Daud Bolad
Encyclopedia
Daud Yahya Ibrahim Bolad (?-January 1992) was a Sudanese politician and rebel leader. He came from the Fur people
of the Darfur
region of the country. In the early 1970s, Bolad was nominated by the Islamist
National Islamic Front
to be the president of the Khartoum University Students Union (KUSU). He became the first KUSU president who was not from the Arab tribes along the Nile
who dominate national politics. The position was seen as placing Bolad on the fast track to national political leadership as part of the 'western strategy' of Hassan al Turabi to gain the votes of Darfur and Kurdufan
. Bolad's deputy and bodyguard at this time was Tayeb Ibrahim, nicknamed 'al Sikha' after the rebar
with which he attacked student demonstrators. However, Bolad was arrested in 1971 by the police of then-President Jaafar Nimeiry for his high-profile militant activity and severely tortured.
After graduation Tayeb 'Sikha' rose up through the political establishment, while Bolad did not. The racial discrimination of the national political elite kept him from progressing, a charge he would make openly against the Muslim Brotherhood
. Bolad would later write, "even when I go to the mosque
to pray, even there, in the presence of God
, for them I am still a slave [abd] and they will assign me a place related to my race." Bolad returned to Darfur and became a small businessman. He had further second thoughts about the Islamist movement in 1988 after al Turabi silenced all criticism of the Libya
n-backed violence in Darfur. (See History of Darfur
.) He was briefly associated with the Sudan Socialist Union, the party of Nimeiry, and continued to drift to the political left. He was described as "obsessive and driven, meticulously and energetically building up his political network"
Frustrated and disillusioned, Bolad went to Chad
in 1989 seeking the support of President Hissène Habré
in starting a rebel movement in Darfur, but was rejected. He then went to Ethiopia
to meet John Garang
, leader of the Sudan People's Liberation Army
(SPLA), which had been prosecuting the Second Sudanese Civil War
in the south since 1983. Other prominent leftist Darfuri politicians, such as Ahmad Diraige, felt that the SPLA would use Darfur for its own purposes and refused to involve themselves. Bolad joined the SPLA in 1990 and received military training in South Kurdufan
. He was made the political commissar of a SPLA military expedition into Darfur that began in November 1991 and proved disastrous.
and Blue Nile
. SPLA chronicler Douglas Johnson suggests that the expedition may have been seen by the SPLA leadership as a diversionary tactic to create a rift in the north, like that created in the south by the splitting of the SPLA-Nasir
faction under Riek Machar
and Lam Akol
. Ethiopian President Mengistu Haile Mariam
, one of the major supporters of the SPLA, had recently been overthrown by the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front
. SPLA-Torit (the faction led by Garang) was thus fully engaged in fighting SPLA-Nasir in the south and could not send help to Bolad's force once it ran into difficulty.
There had been little advance preparation done in Darfur and Abd-el-Aziz al-Hilew, who had been named military commander of the expedition, did not receive enough equipment. The force was composed of Dinka
fighters, who were perceived as foreigners in Darfur and the Mahdist networks, who were the only organized opposition to the government in Darfur, resented the insertion of a political competitor. The force intended to reach sanctuary in the Marrah Mountains
but had to cross an arid expanse controlled by Baggara
Arab
s in the dry season, in which the only sources of water were the village boreholes that were both few and well-known. Bolad's presence was soon reported by the police, with at least one source indicating that he was reported by the Mahdists. A force composed of regular army and a horse-mounted militia composed of Beni Halba
Arabs quickly tracked and overwhelmed Bolad's force. The military governor of Darfur who directed the force was Tayeb Ibrahim 'Sikha', Bolad's old bodyguard and now both a physician and army colonel. There is no record of their meeting. The Beni Halba district town of Idd al Ghanam ("Well of Goats") was renamed Idd al Fursan ("Well of Horsemen") in celebration of the victory and dozens of Fur villages who had not taken part in defeating Bolad were burned in reprisal.
Bolad was captured alive and taken to Khartoum, where he was tortured to death in January 1992. Even worse, he was captured with his diary in which he had recorded every member of the underground resistance cells he had set up in Darfur. Many of these plotters disappeared into jails or disappeared entirely. Others were released after renouncing rebellion, though in the knowledge that they would continue to be watched by security forces. One history sums up the result, "The Darfurian resistance was set back by ten years." Darfurian dissidents drew a harsh lesson from this, becoming even more distrustful of the SPLA.
