When I saw the tweet below, with a graphic picture of the 17 year-old Mohamed Abdul Bagi who was killed while participating in a peaceful protest in Om Doum town east of Khartoum last Friday, I couldn't stop myself from thinking, "are we missing an opportunity here, is this a Khalid Saeed moment for Sudan?"....I know Sudan is not Egypt, but still.
This image kept me up at night. This kid could be my neighbor, my cousin, my own son in a decade and half....why isn't there any sort of citizen mobilization to say NO TO POLICE BRUTALITY in Sudan? After all Abdul Bagi was an unarmed citizen protesting peacefully the selling of the land of his people to Arab investors from the Gulf.
This image kept me up at night. This kid could be my neighbor, my cousin, my own son in a decade and half....why isn't there any sort of citizen mobilization to say NO TO POLICE BRUTALITY in Sudan? After all Abdul Bagi was an unarmed citizen protesting peacefully the selling of the land of his people to Arab investors from the Gulf.
Graphic|This boy died of his wounds 2day in #Sudan cus he protested against privatization of his land. CC: Obama#HR twitter.com/3ozaz/status/3…
— Azaz Shami (@3ozaz) April 27, 2013
Police brutality a growing trend
Forget about the bigger banners of regime change. Let's focus on the basic right of coming back home alive after a peaceful protest.
Forget about the bigger banners of regime change. Let's focus on the basic right of coming back home alive after a peaceful protest.
Attacking (by using tear gas, rubber bullets and live ammunition), killing, torturing and detaining peaceful protestors is becoming a trend in Sudan. It is a tactic of the ruling regime that is systematic and intentional; aimed at suppressing any peacefully organized citizen efforts to demand rights.
We saw it during the January 30 protests, we saw it during #SudanRevolts; and we saw it again after the protests triggered by the death of the El Gazeira University students in December 2012.
This list is, off course, longer if we add to it older but equally important incidents of violence against peaceful protestors such as, the massacre of Port Sudan (2005); the massacre of Kajbar (2007); and the events of the Masaweer market in El Fashir. All of them are instances where the government was stealing land or property from the people (or depriving them from the right to economic development) and violently crushing citizen-led peaceful protest.
We saw it during the January 30 protests, we saw it during #SudanRevolts; and we saw it again after the protests triggered by the death of the El Gazeira University students in December 2012.
This list is, off course, longer if we add to it older but equally important incidents of violence against peaceful protestors such as, the massacre of Port Sudan (2005); the massacre of Kajbar (2007); and the events of the Masaweer market in El Fashir. All of them are instances where the government was stealing land or property from the people (or depriving them from the right to economic development) and violently crushing citizen-led peaceful protest.
This recent incident in Om Doum was no mistake by the locality's police; and if it was they didn't even bother to acknowledge it. The police's report on the events of Om Doum, that came out on April 27, did not mention the death of Mohamed Abdul Bagi and only acknowledged "minor injuries" of other citizens. This is how insignificant human beings are in Sudan.
Om Doum stands alone: does it have to be this way?
Citizens of Om Doum, are angry and bitter and rightly so. They stood to ask for a basic right and were faced with what they described as, "oppressive", "monstrous" and an "excessive use of force" by the police.
Sadly it seems, that they stand alone in their grief. Other than the display of shock in social media networks that was quickly dissipated and replaced by rumors and more shock by the events in North Khordofan; there hasn't been any show of solidarity on the ground. No peaceful vigils around the country; no national call to bring those responsible to justice.
When will we stop standing alone? When will we hold hands and break the isolation that we are living in this country of the two niles? This isolation is what is keeping us weak, it is what is making this regime stronger.
What does this have to do with Khalid Saeed?
Khalid Saeed was one of the triggers of the Egyptian revolution. He was a small businessman from Alexandria, Egypt who was dragged in June 2010 by the police from an Internet café and beaten to death. Just like Mohamed Abdul Bagi, he was not political, but his beating was in retaliation of his intent to post a video on his blog of the police distributing drugs amongst themselves after a bust on a drug ring.
While his autopsy said that he died chocking on a plastic roll of drugs, a cell phone picture of his battered face circulated on the Internet creating a new wave of anger against police brutality in Egypt. For weeks “silent stands” were organized around the country to express public anger and the story refused to leave the media headlines. This challenged the Egyptian government and in July 2010, the two police officers were charged with illegal arrest (not murder!).
