Program

DAY 1 (PRESENTATIONS)

SATURDAY 29 April

Venue: Federation of Sudanese Businessmen and Employers Conference Hall

9 –10am	Welcome & Introduction to Symposium
9.10 – 10	The Intellectual: An Overview
	The Intellectual as Committed Thinker and Trafficker in Ideas Sondra Hale
	Scanning the Sudanese Terrain: The Diversity of Intellectuals Gada Kadoda
10 – 10.30	BREAK
10.30 – 12pm	The Historical and Conceptual (Chair: Sondra Hale)
	What it Means to be an Intellectual in the Age of Globalisation Idris Salim
	The Active Life and the Human Condition:  Reflections on Fundamental Structures of the Human Condition in the Ideas of German Philosopher Hannah Arendt Margret Otto
	The Discourse of Liberation for a Nation Dominated by Slave-Oriented, Anti-Blackness, and Self-Hating Ideology: An Interpretation of the 20th Century Contributions of Ali Abdul Latif and John Garang Mohamed Jalal M. Hashim
	Post-Haraj (Confusion): The Decadent Petty Bourgeoisie Intellectual Abdullahi Ali Ibrahim
12 – 1.30	Part 1: Disciplines and Our Discontents (Chair: Mohamed Elamin Eltom)
	The Contribution of Higher Education in Intellectual Thought Mohamed Elamin Eltom
	Production of Knowledge and the Dilemma of Sudanese Academics Atta Elbattahani
	The Intellectuals and the Design of Law as a Tool of Repression and Alienation: From Common Law Post-colonial Sudan to the Era of 'Islamization' Mohamed Abdelsalam
	The Wise Physician: Epistemological Foundation Ahmed Alsafi
1.30 – 2.30	LUNCH
2.30 – 3.45	Part 2: Disciplines and Our Discontents (Chair: Maria Abbas)
	The Role of Science and Technology Policy in National Development: The Dilemma of Vision Marwan Awad
	Different Intellectual Schools of Sudanese Archaeologists Fatima Salah
	A New Thinking Paradigm in the Post-Naivasha Sudanese Linguistics: Questioning the Identity of Intellectuals (By video) Mohamed Sulieman
3.45 – 5.30	The Intellectual in Diverse Contexts (Chair: Gada Kadoda)
	Positioning Elites in War and Peace Dynamics in the Peripheries of Sudan: The Case of the Nuba Elites Guma Kunda Komey
	Knowledge Production in the Nuba Mountains between Academia and War Mariam Sharif & Enrico Elle
	BREAK (15 minutes)
	The Sufi Intellectual: The Dynamics of Power and Change in Sudan Mervat Hamadelnil
	Women Intellectuals in a Globalized Era Mai Azzam
	Digital Intellectualism and the Contemporary Young Intellectual: Their Characteristics, Their Online Wars and the Generational Divide Reem Abbas
5.30 – 6pm	Day 1 Closing

DAY 2 (PANELS)

SUNDAY 30 April

Venue: Impact Hub Khartoum

9 – 9.30am	Welcome & Day 2 Opening
9.30 – 11.30	Parallel Panels
	PANEL 1	PANEL 2
	The Concept of "Contradiction" in Sudanese Contemporary Political and Social Thought Chair & Organiser: Shamsaddin Dawalbait Discussants: Amr Abbas, Mahasin Yousif, Mohamed Osman Makki, and Omer Yagi (in Arabic)	Intellectual Ideas about Sudanese Art(s) Chair & Organiser: Sondra Hale Discussants: Alsir Alsayid, Issam Abdelhafiz, Mohamed Abdelrahman (Bob), Mohamed Abusabib, and Yasmin Ebnoof
11.30 – 1.30pm	PANEL 3
	Pre-and Post-Independence Sudanese Intellectuals: Diverse Visions for Building the Sudanese Nation Chair & Organiser: Balghis Badri Discussants: Abdalla Khatir, Farah Agar,  Mahgoub M. Salih, Shareef Aldishoni, and Tayeb Zin Abden
1.30 – 2.30	LUNCH
2.30 – 4.30	PANEL 4
	Youth Movements and Activism: The Organic Intellectual and the Political Environment in Sudan Chair & Organiser: Wini Omer Discussants: Badraldin Salah, Hussam Hilali, Khalid Siraj, and Omnia Amr
4.30 – 5.30pm	Symposium Closing Session

