By Philip Thon Aleu
When four South Sudanese politicians were released on Friday April 25th, nobody would have thought their relatives and political sympathizers would be angry. The relatives and supporters were expected to be happy as their detention and charges brought against them by the government were life threatening. That Friday April 25, 2014 was a tremendous and joyful day for them. Ululations, yelling and cheering were supposed to characterize the day as it indeed transpired.
But organizing another celebration two days later and dancing for several hours singing traditional wrestling songs of victory did not go well with relatives and victims of the five months conflict in which the politicians are alleged to have played a role. The question of innocence for charges brought against the four politicians is a different thing altogether. These politicians and those in the government cannot deny the fact that each one of them played a role in bringing the country to its knees. In fact none of the four politicians denied having a political interest in the two camps; SPLM in government and the opposition. The opposition is currently divided into armed and former detainees. The former detainees are sub-divided into group of seven (G7) and group of four (G4). G7 composed of the politicians released in January and the G4 were released on Friday April 25.
Since December 15 (when the fighting started) 10 thousand people innocent people have lost their lives. A million others are displaced from their homes, according to United Nations. Countless property is lost. Homes are destroyed and hatred between tribes has regained roots.
Before December 15, traditional dances and night clubs on weekends were common. But after the fighting and subsequent lost of lives, young people in unusual unison halted traditional dances. In many South Sudanese cultures, traditional dances are meant for happiness. Even if you never lost a relative but your neighboring is mourning, your clear message of condolence is suspension of celebrations. Unfortunately, the supporters of the so-called G4 did not have remorse for the suffering of the people in which their politicians played and continue to play key roles. The supporters decided to dance and sing songs of victories. This queer behaviors amounts to dancing on the graves.
April 27 and other dances that followed remained me of a facebook post a friend wrote on Friday April 25. “Let the dead bury their dead.”
In other words the victims and relatives of the deceased of this political fighting are physically dead even if they are still with us. And the relatives and supporters of the politicians are the owners of this country whom the rest of us are just accompanying in numbers to make a country called South Sudan. This is a direct abomination for the politicians in question because the dancing on graves will not win votes even in a free and fair election.
—–
© Philip Thon Aleu 2014
—-
By Anyar Matiop Deng
We had our dead to mourn, but we chose to celebrate Dr. Majak release for we would have mourned and conducted his funeral prayers ourselves, so we had absolute responsibility in determining what to do. there was nothing uncivilized in what we did unless you are writing as pure Bor Dinka who has not interacted with the outside world, others send off their dead singing and dancing.
I personally joined the celebrants for we have earned names e.g (nyagat) in this conflict esp for the arrest of our Son ( Majak) we have been told heartbreaking messages; others turned themselves into court and called them criminals, that they would either suffer death or spend the rest of their life in jail, some went extreme and said they would be hanged by the neck until they die. These messages were communicated directly to us but we preserved. We were mourning with the rest of the country but we had this agony.
We were told that some people wanted to take his life in detention and the president had to caution the DG of NS to take care of him. We were not comfortable with Brig. Malaak Ayuen programme on SSTV for singling out both Nyandeng and Majak and made them his topic of discussion among the rest of their colleagues.We suffered more pain in Majak’s arrest than we did for our deads. Despite all the above we celebrated his innocence, i know this is controversial but Marial Chanuong, the commander of the Tiger and Mach Paul, the then Chief of SPLA MI clearly told court he wasn’t part of what led to the bloodshed.
Aleu Ayieny also told Majak of his innocence while in detention. Your piece and the comments above are more of where you belong then a well thought out opinions. We mourned our deads and celebrated the release of our son. On the song “thon acie rou” no body was targeted, we meant our son at his caliber as the only one from his community.
Those who had wished him hanged by the neck until he dies shouldn’t blame us for celebrating his release. I blame the one who begun this conflict and went on to arrest innocent individuals.