Chiefs rule as criminals kill

By Philip Thon Aleu, Juba

February 21, 2015 (SSB) —  There was confusing in the land. After the good chiefs died during the long famine and the bad ones took over the rule in the aftermath of the famine. There complete was terror in the land.

The short tempered people left the village and engaged in attacks on the people. They were called criminals. In fact, they accepted being called criminals because, to them, they were fighting for a course. The terror rate surged in the area. There was death and services delivery to the people was completely no more. In fact before the criminals took to the bush, services were not being delivered to the people because the bad chiefs did not feel obliged to serve the people. They wanted to be solely served and that is why the arrest farmers for gardening.

So there were deaths — this time, not from natural famine. But from human’s leadership drought. The leaders were not leading. Leadership position was meant to access taxes from the farmers, cattle keepers and hunters to feed rulers and members of their families.

They remained at the helms of leadership because other people — the majority, felt that it was unnecessary to take arms against their ancestral land. The land gods served from natural drought. Gods will intervene and salvage the situation, the majority of the people thought. This helped to prolong the reign of bad chiefs. The chiefs did not know this resilience and tolerance from the people. The chiefs’ assumed that the majority of the people support them. They were wrong.
And so the suffering continue unabated for years. Some citizens of the land went to their maternal uncles and became nationals of those lands. They could visit their village once in awhile and retreat. Obvious, after returning to their uncles and friends, all they say is the bad leadership they had witnessed. So the land was known by bad names. Fortunately, the majority that did not leave were closing in on the bad chiefs. These majority educated their sons and daughters on how to go about their surroundings — during the nights and in daylight. It was funny.

The bad, poor chiefs, decided to test the people by calling for elections. They did not know that the majority of the people had yearned for their rights to vote.

In their thousands, voters queued under trees shades. To make counting easy, they were told to be in straight lines. After several hours of repeated counting, new chiefs were declared victorious to the surprise of the bad chiefs who had survived the natural famine. The bad bad chiefs survived by taxing people during the natural famine. The good chiefs died by honoring their names. A ”stealing chief” the name the good chiefs never dared.

The secret of defeating the bad chiefs in the elections was that the villagers had known that there was leadership drought.

The criminals, those short-tempered, were negotiated with by the new chiefs and recalled to the community. The deposed chiefs were not jailed but never had dignified burial after dying in the aftermath of losing elections. They died of unknown diseases. Their wives only reported their deaths every morning — some sudden deaths from unknown illnesses.

The bad reign ended and the land of gods, great gods of the universe, was restored. The name of the deserted land, known by all bad names was not changed – thanks to the patient citizens. Thanks for non-violent citizens.

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