The Arab Spring began in December 2010 when Tunisian street vendor Mohammed Bouazizi set himself on fire to protest the arbitrary seizing of his vegetable stand by police over failure to obtain a permit. From that day onward for the next few years we saw regime after regime falter and crumble only to recover after many concessions. Many of the youth in the Middle East, now 8 years older and wiser feel betrayed by the loss of the momentum that was achieved at the cost of many lives. The same frustration and confusion which existed in 2011 remains across the North Africa and Middle East land today. Unemployment, disenfranchisement from the governing authorities, lack of basic services and educational opportunities are causing many young people today to ask hard questions about the legitimacy of their leadership.
It is this same atmosphere in Sudan that caused thousands to rise up against the hard-line leader President Omar Hassan Ahmed al-Bashir, demanding his ouster. With the support of the military Bashir was deposed, being replaced by the Sudanese Defense Minister Awad Mohammad Ibn Auf. The question remains:will Auf only bring more of the same? Will the people see this institutional replacement as good enough? Or will the popular uprising continue until genuine change is brought about?
I am compelled to ask other questions as well. Why now? Who is at the center of gravity of these gargantuan political shifts in Sudan? What have been the contributing variables at play causing this coup? What impact will this have on the other nations in North Africa and he Middle East? What else can we expect and where? Why does this matter to us as Christians? I will be writing about these events with my analysis over the next week in More than Meets the Eye, with an eye to disclose that things which are not readily seen ad which are being written about.