, while trying to find more information on the horrors that are being committed in Sudan, I was absolutely disgusted and horrified by the amount of content I was finding that brought up Sudan as a way of minimizing the suffering of Palestinians. This is going to be an ongoing problem. And I admit to not knowing the best way to deal with it.
7. We Need To Learn From Palestine Activism, And Apply Those Lessons To Activism For Sudan
Some day, hopefully soon, there will be massive protests in the streets for Sudan, just like there is now for Gaza. And we need to take the lessons learned from Gaza, and apply them to Sudan.
For example, do you know what’ll happen as soon Sudan becomes an issue that the media can’t ignore? The excuses will start rolling right out. Remember “It’s complicated”? Yeah, I guarantee we’ll start seeing that excuse applied to Sudan. History repeats itself. “Oh it’s complicated, because, eh, innocent people are being murdered, you’d need a few PHD’s to understand it frankly!” and I guarantee we’ll see the “apolitical” excuse rolled right out. “Well, we’re an apolitical organization, and I know we expressed solidarity with Ukraine, but eh, eh, LOOK OVER THERE!” And soon enough, you’ll see the Irish government saying the right things while doing nothing, just like they’re doing now with regard to Gaza, “What’s going on in Sudan is unconscionable, you can’t move for how unconscionable it is! Eh, but we’re not going to take any sanctions against the U.A.E despite their complicity.
I believe it will all repeat itself. And when the powers that be talk about Sudan, those who have been involved in Palestine activism for years will say, “Doesn’t this all sound a bit familiar?”
There Is No Conflict Between Palestine Activism and Sudan Activism
It’s frankly beyond ridiculous that there’s polarization in the area of, of all things, stopping genocide. Anyone who tries to argue that it’s a choice between “Team Gaza” and “Team Sudan” can frankly fuck themselves. It must always be, and can only be, stopping all genocide everywhere.
I’m not here to claim that I’m going to behave perfectly on this point from here on out. Because of the already mentioned problem of a self reinforcing lack of coverage of Sudan, it may still be the case that I’m able to write ten blogposts on Gaza in the time it takes to write one about Sudan. Because our neighbour across the water, Britain, is intent on destroying basic civil liberties in order to go after Palestine activists, it’s likely that’s going to take up a lot of my attention.
But I hope to do better. I hope for all of us to do better. Now, let’s get on with blocking the goddamn streets for Sudan, just like we do for Palestine!
Free Sudan
Free Palestine
Ponderings Of An Autist 