South Sudan After independence, the celebration continues
By Jocelyn Edwards in Juba
In early December, Hafsa Anguparu, a wedding planner, put together her biggest event yet – a 2,000-person affair for which she decorated a motorcade of 13 cars.
Several white pavilions adorned with strings of yellow lights lit up the grounds of Juba’s Nyakuron Cultural Centre.
Anguparu says she has noticed an explosion in demand for her services leading up to and since South Sudan’s independence on 9 July 2011.
In previous years, she handled one wedding every two or three months. Now she may even have two or three happening simultaneously in different venues on a given weekend.
“How can you get married when you don’t know where you will be next? When there is war, you have to move around a lot,” says Anguparu.
“We feel that we are now settled. That is why people want to be together and start families.”
People in South Sudan are also partying for other reasons, including the reunification of families long separated by the civil war.
“During the war, people were scattered. They are now coming back and people are organising get-together parties,” says Anguparu.
After the deprivation and austerity of war, there is a longing for luxury in what is still one of the most underdeveloped nations in the world.
Those who can afford it celebrate in style. “People like the white tent and the big cars. People like to show off here.
Because we have been oppressed for so many years, it’s almost like a way to win respect and prestige,” argues Kevina Aber, another event planner.
Weddings among Juba’s elite can range from 1,000-1,500 guests and cost up to $140,000.
Latjor Mayul is the owner of South Sudan’s first limousine, a stretch, white Lincoln Navigator. The businessman reports that demand is high for the car.
“There is a queue. For the last two or three months, it has been booked.” It costs SS£400 to rent the limousine for an hour.
“No matter what the cost, they will pay it,” says Mayul on the sidelines of the 2,000-person wedding planned by Anguparu.
In the background are the sounds of women ululating between speeches from friends and relatives.
At the edge of the scene sat dancers with drums and noise-makers wearing yellow T-shirts left over from independence day.
‘A Dream Come True: A New Nation, a New Beginning,’ say the shirts. What better reason for an extended celebration?
[B][I]This article was first published in the 2012 February edition of The Africa Report, on sale at newsstands, via our
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