Why the Dinka don’t trust Nuer !
By Kur Wel Kur
Dinka and Nuer tribes acquired the hatred from the years of successive struggles for the stolen dignity and land, their pride occupy the central place in their lives. However, when it comes to consistency, Dinka people strode into burning sulphur, choosing death than to surrender their dignity; a decision termed by others as stupid and arrogant.
Most Dinka people holds their dignity close to their hearts because of thousand reasons, but the pride of owning a country today tip-topped these reasons. Nuers oscillated thousand times. For this reason, Nuers, calling for a “change of governance”, “democracy”, “federalism” or creating “21 or 23 states” will relieve us not! But desperate moves in attempt of permanently burying the Dinka tribe in the depth of the ocean.
A crystal clear message for every Dinka to digest; though we must critically and creatively do something about it, the Dinka people must absorb information in our current situations and operate in the parameters of saving our beloved country. Nevertheless, those citizens or tribes that preach hatreds or a country or leadership free of Dinka must challenge themselves with the task to accomplish their wishful thinking if they can.
This article will discuss why Dinka don’t trust Nuer today. In successive years, Dinka and Nuer people led liberation struggles and waged wars against the Khartoum governments. The liberation struggles came in phases: first Sudanese civil war (phase Ⅰ), and the second Sudanese civil war (phase Ⅱ).
I will concentrate on the second Sudanese civil war (phase Ⅱ) for sake of this article. PhaseⅡ: in 1975, dissatisfied ex-soldiers took arms in eastern Upper Nile and formed AnyanyaⅡ, the majority of Nuers with negligible numbers of Dinka led this movement and Gai Tut as its leader. The 1972 Peace Agreement disintegrated gradually because Jafaar Nimeiri’s government began conducting policies that violated the Addis Ababa Agreement as Abel mentioned in his book. The Agreement finally collapsed in 1983 when fully trained soldiers with some officers defected from the government army. They then, moved to Ethiopia, which became the SPLM/A (some called it phase Ⅲ of liberation struggle) nursing home.
The SPLM/A and Anyanya Ⅱ disagreed over who to lead the movement, in that incident, Gai Tut (Nuer) lost his life. Akuot Atem, a Dinka, lost his life too in the hands of Nuers as a revenge for Gai Tut’s death. As a result, AnyanyaⅡ split, some soldiers led by commander Gordon Kong Chuol joined the SPLM/A and some soldiers opted to join the Khartoum government, where the Khartoum used them to fight the SPLM/A, they attacked SPLM/A recruits on their way to BilPam, Ethiopia. SPLM/A with the help of Ethiopia trained thousands of soldiers so SPLM/A liberated most towns in the south Sudan except Juba, Wau and Malakal.
With South Sudan in the horizon of falling altogether into the hands of the SPLM/A, SPLM/A concentrated all its operations around Juba! The Nuers freedom fighter, Riek Machar defected from the SPLM/A in 1991, a defection, which devastated Bor people. Most of Nuers’ officers including a highly valued high commander, William Nyuoon Bany followed Riek. The Khartoum government capitalized on the split and recaptured most towns in S.Sudan including the SPLM/A’s headquarters, Torit.
The movement in a weak state deployed two guerrilla tactics: • Moved its headquarters into poorly defined borders of Sudan-Uganda (e.g. Pogee) and Sudan-Kenya (e.g. Nadapal and Key Base). • Set up army barracks and internally displaced camps in mountainous terrains, for instance, New Cush, Natinga, omerie and lobone The tactics worked because the enemy couldn’t dare to aerial bombarded the SPLM/A in these poorly defined borders and their ground offensive was always a disaster on their sides as they could not accessed the camps and barracks because of the terrains.
Meanwhile, Riek signed peace deal with The Khartoum, 1997 peace Agreement. An agreement, which the Khartoum dishonoured, yet again. Riek prodigally returned to SPLM/A head down leaving some Nuers working and fighting for the Khartoum government. Thereafter, in 2005, SPLM/A and Khartoum government signed a Compressive Peace Agreement under vigilant eyes of Dr. John Garang Mabior. So why hate Dinka? In the Second phase of liberation process, Dinka and Nuer obtained much of bitterness and hatred we see today.
So most of harsh writings, which denounced Dinka received their energies from such histories facts; writings such as Lul Ruai Koang’s, regarded the defectors and power-minded likes of Gai Tut. However, the Dinka despised the Nuers because they killed Akuot Atem, a politician who collaborated with them in AnyanyaⅡ; and that’s why, some Dinka people are worried about Mabior Garang because he occupies the same situation as Akuot did!
The history repeats itself, we saw it in 1991 and saw it again in 2013 when a mad man ran away with his same fake democracy as reason in both rebellions. So if one of them, Gatdet or Riek, loses his life today in the hands of government forces, Mabior will lose his in the hands of Nuers, his friends, God forbids but that’s Nuers’ nature.
In conclusion, my South Sudanese, I know Mr. Kiir must shoulder the blame, the cross, regardless of the heavy criticisms from the world, regardless of public humiliation, regardless of exhaustion, regardless of how many times he fell, he must get on his feet before the Simon of Cyrene comes to his rescue because he is the PRESIDENT However, his failures as a person, weigh less than being a Dinka; he committed no crime as a citizen than a crime he ‘committed’ for having come from the Dinka tribe.
This, represents the true nature of our problems today. Dinka must think twice every time they join the dance of pseudo-democracy, pseudo-federalism and pseudo-21 states because most people from other tribes covet a country or leadership free of Dinka.
N/B, Readings: Sudan: Independence through Civil Wars, 1956-2005 (by Mollie Zapata) and too many agreements dishonoured (by Abel Alier Kwai).
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