By Dak Buoth Riek-Gaak,
January 30, 2022 — The biblical name of the term ‘wrong’ is sin, and the unrepentant wrongdoers are called sinners whose perfect place is hell and not heaven according to the holy book, revelation 21:8 and other verses.
In law, the word wrong is an offense whose convicted perpetrators are taken behind bars. We’re all in consensus that wrong is bad and two wrongs never makes one right. But, be that as it may, we often don’t agree as to which actions or utterances amount to a wrong.
In this new year, the saddest news that shocked South Sudanese was the demise of Gen. Gordon Koang Chuol, who passed away in Khartoum on 6th January, 2022. On 29th January, his body was buried in the capital Juba outside his birth place in Nasir County, Upper Nile State.
I learned of the news of his internment via a WhatsApp post that was written and shared together with a short video by the immediate former Labour Minister, Gen. Gathoth Gatkuoth.
I later sent the same to Liech Community Kenya WhatsApp group as an update, because when the late succumbed to death, the Group’s profile photo was changed and replaced with Gordon General’s portrait as members mourn and pray for his soul to rest in eternal peace.
General Gordon was one of the exponents and proponents of South Sudan’s war of secession. Indeed, he was a revolutionary leader with many titles which most South Sudanese are aware of. And so, I don’t want to bore us by naming his titles here and now.
What I think is worth mentioning is the fact that General Gordon hails from Eastern Jikany Nuer community alias Jikany Latjor Ding-yian community. Latjor Ding-yian which the community was named after was the pioneer Nuer revolutionary leader, who crossed the River Nile with the Nuer people from the present day Guit county of Unity State about 14th or 15th centuries ago.
In 2019, at the Eastern Jikany community conference held in Nairobi’s Westland, the current Upper Nile State Parliamentary Affairs minister, Keay Ngouth told the audience at a conference, whose chief guest was the incumbent South Sudan Defense Minister, that Latjor Ding-yian’s wife, Nyaguey hails from Nyuong Nuer section, that occupies the present day Panyijiar county, where I came from. So, in Nuer custom, I would respectfully call General Gordon as ‘Gatnyieri,’ and in return he would regard me as ‘Naare’ in Nuer which means maternal uncle by virtue of the fact that I come from Panyijiar, the original birth place of mama Nyaguey.
In our culture, these lines of relationships matter a lot in the sense that they help keep the community together as family. Thus, this and other reasons makes me speak with authority on these questionable issues surrounding the burial of the late General Gordon.
When I learned of the news that he was buried in Juba, I paused and asked a question: Why didn’t people prevent General Gordon’s foes from ruling on his burial place? General Gordon’s burial in Juba was wrong simply because, one, I doubt if General Gordon has ever been to Juba, and if he has ever been there, perhaps it was way back in the 1960s. Second, General Gordon did not reconcile with leaders of the current government whose seat of power is Juba. He would have been laid to rest in his birth place where his placenta was interred. In other words, the major wrongs were the burial site, and the purported honor and eulogy without attending General Gordon burial which was taking place near the presidential palace in Juba.
If we look and critically evaluate the conduct and the life of General Gordon, you will learn and appreciate that he never wishes or thinks at any given time of being buried in places like Juba city, the capital of the country whose current administration he never recognized until his death.
I strongly believe that those who succumbed to the idea that General Gordon be buried in Juba were not his students, for they didn’t learn from his conduct and body language. They just fall for anything without proper analysis.
The people who bought this idea of him being buried in have committed wrong for dishonoring his will, and they should seek forgiveness from General Gordon.
In July 2011, when President Salva Kiir, Dr. Riek Machar and the like became the leaders of the newly independent South Sudan, they never thought of going or sending representatives to ask General Gordon to come back home even after it became crystal clear that he was unhappy and ready to die in exile.
I see that his burial in Juba was smartly meant for him to team up with other Juba victims, who are likely not going to get any justice under the present regime that General Gordon refused to recognize.
On 7th January, the First Vice President Dr. Riek Machar wrote a condolences message in which he went as far as mentioning where he was going to be interred before consulting with the deceased family. We know General Gordon was his erstwhile comrade, but it was wrong for him to mention in writing the burial place of someone he never met in about three decades.
Who knows, perhaps it was what made the pro government politicians from Jikany community to engineer the changing of his burial place, to show Dr. Machar that he had no ultimate say on where General Gordon will be buried, owing to the fact that he was not from his party, SPLM-IO. I think Machar’s condolences letter could have stopped at the good things he knew of the deceased. In a nutshell, Dr. Machar and President erred by purporting to eulogize and honor late General Gordon when they knew they were not going to attend his burial as witnessed on the material day. In April 2021, when General Simon Jok Gatwech died and subsequent funeral prayers were held in Juba, the First Vice President failed to join the mourners in Juba. This continuing behavior on his part begged the question: whose burial and funeral prayer will Machar attend?
More often than not, President Kiir used to write condolences and subsequently receive bodies of senior colleagues whose death occurred abroad, but this time round, he didn’t write any letter of condolences nor did he receive General Gordon’s body at the airport.
The duo’s conspicuous absence at General Gordon’s burial in Juba was wrong, for it was an act of hypocrisy. Looking at all these contradictions, you will find those who treat the burial of General Gordon in Juba as an honor were deceived. Based on these tangible facts, his burial in Juba was a dishonor and not honor.
Lastly, the critical question as to why they didn’t attend the burial of their colleague in the person of General Gordon, who was a top-ranking revolutionary leader and senior member of the SPLM/SPLA Military and Political High Command is another issue altogether, but I would say it’s a sign that they’re still fighting the dead which is a cowardice act of violation to our cultural norms.
The Writer is the Chairman of the Liech Community Association in Kenya; the views expressed here are his own, and he can be reached for comments via eligodakb@yahoo.com
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