“Do you feel like every time you get involved in an argument, you have got to win? If you know that someone is wrong, and you have a solution, do you feel like, you’ve to argue with them until they embrace your point? You can try, but if the person you’re arguing with is a fool, you will be hitting your head against a rock! It won’t work”.

Simon Preacher

Similarly “never argue with a fool, onlooker may not be able to tell the difference” Mark Twain

Both Diu (d. c. 1972) was a politician who was one of the leaders of the Liberal Party in Sudan in the years before and after independence in 1956. His party represented the interests of the southerners. Although in favor of a federal system under which the south would have its own laws and administration, Both Diu was not in favor of southern secession. As positions hardened during the drawn-out First Sudanese Civil War (1955-1972) his compromise position was increasingly discredited.

Early years

Both Diu was born in Fangak in Southern Sudan. He did not attend school, but managed to obtain a job as a houseboy of the British District Commissioner. He taught himself English and learned to read and write and type. With these skills, he became interpreter for the District Commissioner, an influential post. By 1947 he was a local government official.

Southern representative

After the Second World War the mood in Britain was to give the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan independence of both Britain and Egypt.Both Diu was one of the southern leaders who attended a conference held at Juba on 12-13 June 1947 to discuss the recommendations of an earlier conference held in Khartoum at which it had been decided that the south and north of Sudan should be united in one country. Southerners were (and are) very different ethnically and culturally from the people of northern Sudan, but the rationale was that Sudan was huge but poor, and if divided both parts would be extremely weak. No southerners had attended the Khartoum conference.

At the Juba conference, Both Diu said that although northerners claimed they did not want to dominate the South, there must be safeguards. Northerners should not be allowed to settle on land in the south without permission, should not interfere in local government in the south and should not be allowed in law to call a southerner a slave. However, Diu was not in favor of separation. He said the government should select representatives from the south who would go to the North to study and to participate in legislation, finance, and administration. He said that Arabic should be introduced into southern schools without delay so they could catch up to the north.

Both Diu formed an “Upper Nile Political Association” in Upper Nile province.The Governor-General of Sudan announced the formation of the Constitution Amendment Commission in March 1951. Both Diu was the sole southerner of the commission, which had 16 northerners and three British officials including the chairman. When the commission started work on 26 March 1951, Both Diu called for a federal constitution. His proposals were persistently rejected by the northern members of the commission, and he resigned in disgust. The commission continued without southern representation. However, the British members of the commission did insist on some safeguards in the draft constitution to protect southern interests, including a special Minister for the southern provinces and an Advisory Board for southern affairs. The northerners managed to later remove this provision.

Party leader

The Southern Sudanese Political Movement was founded in 1951 by Stanislaus Paysama, Abdel Rahman Sule and Both Diu. As the Secretary General of the party, Both Diu protested to the United Nations against the agreement that had been reached by the Constitution Amendment Commission. In 1952 the party changed its name to the Southern Party. As of 1953 the party leaders were Benjamin Lwoki, Chairman, Stanslaus Paysama, Vice Chairman, Both Diu, Secretary General and Abdel Rahman Sule, Patron of the party.The objectives were to work for complete independence of Sudan, with special treatment for the south. The party was officially registered in 1953. At first it had widespread support from the southern intelligentsia and from the bulk of the people in the south of Sudan. In 1954 the party was renamed the Liberal Party to avoid any suspicion that it was working for independence of the south, but no northerners joined.

Both Diu toured the south in August 1954 at the expense of Sayyid ‘Abd al-Rahman, patron of the Ummah Party, and in his speeches quoted the National Unionist Party (NUP) campaign promises. (The NUP had won the previous elections). Prime minister Ismael Azhari described this as seditious talk and threatened to use force to prevent secession. Ismael Azhari eliminated Both Diu and Bullen Alier from his cabinet for their criticism of the policy of his government on Southern Sudan.The Sudanese parliament was dissolved in November 1958 after a military coup by General Ibrahim Abboud.

Later years

In November 1964, General Ibrahim Abboud returned control to an interim civilian government. In 1965 a northern-dominated government was elected led by Muhammad Ahmad Mahgoub. This government paid lip service to a peaceful solution to the southern problem, while waging an increasingly brutal war against the Anyanya rebels. The Southern Front withdrew its candidates for the Supreme Council and the Cabinet, saying that the government had violated its agreement that the Southern Front would be the sole representative of the south. The Sudan African National Union (SANU) had two members appointed to the cabinet, Alfred Wol Akoc and Andrew Wieu, and Both Diu was appointed to the third seat reserved for a southerner in the cabinet. He was given the position of Minister of Animal Resources.The two SANU ministers resigned in protest after the Juba and Wau massacres.Both Diu and Philimon Majok were now the only representatives of Southern Sudan in the government, both supporters of a unified Sudan.

Both Diu died soon after the 1972 Peace Accord was signed in Addis Ababa, ending the First Sudanese Civil War. He had tried to bridge the huge gap between the south and the realities of northern politics, and often failed to satisfy either camp.

Both Diu once said that Sudan was like an eagle with a broken wing, dragging itself along the ground, becoming weaker each day, longing to return to the freedom of the skies.

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“The African Dream slogan and goals in essence restate long time goals of Africa Awareness. The importance of having an African Dream for UBC, however, is that it gives the executive of the organization goals that can be measured with numerical results. The Dream should allow Africa Awareness to maintain its focus in the following years until those goals are met. The Dream is also integral to the vision of Africa Awareness because it continues to highlight the importance that the university has put on global citizenship, as per its Trek 2010 statement, and questions the possibility of achieving global citizenship while ignoring an entire continent.”

