Sudan after Revolt Reimagining Society, Surviving Vengeance

Abstract

After more than four months of constant demonstrations, the Sudanese popular uprising, begun on December 19, 2018, and led by the Sudanese Professionals Association (SPA), forced the high-ranking generals of the Sudanese Armed Forces to side with the protestors in removing the dictatorial regime of Omar al-Bashir on April 11, 2019. The SPA developed new tactics for organizing and mobilizing the masses in the face of crippling public fear to put an end to thirty years of al-Bashir’s dictatorship. However, the peaceful revolution has yet to declare its final victory and finds itself facing a major enemy, the Transitional Military Council (TMC), which intends to maintain the status quo ante. This essay asks: can Sudanese civil society challenge the TMC and lead the country out of autocracy, achieving genuine democratization, or will the TMC cut short such transformation?