By Kuac Barjok, New York, USA
Dear Kuach Loc Garang Deng,
Cordial greetings to you and your family!
April 9, 2015 (SSB) —- I’m happy to read and respond to your eloquent part of the demoralizing storyline of slavery in the 21st century, and I have to say that I’m undeniably compelled by your insightful account to come and converse a little bit on the matter. I’d gratefully like to respond to a few things on your admirable reply.
To begin with, Sudan is known for several horrid events in the past including the very matter which we’re chatting on today and it’s still brazenly upholding those inhumane tenets at its center stage in a world where even animals are adjusting to the melody of the new world order. A world that considerably values the lives of animals let alone fellow human beings.
The history of slavery in Sudan is very clear and irrefutable even the former Prime Minister, Sadiq Al Madi, said on the eve of South Sudanese referendum that “we in the Sudan need to apologize for slavery and for associating Blackness with Slavery”( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5RtG7IEKN34).
In that documentary filmed by the Qatar based media firm, Al Jazeera, you’ll get to add a little to your indubitable knowledge on what certainly forced the people of troubled South Sudan to plea for their own republic, especially the slavery part. Prejudices centered on slavery associated with “Blackness” hugely contributed to the separation of South Sudan from the Republic of Sudan in 2011.
Now back to your logical categorization of the enslaved brothers, sisters, mums and dads in the Sudan. Your insightful views make this whole conversation quite interesting to say the least, for you fetched things which escaped my fingers though they’re worth highlighting in seeking to address the very matter at hand, and I’m pretty sure that together in humanity, we’ll unchain the chained comrades in the near future, inshallah!
On the mentally enslaved group in the Sudan:
It is true that there are people who are mentally enslaved and won’t be willing to cast off the chains and claim their human dignity not because they don’t want to be free, but because of the distorted information foisted into their minds, to enslave someone, make sure to control their information system, and it’s unerringly what the successive Khartoum regimes did to uncurious South Sudanese minds. They simply need education, I’d say, for them to know what it means to be a free man.
Even in America, there are mentally enslaved black people who even have guts to condemn the anti-slavery slogans. Take for example; the famous Atlanta Rapper, Soulja Boy, in 2008 said “Oh wait! Hold up! Shout out to the slave masters! Without them, we’d still be in Africa. We wouldn’t be here in America to get this ice cream and tattoos” (http://www.theguardian.com/music/2008/nov/04/soulja-boy-slavery).
Slavery in America is another item of its own and consequently, I won’t dwell on it here, but I’m just referencing to the mentality of mentally enslaved folks in general.
On the social and economic enslaved comrades:
You have enlisted the plausible explanations for their presence in the oppressive land of Omar Bashir and the National Congress Party’s Islamist Fundamentalists. To reiterate your suggestion, the most compelling and thinkable thing that we should do is to induce our embattled leaders to look into quickly when peace returns is the transportation for the already stuck South Sudanese in the Northern Towns who don’t have resources to transport them back to their homelands.
Thousands of these people are stuck in bordering States like the East Darfur and it’s the government that should decisively come to their rescue, or, they’ll continue to be subjects of slavery and other brutal living conditions, ignore the international community for now.
For those in enforced slavery, like the reported 35000, our leaders would then need to summon the government of Sudan to release them or pay regrettable price.
On Darfur and the Nuba Mountains:
Brother Kuach, we’re children of history and therefore, most South Sudanese and the Sudanese Perceived Arabs know where the problem of Darfur lies. I will try at all costs to avoid being controversial on Darfur for now though it’s in the content of this issue we’re discussing.
However, I would strongly recommend peaceful regime change in Sudan as the only way to save Darfur and other marginalized regions of the Sudan, but then, by the look of things, pursuing regime change in Sudan is a neck-breaking venture which leaves many people with limited options. The upcoming elections in Sudan are purely meant to legitimize the illegitimate government of Bashir as Mahmoud A. Sulieman would argue.
Therefore, the hopes for democratic changes in Sudan could be folktales for the next few years but again I would still argue the willing heads to do anything in their power to unfetter the dehumanized people in the Sudan. Back to you raandie.