AAI will be commemorating its 10th Anniversary this year( 2012). Since its formation in 2002, Africa Awareness Initiative has been instrumentally utilized by students to “produce outstanding academic forums to encourage critical discussions pertaining to the relevance of the African continent, the Diaspora and its globalization.” Through such discourse,  AAI has successfully witnessed attainments such  as creation of African studies program, a minor program in African Studies. The club has enormously enhanced unity among the students and UBC community at large. In addition, AAI has empowered the African awareness on campus and strengthen leadership potentials in many UBC student who took part in its leadership. It is, therefore, our joy to celebrate AAI’s 10th birthday

AAI Election, March 9th

March 9, is not only a day to witness a new transition in AAI leadership but also a day to remember the wonderful times the AAI has shared within its members, other clubs and with the global community at UBC.  The current team has done their parts of which they deserve more than thanks you.

The 2011-2012 executives cordially coordinated and supervised the AAI events and meetings. Above all, the conference week was a major success and we are pretty much indebted to fit their footsteps. We say thanks you to the outgoing team and any one who supported the events.

I’m listening to Ethiopian music as I’m putting up these few words about one of Sudan’s revolutionary icon, Mohammad Osman Wardi, a Sudanese’s lead singer, who passed away on 18 February 2012.

Wardi was a Nubian Sudanese singer and songwriter, born on the 19th of July 1932 on the island of Sawarda in far-northern Sudan. He began singing at the age of 5, and had his first hit in 1960s.

Wardi left the country shortly after Bashir seized power through a military coup in 1989. He lived in exile, both in Egypt and in Lose Angel until 2002 when he returns. On his return, in 2002, Wardi assured his fans of no retreat, no surrender to dictatorship.

“I am a human being, and every human being is against dictatorship and I will continue to denounce it,” he told AFP in June 2002. “The atmosphere does not encourage creation. Freedom is essential to the blossoming of art.”

Wardi added that he never regret the 18 month detention under former President Gaafar al-Nimeiry, who took power in 1971 after a three-day communist coup.

Wardi told the AFP, a year ago, that the 2005 comprehensive peace agreement, between North and South that led to the independent of South Sudan “had encouraged his returned with a hope for unity for the whole Sudan”.

During South Sudan election for secession, Wardi told the Daily Star that he had been singing about a united nation for more than five decades and he hoped “that even if South Sudan chooses secession, one day it will reunite with the North.”

Wardi’s legacy will be continued and the love of his music will remain intact in many hearts.

The 2012 Africa Cup of Nations, also known as the Orange Africa Cup of Nations for sponsorship reasons, was the 28th edition of the Africa Cup of Nations, the football championship of Africa organized by the Confederation of African Football (CAF).

The competition was co-hosted in two countries, it took place in Equatorial Guinea and Gabon from 21 January to 12 February 2012. The bidding process for hosting the tournament ended in September 2006, the continental football federation, CAF, selected Equatorial Guinea and Gabon to become the first African nations to co-host the finals.

The matches were played in four stadium in four host cities around the two countries, with the final played at the newly built Stade d’Angondjé in Gabon’s largest city, Libreville. Fourteen teams were selected for participation via a continental qualification tournament that began in July 2010.

The 2012 edition of the Africa Cup of Nations was one of the most politically-charged sports events to take place, Libya (Libyan civil war) and Tunisia’s (Tunisian revolution) national teams qualified for the tournament despite a political backdrop which saw both country’s autocratic rulers ousted from power. Players of the Libyan and Tunisian national teams had fought on the front line in their respective campaigns. The traditional footballing nations such as reigning champions Egypt (also affected by political events), Cameroon, Nigeria, Algeria and South Africa had failed to qualify. Players from third-placed Mali pleaded for the Insurgency in the Azawad to end.

In the first round of the tournament finals, the teams competed in round-robin groups of four teams for points, with the top two teams in each group proceeding. These eight teams advanced to the knockout stage, where three rounds of play decided which teams would participate in the final. Both host nations, Equatorial Guinea and Gabon, were eliminated from the competition at the quarter final stage.

In the final, unfancied Zambia, the Southern African regional body’s 2009 COSAFA Cup runner-up, defeated third-time finalists Côte d’Ivoire after a dramatic penalty shootout in the final, giving Zambia their first continental title, becoming the fourteenth nation to win the tournament. The Zambian team dedicated their win to the members of the national team who died near the final’s venue in Libreville during the 1993 Zambia national football team air disaster.

^Source

Currently the author is wrapping up a main directory, and the site may be hosted in six weeks or so, if everything goes as planned. The new site is not intended for any business or political intent rather a template for the author’s social network.

The site will make up an archive for navigating and evaluating the author(s) perspectives. This may appeals, at most,  to author’s relatives, close friends, and as well as to rivals and concern groups. Fortunately, the author will be glad to convene different opinions, and as such the site will be opened for public access.

At its best, the directory will provide web literacy and general reference. Thus, the site will harbor both the author’s perspectives and external links that point to a few major hubs of interest on the internet. However, the general reference section will be infinitesimal at the beginning but it may grow to serve its long term aspiration.

The language on the site will not be pedantic as seen on this blog, which may immensely adds to the enjoyment of quick skimming through the articles. Furthermore, this may  encourages participation of those who may decide to leave an opinion.

In contrast, navigating the new site may not be that straightforwards for new users, and we apologize for the inconvenience. The framework of the new site will be , to some extent, intricate because it’s a directory for websites and blogs. Thus, familiarity will involve frequent visits. However, the format of accessing external links and blogs will be standardized i.e. you will be able to access My Goodreads if you can access my Wordpress.

Welcome to my 2012 resolution