Renaissance Begins with Culture and Work… Sudan Needs Not Just Reconstruction… But a Rebuilding the National Mindset

Dr. Huwaida Shabo

In the midst of a war that has ravaged the land and humiliated its people, and after years of division and severe economic collapse, talk of a “Sudanese renaissance” has become prevalent in gatherings and forums, filling pages and screens, especially now that the first signs of peace have appeared and the war is nearing its end.
People speak of rebuilding destroyed cities, repairing collapsed bridges, restarting idle factories, restoring disrupted services, and reviving the national economy from its ashes. All of these are legitimate and necessary issues, on which no reasonable person would disagree. However, anyone who reflects on the experiences of nations that have faced disasters and then risen from them will realize with certainty that true renaissance has never stemmed from cement and iron alone, nor has it been born from infrastructure projects, however necessary they may be; rather, it has sprung first and foremost from the people themselves, from their minds and ways of thinking, from their culture and value system, and from their perspective on work, responsibility, and time.
There can be no renaissance without a revitalized individual, no construction without a living consciousness that inhabits bodies before it inhabits buildings.
The countries that experienced the most severe devastation, from Germany, ravaged by World War II, to South Korea, which emerged from the ashes of the Korean War almost devastated, did not rise solely through foreign money, loans, or aid. Rather, they rose because at the heart of each of these societies lay a deeply rooted culture that believed work to be a supreme value, discipline a duty, not a choice, and production an honor, not a burden. Therefore, it can be said with full confidence that Sudan today needs not only to rebuild what the war destroyed, but, and this is the deeper and more difficult task, to rebuild the national spirit from its very roots and revive the values of work, diligence, and a sense of collective responsibility in the conscience of every citizen.
The Algerian thinker Malek Bennabi pointed out decades ago that the crisis of underdeveloped societies is not always due to a scarcity of resources or a lack of wealth, but rather to a mindset that renders society incapable of transforming its energies and potential into a comprehensive civilizational project. This idea seems to have been written specifically for Sudan. This country possesses the resources that theoretically qualify it as a regional economic powerhouse. It boasts vast agricultural lands, considered by global food security experts to be among the most valuable on Earth, immense livestock wealth, vast mineral and water resources, and an invaluable strategic geographic location. Yet, for decades, it has remained incapable of transforming this latent treasure into stable development or a sustainable renaissance that its citizens experience in their daily lives.

Renaissance is not solely the government’s responsibility:
One of the most dangerous misconceptions ingrained in the minds of many developing societies is that the government is solely responsible for everything—for providing jobs, fostering development, delivering services, and even, in many cases, for individual success. As this view has persisted and become entrenched across generations, it has transformed into a culture of chronic dependency and perpetual waiting, where the spirit of individual initiative gradually diminishes and dwindles. Meanwhile, society continues to view the state as a child views its guardian, no matter how burdened the state itself may be.
However, the truth proven by human experience everywhere is that governments alone cannot build nations. A state can enact laws, formulate policies, provide security, build roads, and construct hospitals, but it lacks the power, no matter how strong or efficient, to create a productive, disciplined, and responsible citizenry. This crucial task doesn’t begin in presidential palaces or parliamentary halls, but rather in the home of a small family that teaches its child to respect time, in a classroom that cultivates discipline and excellence in students, and in a mosque and church that instill the value of good deeds.
True progress isn’t achieved by politicians alone, but by the teacher who enters their classroom with a vigilant conscience and a living message, the farmer who knows their land and treats it with respect and love, the worker who sees their profession as an identity, not a burden, the doctor who examines their patient as if they were their own brother, and the young person who dares to start a modest project instead of spending years waiting for a government appointment that will never come.
In many countries that have successfully overcome poverty and war, civil society and individuals have been genuine partners in the nation-building process, viewing their country’s future as their personal responsibility, not merely a file managed by state institutions.

The Sudanese Crisis… A Crisis of Production Culture at its Core:
When one looks at the Sudanese scene objectively, setting aside emotional rhetoric, one sees that the fundamental problem has never been a lack of capabilities or scarce resources. Sudan possesses enough fertile agricultural land to feed vast swathes of the African continent. Yet, it imports its food, and its people suffer from recurring waves of hunger and food insecurity. It possesses immense water resources, with tributaries of some of the world’s greatest rivers flowing through it, yet it declares its inability to irrigate its lands. It has gold and precious mineral deposits beneath its soil, yet the poverty of its citizens escalates.
This stark contradiction between potential and reality cannot be explained by political circumstances alone, nor can wars and international sanctions fully account for it. There is a deeper factor related to the culture of work, management, and production itself; to the value system that governs the Sudanese people’s relationship with the land, time, and responsibility. Development is not about launch ceremonies held at conferences and broadcast on screens; rather, it is a deeply ingrained daily practice manifested in respecting time, honoring contracts, committing to quality, and a profound sense that what you produce reflects your identity and value.
In recent decades, the value of crafts, agricultural production, and industrial work has declined in the public perception, while a consumer culture seeking quick profits and comfortable jobs without genuine production has risen. This dangerous cultural shift has harmed the spirit of initiative and creativity, and generations are waiting for what no one can give without expended effort and sweat.
Sudan desperately needs to restore the concept of work as a noble national and ethical value, not merely a means of earning a living. A nation is not built on slogans, but on long hours of sincere effort and continuous work.

