By Dr. John Sebit Madit Johnson.
July 6th 2019 (Nyamilepedia) – The politics of South Sudan National Youth Union has reminded us of the ugly fact that we are so much embedded in the past. This past was not our making and we have no reason to be proud of it.
The division into groups called tribes by the colonial masters was something used to ease their control over territory and resources. When we were again divided into three Regions by the Arab dominated Regimes in Khartoum, it was meant to divide and weaken us. Now that we are masters of our own, are we still comfortable with such ugly divisions?
To me the answer is an absolute NO.
We are a Nation of people with one destiny. We fought wars of Liberation together, not as tribes but as people with one common course. Our forefathers fell in battlefields not as Murle, Anyuak, Shilluk, Taposa, Jieh, Dinka, Baria or Nuer. They fell in those battles as one people with one common enemy.
That was why no single tribe was allowed to liberate their villages or towns alone. There was no Nuer Liberation struggle, No Baria Liberation struggle, No Dinka Liberation struggle. It was the Liberation struggle of the Marginalized people of the Sudan.
Following the signing of CPA in 2005, our enemy sung the songs of our division. The Arabs in Khartoum constantly reminded us that we were not one people and can not built one successful Nation. We were reminded that we are only tribes loosely packed together by the Geographical necessity. Our Liberators, although some of them succumbed to the deception theory, waded us through the troubled political waters into our Independence.
The weakness of being tribes and Regions was exploited by our enemies, both local and International, in 2013 when that senseless war broke out. Some International players concluded that it was a war between Nuer and Dinka that had nothing to do with Equatorians.
We succumbed to such wrong divisions and massacred each other along tribal lines. I’m still happy that there are men and women in South Sudan who proved that the war was not tribal but political. The prove to this fact was that there were Nuer and Dinka on both sides of the conflict.
This doesn’t in anyway down play the effects of war in our society. Looking around tea places in Juba and other major towns in South Sudan, one would acknowledge the deep division among our people. The most affected being the people of my Generation- The Youth! Youth sit in tea places in tribal groups discussing nothing but the unworthiness of the other tribes to exist in the Republic of South Sudan!
They have clean forgotten that the Republic of South Sudan only exists because of it diversed ethnic composition. This wrong believe that South Sudan can be better without other ethnicities has made the youth to allow themselves to be used as tools of destruction by selfish Tribal Politicians.
We need United Nation. Building such a Nation is the responsibility of the Youth. Our elders fought for this Nation when they were Youth. They have gifted us with a Country we can call our own today. Building it into a successful Nation is the responsibility of the youth. This duty starts with Youth Unity. We must first identify ourselves as South Sudanese Youth and nothing more. We must fight all the monsters derailing the process of Nation building as one people with common destiny just as our forefathers fought for our Liberation.
In the light of the above, I would like the youth of this Country to approach the politics of South Sudan National Youth Union not as Regions/ Tribes, but as one people in search of a better leader. As I contest for the position of the Chairmanship of South Sudan National Youth Union, I don’t do so as someone from Bhar El Ghazal, I contest as a son of South Sudan with the desire to serve South Sudanese Youth across the Country.
For me to get that opportunity to serve, I need the approval of the youth across the Country. Those who will vote for me should not do so because we belong to one Region or ethnic group, they should vote for me because they are convinced that I can lead them to their expectations. This is the Democracy we long for.
I would like to conclude by saying that we have all what it takes to unite this Country. I have a working formula to unite the Youth of this Country. If I manage to unite Youth who are more than 70% of our National Population, then the rest of the population can be United easily. Let us bear in mind that we are one Nation of one people, we are neither Tribes nor Regions.
The author is a presidential aspirant for South Sudan National Youth Union and can be reached via: Wuntokmach@gmail.com
1 comment
Yaa Seyad that is a wishful thinking especially when jeng council of elders full (group of scoundrels) are the policy makers; where cash is distributed openly to the president’s region while the country’s civil servants go without salaries for 6 to 9 months.
Billions of US dollars meant for clean water, modern roads, equiped hospitals and schools are squandered by the same group to buy homes in Kenya, Uganda, Australia, Europe, America and families are kept abroad; and the remaining cash is used to trained tribal militias eg (Mathiang Anyoor) and calling the ssdf or national army!
2ndly, what kind of unity can you expect out of South Sudan when the country is ruled by nomadic savages who aren’t
Patriots and have no inclines where they come from?
3rdly, what kind of unity do you expect from a group of people who goes grabbing other people’s already developed lands, properties, cattle thieves, killers, rappers of young/old women? No unity can come out of a
country ruled by a group of scoundrels period, therefore South Sudan is doomed a country with no hope!