The PROMINENT HEADLINES OF NEWSPAPERS PUBLISHED IN KHARTOUM ABOUT THE UNFORTUNATE EVENTS IN THE CITYOF El GENEINA THE CAPITAL OF DAR MASALIT SULTANATE IN WESTERN SUDAN AND IN ITS SUBURBS
العناوين البارزة للصحف الصادرة فى الخرطومحول الاحداث المؤسفة فى مدينة الجنينة عاصمة سلطنة دار المساليت بغرب السودان و ضواحيها
By Mahmoud A. Suleiman
What is needed to be done During the Dire situation in the City of El-Geneina?
The Poet Says: “This is the time of distress. So, the nation of Sudan has to strengthen itself to protect what remains of the ancestral land that terrorists in the remnants of the former defunct ruling regime conspire to destroy it”.
The current and the on-going situation of insecurity in the city of El Geneina in Dar Al Masalit cannot be described except that it is a situation in which you find chaos in eachpart of the City including its suburbs where everyone tends to blame the other and /or the other one is the guilty and he is the victim, situation of Blaming Somebody Else or the Acronym (BSE)!
During those ongoing tragic circumstances in which a person suffers from living in the city of El Geneina, the capital of the Masalit Sultanate, we should delve into its depths to reveal the absent truth in order to wake up our minds to thereality to draw the attention of the Sudanese Revolution Government, so that it might apply its prompt justice against the perpetrators of these heinous crimes and impose prestige and the power of the state to form a unified strong force made up of the many armies into one army through security arrangements immediately, and nothing else puts an end to what continues in El Geneina and in other parts of the Darfur region and other regions of Sudan.
This article comes against the backdrop of the neverending disastrous events that hit the citizens of the city of El-Geneina and the surrounding villages and rural areas of violence resulting regretting into uncountable loss of peaceful lives of citizens. It also included tribal strife which resulted into repeated attacks on health services and a killing of doctors and other health service workers along with setting fire to healthcare institutions. During situation of Lawlessness in the city of Geneina and the disastrous conditions of state of insecurity in the Capital City in Dar Al Masalit it cannot be described except other than a situation in which you find each one finding the other guilty or in the syndrome of Blaming Somebody Else (BSE)! Thus, the daily Newspaper Headlines reported the condition as follows:
In the midst of the ongoing security chaos in El Geneina, it is worth knowing the history of this Masalit capital over the ages.
There has been a very important statement from the Sudanese Justice and Equality Movement, Germany office, on the unfortunate events in El Geneina, in the Darfur region.
The Sudanese Justice and Equality Movement theGermany office stated that they have followed the situation with deep sadness about the unfortunate events that took place in the city of El Geneina, the capital of West Darfur State, which left 18 people dead and 54 wounded, according to the statement of the West Darfur Doctors Committee. These ancient, renewed events are a fatal blow to the concept of peaceful coexistence and the establishment of community peace values among the various components of Sudan, especially the Darfur region, which has suffered Many of the ravages of tribal wars, which in turn have deeply contributed to the destruction of the region and the loss of innocent lives that the country needs.
The statement went on appealing the masses of what they termed the gallant people trying to direct the attention to the fact that El-Geneina as one of the most important cities in Sudan, where different components live, which has given it a great national dimension and strong symbolism for the Sudanese diversity, but these events that we witness from time to time have tampered with the unity of the state and its people, which made violence the closest means of expression and this contradicts the values of the glorious December Revolution and contrary to its slogan (Freedom, Peace and Justice). Peace here is not intended only as a political peace, but rather a social peace in which souls agree and contain the pages of wars and hatred, and in which people accept themselves despite the differences that we believe are a source of strength and pride for us as a Sudanese people. The Sudanese Revolutionary Front (SRF) goes on in its appeal to the citizens saying:” Our Giant People, we assure you without any doubt that there is no way out for the stability of Sudan, especially the Darfur region, other than implementing the terms of the peace agreement, which we believe is capable of solving all the problems of the region, and therefore we appeal to the transitional government the following:
1 / To immediately intervene to protect the souls of the people of El Geneina
2 / To assume its role in imposing the prestige of the state and putting down the fire of sedition
3 / Prompt investigation of the causes of this painful incident and bringing those involved in it to justice
4 / Accelerating the implementation of the terms of the peace agreement, including the formation of the joint forces that maintain security in the region
5/ We also appeal to our people to El Geneina the following:
1 / The necessity of judging the voice of reason and missing the opportunity for those who lie in wait
2 / Rejecting tribalism and racism that we have suffered a lot from and establishing a culture of acceptance of others
3 / Urgent intervention by the wise people of civil administrations to calm the situation
4/Almighty God’s Mercy and forgiveness to the souls of the martyrs and a speedy recovery for the wounded and peace for the survivors.
