Director's Ink Winter 2005

The Call for Leadership
We commemorate this month the 20th anniversary of the execution of Mahmoud Mohammed Taha.Taha was
a religious leader and thinker in Sudan who organized people on a grassroots level to take the reform of
Islam into their own hands, their own prayers, so to speak. His organization, the Republican Brotherhood, 
became well known in Sudan for its non violent approach to communicating the need for Muslims to live up to
the standards set by the Prophet Mohammed for all men and women for all time. His followers implemented a
social development plan that raised the status of women in their community, improved understanding of the
need for better education and health, and sought ways around inter and intra-religious conflict.

Taha was executed on January 18, 1985 for the ancient Islamic crime of apostasy, actually a political move
on the part of then president Gafaar Numeiry and Islamist forces gaining strength in Sudan and whispering in
his ear.

As Taha represented a small movement, his execution would serve to silence other groups gearing up to
protest Numeiry’s imposition of Islamic law in Sudan. The peace agreement signed in Nairobi on January 9 was
the biggest step since Mahmoud Mohammed Taha’s execution in reconciling the conflicting parties in enormous
Sudan. The tragedy of Darfur continues to be pushed to the back pages by the Indian Ocean tsunami disaster.
And we learned this week of Namibia’s Sam Nujoma pushing through parliament legislation which would give
Namibia’s former presidents of which he is to become the first- $1 million per year for life.

When we find African leaders who exemplify leadership of, for, by the people of Africa we must remember them,
point them out to our children, and do what we can to work with them.

Steve Howard.