*Originally published in 2016. Get E-International Relations delivered to your inbox, free of charge. As you sign up, consider becoming a paid subscriber, or make a donation, to support our work.

Prince El-Waleed M. Madibo is a Senior Analyst for the Ministry of Development in Doha, Qatar and belongs to the Sudanese nobility, as his father was Minister of Defense for Sudan. Prince Madibo has been involved in coexistence efforts in the Darfur area for many years. He established a coexistence organization in Sudan named Gouvernance Bureau, which organized multicultural festivals. Prince Madibo received a Bachelor’s in Civil Engineering from the University of Khartoum, and an MA in Structural Engineering from the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago. He holds a Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Florida, Gainesville.

Patricia Sohn was on his doctoral committee as Middle East expert, because of his work on Islam and institutional development in Sudan. Both communicate regularly. One conversation, reproduced below, revolved around Prince Madibo’s work and career trajectory in Sudan, and, now, Qatar.

Did you have knowledge or experience growing up that made you think about coexistence work as an area of need?

When I was three years old, my dad was Defense Minister to Sudan. Once the second democracy was toppled by a military dictatorship, my father’s involvement in politics took a different route. But, I never felt the pressure of politics, be it tribal or ideological politics. As I started growing up, the more I visited my relatives in Western Sudan, I started becoming more alert to the injustice that the periphery was facing. I mean, these are the most productive people in Sudan, and yet, whichever profit they make is reaped by the middle man. But it was just impressions. Those are some of the things that pushed me into studying development and comparative politics, so now I can intellectualize things. As a youngster, I could just see that these people were living, somehow, an impoverished life. But, for me, it was just material impoverishment. They were very rich, spiritually; they were very happy with the kind of life they were having. In a way, they were not deprived. Compared to today, the pre-capitalist elite back then in the 70s and 80s gave the poor just enough to survive. But now, the poor is being deprived completely of anything that could make them lead a dignified life.

Why did you choose to go to graduate school and study development, economic and institutional?

At one time, I visited Ad-Du’ayn, which is a city in East Darfur now. That’s where my family on my Dad’s side originated. I was passing from our family house to the souk [public market], and........

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