Abdel Halim Mohamed

In the past, when investigative techniques were crude, Abdel Halim was described as "a superb medical diagnostician and an inspiring instructor. His medical ward rounds provided a platform for rigorous medical instruction, poetry, high-flying prose, Sudanese proverbs, and Qur'anic verses, in flawless classical Arabic and perfect English; everything was communicated with style and humour."[3][6] Abdel Halim is remembered as the ‘Father of medicine in Sudan’.[1][3][7][5]

With his cousin, Muhammad Ahmad Mahgoub, Abdel Halim founded the ‘Hashmab society’, which advocated for education and enlightenment in Sudan. At the end of the 1920s, the society evolved to become ‘Al Fajr’ (the Dawn, Arabic: الفجر ) society which established its magazine in 1934 that was committed to Sudanese folklore, culture and nationalist movements. Abdel Halim regularly contributed to Al Fajr magazine under a pen name.[3][8][2] A book written by Muhammad Ahmad Mahgoub and Abdel Halim, titled "Death of a world" (Arabic: موت دنيا ), advocated personal sacrifice for the national cause.[9][1][7][10] They wrote in its introduction:

تجمّع رأينا على إصدار مجلة نصف شهرية تخدم الآداب والفنون، واخترنا لها اسم 'الفجر'، ذلك لأننا مؤمنون بأنه فجر صادق سرعان ما يتلوه الصبح... ومضينا لا يفلّ النقد عزمنا ولا يغرينا الثناء.
وأخذت كبريات الصحف المصرية تنقل عن مجلّتنا المقالات الأدبية والقصص... لقد كانت حرباً عاتية بين الرجعية الفكرية والفكر الحر... وما صدر عدد من أعداد 'الفجر' إلّا وأعقبته ضجّة في دُور الحكومة وفي المجتمع، فالحكومة غير راضية عن اتّجاهاتنا، ضائقة ذرعاً بما نوجّهه من نقد سياساتها، والمجتمع شاك في أمرنا لأنه لم يتعوّد مثل تلك الصراحة في النقد ومجابهة الحاكمين

Our opinion gathered on issuing a fortnightly magazine that serves literature and the arts, and we chose for it the name 'Al-Fajr' because we believe that it is an honest dawn that will soon be followed by the morning...and we keep walking, neither criticism faltered our resolve, nor tempted us with praise.

Major Egyptian newspapers began to quote literary articles and stories from our magazine... It was a fierce war between intellectual reaction and free thought... and when an issue of 'Dawn' was published, it was followed by an uproar in the government and society. The government is not satisfied with our directions, fed up with our criticism of its policies, and society is suspicious of us because it is not accustomed to such frankness in criticism and confrontation with the rulers

— Muhammad Ahmad Mahgoub and Abdel Halim, Death of a world (Arabic: موت دنيا)

Abdel Halim was among the founders of the Graduates' General Congress in 1938 that later drafted the first memorandum in 1942, demanding independence from the Anglo-Egyptian occupation.[10][7] Abdel Halim was the political adviser and confidant to Abd al-Rahman al-Mahdi, one of the leading religious and political figures during the colonial era in Anglo-Egyptian Sudan.[3][1][2]

The second Sudanese Sovereignty Council (3 December 1964–10 June 1965). From left to right: Tigani El Mahi, Mubarak Shadad, Ibrahim Yusuf Sulayman, Luigi Adwok Bong Gicomeho and Abdel Halim Mohamed.