The Foregoing Statement was made on Monday 5 April 2021.
At this juncture, one has thought it important to provide the necessary historical information about the City of El-Geneina as well as the Sultanate of Dar Al-Masalit. The most noticeable fact from the historic point of view is the statement that indicated that the Sudanese Geneina territory is the Only Sultanate in the whole African Continent that the colonial forces did not succeed to enter.
El-Geneina is located in the far west of Sudan, and it is the Capital of the Masalit Sultanate, which joined the Anglo-Egyptian Condominium Sudan through an international agreement in 1919. El-Geneina is attributed to Endoca, which means the Sultan Muhammad Bahraddin, Sultan of Dar-Masalit, who was called Endoca, which is the Birthplace of the famous Poet Muhammad Moftah Al-Fitourihttps://www.google.com/search?q=%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B4%D8%A7%D8%B9%D8%B1+%D9%85%D8%AD%D9%85%D8%AF+%D9%85%D9%81%D8%AA%D8%A7%D8%AD+%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%81%D9%8A%D8%AA%D9%88%D8%B1%D9%89&rlz=1C1OKWM_enGB936GB936&oq=%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B4%D8%A7%D8%B9%D8%B1+%D9%85%D8%AD%D9%85%D8%AF+%D9%85%D9%81%D8%AA%D8%A7%D8%AD+%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%81%D9%8A%D8%AA%D9%88%D8%B1%D9%89&aqs=chrome..69i57j0i22i30l8.21047j0j9&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8
Muhammad Moftah Al-Fitouri (1936-2015) is a prominent Sudanese poet . He is considered one of the pioneers of modern free poetry, and he is called the poet of Africa and Arabism.
The City of El-Geneina is located at an altitude of eight hundred meters above sea level, 350 kilometers from the western side of El-Fasher, 1,200 kilometers from the capital, Khartoum, and 27 kilometers from the border of Chad with Sudan. It also passes on a highway from the southeastern part of it that leads to Nyala. Its coordinates are confined to the equator between latitude 13.45 degrees towards the north and 22.43 degrees to the east on the longitude of Greenwich, and its population exceeds 170 thousand people.
Temperate climate
The city is affected by the local steppe climate (Climate is Grasslands (steppes) are temperate environments, with warm to hot summers and cool to very cold winters; temperatures are often extreme in these mid-continental areas. They are often located between temperate forests and deserts, and annual precipitation falls between the amounts characteristic of those zones throughout the year, with the average annual temperature reaching 25.6 degrees Celsius. Despite the scarcity of water fall there, the average annual precipitation is 465 millimeters, as January is the driest month with zero rainfall, while August is the month with 179 millimeters of precipitation. / May is the warmest month with an average temperature of 29.3 degrees Celsius, December is considered the coldest month with a temperature of 21.7 degrees Celsius.
The Masalit Sultanate
The Masalit is one of the ancient sultanates located in the vast area between Sudan and the state of Chad, and the capital of the Sultanate was called Dar Gil, and it was transferred to the city of El Geneina, which is the only sultanate that was not colonized in Africa and had great victories over the French in western Sudan.
An administrative and spiritual center
The researcher and theater critic Fadlallah Ahmad Abdullah, a former commissioner of El-Geneina, says that the region represents the administrative and spiritual center for the tribes of the Dar Al Masalit Sultanate. And he adds to “Al-Quds Al-ArabiNewspaper”: E-Geneina is attributed to Endoca, and he is Sultan Muhammad Bahraddin, the Sultan of the Masalit, who was called Endoca, and he was the founder of the city of El-Geneina, after he transferred the capital of the Masalit Sultanate from Dergail, an area east of Wadi Kaja, to El Geneina on the West Bank Directly to Kaja Valley where was the garden was originally located as a private resort for the Sultan or his own “garden” in which he resorts to rest times.Thus, the Sultan’s resort was transferred to the City of El-Geneina! The Historian Fadlallah says that Bahr al-Din moved the capital from Dergail, which is the first capital of the Masalit after the drought, that occurred in the years from 1902 to 1915 and the difficulty of obtaining water, so Bahr al-Din Andouka ordered the people to move to the Sultan’s garden. Thus, it was known when it was located in the west bank of the Kaja Valley, at a distance of 25 kilometers, and the move in 1913 was the administrative and spiritual capital of the Masalit Sultanate. Among its famous sultans are Hajjam, Bakr, Ismail, Sultan Taj al-Din, Sultan Bahr al-Din, and Sultan Abd al-Rahman, and the current Sultan is Saad Abd al-Rahman Bahr al-Din.
