I want to have a thought exercise here regarding how we engage with each other in online spaces while performing political activism:
- we write our opinions (I do a lot of that)
- we re-tweet/re-post others' opinions
- we re-tweet/re-post articles, headlines , memes we agree with
The online spaces are as critical as political organising by political actors whether they are bonafide political parties or movements or individual activists.
I often feel I am either expressing myself in an echo chamber (on X/Twitter) or being ignored on Facebook.
There is an imperative online to express outrage that no one else is expressing it. (Me included)
Ultimately, it's a self righteous sentiment and, I don't think you can goad anyone to express rage online by online performative activism. I know it! I have expressed enough outrage about how deafening a silence it has been since the Genocide started. Nothing really happens. Instead, it seems to invite anger at having their silence pointed out.
Many of us feel angry, helpless and, are full of rage. Online spaces are where we go and express these sentiments. Is it meaningless? No, I don't think so because, as least for me, I want to express loud and clear which side of history I stand on.
In this small selection of people who are expressing their political views, there is a charge of hypocrisy and selective rage. It's this what I want to focus on.
The imperative to say something like for example "If you talk about Gaza but can't talk about Sudan, then your activism is limited." This sentiment will go so far as to insinuate that those who protest for Gaza but not for Sudan are ultimately racist because black lives are less important. And, in fact, there's also a Genocide going on in Sudan. I think the word Genocide gets thrown a lot and, given how detailed and thorough the case South Africa made in the ICJ to prove that Israel had the intent to commit a Genocide, the same detailed case should be made where ever activists claim one is being committed.
But back to the idea that those of us who are not talking enough about Sudan are ignoring it simply don't care for African lives has really been rubbing me the wrong way. I've been mulling over it and these are a few points:
- how can you prove that someone doesn't care about one people
- the Genocide unfolding in Gaza has been documented , recorded by Palestinians themselves and, we are all witness to it
- I don't think the Genocide in Gaza and the civil war (yes, there are proxies and there are Imperial and Gulf State interests, funding) in Sudan are the same. I understand that the regime in pre partitioned Sudan may have committed ethnic cleansing in Darfur but these claims have to be substantiated.
- we can't equate the horror that is Gaza which is in full view being documented by dying Palestinians themselves with the civil war in Sudan because they are different wars , for the ignorant who can't tell the difference, but for us who have a little bit more knowledge, we should make the differentiations because each part of the formerly colonised world has different dynamics, histories and we can't lump everything together for the sake of a stupid Tweet
- Gaza and Sudan are historically different , both legacies of colonialism but this Genocide is so horrific not only because Palestinians are documenting it in real time their own horrifying suffering but because of all the ways, the West is literally criminalising anyone who dares to speak against Israel
- This Genocide has been a horror show in full view, it shows us in real time, what happened in the Americas, this Genocide is happening in a literal concentration camp, it started with bombing of hospitals journalists schools , the bombing has been relentless and Gaza has been reduced to rubble, more bombs were dropped here than even in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the Americans and Europeans are literally aiding the Israelis with arms, money, tech support, they have created the largest number of children amputees, they have bombed churches, mosques, and, deliberately massacred entire families, children, journalists, buried them, shot them, burned them alive, anyone protesting against Israel in the West is being shot at, arrested and thrown out, and now Palestinians are being starved, emaciated children are begging for food, and again, the best part is that the Palestinians are filming themselves as they die
- Sudan is suffering , a large humanitarian crisis has been created, UAE and US and others are behind the warring factions, it is a country with colonial legacies of divide and rule on ethnic/linguistic lines, they tore up the country in half, they let this happen, but it's still a different hellscape than Gaza and the evil that is Israel and the collective West
- Many of us are deeply conversant, knowledgeable in the Palestinian struggle since childhoods, since university days, and are much more familiar with the geopolitics than with Sudan , it's not a crime that we are more familiar , not knowing doesn't mean we are racist or care less, I was against existence of Israel for as long as I can remember
- Care less , or less angry aren't quantifiable, not tweeting and talking about Sudan is a useless charge and, unless it is directed at political movements , political leaders who are well versed in global politics these charges are literally useless
- I don't know any political leader from the Left who will not know the legacy of slavery and colonialism in Africa, everyone invokes the great African leaders and knows their work
- literal racist attitudes are different to not talking enough about a particular crisis
- outcry over what's happening in another part of the world but ignoring oppression in your own home country is lame and ignorant , too
- political consciousness is built over time and, it also evolves and changes, my own ideas have changed so much over time, I've gone from saying dumb things like China is a a colonial power to being in awe of the accomplishments of Chinese Communism, I've gone from having fairly liberal sense of feminism to being more grounded, I've started to understand geopolitics way more, I've realigned my ideas on Iran, and so on
- my seething, boiling rage comes from having worked in the International Development sector, with having worked with Westerners, and, their paternalistic pro Imperial world view, and, their stupidity, their complicity, from having an idea that Western consciousness and sense of self is still so racist, colonial, their whole culture, academia, leadership has been exposed as a psychopathic, savage civilisation
- I don't separate myself from anyone in the Global South, and would always try to point out imperial hands in DRC, Sudan, Yemen, Afghanistan, we are learning and living and, there's so much we still don't know and are learning
- Gaza is amplified and, everywhere because of the horror that we are witnessing, and, the people in the West , students, unions, activists are protesting , there is nothing hidden , there is no ambiguity about who is committing the Genocide and who is helping them
- It's only now that UAE's hands are being identified in Sudan and, with all the time I've spent on X , Facebook , I really don't see strong clear voices coming out of Sudan to help us , guide us , it's really simple as that
- You can't accuse someone of not doing something about something they don't know about
- I've spent time in Liberia and, are Liberians talking about Sudan? No! Liberian Facebook is lame, it's pathetic, they can't even talk about the Sahel, things happening in West Africa, forget about Sudan or DRC, the Liberian liberals and prominent voices just know United States, they know Trump or Clinton, I've seen proud posts of the homeless being removed in DC, it's all lame, and there's hardly any in fact, zero Leftist voices
- I would never post or write about something for the sake of , I like to understand, read and, then share what I think
I looked up 'Sudan' on X and these are a few posts I found and wow :
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