Mansour Khalid

Mansour Khalid (منصور خالد) the former Minister of Foreign Affairs of Sudan was first vice chairman of Brundtland Commission which is formally known as the World Commission on Environment and Development. The Chairman of the Commission was Gro Harlem Brundtland, (former Prime Minister of Norway).

War and Prospects of Peace in Sudan, is certainly not about how to steer a course between secularism and religious fundamentalism. For its author, former Sudanese Foreign Minister Mansour Khalid, it’s more a question of to be or not to be. This work, which I first read in manuscript, makes good opening gambits for Sudanese academic gatherings overseas. Like many of his previous publications, it focusses on Sudan, its people and politics.

Olympian and unpretentiously sagacious, the work is typical of Khalid and stands testament to his meticulous background research. In its pages, he spans not just the entire modern history of Sudan, from the eruption of the Mahdist Revolution in 1881 to the usurpation of power of the National Islamic Front (NIF) in 1989, but also proposes a brighter future.

As I leaf through the pages of his works piled up high on his cluttered desk in his study in Heliopolis, it becomes abundantly clear that he is deeply concerned about his country’s predicament. "The Sudanese have more to grieve than to sing paeans for," states Khalid quite categorically.

So how did a distinguished academic and former northern and Muslim Sudanese political establishment man end up being chief political adviser to John Garang, the leader of the southern-based opposition Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA)? Khalid’s career draws us into a story even more intriguing than this personal puzzle.

Khalid’s very first encounter with Garang was in April 1986 at Koka Dam. "I asked him point blank how he felt about Sudanese national unity. He replied that he was all for unity. Then I asked if he was opposed to Islam and Arabism, and his answer was no, provided they are elements of unification and not instruments of division," Khalid recalled. "He said we need to go back to the drawing board."

It is the deeply disturbing presence of war that has bedeviled Africa’s largest country since independence from Britain in 1956. "Sudan’s war is no different from wars elsewhere. It is an entangled political, cultural and social weave with equally intricate international ramifications," Khalid says.

Khalid is an invaluable adjutant who balks at the idea of leading the parade. But if Khalid’s political ambition has dried up, his thirst for political debate animates many a discussion. He is prodigiously clever and learned, and makes an excellent conversationalist. Khalid’s quick intellect and verbal agility are given free rein in the international political circles he frequents.

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