The Great Humour and Conundrums of the Late Chol Biowei
6 min readThe Great Humour and Conundrums of the Late Chol Biowei
By Malith Alier, Juba
The late Chol was not only a politician but also a liberation hero who fought in the SPLA 21 year long war. The late Biowei served in former SSLA, representing Twic East constituency from 2005 to 2010. He was defeated by MP; honourable Deng Dau in 2010 disputed elections that saw the likes of George Athor Deng, David Yauyau and Peter Abdrahman Sule rebelled. Athor sadly lost his life under unclear circumstances and the other two survived and are back in politics today, thanks to dilly dallying with criminals.
The late Biowei was truly a towering political figure during our time and it will be after a generation when someone might fill his shoes. His humour played out more during the 2010 election when he competed for that political space with other aspirants, opposition, independent or SPLM.
It is always said that death is a poor reaper. It is further said that death is closer than old age. The late Biowei was still relatively young and strong during his passing. If people die by old age, this was not his time. He passed away together with his son within days of each other. May God rest their souls in eternal peace.
This piece is not in any way meant to discredit, belittle or insult anyone who might have been involved in elections in the past particularly the 2010 elections.
Some of the humorous comments involved his rivals in one way or another. Let everyone acknowledge it that each time his humour is narrated, laughter is generated. Rumour has it that he used to tell his supporters and entourage to stop at the border of Bor County and Twic East to tell them another political message encoded in his usual way. This is what this piece is all about and nothing else.
Let the great humour begin;
People of Twic East, this is why the folks from Bor County belittle you. You see they take their disabled (maokiin) to Pariak while you take yours to parliament!
A dog hunted by a woman (jong yeepe tik) never catches a single animal (this is also a wise saying)
Guess an animal with four eyes and two legs (conundrum)
If some of these disables (maokiin) are given their past legs, they will reject them because their past legs are thinner than the remaining legs. The war combatants were emaciated in action but after the war, they all look chubby.
The late Dr. John Garang was an individual with great sense of humour. This was played out on many occasions to anyone who came in contact with him. He was able to motivate, counsel and encourage his troops to continue them on to fight for many years, twenty two in fact without salary or other basic human needs. Everything was in short supply.
How did he manage this? John Garang was a down to earth guy of his time – a man for all seasons. His approach to the liberation struggle was four or five fold; mass mobilisation, comradeship, commitment, discipline and consistency. John Garang was able to mobilise all South Sudanese and even other Sudanese people around the vision of new Sudan.
The vision of new Sudan was such an appealing vision to everybody because of the ideals of equality, justice and freedom. Nobody rejects equality because people are borne equal. Man and woman, black and white, big or small are all borne equal. Therefore, God levels us all in death.
Comrade, which simply means friend, was widely used by everybody in the movement including myself though I rarely use it these days because the only people called themselves comrades or Cde are the ones seated on the country’s oil wealth. Nevertheless, the term comrade was indeed a sign of cooperation and equality.
The martyr John Garang was committed to a total liberation of South Sudan. He even went further to include other marginalised Sudanese who are also black Africans like us. To show his commitment to the liberation of South Sudan, he was once told by some of his colleagues to quit the movement because of apparent abuses of human rights. He replied to the famous “Garang must go” with a question, where do I go or ya no lou?
John was also a disciplinarian who instilled strict discipline in the SPLA to letter. The SPLA soldiers were well trained and instructed to not to kill civilians and prisoners of war (POWs). In Dimma, Ethiopia in the nineties, we were jealous of an old Arab man who was running a cooperative shop ostensibly belonging to the movement. We at least wanted him discriminated of liquidated. We questioned the motive for fighting the Arabs while on the other hand treat some of them like kings.
Unlike his peers, John was consistent in his approach to liberation of South Sudan. Some of his rivals wanted to catch up with him but failed miserably, Riek Machar, Lam Akol, Karbino, Nyuon name them. One of his feet was always a head of those rivals. He was unwavering in the struggle. How many wives did Nyuon and Karbino combined have? Many. Garang was a man of one wife. This was also possible because of discipline.
Very few South Sudanese are husbands of one wife. There seem to be an indulgence by leaders who have acquired wealth through corruption to marry as many wives for reasons best known to them. The call for equality of both sexes is challenged by this practice. Take it the other way, what if one wife is shared by many husbands? How would you feel? Remember that this is called polyandry. This form of marriage is practised in some parts of the world.
One great statement I thought humorous from Garang is about artillery and distribution of resources (food). You know full well that during the struggle everything was in short supply, food, water, medicine and other essentials of life.
When Garang toured number of camps, he told a group of women that he has brought all sorts of weapons but there was something he did not find, a gun that shoots by itself and someone who can distribute wealth to the satisfaction of everybody. Simply put somebody who is not corrupt.
Another humour lies in the “taking town to rural areas” which simply looks like a conundrum nobody is able to unlock. This is not new, Robert Gabriel Mugabe also suggested it but it did not take to date even though he is alive.
Humour is better than beauty. People with great sense of humour have the world under their feet. Abraham Lincoln was not blessed with good looks but because of his great sense of humour, he was able to disarm people to accept what he had to say. He succeeded to become the President and win the civil war because of the powerful way of expressing ideas sometime in a humorous way.
The late Chol Biowei was an icon because of that great sense of humour.
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