THE SIEGE OF FEARS

By Deng de Monychol Lueth, Australia

–

Life is made chaotic in the land of the Sudd:

Where hope is turned into a world of danger,

Despair and uncertainty;

Where killing people is big profitable business;

Where enemies now stand as besties;

Where friends have become frenemies;

Where conscience is abused and held hostage;

Where life is taken with disregard to human value;

And conflict is dictated not by necessity but by choice

Made politically and militarily by powerful selfish few

To enrich the prevailing elite encirclement

Ingrained in “bääny de thial” and “mɔc rɔtdu” leaderships

Which are now the Ebola to the poor,

Evoking deepest worries and worst side of other

Among the commoners.

–

Real peace as we know it will come

From the triumph of nationalists

Who prioritise the nation and its people at hearts,

Not from the expansionists

Nor from the pushers

Who put the fears of dominance in people’s hearts

In order to mercilessly secure

Selfish personal gains and private interests

At all costs

In the siege of fears.

–

We are effectively under the siege of fears:

Fear of change and criticism to the status quo;

Fear of losing positions and aligned benefits;

Fear of losing power and being trampled by;

Fear of others or being dominated by others;

Fear of failure and increased conflict intensity;

Fear of not knowing what to do now or in future;

Fear of known and not knowing the unknown;

Fear of competition and potential of undesired results;

Fear of killing, revenge, violence, nepotism and tyranny;

Fear of ourselves, mistrust, what we have now become.

–

And so we are in the siege of fears;

Not entirely because of power struggle

And leadership duel,

But because what is political is made tribal

And the level of understanding is clouded

By tribal-nationalism and tribal allegiance.

–

They said, “When two elephants fight, it is the grass that suffers.”

And I say the grass can relatively avoid the suffering if

It has the knowledge of elephants’ fight together

With the ability to leave the elephants to fight alone

In a bare land.

But here many are so hostile and tribally blinded,

Apparently political in hearts and minds,

But unreasonably unwilling to admit the other side

Of the story,

For having been shamelessly conditioned

To linger in denial and belligerence.

–

And because of that elitism is now the new Ebola,

The killer of the poor, elderly and innocent youths

Whose generations are under the siege of fears,

Here and there;

Fighting the war

They do not really know

How the situation will truly look like at its end.

–

Since the dawn of independence,

Defined was who we are

In the referendum

And we have not defined:

what our nation is,

Who our real allies and partners are;

What our core national interests are;

And how we should govern ourselves;

For we have so many abstract objectives

Which are difficult to realise and implement

And consensus is not yet in our brains.

And so we are now in the siege of fears.

–

But one day,

A generation who will think big, talk less and do more will rise

To address this siege of fears with wisdom and dignity.

On that day, killing for position will end,

Less will be taken and more will be built

Not by takers of people’s liberation,

But by them who will be the developers of the nation;

Who will understand the difference between

Public and private goods,

And the meaning of freedoms

In the nation.

–

Such generations will boo corruptions with credible distinction

And will bend not

To tribes, bribes, threats and official extortions;

For they will have different level of understanding

Unlike now, and that

Will enable them with all necessary means:

Informational, diplomatic, political, economic, military

To move the nation forward.

Then, when worshiping of incompetence and rebellion

Is not worthy of pride,

The wisdom to reason and think ahead for the sake of the nation

And our people

Will return common sense

To deter the provocateurs of our collective downfall and self-defeat

With real peace and the right to live together

In co-existence

As one people in one nation,

Enemy not to one another

for our collective peace and success

As South Sudanese….

–

By Deng de Monychol Lueth © 2015 [August 19]

Note to poem readers: “bääny de thial” (in dinka words) = leadership of spoon; “mɔc rɔtdu” (in Nuer words) =  Give yourself rank