The Umma Party and the Youth of the Ansar System The Founding of the Umma Party Living peoples do not import principles; rather, principles emerge from their circumstances, history, and civilization. I believe this is the sentiment that moved a group of patriots to establish the Umma Party, to facilitate the existence of an apparatus that would advance Sudanese nationalism. This apparatus would draw its life, struggle, and hope from the Sudanese people.

The Umma Party was established in 1945 without complex programs. Its slogan was "Sudan for the Sudanese." In reality, the slogan "Sudan for the Sudanese," adopted by the Umma Party, is an old slogan that I have believed in since the beginning of this century.

When the Umma Party was established in 1945, as I mentioned, Mr. Abdullah Khalil was elected Secretary-General in a meeting of the founding members of the party. In 1949, my son, Mr. Al-Siddiq, was chosen as the party's General President, and this selection was accepted with complete satisfaction by the party members.

In its early months, the Umma Party managed to register about half a million members. Based on my personal knowledge and reports received from Ansar across different parts of Sudan, I believed that 70% of the population of northern Sudan were affiliated with it. However, the elections for the first parliament yielded a different result. These elections indicated that the Umma Party had a majority exceeding the sum of all other parties, but it did not reach the 70% of the population of northern Sudan as we had believed. According to the configuration of the electoral constituencies, the Umma Party did not win more than twenty-one constituencies out of ninety-six.

The result was an unexpected shock, and we began to ponder its causes. I attribute the reason for that defeat solely to our lack of understanding of political maneuvering and operating in the shadows. We believe in what we say and see no reason to conceal what we express. I suspect that the more political work demands cunning and deception, the greater our failure in it will be.

We wanted the Umma Party to be a source of national revival and a comprehensive movement that would encompass all of Sudan.