Finally, the day has come for South Sudanese, the African Continent, and the
world. A new nation is born, the people once marginalized have now spoken by
bullets and ballots, and the struggles to achieve an identity had been
realized. For South Sudanese, the old slogans of Aluta continua and comradeship, which
to many, the meaning and overtone are shadowy, must now continue in different
forms - the forms of social-economic development, social cohesion, moral
justice, and above all, nationalism and patriotism that can be translated into
action for the well-being of citizens who have been devastated by the protracted
wars. The challenges are still great and the wind of change is still blowing.
The next
war is somehow unconquerable, but maneuverable: the war of development.
It demands the correct and astute application of democratic ideals. But with wisdom
and good watchfulness and national pride, an impetus in the willpower to
advance can be created and this new nation can meander around the giants to the
top. It is a small world but there is a place for all that breathes.
So far
South Sudanese have learned in the first and second Sudanese civil wars, 1955 –
1972 and 1983 – 2005, that it is not wise to take a bull by its horns. But
there are incidences that the only thing you can catch of the bull is only the
horn. The impasses of a multifaceted development must be tackled squarely by
the horn.
Ideally, on
this day of independence, this is not the central theme. Expectations of South
Sudanese seem to suggest that they know what lies ahead. I must advise here
that economic development is a kind of war that a nation should prepare
adequately for. The tides are rough, but manageable if correct and honest
strategies are formulated, adhered to, and consistently applied.
The rest of
Africa is waiting to haul South Sudan on to the truck of economic development, where the monsters with which several economies wind around, are the Economic
Blocs of different kinds: The World Bank, The IMF, and other financiers. It is
a figurative and calculative arena that requires a country to prepare its human
resources or workforce very well for the competition. Education would be the key to success
in such a whirlpool of interests, often marked by legal manipulations. We have a
world where we must tread carefully and always lay a low profile.
South
Sudanese should now know that the path towards progress has many potholes of problems, with
not a single panacea for these problems. It is where a journey of a thousand miles
begins with one step. It is a world where no one helps you sign deals but baits you to. Many countries have
signed agreements and with that, they lost the trend and poverty became
commonplace. And oftentimes you get into eternal hereditary by your own
signature. Wise and lucky ones become wealthy. In such countries, children
are born with 'original debt' they can never pay in their lifetime. But there
is little you can do to surpass the economic mightiness of those familiar with
the game. Remember, man has already mass-produced the ultimate weapon. They have
a name for it. Human feet have defiled the goddess for some of our communities,
the moon, already. The blue sky that forms the everlasting mosquito net over South Sudan has some people living in it up there.
My dear young nation of South Sudan, welcome to the world of perfidy, the world of
national interest, the world of alliances, the world of masters. It is the
world of agreements, treaties, memoranda of understanding, and so on. We can
live there, can't we? It is better in this world than it is in the land of Janjaweed and Murahaleen.
And if you are asking for the solution, then the solution I don't know. Just
don't borrow where you can never repay. Own no masters or at least be a master.
Develop your human resources or perhaps be a test case in a different scenario.
South Sudan can benefit if it chooses to follow the path of successful
nations.
The main focus for the people of South Sudan was to end the marginalization and set
themselves free. This had been a subject that often carried an emotional charge.
Today South Sudanese have geographical confinement. The truth is that they
have always been here. Even prophet Isaiah talked about people that resemble them. The long-desired Promised Land is now right here. It is the milk that is yet to be seen. We needed a home country, a cocoon to recline to when necessary. It is
now a full realization and it was an achievement worthy of an attempt. It was an identity we lacked. South Sudanese have so long been made to live with a misnomer
that they are part of the Arab world and therefore Middle Easterners. Arabs –
black Arabs? The misnomer was baffling and people struggled to shed it for almost half a century.
Now they
have got a country they will forever hang on to till the end of time: the Republic of South Sudan where the word Sudan will really insinuate the ‘Land
of the Black.’ With the creation of this new state comes the
excitement and jubilation for millions of South Sudanese whom maladroit of war
have made to assume the tunnel they were in had no exit where light would
appear. Today it is shining at the tunnel’s end for the people of South Sudan.
And into the tunnel goes no hope, desire, or willingness for turning
back. We are out and free.
In his
speech, Ban Ki-Moon, the UN Secretary-General on July 9, 2011, in Juba said that South Sudan has become the 193rd nation that will soon acquire
membership in the United Nations. The African Union welcomes Africa’s 54th, sovereign
state. The East Africans want them on their economic bloc for the next war.
South Sudan is a country!
The
Africans who have put up with the pressures of Sudanese refugees influx and
have borne the brunt of malevolent of a lingering war in Sudan have
also expressed their joy and support for the new nation. At least a neighbor is
at peace. South Sudan was a no-go zone for the rest of business Africa and the
world. It is time now for Africa and the world to come and see what Southerners
have been fighting for in this land of the Sudd and The Mighty Nile. South Sudanese
are saying, ‘You are welcome!!’
