Waiting for Statehood: A Documentary on South Sudan’s Independence

A new documentary examining South Sudanese Canadians’ perception about the independence of South Sudan is released today on the popular video sharing website YouTube.

Waiting for Statehood focuses on the experiences of three South Sudanese Canadians in wartime Sudan and probes their expectations of the new country against what they experienced. The 27-minute documentary was shot in the Canadian cities of Ottawa, Toronto, Kitchener, and London in 2011. Additional footage was acquired in Juba, South Sudan and Nairobi, Kenya.

“The most important thing to note is that the message of the documentary is as relevant today as it would have been in July 2011 when South Sudan became independent,” says producer, Brian Adeba.

The film will be released entirely online in order to reach a wider audience in South Sudan, Canada and the rest of the world, Adeba added.

“The ‘hits’ that we will get will be an indication of whether we succeeded in our goal or not. But I am confident the film will reach its intended audience,” he stresses.

The film is also entirely a non-profit enterprise. Libraries and other organizations that would like access to it for public education purposes are free to use it with express permission of the producer.

To view the documentary, click on this link:

For further inquiries and requests for interviews with the producer, please send an email totemejik@yahoo.com.

Following the onset of civil war in Sudan that lasted 22 years, many people from South Sudan were displaced to other countries. Madut Majok, Abeny Kuol and Charles Gindalang are originally from South Sudan and were part of this wave of displacement in the 1990s. As victims of the conflict, they have first hand experience of its horrors. Madut was an unaccompanied minor during the war. Abeng witnessed the opening shots that ushered the advent of civil war in the town of Bor in 1983. Charles lived through the aftermath of a massacre in South Sudan’s capital Juba in 1992. In 2011, South Sudan seceded from Sudan to become an independent country. Through their lived experiences, this film examines the effects of the war on Madut, Abeny and Charles. But now that South Sudan is an independent country, and looking back at their painful experiences, what does the independence of their home country mean for each of them individually?

Brian Adeba learnt documentary film making at the University of King’s College in Halifax, Nova Scotia and at Daystar University in Nairobi, Kenya. A journalist by training, Adeba worked at a number of media outlets in Canada where he covered international affairs, business and local news.

Find attached a film poster and a Facebook wallpaper. You can help spread the word about the documentary by sharing the link on your social networks:

There are two reasons; one is that there is a powerful narrative in the key characters that needed to be told. All of them are inspiring and resilient people. Abeny Kuol for instance witnessed the first shots of this war in Bor in May 1983. Her young husband, a captain, was killed in the ill-fated SPLA attempt to defend the collapsing Derge regime of Mengistu Haile Mariam in Ethiopia. He was forced to go to the front, even though he was sick. Madut, an outstanding and brilliant young man, was an unaccompanied minor who walked all the way from Bahr El Ghazel to Ethiopia when he was barely 10 years old. The journey lasted two months and he says had it continued for another week, we would not be speaking to him today.

Secondly, the other reason is that I see myself as a filmmaker, having studied documentary filmmaking at university. I therefore see no reason that one should, for example, call himself or herself a cobbler while they are not mending or making any shoes.

Making a film is not an easy task. The first documentary I made was only 10 minutes long. But I was very surprised at the amount of work and resources required to complete it. First of all it is an expensive endeavor. My first task was to buy a professional camera that cost slightly over $2000. But I didn’t have the tripods, the lights and the sound recording equipment. Those, I had to “rent” and they don’t come cheap. The cost was reduced a bit because I was a member of a film cooperative that offered discount rentals. I also had to invest in the software and the computer for editing it. By all accounts, this is still a relatively cheap enterprise because I did everything on my own. I shot the footage, wrote the script and edited the video. Had I gone outside, the cost would be higher. I have spend about $10,000 if I compute everything, including acquiring extra footage and paying the script reader and poster designer.

Yes, but we are all crazy to some extent. I would have completed that three-bedroom house on my plot in South Sudan. What differs or matters is the degree of extent of this craziness. But in life you have to have a passion. Money or access to resources, while important, should not be the only excuse for not doing something. As people of South Sudanese origin, there are millions of stories that need to be told by people from South Sudan. There are so many gray zones that our researchers need to shed light on. Access to resources is indeed a stumbling block but if we push ourselves more, we may be surprised at our own individual capacities. To whine about lack of resources all the time, is a lame excuse in my humble opinion.

Lorna Dias is Kenyan of Goan origin. I watch a lot of documentaries and there’s this series produced by the famous journalist Hillary Ng’weno on prominent Kenyans who shaped the country. Lorna was the narrator and I was blown away by her voice. I googled around, found a phone number and I called her. Basically I pitched my story and because it is a non-profit enterprise, she gave me a discount. I got her into the studio and we were listening to her through the monitor speakers and everyone was blown away by her voice.

Whatever you do, be professional at it. Incorporate the element of research and borrowing best practices. I watch a lot of documentaries and every day I learn something. Be ready to take criticism positively. South Sudanese are not good at taking criticism. Mostly, they take it personally. Be professional and take it in stride. Even when you do your best, there are always misses and hits. Just accept it and move on with the aim of being the best. We also must stop being insular and look to a wider audience globally. I would be very proud one day if I see a South Sudanese production winning a major international award or recognition. The Internet is a great resource nowadays. While making this documentary, I relied on it for many technical issues. For instance, I learnt video editing on Final Cut Pro 7. Now I am using Final Cut Pro 10. I had to teach myself how to use the new software, mostly through YouTube. The other thing is that the authorities in the ministry of culture and information in Juba must do their part in supporting filmmakers horn their craft. Unfortunately this is not the case. SSTV, which is supposed to be a hub of documentaries on South Sudan is a sad joke of unprofessionalism and utter incompetence. Their productions are laughable. So something needs to be done to change the status quo.

I think Abyei forms a powerful narrative that needs to be told by people of South Sudanese background. My dream is to make a documentary on Abyei. I am reaching out to people from the region and elsewhere to put our heads together and see how best we can proceed to tell this important narrative. If there is anyone listening to this interview, I hope they will get in touch with me so we can explore how we can move forward.

Watch “Waiting for Statehood” on this link: