Nafq

This man - is not the problem.   Not in the truest sense. And to understand why we continue to get it wrong - or ignore the wrong - it is important to understand the Arabic word Nifaaq. * 

The word Nifaaq is derived from the word Nafq - which is one nifty, little compact word which means an underground burrow which is linked to another burrow.  In more colloquial terms, it will mean the den of a mole.  If, perchance, when our alphabet agencies are hunting a mole and  the primary entrance is attacked - the animal flees through the passageway to the second burrow which conceals a secondary means of egress. 

The mole, being more clever then we imagine, builds two tunnels.  There is the one for normal use. And then the one which is more greatly concealed and used only when pursued.  And of course, when pursued into the first one, the escape is from the other.

Linguistically speaking, the word Nifaaq means deception.    But it falls into two broader categories:

Nifaaq Kufr (hypocrisy of disbelief) and Nifaaq  'Amal (hypocrisy in actions or deed).   Tafsir al-Qurtubi discusses this issue, but it is more aligned with a discussion on the "diseases of the heart".

I prefer to expand the concept of the word Nafq to include operational considerations.  Because the violence which begins in the Sudan, then converts into energetic financial transactions within lanes of commerce throughout the Gulf States... ya' know, our (Nafq) Gulf allies.

So while the Sudanese government is busy trying to find the funds to restore this twin-screwed river gunboat (Melik) which carried Lord Kitchener into Sudan, the whole nation of Sudan resembles this pitiful historic vessel.   Because as I continue to follow the nation, the programs which Sudan tries to initiate generally resemble the compartments of the gunboat.  There are high hopes when things get off the ground, yet too many things eventually run aground.  There is little forward movement, very little traction in Sudan. And as the rich get richer... the poor continue to wiggle their toes in the dirt.

 

It is an interesting component of human nature that we do not like villains... unless of course, they are our own.  So while Hemedti may dart down the one tunnel,  what emerges from the second tunnel is not a man, but a well-oiled machine.  And until the greater world truly cares about the welfare of the average Sudanese, not much will change within this vast African terrain.

These are my evening thoughts. 

(I use the traditional transliteration from Arabic with the double "a" - since initial mentorship was immersion into the Sunni side of the House.  My introduction to the Shi'a came a bit later.)