And
what do South Sudanese think of the day?
The world
that has stood with the people of South Sudan through humanitarian sustenance;
the world in which generous countries like Australia, UK, America, New Zealand,
Norway Canada and others stretched their generosity further and offered
millions of South Sudanese resettlement deserve our appreciation. It is on
this day that we acknowledge their generosity. We the South Sudanese thank
them abundantly. We say unto them “Since you have been with us during
our times of need, you are friends indeed and we say thank you.” The
new president of the Republic of South Sudan never missed the point of thanking
them overwhelmingly today, July 9, 2011, during his swearing-in ceremony in Juba when South
Sudan legally declared her Independence.
It is today
that many South Sudanese believe that the NCP party in
Khartoum, which signed the Comprehensive Peace Agreement with the Southerners in
2005, has acquiesced to sitting down and watching them raised their flag and
singing a brand new South Sudan National Anthem. To the South Sudanese, it was a
dream comes true; it was the day of reckoning. They have wisely and
courageously refused to be dragged back into war willy-nilly in the months
leading up to Independence Day, and vehemently avowed to secure their
freedom, land, and their future. Aspirations of the people of South Sudan have
now been realized after a rough ride.
To the
Jellaba in the North, they saw it as a failure in the policy of Arabisation of
Black Africa, broken by southern resistance. The African stubbornness in demanding freedom through the opposition of the
Sudan’s Mahdism and Muhammedanism of the country had been portrayed throughout
the 54 years of war. Southerners have since
demanded their rights while steadfastly inclined geopolitically to the
free world where human dignity and freedom are prized above religious dogmatism. It is
madness to see some people fighting wars in the name of God. God, from an all-powerful angle, has been displayed in the Holy books as truly capable of
winning His own battles and does not need human succor and actors for
the mission. In the name of whom do the weak humans fight for the powerful? The
philosophy of religious affiliation must be psychological to a certain degree.
South
Sudanese quest for a secular democratic system of government in Sudan had
always been met with ululations and religious chanting that called for war in
the name of God. We have
been through it long and hard that some boys and girls parted with parents at
the tender age of ten and have ever since known nothing but themselves to rely upon for the past two decades.
The breakup
of Sudan does not make us happy, not in the least. We
the Sudanese citizens both North and South have always wanted to be
together. But something went horribly wrong in the political systems of the
country. South Sudanese had no options left in their armory of togetherness in
a united Sudan. Islamisation policy has destroyed the hopes of many.
Southerners had to go and to go they went with everything that is South
Sudanese above and beneath the ground. That includes oil and other endowed natural resources. And in the sky and heavens above, we have gone with
part of our God that does not declare war on His people for submission.
The break
up may leave North Sudan with a sense of fear that a country with more than
five hundred ethnic groups, in which 63 or so tribes of South Sudan have already
chosen secularism will surely stand the test of hypothetic Arabisation in
Africa and not more implosive disintegration. Many experts believe this. Erroneous
and palpable of this anathematic Arabisation policy is the statement that Sudan
is an Arab Islamic State, while ignoring the fact that a sizeable population of the country is truly African. Additionally, this group of
non-Arab neither knows nor understands anything of the policy of ‘die or believe.’ Sudan’s government’s call for Holy War or Jihad upon its own citizens
as previously witnessed in Darfur through the use of Janjaweed as a force of
counterinsurgency against the African Muslims, and more recently in Abyei, will
stand as a testimony to the world that needs to know the truth.
To South
Sudanese, both at home and in the Diaspora, it is a freedom worth
celebrating. It is a break in posttraumatic stress that we often
fear to speak about. It is a searchlight that exposes our confidence and
assertiveness. It is a sudden sigh of relief for unpredictable questions that
led to our displacement. It is a calming and sedative force for those whose
hopes in the survival of their families have been dashed and replaced with pain
that seemed to go on for eternity.
Independence Day is a great day. This is the day that Southerners: amputated,
maimed and artificially deformed as a result of gun wounds, snake bites and
animal attacks shed tears of joy and pain for; the day in which those whose
bones remained scattered in the open and under the trees of Sudan and Africa
for the course of their freedom will be remembered by the living; the day that
those whose empty stomaches stopped them from breathing will be called to mind; the day in which we recall when our bodies became deficient in fluids and
people fell dried and dropped dead while the mighty Nile never runs dry; the day that the entire social structure of the people of South Sudan which
had been devastated by war and its concomitants will certainly be given
attention. This is the day that announces the end of the blatant devastation and
heralding a new day – the Day of contentment. The day is July 9, 2011.
