Thinking Aloud. Thinking Allowed.

Since April, 2019, after writing an op-ed for The Washington Post on my concerns about the aftermath of the Sudanese peoples’ persistent non-violent revolution, I had no plans of returning to journalism. And so, I withdrew away from public intellectual life as a badly burned out journalist and strategic open source intelligence analyst to focus instead on rebuilding myself as a born-again musical artist and entrepreneur.

Alas, life had different plans in store for me in Norway in June, 2023 in the prelude and aftermath of October 7th that forced me out of my solitude. Needless to say now, international affairs pulled me back into journalistic writing and increasingly, artistic writing and expression. I’ve been fortunate to have had my work positively featured and reviewed over the years in more than 13 languages over the years, including in Western media such as The Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic, The Economist, WNYC and CBC, among others, and praised by Marvel and Disney storytellers, telling stories about politics, faith and technology as a heterodox thinker and spiritual humanist.

While I will surely continue to consider publishing through prominent legacy journalism platforms, it is abundantly evident that on rare occasions some op-eds are on topics too sensitive and urgent for me not to publish them independently with precision and every word exactly as I intend to deliver. Hence, why after I tried Medium, I am now on Substack, today’s equivalent of Blogger and WordPress when I started as a citizen journalist in 2006 with the pseudonym Drima, the voice behind the 3-time Weblog Award nominated blog, The Sudanese Thinker. I’m told US President Obama used to read it back in the day, among other blogs, as a window into how youth globally were thinking. Grateful to be back to necessary independent writing and journalism as and when needed. Thanks for reading, subscribe for more and certainly feel free to connect with me on LinkedIn or X. Peace and blessings.