With the failure of Bolad's insurrection and the coming to power of Idriss Déby
in Chad, and resulting lowering of Libyan involvement in the region, much of Darfur subsided into a state of generalized insecurity that never reached the status of actual peace. The Black Book
, a 2000 publication by Darfuri dissidents, lists Bolad as a "martyr
".
Fur people
The Fur are an ethnic group from western Sudan, principally inhabiting the region of Darfur where they are the largest tribe....
of the Darfur
Darfur
Darfur is a region in western Sudan. An independent sultanate for several hundred years, it was incorporated into Sudan by Anglo-Egyptian forces in 1916. The region is divided into three federal states: West Darfur, South Darfur, and North Darfur...
region of the country. In the early 1970s, Bolad was nominated by the Islamist
Islamism
Islamism also , lit., "Political Islam" is set of ideologies holding that Islam is not only a religion but also a political system. Islamism is a controversial term, and definitions of it sometimes vary...
National Islamic Front
National Islamic Front
The National Islamic Front is the Islamist political organization founded and led by Dr. Hassan al-Turabi that has influenced the Sudanese government since 1979, and dominated it since 1989...
to be the president of the Khartoum University Students Union (KUSU). He became the first KUSU president who was not from the Arab tribes along the Nile
Nile
The Nile is a major north-flowing river in North Africa, generally regarded as the longest river in the world. It is long. It runs through the ten countries of Sudan, South Sudan, Burundi, Rwanda, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Tanzania, Kenya, Ethiopia, Uganda and Egypt.The Nile has two major...
who dominate national politics. The position was seen as placing Bolad on the fast track to national political leadership as part of the 'western strategy' of Hassan al Turabi to gain the votes of Darfur and Kurdufan
Kurdufan
Kurdufan , also spelled Kordofan, is a former province of central Sudan. In 1994 it was divided into three new federal states: North Kurdufan, South Kurdufan, and West Kurdufan...
. Bolad's deputy and bodyguard at this time was Tayeb Ibrahim, nicknamed 'al Sikha' after the rebar
Rebar
A rebar , also known as reinforcing steel, reinforcement steel, rerod, or a deformed bar, is a common steel bar, and is commonly used as a tensioning device in reinforced concrete and reinforced masonry structures holding the concrete in compression...
with which he attacked student demonstrators. However, Bolad was arrested in 1971 by the police of then-President Jaafar Nimeiry for his high-profile militant activity and severely tortured.
After graduation Tayeb 'Sikha' rose up through the political establishment, while Bolad did not. The racial discrimination of the national political elite kept him from progressing, a charge he would make openly against the Muslim Brotherhood
Muslim Brotherhood
The Society of the Muslim Brothers is the world's oldest and one of the largest Islamist parties, and is the largest political opposition organization in many Arab states. It was founded in 1928 in Egypt by the Islamic scholar and schoolteacher Hassan al-Banna and by the late 1940s had an...
. Bolad would later write, "even when I go to the mosque
Mosque
A mosque is a place of worship for followers of Islam. The word is likely to have entered the English language through French , from Portuguese , from Spanish , and from Berber , ultimately originating in — . The Arabic word masjid literally means a place of prostration...
to pray, even there, in the presence of God
God
God is the English name given to a singular being in theistic and deistic religions who is either the sole deity in monotheism, or a single deity in polytheism....
, for them I am still a slave [abd] and they will assign me a place related to my race." Bolad returned to Darfur and became a small businessman. He had further second thoughts about the Islamist movement in 1988 after al Turabi silenced all criticism of the Libya
Libya
Libya is an African country in the Maghreb region of North Africa bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to the east, Sudan to the southeast, Chad and Niger to the south, and Algeria and Tunisia to the west....
n-backed violence in Darfur. (See History of Darfur
History of Darfur
The recorded history of Darfur begins with the reign of the Keira dynasty in the seventeenth century. In 1875, the Anglo-Egyptian Co-dominion in Khartoum ended the dynasty. The British allowed Darfur a measure of autonomy until formal annexation in 1916. However, the region remained...
