Abdel Halim Mohammed

Abdel Halim Mohamed Abdel Halim (; 10 April 1910 – 16 April 2009) was a Sudanese physician, writer, political activist, civil servant, and sports administrator who received national and international accolades for his work. He was born into a family of scholars, writers and politicians: his grandfather was a Mahdist prince and military leader. Abdel Halim became a doctor, graduating from Kitchener School of Medicine and training in Khartoum and London. Due to his contributions, he is remembered as the "Father of medicine in Sudan". He was among the first Sudanese to become a senior physician and a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians.

Abdel Halim was one of the founders of the Graduates' General Congress demanding independence from the Anglo-Egyptian occupation. After independence, he was the mayor of Khartoum until 1960 and later a member of the Sudanese Sovereignty Council (1964–1965). He was nicknamed the 'wise Sheikh' due to his political impartiality.

He was one of the founders of the Confederation of African Football and the president of the Sudan Football Association, Sudan Equestrian Association, Sudan Olympic Committee and Sudanese Basketball Association. He served as the third president of the Confederation of African Football from 1968 to 1972 and from 1987 to 1988. He objected to South Africa and Rhodesia sport-segregation policies and refused to allow their teams to play unless it was mixed.

Early life

Abdel Halim Mohamed Abdel Halim Musaad Hashim was born in Omdurman, Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, on 10 April 1910 into the ‘Hashmab’ family, a family of scholars, writers and politicians with a pedigree equal to many of the gentry. Abdel Halim was named after his grandfather, a Mahdist prince and military leader. His grandfather had played a decisive role in the defeat of an Egyptian army led by William Hicks at the battle of Shaykan in 1883 and the siege of Khartoum in 1885, before his death at the Battle of Toski on 3 August 1889.

Medical career

Abdel Halim became the first Sudanese director of Omdurman Teaching Hospital (1950) and Khartoum Teaching Hospital (1954–1964). After Sudan's independence, he also taught at the Kitchener School of Medicine and Faculty of Medicine, University of Khartoum. They wrote in its introduction:

Before and after Sudan's independence

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. 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.

Political legacy

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.

Sports administration

Abdel Halim was the president of the Sudan Football Association (1953), the Sudan Basketball Association (1960),

CAF and FIFA

Abdel Halim was behind the idea of forming an African football association. He was one of the founders of the Confederation of African Football (CAF), which was established on 8 February 1957 at the Grand Hotel in Khartoum, Sudan by the national football associations of Egypt, Ethiopia, South Africa and Sudan. 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.

Abdel Halim served as the third president of the CAF from 1968 to 1972. 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.

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. 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."

Sporting legacy

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.

Abdel Halim received the Olympic Order (Silver) in 1983,

Personal life and death

Abdel Halim married Khalda Ahmed Khalil in 1942, who died in 1987. They had two daughters and five sons. Abdel Halim died in Khartoum on 16 April 2009. Following the Death of Former Acting Prime Minister of Cambodia on 22 January 2009 until his own death he was the world's oldest living former State leaders, and Following the Death of Former President of Somalia Aden Adde until his own death he was Africa's oldest living former state leader.