INTRODUCTION TO PANELS

PANEL ONE: The Concept of "Contradiction" in Sudanese Contemporary Political and Social Thought

Chair & Organiser: Shamsaddin Dawalbait

Discussants: Amr Abbas, Mahasin Yousif, Mohamed Osman Makki, and Omer Yagi

على مدى السنوات الستين التي أعقبت استقلال السودان لم يحدث اتفاق على طبيعة المشكل السوداني بين المكونات الفكرية والسياسية في المجتمع السوداني, وذلك على الرغم – أو ربما بسبب هذا الغياب - من اشتعال الحرب الأهلية في جنوب السودان حتى قبل إعلان الاستقلال الرسمي, وتواصل التدهور الاقتصادي والسياسي والاجتماعي, واشتعال حروب جديدة في مناطق اخرى, وتواصل تفكك النسيج الاجتماعي بالنزاعات القبلية والعنصرية, وحتى انفصال جنوب السودان في 2011.

لقد طور الفكر الهيجلي مفاهيم التناقض (contradiction ) والنفي (negation) لفهم حركة المجتمعات. وعرّف هذا الفكر التناقض بأنه "الحدود أو العناصر المتعارضة, التي تنتشر بشرطية متبادلة في الأشياء, ويرتبط كل منها بالآخر بحلقات توسطية, مؤلفة وحدة الظاهرة أو الموضوع, وهذه العناصر تجد نفسها في وضع تجابه وصراع ينفي بعضها بعضا. هذا الصراع بين المتناقضات يمهد الطريق إلى الأمام وينكشف كمبدأ للتطور والحركة" (ويكيبيديا). وأعتبر هيجل أن التناقض هو جوهر جميع الظواهر والأشياء بما في ذلك المجتمعات, وأنه قاعدة النضال وجذر كل نمو.

سيكون هدف هذه "الحوارية المعرفية" استكشاف التناقض المركزي في المجتمع السوداني, سواء في الفكر السياسي والاجتماعي المعاصر أو من زوايا معرفية جديدة, وذلك تعزيزا لدور العوامل الذاتية وتقوية مشاركتها في عملية الحركة والصراع. 

Over the 60 years that followed Sudan's independence, no consensus developed on the nature of the “Sudanese Problem” between the intellectual and political segments of Sudanese society. Despite, or perhaps because of this absence of agreement, the civil war in southern Sudan started even before the official declaration of independence. The “problem” continued in the form of social conflicts and new wars in other regions, in tribal and racial conflicts and fragmentation to the social fabric, and in the secession of southern Sudan in 2011.

Hegelian thought developed the concepts of “contradiction” and “negation” to understand the movement of societies. Contradiction is defined as "opposing sides or elements, which are propagated in reciprocal conditionality, and are interconnected with each other by mediating links drawn from their unifying phenomenon or concept, but also find themselves in a situation of confrontation and conflict negating each other. This dialectical process might forward and reveal the principle of evolution and movement" (Wikipedia). Hegel considers that contradiction is the essence of all phenomena and things including societies, and that it is the basis of struggle and the root of all growth and progress.

The purpose of this dialogue will be to explore the principal contradiction(s) in Sudanese society, whether in contemporary political and social thought or from new forms of knowledge perspectives, in order to understand the role of individual or subjective factors influencing intellectuals and to strengthen their participation in the process of movement and conflict.

PANEL TWO: Intellectual Ideas about Sudanese Art(s)

Chair & Organiser: Sondra Hale

Discussants: Alsir Alsayid, Issam Abdelhafiz, Mohamed Abdelrahman (Bob), Mohamed Abusabib, and Yasmin Ebnoof 