The protests (although small in size) continued at the time when protests were very hard to organize in Egypt, where an emergency law has been in effect since 1981. A YouTube channel and Arabic and English facebook pages were set up for the Khalid Saeed campaign, called "We are All Khalid Saeed"; and a lot of YouTube videos were released and circulated documenting the protests and the citizen’s support.
On June 25, more than 4000 people participated in a Cairo protest that included Mohammed Al Baradei. Within 6 months of continuos organization around the issue of police brutality the facebook page "we are all Khalid Saeed" had almost half a million followers and was used to organize demonstrations focused on the theme of police brutality.
At first the Facebook page was speaking mainly about police brutality and rights abuses in Egypt. It gradually became a clearing house for information including posting of graphic photos and videos and publishing names of abusive policemen (i.e., publicly naming and shaming the regime).
The "We are all Khalid Saeed" Facebook page made police brutality a public debate. And some human rights activists go as far as saying that this campaign alone was more successful than decades of work by the human rights camp in and outside Egypt working on police brutality and torture. An Egyptian human rights activist at the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights said that the Khalid Saeed campaign was:
At this stage the Khalid Saeed Facebook page changed its tone to a much bigger cause: ending the 30-year authoritarian rule in Egypt. The page began calling for a large-scale demonstration in Cairo, on January 25. And it had almost 70,000 people signed up for the protest 4 days before the actual date. The rest is history.
Are the odds against us in Sudan or do we have a "collective cost problem"?
I hear many saying, "the odds are against us in Sudan". There's a long list of excuses:
As citizens we are disconnected from each other; there is limited access to independent information (or to information in general); weak internet penetration; news via social media reaches a very small minority; and the Sudanese street is not ready and has no trust in the message of peaceful social change through civil disobedience and protests.
It is true that access to information and informed citizens are key for social mobilization. However, we should not underestimate the power of spreading information through face-to-face communication and/or word of mouth. In other words: old fashion grass-roots organization.
Zeynab Tufeci, a sociologist who studied a sample of 1050 people who were in Tahrir square on January 25, 2011; asked where the protestors had heard of the protest and 50 percent said by word of mouth; while 20 percent said it was through facebook.
Tufeci's analysis also shows that the reason dictators in the Middle East did not fall earlier was due to a "collective cost problem", meaning that citizens were not collaborating effectively because they perceived the costs to be too high (torture, detention, censorship, restricted organization etc.). And this "collective cost problem" was the key factor in allowing authoritarian regimes to endure for decades.
Mobilizing and organizing are not the same thing
Yes, the Sudanese "street" has no trust in calls for regime change; and that's because there's never been a sustained dialogue with the street nor a attempt to win it over.
Change cannot come from youth, students and online campaigning alone. And change under the banner of calls for over-throwing the regime have failed at attracting normal citizens and the critical masses needed for peaceful regime change.
Apolitical citizens care about bread and butter issues. They care about the collapsing public services (health, education, water, housing). And there has never been sustained campaigns and on-the-ground community organizing with specific demands linked to those services.
Organizing is about building long-term relationships based on strong networks and tightly knit communities that share common values. It is about investing in people and leadership through coaching, mentoring and training. All this eventually leads to commitment and the will to act or to mobilize. The move from actual organizing to mobilizing can take anywhere from months to years.
Marshall Ganz, the community organizer and academic expert in political organization describes this process as follows:
Om Doum stands alone: does it have to be this way?
Citizens of Om Doum, are angry and bitter and rightly so. They stood to ask for a basic right and were faced with what they described as, "oppressive", "monstrous" and an "excessive use of force" by the police.
Sadly it seems, that they stand alone in their grief. Other than the display of shock in social media networks that was quickly dissipated and replaced by rumors and more shock by the events in North Khordofan; there hasn't been any show of solidarity on the ground. No peaceful vigils around the country; no national call to bring those responsible to justice.
When will we stop standing alone? When will we hold hands and break the isolation that we are living in this country of the two niles? This isolation is what is keeping us weak, it is what is making this regime stronger.
 |
| A demonstrator in Om Doum, April 26, 2013 |
What does this have to do with Khalid Saeed?
