Did Sudan’s Muslim Brotherhood Successfully Recruit Writers and Authors? The New Misstep of Novelist Baraka Sakin
The Muslim Brotherhood in Sudan has succeeded in recruiting writers and authors to attack the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and promote the national and heroic duty of the army in the ongoing war since April 2023.
The latest is novelist Abdel Aziz Baraka Sakin, who recently faced heavy criticism on social media for deliberately omitting the role of Islamists in the Sudan war, according to the Sudanese newspaper Al-Taghyeer.
A Facebook post by Sakin triggered controversy among Sudanese people, where he wrote: “Every drop of blood shed in our country is the fault of the Janjaweed and QH (Forces for Freedom and Change),” without mentioning the Muslim Brotherhood, elements of the former regime, or even the army.
Following the post, comments poured in attacking Sakin for ignoring elements of the former regime, considered responsible for igniting the April war.
Commentators noted Sakin’s change of position within a month. Two months ago, he wrote: “I am against criminalizing QH or any other non-armed civilian entity. I differ with them civilly in opinion, but we remain under the umbrella of mutual respect, without discrediting those who express an opinion.”
However, in May, Sakin accused the Forces for Freedom and Change (QH), placing them on the same level as the Janjaweed or the Rapid Support Forces, holding them responsible for every drop of blood shed in the country during this war, according to his own words.
Journalist Osman Shabouna responded to Sakin’s words, denying any personal animosity but accusing him of shamefully falsifying the facts.
“Baraka Sakin, I have no hatred for you; it is your actions that force us to hate them. You are indeed responsible for the falsification that has cast you into the pit of shameful suspicions. You deliberately stepped into this trap by saying: ‘Every drop of blood shed in our country during this war is the fault of the Janjaweed and QH’.”
Shabouna asked: “Why did you not mention the elements of the former regime as responsible for this disgraceful war, while the people pay the price of this bloody war with their blood, money, and dignity?”
He concluded by asking: “Why didn’t you include the elements of the former regime in your statement to tell the truth about the causes of the war and its drivers? Why did you not present these elements as the root of the problem to mitigate your statement?”
Abdel Aziz Baraka Sakin, born in Kassala, eastern Sudan, in 1963, is a writer and novelist who won the Tayeb Salih Award for Creative Writing for his novel “The Djinns of the Earth”. His works have been translated into English, French, and German.
The themes in Sakin’s works, such as war and peace, genocide in Darfur, and issues of local communities in eastern and western Sudan, have always sparked debate and controversy in Sudanese cultural and social circles. His works were even banned by the Literary and Artistic Censorship Authority in Sudan during the Brotherhood regime (1989-2018).
Sakin was chosen as the writer-in-residence of the city of Graz, Austria, for the year 2022-2023, a grant that allowed him to dedicate a year to writing and participating in the cultural life of the city. He is the author of more than ten novels and two short story collections.
In 2020, Sakin won the Arab Literature Prize awarded by the Arab World Institute in Paris in collaboration with the Jean-Luc Lagardère Foundation.