Often people think, even sometimes artists themselves, that there are few or no intellectual ideas behind the art that artists produce, that it is all about feeling, colour, tone, mood, intuition—something internal to the artists themselves, etc.—not knowledge production. Sometimes artists claim there is no subject (certainly postmodern artists may make this claim), that the art just came out of nowhere except from their internal psyches. Of course, there are art critics who academize the arts, but what do artists themselves say about their art? Some make claims that art should make political statements; others may say that it is the viewer herself/himself who attaches political significance to the piece of art. This panel is a discussion of Intellectual thought in the Arts, stressing the graphic and plastic arts, but including theatre, film, and photography.  We will be discussing the ideas of some of the driving critical voices like Hassan Musa or Abdulla Bola in the early and middle days of Khartoum Technical Institution (KTI), later to become the Khartoum School of Fine and Applied Arts, and some of the ideas we see now after major ideological disruptions.  It is a discussion of how major artistic voices like Ibrahim el Salahi, Kamala Ishaq, Ahmed Shibrain, Hussein Shariffe, Hassan Bedawi, Siddig El Nigoumi, Rabbah, Musa Khalifa, Mohamed El Hassan Abdel Rahim (Shaigi), Taj el-Sir Ahmed, Mohamed Omer Khalil, Amir Nour, Salih Mashmoun, Mohamed Omer Bushara, Tahir Bushra, Rashid Diab, Afifi, Abushariaa, and others thought or think  about their art and how we think about it.  Is it too facile to talk only of the “Khartoum School” of that early period, especially in the face of counter-narratives from other schools of thought—such as Kamala Ishaq’s Crystalist Group of conceptual artists that questioned notions of “Sudanism” and concentrated on change and constant “becoming”? Or, in the face of Madrasat Al Wahid (School of One)?  In what ways did these voices (and others) change the nature of how Sudanese saw art? How they saw society?  What impact did the artists and critics’ ideas have on the outside world? Did their intellectual ideas “fail,” or if they succeeded, what was changed?  How were the intellectual ideas about art important in the formation of Sudanese thought, in general?  

PANEL THREE: Pre-and Post-Independence Sudanese Intellectuals: Diverse Visions for Building the Sudanese Nation

Chair & Organiser: Balghis Badri

Discussants: Abdalla Khatir, Farah Agar, Mahgoub M. Salih, Shareef Aldishoni, and Tayeb Zin Abden

The purpose of the panel is to debate the concept of the intellectual, but not only related to the modern educated.  The panellists would compare intellectuals based on how they conceived of a Sudan, internally, and within the global context, taking examples, first, from the generations of the colonial period, including Babiker Badri & Abdelrahman Almahdi, (adopting /adapting the modernization project of the global west with a religious component of Islam).  Then moving to Yousuf Badri and the "graduates’ generation”--a secular modernisation project for Sudan that is clear in the autobiographies and memoirs of thinkers of that generation.  Then the third generation of Sadik, Turabi, Abdel Khalig--three dimensions of conflicting ideologies for the future of Sudan.  Next, the Sudan in Africa generation of Garang, & others-- a new approach for envisioning Sudan.  Last, the current challenge of the intellectual scheme by the youth generation.

PANEL FOUR: Youth Movements and Activism: The Organic Intellectual and the Political Environment in Sudan

Chair & Organiser: Wini Omer

Discussants: Badraldin Salah, Hussam Hilali, Khalid Siraj, and Omnia Amr

 

Lately there has emerged an increasing number of both global and Sudanese youth movements and initiatives that are addressing various aspects of life--political, social, and cultural.  In this panel we will examine the theoretical/intellectual ideas behind these movements, in addition to discussing, also, the practical part of the youth movements in Sudan.  The panel consists of representatives from and founders of a number of youth organizations or publications:  ANDRIA (online platform); “Manshoor Magazine”; Girifna; and Education without Borders.  We recognize that, in one way or another, these movements are trying to challenge the status quo, but that there are doubts about our social visibility and effectiveness within the context where we work.  By analyzing and deconstructing the intellectual ideas behind our various organizations and initiatives, we may be able to open new windows for renewing and creating more effective tools to engage and have an impact.

We will ask a series of questions of each other, such as what the intellectual ideas with which we define ourselves and our movements within the Sudanese contexts where we work, and what the tools are with which we offer a challenge to the status quo.  Do we consider ourselves as organic intellectuals in the Gramscian sense?  Do we represent a wide range of the ideas and needs of Sudanese youth (reference to gender, class, ethnicity), or are we just another elite club?  Have we been inventing something new or simply duplicating what already exists?  Are we trying to shake up the whole system or reform what is already existing?  Is this increasing number of youth movements and youth initiatives in Sudan a manifestation of the absence of the role of the Sudanese intelligentsia in addressing critical issues?  Are we working on a micro or macro level political level   (or trying to avoid that dichotomy)?  How linked are our intellectual and theoretical ideas to the Global movements?