H.E Gen. Kuol Manyang Juuk: The only Voice To Save the Greater Bor Dinka Community
12 min readBy Peter Ngor Atem, Kenya
March 20, 2015 (SSB) – “Where there is an elder, they say, things hardly go astray”. I have read from many African literature books. Sources within Bor of 3 counties are peculiarly vocal tellers of this. In the past, an elderly person is regarded an embodiment of any body of knowledge. He’s possessed with sufficient knowledge, wisdom, logics and insightful judgment. That when he speaks, everybody else lends a keen ear.
And after a long narration, the thoughtful questions follow from the attentive audience. They would want to know how things came to being. For example, the reason as to why witches die if they happen to be married in so and so lineage. And why people from that sub-clan are tall, ‘red’ and baby-faced. All sorts of questions. All ‘W,H’ questions are allowable.
In light of the aforementioned, the adage was put that ” ke ye raandit ting ke reer ace meth ting ke kac ni rel nhom” (what an elderly person sees while seated, a young person cannot see it while standing atop the molehill). It is also echoed that ‘old age is gold’.
The elders reflect the past to chart their way to the future. They act as a think tank of the communities. When they roar, everyone else keeps lip-tied. It is impermissible to air an idea in contradiction with their declared position.
Charity, they say, begins at home. Hon. Eng. Kuoldit, we earnestly need you to return home and expose the content of your head to us. We, Bor: Bor, Twic, Nyarweng, Hol- are all dependent upon you in as far as the application of above stated body of knowledge is concerned. You’re a moral campus of Bor community. Unlike many others, you’re well read, exposed and consumed with knowledge and wisdom on the roles of elderly persons in the society.
Your utterances and deeds are always insightful. Tell the hatemongers within our community that we’re the children of the same soil. Tell them that the house divided within itself cannot stand.
We only hold you in high profile because the rest of Bor elders have breached the undertaking of confidence and trust we had in them in one way or another.
They easily take sides in petty issues in which a wise elder worth his salt can turn a blind eye or a deaf ear to. They run loose lips. They are shadows of their own selves. They spit venom, which poisons people’s unity.
Many years ago, when one died we all bereaved. When one achieved, we all rejoiced in their achievement. Generally, we acted as collaboratively as one people held by strong bonds.
Typical example of our past brotherhood (sisterhood?) is this. When my uncle in the name of Malual Aweng Chol untimely demised in 1970s,the sad news echoed to the edges of the Bor land. From Abii to Hol were, with the same magnitude as Pakeer, shaken by the news. Everybody from Cuei-Keer to Cuei-Thon shared in the bereavement and the grief, which engulfed Pakeer Soil.
It was not because they were too idle as to beat boredom in shedding crocodile tears. They were indeed shedding genuine tears ignited by the great loss, which visited upon the people of Pakeer Payam whom they considered their blood brothers and sisters.
Taking cognizance of the foregoing, where has that love lost? What incited Bor people against each other? Are political betrayals, if there are, responsible for sibling rivalry hovering over the land of Bor people? Are we a soft target through which the political bigwigs from other communities ride their agendas? Are we mere punch bags to other people? It is only your answers, which can satisfactorily be musical to my ear and entire readership, Eng. Kuoldit.
Eng. Kuol Manyang, you’re more than an important person in Bor community. Your importance is unquantifiable. Your contributions to SPLA/M, South Sudan and by extension Bor community are immeasurable.
Your track record before, during and after the struggle for self-determination is consistent and straightforward. It is unfettered with anything.
Rebellion, power greed, cowardice, leader-worship among other factors, which acted, as an impediment in the struggle for independence, are aliens to you. A few people would frequently go to Khartoum and come back. Some would go to their villages and mobilise their people against SPLA/M but you steadfastly remained devoted to the good cause: struggle for freedom.
You stood neck to neck with Dr. John Garang Mabior. You, inter alia, gave Dr. John Garang a lion’s heart in toughest times in the history of struggle for independence. You only aired diverse and hotly contested views in private from which Dr. John Garang would formulate his wise and effective decisions. You used to read from the same script with Dr. John Garang in public. You were never accused of any form of insubordination or infighting.
More often than not, you gave Dr. John Garang a shoulder to lean on whenever he was emotionally, psychologically down while in the bushes of South Sudan.