In 1956 and after Sudan's independence, Abdel Halim became the Khartoum District Council's president and mayor of Khartoum until 1960.[1][11] After the overthrow of General Ibrahim Abboud's in 1964, Abdel Halim served as a member of the second and third Sudanese Sovereignty Council, from 3 December 1964 to 8 July 1965, which presided over the interim coalition Government that paved the way for general elections.[3][9] He was the head of state from 1 April 1965 to 30 April 1965.[12]

Fadwa Abdel Rahman Ali Taha, the Sudanese historian and scholar, emphasised that, after Sudan's independence, Abdel Halim felt that much could have been achieved if the Graduates' General Congress movement had stayed on course and not been overwhelmed by the intense division between political parties.[1] The Sudanese historian and scholar Mansour Khalid nicknamed Abdel Halim the 'wise Sheikh'.[1][3] Abdel Halim received the Order of the Righteous Son of Sudan.[13]

Abdel Halim speaking during the CAF meeting in 1959 held in the United Arab Republic (Egypt) before the 1959 African Cup of Nations

Abdel Halim was behind the idea of forming an African football association.[16][17][18] He was one of the founders of the Confederation of African Football (CAF), which was established on 8 February 1957 at the Grand Hotel[19] in Khartoum, Sudan by the national football associations of Egypt, Ethiopia, South Africa and Sudan.[20] This meeting followed the formal discussions between the aforementioned associations at the FIFA Congress, held on 7 June 1956 at Avenida Hotel in Lisbon, Portugal.[21]

Abdel Halim served as the third president of the CAF from 1968 to 1972.[22] Upon Yidnekatchew Tessema's sudden illness and death on 19 August 1987, Abdel Halim served as the (fifth) president of the CAF until 10 March 1988, when the general assembly was held in Casablanca, and Issa Hayatou was elected president of CAF.[7][23]

Abdel Halim was the first African to be elected as a member of the executive council of the International Association of Football Federation (FIFA) (1958–1962). He later became the head of the medical department of FIFA in 1966.[7][24][4]

In 1970, during Abdel Halim tenure as CAF president, CAF voted to suspend Rhodesia's (modern-day Zimbabwe) FIFA membership due to their sports segregation policies.[25][26] This came years after the CAF expelled the Rhodesia Football Association, only four days after the country's unilateral declaration of independence on 11 November 1965. The CAF was again the first International sports institution to expel Apartheid South Africa in 1957, before the first African Cup of Nations, in Sudan, promoting further tension with FIFA, which accused the CAF of "mixing sport with politics."[26] Also during his tenure, African nations were included in the 1970 FIFA World Cup, after 36 years of absence since Egypt's participation in the 1934 FIFA World Cup.[25]

Abdel Halim was part of African boycott of the 1976 Summer Olympics, which was in Montreal because the International Olympic Committee (IOC) refused to ban New Zealand after the New Zealand national rugby union team had toured apartheid South Africa earlier in 1976 in defiance of the United Nations' calls for a sporting embargo.[27][28] He also supported the boycott of the 1980 Summer Olympics, in Moscow, as a protest against the Soviet Union's invasion of Afghanistan.[28][29]

Abdel Halim objected to South African and Rhodesian sports segregation policies and refused to allow their teams to play unless it was mixed. According to Sudanese sports historian El-Keer el-Moutasim, Abdel Halim took out a loan on his own house to fund the 1970 African Cup of Nations in Sudan when official funding was delayed.[30][31]

Abdel Halim received the Olympic Order (Silver) in 1983,[11] and was made an honorary life member of the International Olympic Committee in 1989,[11] and honorary life president of CAF. In 1994, he received the FIFA Order of Merit.[4][24][15] However, according to the Sudanese football journalist Muzammil Abu Al-Qasim, due to personal disputes with Kamal Shaddad, President of the Sudan Football Association (SFA) (1988-2010, 2017-2021), Abdel Halim was not honoured during his life or posthumously by SFA.[31]

However, upon his death on 16 April 2009, the SFA lowered its flag for three days to symbolise mourning and a minute of silence was observed before football matches during these three days.[15] Sepp Blatter, president of FIFA, paid tribute to Abdel Halim, stating that:

In the name of the international football community, we would like to pass on our sincerest condolences to the people of Africa, particularly the family and close friends of Dr Abdel Halim Mohamed. He will be sorely missed for his great intellect, determination and dedication by those whose lives he touched, whether on a personal level or as a result of the prodigious contribution he made within CAF during its emergence after 1956.[32]