Message to Greater Bor Youth Community Association
4 min read
By Mabioor Garang de Mabioor,
I have been getting a lot of messages from youth of Greater Bor appealing to me to talk to Commander Dr. Riek Machar to tell him that he should not attack our people. I have been getting these messages a lot and so I decided to publish my reponse to one of the Comrades that inboxed me, below is my response to his concerns. I have withheld his name in order to preserve the Comrades privacy…
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Hi _______,
I have read your statement and it is quite shocking to me, it is very passive aggressive.
Contrary to your implied assumption, I do know Wang’lei very well, we have been doing development projects there until I was forced into exile. I don’t have “contacts with those of Riek Machar”, we didn’t call each other and say: “hey let’s go to the bush and chose which villages to attack and which to spare. I understand the difficulty of our people from greater Bor to understanding that if one part of the country is suffering the whole country is suffering.
However, I want to draw your attention to the genesis of the conflict; it was the mass murder of Nuer Women and Children that sponsored by the presidency in the name of preserving Dinka Unity. This is what initiated the current cycle of revenge that has plunged our country to the brink of national disintegration.
If Dr. Riek had not been in the field doing the political work to try and convince the youth (militarised and radicalised by the Juba Massacre) then we probably would not be having this conversation. The current conflict is beyond Riek Machar, and being in touch with him and conveying people’s concerns. The conflict was initiated by Juba and they continue to fuel it.
I think instead, if you have “contacts with those of” Deng Dau and Thon Leek, then you should talk to them. They are the ones that have been calling the Commissioners and Chiefs of Twic and Duk’en; telling them: “kang’ke Nuer nom” (meaning: “Cut off the Nuer Advance”) knowing they are outnumbered and outgunned. This is all done in the name of a so called “Dinka Government” that has done shit all for the people of Greater Bor(excuse my French).
In respect to your allegiances, I would have imagined that you have been advocating for what you think is right. If you’re allegiance can shift on a whim, then I’m sorry to say that you have no clarity of objective. This is where sentiments like we are being called “Nyagat” (Rebel sympathisers) comes from. If your have the objective of fundamental change firmly embedded in your mind then you would not waver. I think anyone can tell another who to support, and if you feel like a solution can come from switching your allegiance to Kiir then that is your prerogative. I have the “humanity to accept those that disagree with me” as Mwalimu Nyerere once put it, and I know that “history will absolve me” as was once asserted by a young Fidel Castro.
I think that if you are genuinely concerned about the plight of our people then let us go down to the ground so that we do the work of reconciling our people at the grassroots levels.; instead of reconciling imminent personalities.
I am proud of all the South Sudanese that have taken a bold stand and are mobilising to bring about fundamental change in our country. I would be more proud of you my kinsfolk, if you abandoned Dinka Exceprionalism (na cie wok Buor mentality). I think the opposite is true, that it is you that should be proud of me for standing up as an intellectual from your community, when most of our Jieng intellectuals are silent of the massacre of our Nuer Brothers in Juba (which is what led to the cycle of revenge, people are angry).
Therefore, in conclusion I would like to remind you to talk to Deng Dau and Thon Leek, who are trying to use our youth in our cattle camps and villages as cannon fodder in the name of not being called “Nyagat”. They are sending civilians from our villages to attack a force that does not threaten them, a force that has them outgunned and outnumbered. I have more to say; however, I will leave it here for now.
Cpt. Mabior Garang
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia 2014
About Post Author
militarized and radicalized by Juba Massacre minus ”the south Sudan will be in chaos, disorder , in abyss on December 6 2013” , massacre in the church and hospital in bor ,” unstoppable cycle of revenge” that is spectacular , Time will tell who is right ? who is wrong? who will win ? who will lose?, May God save the innocent people who are suffering in Guolyar, who were not receiving salaries from the govt, who did not know and still don’t know why there is fighting