How do we survive victory?

Reflections on a tough period

This is the last newsletter of 2023, dear readers. I will return to your inbox in the new year, inshallah. Thank you so much for all your support of my work, through this Substack and beyond.

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On the 19th of December, 2018, protests broke out in Atbara, a key town in central Sudan, and quickly swept across the country. Khartoum was the last to join, the denouement that heralded the beginning of the end, or so we hoped.

There had been attempts to topple the dictator, Omar El-Bashir, numerous times before, most notably in 2013. There was no way of knowing whether this attempt would be successful. As I wrote in the Independent that December:

Is it possible to topple Bashir? Possibly. Although the social infrastructure of previous successful popular uprisings, like the unions and professional classes, are no longer as active as in the 1980s, the grassroots movement is still powerful, especially when many feel like there is no where else to turn. Buoyed by the diaspora’s involvement and the freedom of communication through social media, Bashir’s resignation is a definite possibility.

The second and more pertinent question, however, is much more difficult to answer. How do the Sudanese people dismantle the current infrastructure of what is ostensibly a police state, and what will it take to rebuild the nation into one that can enable it to truly realise its potential?

What does it take to rebuild a nation? This is a question we continue to ask, as the war in Sudan deepens into its first year, five years after the uprising began, any hope of a short lived conflict long evaporating from the horizon. A vital initial step, I have come to believe, is learning to ‘survive victory’.

The idea of surviving victory was introduced to me by a fellow author and keynote speaker at a conference in a freezing cold Norwegian town in the late 2010s. The fast talking man from Philly was full of surprises: he’d lived in Kyiv for many years, worked in Ukrainian media during the Orange Revolution and written more than one book on some of my favourite topics: change, transformation, leadership. Greg was generous with his time and experience, and one of the ideas he introduced me to has stayed with me in the years since. It’s Not Enough To Drive Change, You Also Have To Survive Victory. ‘People think it gets easier after an initial success,’ he said to me, as I asked him for advice. ‘It never does. In fact, it usually gets harder.’ It’s a concept he writes about in his book, Cascades, and in a useful medium piece here.

Make no mistake. Opposition doesn’t erupt in spite of an early success, but because of it. A change initiative only becomes a threat to the status quo when it begins to gain traction. That’s when the knives come out and, much like my friend and I after the Orange Revolution, most people working to bring about change are oblivious to it. (Source)

There are many reasons why the Sudanese people are unable to survive victory in this current moment. One reason often missed in analysis is the reality that the horrific ethnic violence is ‘ultimately the outcome of Arab and Non-Arab communities being forced to compete over water, land and various other resources,’ as described by Mat Nashed in this fantastic interview. But the fight over resources in not a new one. Nashed continues:

What we are seeing now in West Darfur is the complete, unhinged, and exacerbated consequences of this predatory logic, which Sudanese elites inherited from Ottoman-Egyptian and British-Egyptian colonization.

Are we are still trying to survive the victory of independence? When will we be free from these curses of generation? Why does it sometimes feel like we still have Queen Victoria on our necks?

I am tired, my friends. I know so many of you are tired, too. And yes, we might not be in the middle of the conflict right now, either in Sudan, or in Gaza, or in any of the other lands that are the battlegrounds of power and resources, but we do not have to live in a war zone to justify our exhaustion.

I felt it this week, as I twisted my bedsheets once again in feverish agitation, this week being my fourth week of the year in bed, with a temperature, my body forcing itself to a halt. I felt it this week, as I was forced to once again, clear out my schedule and allow the miracle of my immune system boosted by loving care from friend and family to do its work. I felt it this week, as I deleted social media apps from my phone, feeling a sense of dread at every notification. This cannot go on, I thought. This is not even about surviving an imagined victory, it’s about simply surviving.

I arrive at the end of this year with far more uncertainty than I have carried in a long time. But I also arrive at the end of this year with more of a sense of acceptance than I imagined I would. An acceptance of my limits, an acceptance of my capacity, and an acceptance that maybe, I will never see the day that we survive victory.

But ah, at least we got to taste it.

How do you arrive at the end of 2023?

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Recommendations are for soft things that will bring your year to a close with warmth and joy, inshallah.

Doctor Who New Episodes!

Okay honestly, this is just what I need. My fav doctor, fav partner in crime… thank you, Russell T. Davis. Thank you.

They’re being released weekly (I feel like these drawn out rollouts will send me to an early grave) but there are at least a couple of eps out now to sink your teeth into.

Lupin Part 3!

So I had been nervous about the third season of this French Gentleman Thief with our favourite French leading brother, Omar Sy. The second season of the show was good, but paled in comparison to the first. Have no fear! If you have yet to catch up, this is your moment. All episodes are out, and it’s full of all the fun, low stakes hijinks you need.

Beedle the Bardcore

I don’t know why this is so great, but it is. Beedle the Bardcore does the hiphop and R&B classics, but medieval. Just, trust me.

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Thank you, as always for reading and supporting my work. Big shout out to all my paid subscribers - as always, I am eternally grateful. As a freelancer of almost a decade, income from this newsletter makes the world of difference, and every little bit counts.

If you feel like you have the capacity to support my work, do consider upgrading to a paid subscription. If you don’t have the capacity to pay but do enjoy my work, why not share the newsletter with a few friends and encourage them to subscribe?

Be kind to yourselves this month, and ease your way into 2024 with grace, if at all possible. That’s certainly what I’ll be aiming for.

Until next year inshallah,

Yassmin