.) He was briefly associated with the Sudan Socialist Union, the party of Nimeiry, and continued to drift to the political left. He was described as "obsessive and driven, meticulously and energetically building up his political network"
Frustrated and disillusioned, Bolad went to Chad
Chad
Chad , officially known as the Republic of Chad, is a landlocked country in Central Africa. It is bordered by Libya to the north, Sudan to the east, the Central African Republic to the south, Cameroon and Nigeria to the southwest, and Niger to the west...
in 1989 seeking the support of President Hissène Habré
Hissène Habré
Hissène Habré , also spelled Hissen Habré, was the leader of Chad from 1982 until he was deposed in 1990.-Early life:...
in starting a rebel movement in Darfur, but was rejected. He then went to Ethiopia
Ethiopia
Ethiopia , officially known as the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a country located in the Horn of Africa. It is the second-most populous nation in Africa, with over 82 million inhabitants, and the tenth-largest by area, occupying 1,100,000 km2...
to meet John Garang
John Garang
John Garang de Mabior was a Sudanese politician and rebel leader. From 1983 to 2005, he led the Sudan People's Liberation Army during the Second Sudanese Civil War, and following a peace agreement he briefly served as First Vice President of Sudan from January 2005 until he died in a July 2005...
, leader of the Sudan People's Liberation Army
Sudan People's Liberation Army
The Sudan People's Liberation Movement is a political party in South Sudan. It was initially founded as a rebel political movement with a military wing known as the Sudan People's Liberation Army estimated at 180,000 soldiers. The SPLM fought in the Second Sudanese Civil War against the Sudanese...
(SPLA), which had been prosecuting the Second Sudanese Civil War
Second Sudanese Civil War
The Second Sudanese Civil War started in 1983, although it was largely a continuation of the First Sudanese Civil War of 1955 to 1972. Although it originated in southern Sudan, the civil war spread to the Nuba mountains and Blue Nile by the end of the 1980s....
in the south since 1983. Other prominent leftist Darfuri politicians, such as Ahmad Diraige, felt that the SPLA would use Darfur for its own purposes and refused to involve themselves. Bolad joined the SPLA in 1990 and received military training in South Kurdufan
South Kurdufan
Southern Kordofan is one of the 15 wilayat or provinces of Sudan. It has an area of 158,355 km² and an estimated population of approximately 1,100,000 people . Kaduqli is the capital of the state...
. He was made the political commissar of a SPLA military expedition into Darfur that began in November 1991 and proved disastrous.
SPLA military expedition
The given reason for the expedition was to spark a Darfuri guerilla movement and spread the civil war to the west, as had been done in the Nuba MountainsNuba Mountains
Nuba Mountains is an area located in South Kordofan, Sudan. The area is home to a group of indigenous ethnic groups known collectively as the Nuba peoples. In the 18th century, Nuba Mountains became home to the kingdom of Taqali that controlled the hills of the mountains until their defeat by...
and Blue Nile
Blue Nile (state)
Blue Nile called Central from 1991 until 1994, is one of the 15 states of Sudan. It was established by Presidential Decree Nº3 in 1992 and is named after the Blue Nile River. It has an area of 45,844 km² and an estimated population of 1,193,293 . The Central Bureau of Statistics quoted the...
. SPLA chronicler Douglas Johnson suggests that the expedition may have been seen by the SPLA leadership as a diversionary tactic to create a rift in the north, like that created in the south by the splitting of the SPLA-Nasir
SPLA-Nasir
The SPLA-Nasir was a splinter faction of the Sudan People's Liberation Army , a rebel group that fought in the Second Sudanese Civil War. Originally created as an attempt by Nuer Tribe to replace SPLA leader John Garang in August 1991, it gradually became coopted by the government...
faction under Riek Machar
Riek Machar
Riek Machar Teny Dhurgon , is the first vice-president of the independent Republic of South Sudan.Riek Machar obtained a PhD in mechanical engineering in 1984 and then joined the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army during the Second Sudanese Civil War...
and Lam Akol
Lam Akol
Dr. Lam Akol Ajawin is a South Sudanese politician of Kenyan descent. He is the current leader of SPLM for Democratic Change , which he founded 6 June 2009...
. Ethiopian President Mengistu Haile Mariam
Mengistu Haile Mariam
Mengistu Haile Mariam is a politician who was formerly the most prominent officer of the Derg, the Communist military junta that governed Ethiopia from 1974 to 1987, and the President of the People's Democratic Republic of Ethiopia from 1987 to 1991...