Respect for Time… The Silent Battle We Lose Every Day:
Talking about “time” might seem like an intellectual luxury in a country suffering from war, hunger, and displacement. But anyone who reflects on the causes of underdevelopment realizes that wasting time is not just an annoying social habit; it is a silent economic catastrophe whose losses accumulate day after day without anyone noticing them in the GDP calculations.
One of the clearest differences between developed and underdeveloped societies is that the former view time as a non-renewable national resource, while the latter have a culture of tolerance for wasting time, almost an accepted fate. In Sudan, lateness, disregard for deadlines, and declining productivity have become widespread phenomena in state institutions, much of the private sector, and daily life. Although these behaviors may seem minor when viewed individually, their cumulative impact on the national economy is enormous and multifaceted.
A project delayed by five years instead of three due to bureaucracy and administrative inefficiencies loses some of its economic value. A meeting that lasts three hours without an actionable decision wastes human energy and valuable opportunities. A citizen who spends their day waiting in bureaucratic offices performs incomplete work and produces less than their potential. Progress begins when every individual realizes that respecting time is not merely a personal matter, but a national and moral duty towards society as a whole, because lost time cannot be compensated by money or projects.

The Culture of Dependence… The Hidden Enemy Eating Away at the Fabric of Society:
The culture of dependency is no less dangerous to our societies than economic corruption and armed conflict; in fact, it may be even more dangerous, because it operates in secret and quietly erodes the collective will. Waiting for solutions from the government, international organizations, foreign investors, or foreign aid has become an entrenched pattern in some sectors of our society. This stifles initiative, kills creativity, and turns citizens into passive consumers rather than productive participants.
True development never sprouts from a soil of dependency. It blossoms when citizens feel, deep down, that they have a direct and indispensable role in building their nation, however modest that role may seem. A young man starts a small project in his neighborhood, a woman runs a home-based school in her village, and young people organize an initiative to clean their neighborhood streets. These small seeds are what create a great renaissance when they find the right environment to grow. Many successful economic experiences began with tentative individual initiatives that, over time, transformed into major institutions that made a real difference in people’s lives and the course of the economy.
Sudan possesses thousands of talented young people capable of creativity, innovation, and hard work, but their potential remains untapped or driven to emigrate due to the absence of an environment that fosters initiative and rewards genuine effort. The country urgently needs to cultivate a culture of entrepreneurship and skilled trades, because strong economies are not built on hundreds of thousands of government employees, but rather on millions of independent producers and owners of small and medium-sized enterprises who drive the real economy.

Division and Conflict… a Chronic Drain on the Nation’s Life and Energy:
No nation in history has ever been able to build a true renaissance while exhausted by internal conflicts and preoccupied with internal wars. Wars do not only destroy buildings, but something far more precious: trust among people. When trust is broken among the citizens of a single nation, development becomes an impossible project, no matter how much money, resources, and expertise are available.
Over the past decades, Sudan has paid a heavy human, economic, and psychological price due to political, tribal, and regional conflicts, to the point that enormous energies of society are being drained by inherited rivalries, disputes, and grudges, instead of being channeled towards building the future. Every minute spent in internal conflict is a minute stolen from development and nation-building.
Therefore, any serious project for national revival must be based on shared citizenship that transcends sectarianism and rises above narrow affiliations, and on building a new national culture that believes diversity is not a threat but an asset, that coexistence is not a concession but a strength, and that collective action is not a luxury but an existential necessity.
Divided societies gradually erode and lose, day by day, their ability to envision and build a shared future, no matter how fertile the ground beneath them or how generous the sky above.

Education and media… the battle of minds that precedes all other battles:
If revival begins with the individual, then the making of this individual begins with education and media. These are the two great factories in which societal values are formed, its collective imagination is shaped, and its major directions are determined.
Education in Sudan is in dire need of a genuine revolution in its philosophy before its curricula. Schools should not remain merely institutions for imparting, memorizing, and reproducing information on exam papers. Rather, they should be institutions for cultivating generations that respect and innovate in work, understand their responsibility towards their society, and connect knowledge to life, production, and technology, not just to theoretical memorization divorced from reality. An education system that produces only degree holders seeking employment will not bring about a nation’s renaissance.
The media, in an era where its influence has grown to unprecedented levels, is called upon to fundamentally re-evaluate its role and mission. Media that celebrates the hardworking farmer on his land as much as it celebrates the politician, the young engineer who developed a tool that reshapes how people work, and the dedicated teacher who, in his dilapidated classroom, nurtured generations that changed reality—this is the media that shapes collective values and redefines the image of success in the minds of new generations. As for media that squanders its energy in endless daily conflicts and prioritizes sensationalism over awareness, it is part of the problem, not a solution

Shortlink: https://sudanhorizon.com/?p=14020