We, the members of the William Leo Hansberry Society, condemn the war that has been waged since April from the skies, in the streets, and on the ground across Sudan. We join with our international colleagues and partners in demanding an end to the destruction being inflicted upon the Sudanese people and their heritage sites.
Sudan is a country of immense archaeological and historical value, providing evidence of humankind’s existence – from the time of pre- and early-modern humans, hunter-gatherers, nomads and migrants, early settlements, ancient chiefdoms, ancient and medieval kingdoms, and modern nations – humanity’s history book inscribed in the landscape. This cultural heritage – in museums, at archaeological sites, and other public spaces – must be preserved and protected as a record of Sudan’s place in Africa’s legacy to the world. However, the most valuable cultural heritage that should and must be protected are the girls, women, boys, and men of Sudan.
We cannot sit quietly while the bodies of women and girls are being desecrated as cowardly and disgusting acts of war. Using sexual assault and mass rape as weapons of war and terror is reprehensible. It demonstrates a depraved mind and a disrespect for the Sudanese people whom these militia are allegedly at war to protect. Women and girls are being left with the psychological and emotional trauma of sexual assault, while some bear the additional physical trauma of carrying a child conceived in this most horrific way. Women’s and girls’ bodies are NOT fields of battle and those who engage in such foul, abominable acts must be prosecuted as war criminals.
Another cost of this war is that pregnant women are suffering from the inability to receive the maternal health care that they so desperately need. The emotional stress of this war is driving women into premature labor, miscarriages, still-births, and their own deaths. Women trying to escape the war are even forced to give birth on the side of the road or in remote areas. One such woman, after just giving birth on the side of the road, had to pick up her baby and continue walking to get to Chad because she could not risk being seen by the armed fighters.
We also mourn those lost to this needless carnage: the singer, Shaden Gardood, killed in her home; the actress, Asia Abdelmajid, killed in her home; the University of Khartoum student, Khaled Abdel Moneim, killed bringing food back to those trapped at the university and who had to be buried on campus because it was not safe to go out to return his body to his family; villagers slaughtered in El Geneina (Darfur); mothers, fathers, children, elders, infants, in their homes, in their courtyards, in their villages, at hospitals, in the streets, on the roads trying to flee to safety. Each and every life was precious, valuable, and irreplaceable.
The people of Sudan are generous, loving, and peaceful. This is not their will. This mass destruction and callous killing of innocent people must end. The two sides seem unable or unwilling to end this war that they started. Therefore, we call upon the international community to intervene to stop and hold accountable those responsible for this travesty and support the Sudanese civilian population who continue to peacefully protest and fight to govern themselves. Given the utter paralysis of the international system and the complete absence of an organized international humanitarian response, we bear witness and applaud the rise of the Sudanese people, on the ground and in the diaspora, who have taken it upon themselves to lead mass evacuations and emergency trauma response units on every front, including internal and international resettlements. We call upon African nations to take the lead in supporting the Sudanese civilians and for the international community to make its financial and military resources available in support of this African-led, African-centered effort.
The damage to the infrastructure – the airport, hospitals, banks, planes, cars, trucks, roads – will take a decade or longer to repair and will cost billions of dollars. We demand that the western and eastern nations and multinational corporations not be allowed to take advantage of the situation to enrich themselves with loans with onerous interest rates, 99-year leases on land or mineral resources, or contracts in which the infrastructure itself serves as the collateral. We condemn all such measures as usurious, corrupt, and unethical, and we outright oppose all attempts at greedy profiteering at the expense of the Sudanese people.
We, as a community of scholars of African ancestry, pray for the end of this devastation and violence. We send our love and prayers to our Sudanese sisters and brothers, especially our colleagues and their families. May the ancestral soil not have to absorb the blood of any more of its children.
William Leo Hansberry Society 