Who are the Sudanese? I Don't Know: Selective Ignorance and Global Humanity

[Oluwatoyin Adepoju]

            Who are the Sudanese?

                       I Don't Know

Selective Ignorance and Global Humanity

        Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju 

Sudan is a country in Africa but even though I am an African, and who lives in Africa,  do I have any emotional or intellectual connection with the Sudanese?

What is the answer to this question even though I have met a Sudanese person before, at a lecture where he explained the roots of civil war in Sudan?

The answer is "no."

I have no emotional or intellectual connection with the people of Sudan.

Why not?

I know almost nothing about them.

When their thought comes to my mind, an image flashes into my consciousness of a dark skinned black woman, burnt by suffering, perhaps holding a child in similar dire straits, victims of conflicts of which I know nothing and aspire to know nothing, akin to the benighted citizens of another corner of the globe darkened by incessant conflict -the DRC.

Names like those of Patrice Lumumba for the DRC and the janjaweed, for  Sudan, float in my mind, but as decontextuakized markers, bearing faint wisps of emotional residue from that mind but no anchor in anything solid there.

But I know much about the Palestinians who belong to a different region, the so called Middle East, which I have never even visited.

I have also never met a Palestinian before.

That is the character of my ignorance, a map of the world lit in some places, dark in others.

So, I was shocked reading a philanthropic organization declaring that the famine in Sudan is the worst in the world. I thought that description belongs to Gaza.

I aspire to a fully lighted mental world map but do I have the energy?

The drive? The know how?

You see, my interests are not centred on simply knowing about peoples.

For me to have much interest in them, I need to know and identify with their efforts to make meaning of the world, their religions, their philosophies.

That is one reason why the Palestinian/Israeli conflict has meaning for me, along with the fact that my father's library introduced me to the conflict across decades.

These are reasons why I have some knowledge of some small sections of Africa and Asia. Beceause I have some depth of information on those subjects in those regions.

So, here I am. Reminded by reading something written by the writer and scholar Toyin Falola about how ignorant I am, how distant I am from most of my fellow Africans and my fellow human beings.

I pray I can do something about this.

[Oluwatoyin Adepoju]

            Who are the Sudanese?

                       I Don't Know

Selective Ignorance and Global Humanity

        Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju 

Sudan is a country in Africa but even though I am an African, and live in Africa,  do I have any emotional or intellectual connection with the Sudanese?

What is the answer to this question even though I have met a Sudanese person before, at a lecture where he explained the roots of civil war in Sudan?

The answer is "no."

I have no emotional or intellectual connection with the people of Sudan.

Why not?

I know almost nothing about them.

When their thought comes to my mind, an image flashes into my consciousness of a dark skinned black woman, burnt by suffering, perhaps holding a child in similar dire straits, victims of conflicts of which I know nothing and aspire to know nothing, akin to the benighted citizens of another corner of the globe darkened by incessant conflict -the DRC.

That is the essence of my image of Sudan.

Names like those of Patrice Lumumba for the DRC and the janjaweed, for  Sudan, float in my mind, but as decontextualized markers, bearing faint wisps of emotional residue from that mind but no anchor in anything solid there.

But I know much about the Palestinians who belong to a different region, the so called Middle East, which I have never even visited.

I have also never met a Palestinian before.

That is the character of my ignorance, a map of the world lit in some places, dark in others.

This mental map is illuminated like the image one sees  flying in to land at night in a city with inadequate power supply - some areas are brightly lit, others sparsely lit and yet others in complete darkness.

So, I was shocked reading a philanthropic organization declaring that the famine in Sudan is the worst in the world. I thought that description belongs to Gaza.

I aspire to a fully lighted mental world map but do I have the energy?

The drive? The know how?

Can I cultivate the mental elasticity between managing the little I already know which occupies so much of my brain and emotions and trying to navigate the challenges of my own life?

You see, my interests are not centred on simply knowing about peoples.

For me to have much interest in them, I need to know and identify with their efforts to make meaning of the world, their religions, their philosophies.

That is one reason why the Palestinian/Israeli conflict has meaning for me, along with the fact that my father's library introduced me to the conflict across decades.

These are reasons why I have some knowledge of some small sections of Africa, Asia, Europe, North and South America and the Caribbean, in various degrees.

 Beceause I have some depth of information on those subjects in those regions.

 Even then ignorance is more definitive of my relationship with those zones given what there is to know

[Gloria Emeagwali]

Toyin

I hope you find the time to have a look at this issue of Africa Update on

Sudan.

GE

On Sep 5, 2025, at 18:13, Oluwatoyin Adepoju <ovde...@gmail.com> wrote:



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[Emeagwali, Gloria (History)]

Please do not click on 

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Dr. Gloria Emeagwali
Professor of History/African Studies, CCSU
Chief Editor- "Africa Update"
https://sites.ccsu.edu/afstudy/archive.html
Gloria Emeagwali's Documentaries
www.vimeo.com/gloriaemeagwali
www.africahistory.net
Founding Coordinator, African Studies, CCSU

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From: usaafric...@googlegroups.com <usaafric...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Gloria Emeagwali <gloria.e...@gmail.com>
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