While the civil war in Sudan remains neglected in headlines, DePaul’s international studies department hosted an event to inform students about Sudan’s successful revolution in 2018-2019, as well as the war going on today and its growing death toll.
About 40 people gathered in person and online for the two-hour event in DePaul’s Levan Center on Feb. 17.
Guest speaker Mahder Habtemariam Serekberhan, a Ph.D. student at Syracuse University, discussed what DePaul students and young people can learn from the revolution. During the event, Serekberhan provided a timeline of Sudanese history and answered questions for more than an hour.
Raised in Ethiopia, Serekberhan started following the Sudanese revolution in 2018 while pursuing higher education in America.
“It looked like something young people were doing to change their conditions, and it seemed successful,” she said.
Serekberhan explained that protests began in December 2018, when students questioned the government’s policies over the rising price of bread. Credited with being the backbone of the revolution, these students frequently held marches and sit-ins.
The revolution’s goals included free and improved health care, the protection of livestock producers and government representation for people of all religions.
In April 2019, during a sit-in involving thousands of protestors, the military removed President Omar al-Bashir from power after 30 years and numerous human rights violations.
The military promised to work with civilians to create a transitional government, with the end goal of democracy. However, in 2021, the military took full control of the government in a coup, removing civilian representation, according to Serekberhan.
Since 2023, a counterrevolution against the military regime has been ongoing in Sudan. A study by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine’s Sudan Research Group claimed that over 60,000 people had been killed as of Nov. 18, 2024.
Serekberhan now says 90,000 people have been killed with millions displaced. Children are unable to gain an education. Many of the deaths are from famine as most health facilities no longer function.
Shiera Malik, a DePaul international studies professor, helped organize and lead the event. She said revolution in Africa isn’t new, but that its lessons are “landing in a new space.”
“(Serekberhan’s) is not the first young African generation that’s asking, ‘How can we make our lives better?’” Malik said. “But now she’s asking this question in a moment when even people (in the U.S.) are asking similar questions.”
According to Malik, the Sudanese revolution is an undercovered topic at DePaul.
“We have nothing on Sudan here,” she said. “We haven’t heard anything on campus.”
After describing the history of the Sudanese revolution, Serekberhan took questions from in-person and online attendees.
Isabella Ali, DePaul Student Government Association’s student body president, attended the event.
“The Sudanese revolutionary process is an important event in global history that connects to so many struggles around the world, and it has so many experiences to offer,” Ali said.
Many questions involved parallels to the Middle East, including current events in Gaza.
“It’s important to hear about the experiences of people around the world and from different experts because that will fundamentally change our actions and responses to global issues,” Ali said.
Serekberhan said students working for change in the U.S. should be encouraged by the Sudanese revolution and do more research.
“Other young people in the world and in the global south feeling defeated need to read about this,” Serekberhan said. “We saw a bottom-up political process that was able to challenge and even, to some extent, transform parts of society.”
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