HAS EDUCATION CHANGED DINKA BOR AS A COMMUNITY?

By Tearz Ayuen, Nairobi

It’s often said the Dinka of Jonglei have huge numbers of educated people. That some of the most highly educated South Sudanese are found in Bor, Twic East and Duk counties. Nice. However, if it is true, where is the education? Do you see it? Do you smell it? Is it being kept in some corner of the brain, perhaps for later use or is it on the paper, barren, hanging on the wall?

Education changes individuals’ lives but in wider perspectives, it’s meant to transform lives of communities. People go to school to improve their lives and lives of those around them. Think about Louis Pasteur, Benjamin Franklin, Alexander Graham Bell and so on.

Has Dinka Bor proved to the other communities the importance of education? Is there anything to show for it? Is there anything that their educated selves have done to encourage the neighboring education-starved communities such as Murle and Jie to beat their children to school?

It’s true that education has changed most of individuals from Dinka Bor. They work in banks, in law firms. They work in big hospitals and clinics, both private and public. Some are working for the United Nations and its agencies. Others are actually the government, working in various institutions.

Nobody is being forced or expected to invent anything, though. It’s just a concern. With all those Doctorates, Degrees and Masters, one or two scholars should have been able to put an end to at least one of the perennial problems. Schools teach us how to solve problems, first as an individual and then as a community or society.

There is an educational policy called sustainability education. It spells out the purpose of education – why people go to school. Anyone who once or twice wore graduation attires should be able to possess it. According to education researchers Daniella Tilbury and David Wortman, it demands:

Envisioning – being able to imagine a better future. The premise is that if we know where we want to go, we will be better able to work out how to get there.

Critical thinking and reflection – learning to question our current belief systems and to recognize the assumptions underlying our knowledge, perspective and opinions. Critical thinking skills help people learn to examine economic, environmental, social and cultural structures in the context of sustainable development.

Systemic thinking – acknowledging complexities and looking for links and synergies when trying to find solutions to problems.

Building partnerships – promoting dialogue and negotiation, learning to work together.

Participation in decision-making – empowering people.

In Jonglei, Bor present generation faces problems that they inherited from their parents. Their parents also inherited them from their parents.

Flood is one of the major natural problems affecting the people. Flooding comes with lots of life-threatening issues. It destroys crops. It makes farming so difficult. It comes with various water-borne diseases which attack both humans and livestock. Thousands of cattle, the sole source of life among the Dinka Bor, are left dead by the likes of Leptospirosis, annually or biannually.

Another issue is drought. Drought still affects farming in Bor area. That’s stupid and ironical. It is ironical because they have the Nile waters and acquired education.

Cattle theft and raids by the alleged neighboring Murle and Lou Nuer tribesmen should have also been put to an end long time ago. There is something called mircochip implant; a device used for identifying domestic animals. It’s practiced in Botswana. With modern technologies, no Dinka Bor should be killed for his cow anymore.

Unfortunately, you find the educated in bars, celebrating – drinking the week away and chattering like apes over beer. You can spot them driving big cars on the streets of Juba. You can also see them in clean suits and ties at Shirkat or Gumbo, watching traditional dances. They are always out there, bespectacled. To them, eyeglasses are a symbol of educated-ness.

Unless proven otherwise, the understanding of education amongst these folks is: Go to school > >earn an education>> buy a pair of reading glasses>>find a job>> get paid>>buy or build a house>>buy a car>>drink beer>> walk around with chest sticking out>> and then die.

Tearz © 2014