Sudan’s Western Gate
The state of West Darfur is located in the far west of the Republic of Sudan, as it is Sudan’s western gateway and crossing point to West African countries. It has international borders extending to 750 km with Chad and Central Africa in light of a close commercial relationship with other West African countries such as Cameroon and Nigeria, and trade exchange and border trade are active between Sudan and these countries across and the state. Its capital, El Geneina, is a commercial and tourist city.
Sultan Bahraddin
Fadlallah the historian says that the City was founded during the reign of Muhammad Bahraddin, famous for Andouka, when he took over the Sultanate after the martyrdom of his uncle, Sultan Taj al-Din Ismail, in the Battle of Doroati, facing the French invasion of the Sultanate on November 9, 1910, and it is known that Bahr al-Din assumed the mandate of the Covenant before Taj al-Din was martyred since the beginning of the confrontations with the French, and since the founding of El Geneina in that era, the Sultanate has made a great effort in developing it administratively and socially.
Battles against the French
The region has a well-known war history, the details of which are found in the records of the French, as the Masalit fought two battles against the French army that was controlling West Africa, namely the Battle of “Karandaq” and “Doroati “. Although the war was not equally compatible, the Masalit showed great courage, which led to the retreat of the French army, and in these battles Sultan Tajeldin, was martyred.
Common habits
The social structure of the state consists of a large group of tribes linked between them by common customs, traditions and legacies that take into account the interests of all tribes in an interconnected social fabric. Dr. Mohamed Khalil, Dean of the Faculty of Mass Communication at the University of “El Geneina” says that the social component of the city is not different from the state, given that the fairy is the capital
The Tribal group Masalit represents the majority of the population in Dar Masalit, in addition to the presence of some other African tribes, such as the Dajo, the Burgoo, the Borno, the Erenga, the Jabal and the Sinjar, in addition to the settlers from the semi-Arab tribes such as the Mahadi, the Durouk, the Hauta, the Tarjam, and al-Autawiya, and they have their lands in Dar Masalit. The Arab shepherds arrived at the end of the nineteen fifties of the twentieth century, immigrants and migrants from the Republic of Chad. They were travelers and had no decision or land. These problems resulted and the Masalit have no role in them, in fact they are victims of ethnic ambitions and ethnic trends related to the love of power.
Masalit in El Geneina
As for the City of El Geneina, according to Muhammad Khalil, there is the Masalit tribe that owns the land and administration and all the tribal components scattered in all parts of the state, in addition to the tribes coming from central and northern Sudan, such as the Ja’aleen tribe who came before the Mahdist revolution, and all these groups manage their affairs according to the Native Administration system under its command. Masalit tribe and the Internal migrations, and according to the researcher Fadlallah Ahmad Abdullah, he says that the immigrants played a great role in the renaissance of the City, and he refers to many ancient families that settled in the city, such as the family of the media expert, Ali Shummu, who is originally from the island’s Muslim community. His family moved to the city of El Geneina when Professor Ali Shummu was six years old, as well as the family of the former Sudanese Ambassador Hassan Abdeen Fadlallah lived in ElGeneina coming originally from the city of Omdurman in terms of its composition and demographic composition. El-Geneina was the City of the poetMohmed Moftah Al-Fitouri, whose family migratedfrom Libya and had a lavish live in the founding of the city. The great Poet Moftah al-Fitouri’s father came as a merchant and settled in Dar Masalit and married from the region. In the present state of West Darfur in Sudan, and his father Moftah Al-Fitouri is Rajab Al-Fitouri, who was a Libyan; he was the successor of Sophia in the Shadhiliya, Al-Arosia, and Al-Asmaria Religious Order.
Immortalizing the struggle of Sultan Tajeldin the poet Al-Fitouri immortalized the heroism of his ancestors and their victory over the French in the poem The Sultan’s Murder, in which he says:
“Over the western horizon there are red clouds that did not rain
And the sun is imprisoned there
You see longing for years
And the wind turns like a windmill
Around your tents, O Taj al-Din
O, knight
This is the time of distress, my brothers
This is the time of sorrows
Many of us will die
You will see these valleys.
The social fabric
The Sultanate opened the doors of arrivals to it, especially merchants coming from the central Sudanese region and the Nile River regions, so they formed a unique social fabric, in addition to the arrivals from West Africa. And due to its location in the far west of Sudan, El Geneina remained a melting pot for those coming from West Africa, especially the Brno, Bargo, Falata and Hausa.
Consolidation of conscience
Dr. Muhammad Khalil believes that the folklore present in the region combines all these components and works to unify their conscience, referring to the common denominators between all the tribes represented in the dances (the Dobait, the Franqiba, the Hagouri, the Mardum and others) where the Nuggara instrument combines all those dances with minor differences. In costumes and dialects, in addition to this, tribal components combine in other cultural manifestations, such as Baramkeh tea sessions with distinctive rituals and collective folk songs performed at religious and national events, weddings, and others.