Hon. Eng. Kuoldit, do you know you’re an unrivalled moral campus, a wheel on which our political future rotates now? The consistent loyalty you pledged to your seniors culminated into the country we have today from repressive and oppressive successive Khartoum’s governments.
Hon. Eng. Kuoldit, people are eager to know why we’re too fragile and prone to political risks in south Sudan. For example, a Non-Dinka Bor bugger may decide to take up arms against the government, and ironically it is your people who finally bear the brunt of that rebellion. We get attacked from left, right and centre either man-made or natural causes.
Unapologetically, we are indeed the endangered species in South Sudan. And that’s why our very existence is constantly under threat. Best moment is now when we must come together and strategize on our tomorrow.
Eng. Kuol, people fear you. They say you’re a hawk-eyed person. You don’t suffer fools gladly. A tall, brown and brave-faced man whose looks spark both fear and respect. You’re not too quick in answering things before meaningful digestion. Again, you don’t run loose lips on sensitive issues. That the decisions you make in military and political positions you have ever held are always or nearly Solomonic.
Owing to that truism, I urge you Engineer to rise up to the occasion and rekindle the desires, orientation and aspirations of Bor people, which are interminably shattering. The end has actually begun in Bor soil. And hope is fast losing its very essence. Everything good is virtually fading away.
The people of Bor are fully aware of the fact that they’re joined at the hip in more ways than one: geographically, linguistically, culturally, agriculturally and politically. They eat together. Elders inflate their daughters’ dowries with the same proportions. Elders jointly drink traditional liquors under shades.
Youths talk politics. They marry from each other. Women gossip together. Men play games: chess, domino, 14,tok-ku-rou etc, with same playing pattern.
They ridicule themselves in songs. Generally, similarities substantially outweigh dissimilarities as far as Bor community is concerned.
Funnily, they’re now acting in theatre art. They are hiding behind the smokescreen that everything is okay while in actuality people are badly divided due to current political dynamics in the country. This animosity is gaining currency on each passing day. They feign ignorance in regard to this underlying animosity.
Hon. Eng. Kuoldit, this doesn’t call for kids’ gloves. It needs a man of your caliber, who is well endowed with wealth of knowledge in all issues touching on Bor people either politically or socially or economically, to address it forthwith. This brewing misunderstanding must be nipped at the buds once and for all! Now, Sir!
Gen. Eng. Kuoldit, tell them that you’re not reinventing the wheel. But for the sake of prosperity of Bor community, they must accept each other. There’s a dire need to speak in one voice so that we don’t fail prey to our hovering enemies: Murle, flood, wildlife, and rebellion among others.
Eng. Kuol, your people are hungry, frustrated and despondent. They lack food, open to constant attacks from thorn-like Murle neighbours. And now, white army of Dr. Riek Machar. If they get settled after one tragedy, the other starts.
As I pen down this piece, there’s fear of Murle moving towards Bor land to ‘express their unhappiness’ with the government’s decision of suspending Juba-Pibor road construction. Are we the government? Is Bor a government’s headquarters? Are we the producer of the country’s CEO? What is wrong with this small-minded tribe whose minds are always preoccupied with making Bor restless and unstable!
Think about your people, Eng. Kuoldit. Search your conscience! Tell your people elected MPs of Bor to think about their constituents. Sorry, I mean people who vote them into their fame, wealth, power and prestige. Sometimes, they feel left out in getting sumptuous government positions.
For example, GOSS, in its wisdom, can decide to give three ministerial positions to Twic East County and leave other two counties, Bor and Duk, empty-handed. Our government, wallahi, is wise! Did I say wisdom? This pits them against themselves.
The obvious reaction from the two counties is that Twic East County portrayed us in bad light to the government. That they smeared us with mud and that’s why the government is keeping us at bay in its appointments. Of course, the two counties will become disenfranchised. They will start squabbles among themselves. This automatically can open them to foreign bodies: abuse, mockery, ridicule etc.
Metaphorically saying, there’s enough food for everyone in Bor community but people don’t know how to ration it. The tragedy is that there’s no one who can make a good distributor. Everybody wants to get it all or a lion’s share of the same. Tragedy of the commons is at its peak here. They tear it into parts and by the end of it all they resort to war of words which later graduate to war of fists.
Since they fear your stature, come to their midst and share it on 50-50 basis. If it is limited, then invest it in one person who’s seemingly selfless, unifying, resilient and considerate in Bor land.