, one of the major supporters of the SPLA, had recently been overthrown by the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front
Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front
The Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front is the ruling political coalition in Ethiopia. It is an alliance of four other groups: the Oromo Peoples' Democratic Organization , the Amhara National Democratic Movement , the South Ethiopian Peoples' Democratic Front The Ethiopian People's...
. SPLA-Torit (the faction led by Garang) was thus fully engaged in fighting SPLA-Nasir in the south and could not send help to Bolad's force once it ran into difficulty.
There had been little advance preparation done in Darfur and Abd-el-Aziz al-Hilew, who had been named military commander of the expedition, did not receive enough equipment. The force was composed of Dinka
Dinka
The Dinka is an ethnic group inhabiting the Bahr el Ghazal region of the Nile basin, Jonglei and parts of southern Kordufan and Upper Nile regions. They are mainly agro-pastoral people, relying on cattle herding at riverside camps in the dry season and growing millet and other varieties of grains ...
fighters, who were perceived as foreigners in Darfur and the Mahdist networks, who were the only organized opposition to the government in Darfur, resented the insertion of a political competitor. The force intended to reach sanctuary in the Marrah Mountains
Marrah Mountains
The Marrah Mountains or Marra Mountains is a range of volcanic peaks created by a massif that rises up to 3,000 m. It is located in the center of the Darfur region of Sudan, specifically within Dar Zagahawa and neighboring areas. The highest point is Deriba Caldera...
but had to cross an arid expanse controlled by Baggara
Baggara
The Baggāra Arabs are a set of communities inhabiting the portion of Africa's Sahel between Lake Chad and southern Kordofan, numbering over one million. They have a common language which is one of the regional colloquial Arabic languages...
Arab
Arab
Arab people, also known as Arabs , are a panethnicity primarily living in the Arab world, which is located in Western Asia and North Africa. They are identified as such on one or more of genealogical, linguistic, or cultural grounds, with tribal affiliations, and intra-tribal relationships playing...
s in the dry season, in which the only sources of water were the village boreholes that were both few and well-known. Bolad's presence was soon reported by the police, with at least one source indicating that he was reported by the Mahdists. A force composed of regular army and a horse-mounted militia composed of Beni Halba
Beni Halba
The Beni Halba is an Arab group located in the western Sudanese region of Darfur. The Beni Halba is one of the major Darfuri Baggara groups, along with the Habbaniya, Rizeigat and Ta’isha, and was granted a large hakura in southern Darfur by the sultans of independent Dar Fur...
Arabs quickly tracked and overwhelmed Bolad's force. The military governor of Darfur who directed the force was Tayeb Ibrahim 'Sikha', Bolad's old bodyguard and now both a physician and army colonel. There is no record of their meeting. The Beni Halba district town of Idd al Ghanam ("Well of Goats") was renamed Idd al Fursan ("Well of Horsemen") in celebration of the victory and dozens of Fur villages who had not taken part in defeating Bolad were burned in reprisal.
Bolad was captured alive and taken to Khartoum, where he was tortured to death in January 1992. Even worse, he was captured with his diary in which he had recorded every member of the underground resistance cells he had set up in Darfur. Many of these plotters disappeared into jails or disappeared entirely. Others were released after renouncing rebellion, though in the knowledge that they would continue to be watched by security forces. One history sums up the result, "The Darfurian resistance was set back by ten years." Darfurian dissidents drew a harsh lesson from this, becoming even more distrustful of the SPLA.
With the failure of Bolad's insurrection and the coming to power of Idriss Déby
Idriss Déby
General Idriss Déby Itno is the President of Chad and the head of the Patriotic Salvation Movement. Déby is of the Bidyat clan of the Zaghawa ethnic group. He added "Itno" to his surname in January 2006.-Rise to power:...
in Chad, and resulting lowering of Libyan involvement in the region, much of Darfur subsided into a state of generalized insecurity that never reached the status of actual peace. The Black Book
The Black Book: Imbalance of Power and Wealth in the Sudan
The Black Book: Imbalance of Power and Wealth in the Sudan, known commonly as the Black Book , is a manuscript purporting to detail a pattern of disproportionate political control by the people of northern Sudan and marginalization of the rest of the country...
, a 2000 publication by Darfuri dissidents, lists Bolad as a "martyr
Martyr
A martyr is somebody who suffers persecution and death for refusing to renounce, or accept, a belief or cause, usually religious.-Meaning:...
".