The region where El-Geneina situated has many names, including “Ardamata”, it is derived from the land of pleasure, as it is permissible for us to call it, meaning the land of happiness and pleasure.”
People describe the region as representing the historical city in which the rest of the cities in the far west were established, on top of which is the city of El Geneina. It is likely that the name “Ardamata” was copied from an ancient name of unknown origin. There are many accounts and sayings about the source and truth of the name and its ancient history extending back to thousands of years. He says that the region has three main entrances, one from the southern side, “Nyala Street,” and the other from the northern side, “Kulbus Street,” which extends to the Libyan border and then the eastern gate, which is known as “Fasher Street” that ends at Omdurman in the Sudanese capital. It is also an extension of the Darb al-Arbaeen to Egypt known as the Darfur Road”.
Cultivation and herding
The state of West Darfur and its metropolis, El Geneina, has many economic potentials and various investment opportunities in agricultural fields, livestock products and forest products of gum arabic and timber, in addition to the presence of major investment opportunities in industries and areas of animal production, vegetable and fruit production, food processing, fish and poultry, honey and fruit canning.
Dr. Anwar Chambal, a specialist in economic media, says that the people of the city depend for their lives on agricultural resources (millet, corn, wheat, sesame, watermelon, and hibiscus) and animal (cows, goats, and camels). He clearly indicates that agriculture brings together most of the region’s citizens, and even those who work in government jobs have land they cultivate.
All kinds of fruits known in Sudan are cultivated, especially mangoes, oranges, grapes, bananas and guavas, in addition to legumes. Forests are used for wood or forest food products, and trade represents the second craft after agriculture.
Developing relations with Chad
El-Geneina is considered one of the closest Sudanese regions to the Chadian borders, and there is intense communication and mobility and on this basis the city, the capital of West Darfur State, witnessed the first Sudanese-Chadian border states security and development conference in the period from 24-25 April 2018 and the conference came out with several recommendations, including the implementation of the Border Trade Protocol Between the two countries and the formation of a joint committee for evaluation, financing, implementation and follow-up, opening bank branches to facilitate trade, finance and bank transfers in the border states, completing land roads and expediting the implementation and opening of the Geneina and Adri free areas, in line with the nature of the common border area between the two countries, and endeavoring to complete the railway project connecting them to facilitating the movement of people of both countries.
One has thought it appropriate to also quote some parts from an article entitled: My memories of El-Geneina the Seat of the Dar Masalit Sultanate in the Darfur Province by Mahmoud A. Suleiman
El-Geneina the Seat of the Sultanate of Dar Masalit
El Geneina, the capital of the Sultanate of Dar Masalit located on the banks of the great Valley (Wadi) Kaja. Moreover, this may have arisen after the Sultanate moved its capital from the ancient capital city of historical Dergail. Dergail was the first capital of the Sultanate of Dar Masalit (1870 -1920 AD). The Masalit have a unique administrative system linking the tribe with a strong bond that does not neglect any individual in the tribe. The administrative hierarchy is pyramid shaped. It begins at the top by the Sultan, who represents Summit. After the Sultan come in a descending order the Firshas- plural of Firsha-, Umdas, Damalij (singular Dimlij), Sheikhs, Khalifas (singular Khalifa) and Warang. This administrative system empowered the members of the tribe as one part of a heart, one powerful hand, and a cohesive group for collective responsibility. The distance between the country’s capital Khartoum and the city (El Geneina), capital of Dar Masalit is about 1200 km (745.7 miles). El-Geneina City is about 350 kilometres from El-Fasher and only 27 kilometres from the Chadian borders. It is located 800 metres above sea level.
A succession of Sultans came to the Sultanate of Dar Masalit in the following order; Sultan Hajjam Hassaballa, Sultan Ismail bin Abdul Nabi, Sultan Abbaker Ismail bin Abdul Nabi, Sultan Taj al-Din bin Sultan Ismail Abdul Nabi, Sultan Bahraddin bin Abbaker Ismail, Sultan Abdul Rahman bin Bahraddin (Andouka) and Sultan Saad bin Abdul Rahman Bahraddin. In times past, as history told, the Masalit were known as fierce warriors who fought hard battles such as Battle of Drouti that took place in 09. 11.1910 against the French troops and the Knights led by the Masalit Sultan Taj al-Din Ibn Ismail Ibn Abdul Nabi to protect their famous independence. Sultan Taj al-Din was martyred in the famous battle of Drouti. That was besides the famous battle of (Kerendenq), on 04. 01. 1910 in which the Masalit lost more than 7 thousand martyr: Masalit historians say, “If not for this fierce fighting that the Masalit fought against the French, we are currently part of Chad.”
Dr. Mahmoud A. Suleiman is an author, columnist and a blogger. His blog is https://thussudan.wordprand strive that ess.com/