SUDANESE
RESPONSES TO “OBAMA AND MY SON”
(FROM THE E-MAIL):
From: Dr. Albaqir Mukhtar:
Dear Mohamed Ali Salih,
How are you my friend? Thanks for sharing with us this
nice passage, and the interesting dialogue with your son.
Of course you know that I cannot resist the
temptation of getting into the debate about identity.
The point that I take issues with you on
is the way you sort your multiple identities; you put your cultural
identities (the religion of Islam and Arabic culture) on top of your national
identity (American and for that matter Sudanese), and you dropped your racial
identity from the equation.
I see two problems here; first it is impossible
that one could liberate oneself from their racial identity, but
one can make it the basis for reaching out to his or her human
identity. For instance, Nelson Mandela will always remain
a "black" African man, and at the same time a great human
being; it is not either or.
The same is true for other great individuals, such as Ghandi, Mother Teresa, Martin Luther King, and Mahmoud Mohammad Taha. Identities
are not "decided" unilaterally, but rather
"negotiated" with "others", i.e. we don't indulge in
self-definition regardless of what the others think of us. You may remember my
triangular definition of identity; i.e. self-definition, others' definition,
and recognition by the centre of the chosen identity.
The other problem is that your cultural identity
is your salient identity, and you relegate your national identity to the third
class.
This is highly problematic in multi-cultural
societies, such as the
This is exactly the dilemma of Muslims in
the west; their loyalty is somewhere else whenever a conflict arises between
the country that embraced them and gave them the dignity and rights that they
didn't have in the countries of their origins, and a Muslim country.
This is also our problem in
Sincerely,
Albaqir
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MY RESPONSE:
Thank you, Brother Albaqir,
for your comments.
I should start by saying I missed you after you
left
Now, there are two generations between my son and me,
and one generation between Obama and me.
I probably will never understand my son's idealism
(post-race, no-race, etc). But, I am trying to catch up with Obama. Clearly, Obama is
trying to "change" people thinking about race, although, being a
politician, he does not mind playing the race card whenever it
benefits him.
For me, race is always there.
But, like I wrote in this piece, after more than
twenty difficult years of trying to find my identity as a
Sudanese immigrant in
I just finished reviewing "My Grandfather's
Son," the memoirs of Clarence Thomas, the black Supreme Court
Justice. I was saddened by how the color of his skin has become the core
of his identity. Of course, like the rest of us who have lived
among black Americans, I understand the legacy of slavery, discrimination,
etc.
But, like I wrote in my piece, long time ago,
I got sick and tired of this "white guilt - black victimization"
syndrome. And, long time ago, I decided I was not going to be part of it.
When I say my faith is the core of my identity, I
don't mean it has to be Islam. I could have been a Christian or a Jew,
but would have needed something higher to believe in than my color, tribe,
country, traditions, heritage, etc ...
Thanks to my son, during earlier discussions, I have
come to believe that faith in one's self should be higher than that in God (or
in Buddha, or in a cow or in a kujour) for
the simple reason that our thinking leads us to believe in God (or Buddha, or a
cow, or a kojour) or in no one, or only in ourselves.
So, Brother Albaqir, like
they say, it is all in your mind.
And so, I don't agree with: “we don't indulge in
self-definition regardless of what the others think of us". This is
not different from what Judge Thomas said in his book: "Whatever we
think of ourselves, people still look at us as black."
Let us see to what extend the Sudanese in
I am looking for a research on this subject to
translate, for the sake of a wider discussion.
Regards.
Mohammad
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Y.Y.:
Dear Mohammad/Albaqir,
I read with great interest your two theses. You are
both erudite from whom we should learn and benefit. Allow me to contribute a little, for whatever
this little is worth.
In
The Taifa includes many
tribes across
So, I am Sudanese and I feel all the Sudanese are my
family, irrespective of creed, religion, race and culture.
Sudanese is my identity and my citizenship.
At the same time, I am a Moslem and Arab. The one does
not cancel the other. They all live together in me.
So, I am equally Sudanese, Moslem and Arab. I do not attach a great importance to both my
Arab and Moslem part of myself.
I believe that religion is between the person and his
God and is highly personal.
I never judge people by their religion. Religion for me is very minor. I am a
practicing Moslem and pray five times a day and fast Ramadan and try to be a
good Moslem, as far as I can. But I
never ask anybody what is your religion and judge him by that. Never.
Also, I do not feel that I am Arab because I speak
Arabic. I am Arabic-speaking because I
speak Arabic.
I am African because
I am Sudanese because this is my citizenship/identity.
Because of the South, I do not want to attach a great
importance to my Arabic heritage. I want to forget that I am Arab so as not to
alienate my other citizens who are not Arab.
I judge people by their education, knowledge and awareness. Not by being Arab or Moslem or for that
matter Sudanese.
I feel at ease with Sudanese of the
When I am out of
But I am never color-conscious, race-conscious,
religion-conscious or Arab-conscious. I
am married to a Sudanese lady for the last thirty years. Believe me, I do not know up till now her tribe. I do not care if my
son becomes Christian or atheist. This is his choice and is very personal.
I am very upset at the notion that
Sorry for being long. It was nice to read your
thought-provoking ideas. I will discuss them with people around me, and give
you their feedback. May be I will write an article on it. And I wish to thank
Mohammad for giving me this opportunity to comment.
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A.Z.:
The views of your son on race show that the time has come to implement the
ancient Socratic dictum that the home of a great-souled
person is the whole world.
This
led to the Stoics philosophy of the brotherhood
of mankind irrespective of race, color or creed. And this was what Alexander the Great
attempted to achieve practically.
I
think race, and adopting it as an identity, is the root of all evil that bedeviled
mankind. It endangered the notion of the
chosen people. It encouraged the tribal
mentality which allowed those who are proud of their race to hate the others,
attack and enslave them.
Also,
taking race as an identity had given birth to the twin evil institutions of
slavery and war. I guess racial
identity is similar to those bad passions which are ingrained in the
constitution of our minds such as hatred, envy, malice, possessiveness etc...
We must get rid of these so as to become civilized.
Therefore
racial identity ought not be prioritized, let alone taken as an identity. It must be banished from our souls like the
above-mentioned unbecoming passions. So
that one day the worth of a person all over the world is not judged by his race
or color but by his intellectual endowments and moral worth as Martin Luther
had dreamed long time ago. Your son must be congratulated for his precocious
vision.
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F.D.:
I enjoyed
the beautiful debate and I should be very thankful to your
son for the lesson he taught me, too. I will save this article because I
believe that it might help me in the future with my children if
I faced a similar situation.
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I.B.:
Thanks for a great article. I think our generation could not understand
this profound inter-generational shift into the "post-race" culture;
and, I guess, that is also the reason why we could not appreciate the prospects
of Obama's electability in
what we regard as a racially divided society.
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M.I.:
Congratulations,
not only for a superb write-up but also for superb ideas. Obama is doing
something great to all people of color, all over the world. If Dr. King
liberated us from unfair laws, Obama is liberating us
from self-doubt. This is our second liberation. In that sense, we hail him whether he wins or
loses.
On a personal note, brace up, you have bred another Obama!
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