Resistance is life: how Sudan’s resistance committees perform democratic power

ABSTRACT

While they were critical to the 2019 protests that brought down former president Omar el-Bashir, Sudan’s young people were not fully present in the negotiations for the transitional constitutional document that formed the post-Bashir civilian government. After the coup of late 2021, however, they stepped forward again to organize continual non-violent protests that maintained pressure on military leaders and kept Sudan in the news. This article will use interviews with Sudanese activists and resistance committee members, as well as contemporary reports, to explore how Sudan’s youth arranged themselves into self-governing community organizations – Resistance Committees – that have become centers of power for resisting the authority of the military junta. I explore the notion that these hyperlocal groups are already implementing a series of democratic practices and ask whether they can contest the force-based sovereignty of the authoritarian regime to provide a sustainable, and recognizable, form of democratic governance for Sudan.

KEYWORDS:

• Sudan
• transition
• military coup
• resistance committees
• democracy
• non-violence

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 The personal accounts conveyed here were researched through personal interviews with current Sudanese activists. Due to ongoing security concerns, many of these activists requested to remain anonymous and are identified only by their initials and the date of the interview.