It is only you who can pinpoint who’s capable of doing what in Bor land. You can best vet military, organizational and academic capabilities of Bor sons and daughters. This is because you’ve known them each day and night. You have tendered some of them militarily.
You mentored many of them: Gen. Ruei Phot, Lt. Gen. Jok Riak among others. Your courage, consistency and commitment got integrated into their DNA.
Hon. Eng. Kuoldit, your people: the young, the old, women and men, are embroiled in war of name-calling. Most of them are reduced to political power wielders’ flunkies. They are fighting themselves tooth and nail to prove who fits more, in the eyes of the power wielders, than other.
They feign blindness to the fact that regimes come and go and people remain. They’ve taken the alleged attempted Coup to tear them aside.
Tell them that the ongoing war pitted the Government on one side against Dr. Riek and disciplines on the other; not Bor community against itself. Nor is it G-11 who were exonerated of Treason Charges by High Courts of South Sudan. They have entirely owned this to heighten hatred and tension, which, before then, were inconsequential.
In Nairobi, some of the students of Universities and Colleges from Bor Counties congregate in coffee lounges to tell off each other’s community. Instead of discussing academic related issues, some are reduced into small souls whose agenda are gossiping which, in my community, are synonymous with women. They say student X shook hands with big person Y, so student X is a rebel.
Others would take it to the extreme levels as follows. “Amol Mayen, move out of here! We don’t share table with people who’re subsisting on the blood of their own people. You’re a disgrace- a disappointment to the community of Bor. Our people were mindlessly massacred. Your people were advertently bypassed by Wen Adit aka Gatwic Dual by reason that your sons and daughters are two faces of the same coin with the rebels”. Michael Mading would lecture.
After a five-minute recovery from a shock occasioned by Michael Mading’s poisoned statement, Amol Mayen would hit back, “thiooo, ayuur, look at you! While we were fighting Arabs in the bushes of Sudan, many of your guys were enjoying beacons and butter in Khartoum. Now you’re trying to divert the blame onto us.
Do you think I don’t know so and so of your community had a big bungalow with a five-meter parameter wall in Khartoum when gunshots were raining and reigning Junub Sudan. Most of your bigwigs blindly followed Dr Riek in 1991 and the then massacre became a bread-winning project to them.
It slowly but surely graduates from friendly verbal brawl to a full-blown physical war. Obviously, they will fight it out physically. You see how cheap we’ve become! Hon. Eng. Kuoldit, this debate is replicated in many avenues-bars, eateries, social gatherings, Facebook, Sport clubs etc, and it is increasingly escalating .
It is a commonplace agenda of discussion in Junub Sudan, neighboring countries and overseas. This debate must be castigated! It only deserves to be treated infantile at best and at worst as an expression of express nothing.
As a man well schooled with left-brain engineering skills, it is doable. Uniting them is doable. Apply your engineering prowess. Just as a father does to his kids, put us on the right footing, which serves the interest of Bor people. Bor’s political interest can only be realized if we peg it on peace, love and harmony.
My analytical inference from these mindless accusations and counter-accusations is that, our people are nearly off the cliff. Someone somewhere is pushing them off the cliff with intent to make them lock horns.
What is waiting is over and above what we are seeing now, Sir. What we see now is basically a mere tip of an iceberg. Unless the situation is arrested and sanity restored, endless conflict is on the offing, Eng. Kuoldit!
In light of the aforesaid brewing division, Eng. Kuoldit, we want to constantly see you vocal and articulate on this Unity of Bor in its three counties. This is no tongue-in-the-cheek moment as it is your culture. Eng. Kuoldit, you will be doing injustice if you keep silence at this hour of need! Stand on your feet and talk!
Send your peace commissars to preach peace and unity across the globe especially Nairobi. Advise them in the local dailies. Frequently seek audience on the SSTV and radios. Hold exclusive Bor community meetings with them. Tell them the principle underpinning the story of an old man with his ten sons and bundle of sticks. Tell them to forgive each other and move on!
In conclusion, J.K Rowling once asserted, “We are only as strong as we are united, as weak as we are divided”. We have no other choice other than unite or else we perish together.
Long live United Bor people! Long live United Jonglei State! Long live United South Sudan!
The writer, Peter Ngor Atem, is a South Sudanese student of Law at the University of Nairobi, Kenya. He can be reached at ngorpeters@gmail.com
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