Are you a communist? No, I am a socialist.

“The new oil agreement between the Islamic Republic of Sudan and South Sudan is not going to bring anything good to Sudanese. The rulers will put the money in their pockets and people will remain in their suffering. We believe that all people sould share equally the available resources”.

“Are you a communist”? “No, no, no. I am a socialist”.

I have been kept in jail for almost two months and treated like a criminal, only for having written against the corruption of this government.

I have been tortured and interrogated for days, deprived from sleep. I have been given only one bread and a dirty ful (beans) for breakfast and in the evening, impossible to eat. Our cells were one meter by two, hot, with a rough floor, full of mosquitos. We asked our guardians to provide us with a spray or something. They told us that they cared more for their mosquito than for us, that’s why we would not get any mosquito repellent, because in fact the intention was to feed mosquitos with our blood. We have not been given any water to drink; we had to resort to the dirty toilet water. Many of us ended up with malaria, typhoid and other diseases. We have been put face to a wall, beaten with water pipes and sticks, and then dirty water has been thrown on our shoulders, to cause infections which in fact proliferated in our skin. We have been thrown on the floor, the NSI (National Security Intelligence) boots on our faces. During the interrogations my hands have been used as hash trays, the wounds are still visible. We have been badly insulted. We knew what to expect from the NSI, but the behavior of police officials has been shocking.

I have been arrested several times in the past years, but never for such a painful and long period. This time I have been accused to be among those coordinating the youth movement here. While we were in jail they were telling people that we were kept jailed to assure that no one would be armed in our city. But all we have ever done it has been to write against corruption in our country and for a true democracy.

We had organized ourselves in youth groups. Refusing the traditional division into parties, we had formed a front for change. They jailed some of us before we could even start to publicly demonstrate our dissent. They have taken from me everything: the possibility to finish my studies, my work, my friends and social relations, the freedom to move freely, the freedom to talk and write about politics, the willingness to fight for a better Sudan. My life is in danger now and I have to think about to preserve it. Not only for me, but also for my family, they count on me. Leave the country for saving my life and start to live again is an option, but it is painful to think that it would mean to leave my family behind.

Some of my friends joined the SPLM in Darfur. They decided to go fighting the government from there. I discouraged them from going. In this way they will become killers themselves, and this is against everything I ever believed in, I have always been a peaceful person, my arms were my writings.

“Sudan is good but Bashir is bad”.

 

The Arab spring reached Sudan with a conspicuous retard. And actually it never blossomed. In fact, Bashir reminded the Sudanese that they enjoyed the Arab spring much earlier: about 25 year ago, when he conquered the power and saved them.