Standing in solidarity with Sudan
Hundreds from community gather to protest violent political oppression in African country
Chants mostly in Arabic filled the air, with people yelling “Madnia” or “Civilian rule,” and “Huria, Adalah, Salaam” or “Freedom, Justice, Peace,” as people held up signs and drivers passed by in their cars, honking in acknowledgment.
With his face painted like the Sudanese flag and sporting a blue shirt with a paper attached that read “We will build Sudan,” Luqman Yassir, 9, said he felt excited. “I’m really happy for change to make everything better, you know?” said Luqman, who recently moved from Qatar to Houston.
The boy, of Sudanese ancestry, stood alongside more than 200 activists and people from the Texas Sudanese community at the intersection of Westheimer Road and Post Oak Boulevard in hopes of raising awareness about the recent upheaval and potential revolution happening in the Northeast African country.
The event, which was also slated to occur in more than 120 cities around the country, according to a spokeswoman from the Sudanese Professionals Association, marked the 30th an-
niversary of the Islamist-backed coup that brought Omar al-Bashir to power in 1989. The event showed solidarity with the people in Sudan.
On Sunday, more than tens of thousands of protesters took to the streets in Sudan’s capital, Khartoum, and around the country calling for civilian rule nearly three months after the army ousted Bashir. A government official said at least seven people had been killed and nearly 200 were injured during the demonstrations.
And on June 3, at least 128 people across the country were killed after security forces attempted to clear a protest camp in Khartoum, according to protest organizers in Sudan. Authorities said the toll is at 61, including three security forces, but many from the Sudanese community said protesters have been peaceful, some attacked while sleeping and fasting during Ramadan.
“We call it a massacre, and we think it is,” said Hisham Ghandour, 58, a Sudanese American activist and organizer of the event.
Ghandour, who with other organizers chose the Galleria area for its high level of exposure, said protesters in Sudan since April have been demonstrating. The Houston event, he said, seemed like a proper way to remember those who lost their lives and show support for those still fighting.
“The ultimate goal is to transition Sudan back to civilian rule and the rule of law and restore personal freedoms to all people of Sudan, regardless of their gender, religion or ethnicity,” Ghandour said.
An aircraft mechanic, Ghandour said in 1981 he moved from Sudan to the U.S. for college. His family experienced the instability of Sudan’s government and lack of democracy, with many, including his mother, a former school principal, being laid off from their jobs because of having democratic ideas that opposed the regime.
Ghandour, who still visits his parents in Sudan, said many people left Sudan, becoming political refugees in England and Western Europe.
“It’s a typical (experience) of every Sudanese in the diaspora,” sand Ghandour, whose brotherin-law, was among those shot and injured in the demonstrations. But “people thought today, we would commemorate their memory to show that we’re not afraid,” Ghandour said. His hope is the demonstration helped educate and engage the American public in what is happening in Sudan.
“People come here (from) all over the world to seek refuge, and I think when (the American people) hear our story, I’m sure they’ll support.”
Akram Abbadi, 19, a student at University of Texas at Arlington, attended with his mother and other family members, but “Sudan is a very close-knit community,” he said, so everyone feels like family.
The beauty of the day, he said, was that so many in Sudan were showing their desire for a new government.
“The least we can do is go out and show support for them,” Abbadi said.
Abbadi’s mother Hind Farag, 46, of Sugar Land, said for the Sudanese who are now in other countries around the world, the issues happening in their home country still feel personal. Many close friends have had family members killed, people are going hungry and living in terror, and the military coup, she said, has distorted what Islam should be.
Still, Farag thinks a majority of people are against injustice but that too often the majority is silent.
“We feel privileged to scream like this and say what we think,” she said.
Nuha Zein, a spokeswoman for the Sudanese Professionals Association, a coalition of doctors, lawyers and more than 70 associations, said there had been much anger, sadness and disappointment. She often fears for her husband and sister who still reside in Sudan, she said..
“We call them to make sure they are still safe, but nobody really knows,” Zein said.
But Houston’s event Sunday wasn’t just sad.
The Sudanese are now in the middle of a revolution, she said. It’s now “dam gosad dam” or “blood against blood” — meaning the people are willing to give their all to their latest fight, but through their voices, their peacefulness and their unity.
Zein’s confident that “we’re on our way to a civilian state,” and that, she noted, is something to celebrate.