Hamid was already an accomplished writer and activist when he started his PhD at the Global Development Institute at the University of Manchester, funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) of the UK. His PhD project centred on the role of pro-democracy grassroots movements in political transitions, and his case study were the resistance committees in Sudan. His decision to make something close to his own political activism - as a former member of his local resistance committee - the subject of theoretical inquiry was a challenge. He mastered this extremely well and with competence applied a critical analytical lens to the resistance committees, their emergence and formation; mobilisation practices; legitimacy; coalition building; transitions and internal and external challenges. He did so with clear linkages to the wider literature on political change from below, making his study very relevant beyond the actual case of Sudan and other bottom-up movements like those that emerged in the Arab spring. At the time of his death, he had completed his qualitative fieldwork in the form of 50 extensive interviews with grassroot movement members and other political actors in Sudan and in exile and had developed key categories for the analysis of those interviews that spoke to and challenged debates in the wider literature.

Through this work he would have been very well placed to contribute to a new politics and a better future for Sudan and his community, but also to addressing global challenges for grassroots politics and bottom-up political movements - a real future leader. It was a joy working with him, and supervising meetings always consisted of lively discussions about the issues in question, in which we all had our positions challenged and questioned.