Khalid Saeed was one of the triggers of the Egyptian revolution. He was a small businessman from Alexandria, Egypt who was dragged in June 2010 by the police from an Internet café and beaten to death. Just like Mohamed Abdul Bagi, he was not political, but his beating was in retaliation of his intent to post a video on his blog of the police distributing drugs amongst themselves after a bust on a drug ring.
While his autopsy said that he died chocking on a plastic roll of drugs, a cell phone picture of his battered face circulated on the Internet creating a new wave of anger against police brutality in Egypt. For weeks “silent stands” were organized around the country to express public anger and the story refused to leave the media headlines. This challenged the Egyptian government and in July 2010, the two police officers were charged with illegal arrest (not murder!).
Video: a silent stand organized in Alexandria for Khalid Saeed
Video: Egyptian citizens expressing anger at police brutality following Khalid Saeed's murder
At first the Facebook page was speaking mainly about police brutality and rights abuses in Egypt. It gradually became a clearing house for information including posting of graphic photos and videos and publishing names of abusive policemen (i.e., publicly naming and shaming the regime).
The "We are all Khalid Saeed" Facebook page made police brutality a public debate. And some human rights activists go as far as saying that this campaign alone was more successful than decades of work by the human rights camp in and outside Egypt working on police brutality and torture. An Egyptian human rights activist at the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights said that the Khalid Saeed campaign was:
“a breakthrough in the fight against torture. The fact that he [Khalid Saeed] was not a political activist, or a criminal but someone who belongs to the demographic majority of young people has made many youths identify with him.”In January 2011, the Tunisian revolution gave momentum to an already charged atmosphere in Egypt. The Egyptian civil society had for the last couple of years organized protests in the public holiday marking “policeman’s day”, January 25, and now protests were being called again for that day.
At this stage the Khalid Saeed Facebook page changed its tone to a much bigger cause: ending the 30-year authoritarian rule in Egypt. The page began calling for a large-scale demonstration in Cairo, on January 25. And it had almost 70,000 people signed up for the protest 4 days before the actual date. The rest is history.
Are the odds against us in Sudan or do we have a "collective cost problem"?
I hear many saying, "the odds are against us in Sudan". There's a long list of excuses:
As citizens we are disconnected from each other; there is limited access to independent information (or to information in general); weak internet penetration; news via social media reaches a very small minority; and the Sudanese street is not ready and has no trust in the message of peaceful social change through civil disobedience and protests.
It is true that access to information and informed citizens are key for social mobilization. However, we should not underestimate the power of spreading information through face-to-face communication and/or word of mouth. In other words: old fashion grass-roots organization.
Zeynab Tufeci, a sociologist who studied a sample of 1050 people who were in Tahrir square on January 25, 2011; asked where the protestors had heard of the protest and 50 percent said by word of mouth; while 20 percent said it was through facebook.
Tufeci's analysis also shows that the reason dictators in the Middle East did not fall earlier was due to a "collective cost problem", meaning that citizens were not collaborating effectively because they perceived the costs to be too high (torture, detention, censorship, restricted organization etc.). And this "collective cost problem" was the key factor in allowing authoritarian regimes to endure for decades.
Mobilizing and organizing are not the same thing
Yes, the Sudanese "street" has no trust in calls for regime change; and that's because there's never been a sustained dialogue with the street nor a attempt to win it over.
Change cannot come from youth, students and online campaigning alone. And change under the banner of calls for over-throwing the regime have failed at attracting normal citizens and the critical masses needed for peaceful regime change.
Apolitical citizens care about bread and butter issues. They care about the collapsing public services (health, education, water, housing). And there has never been sustained campaigns and on-the-ground community organizing with specific demands linked to those services.
Organizing is about building long-term relationships based on strong networks and tightly knit communities that share common values. It is about investing in people and leadership through coaching, mentoring and training. All this eventually leads to commitment and the will to act or to mobilize. The move from actual organizing to mobilizing can take anywhere from months to years.
Marshall Ganz, the community organizer and academic expert in political organization describes this process as follows:
" Organizers challenge people to act on behalf of shared values and interests. They develop the relationships, understanding and action that enable people to gain new understanding of their interests, new resources, and new capacity to use these resources on behalf of their interests...Organizers focus on the taking of responsibility to act. Empowerment for a person begins with taking responsibility."We often confuse mobilizing with organizing in Sudan, but there seems to be no short cuts here. We need to do our homework and get our hands dirty with real on-the- ground organization.
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