Neither God Nor Ngundeng Spoils Our Christmas Festivals
By Samuel Reech Mayen, Kampala, Uganda
December 21, 2015 (SSB) — Christmas is a season of joy and religious celebrations. Most people prefer to commemorate this annual event in the places of their choices. In the case of South Sudan, people like to return to their places of birth so as to celebrate with their communities back home in the villages.
Toward the Christmas day of every year, people drive, hire taxis or fly out of the towns to the villages. From the towns, people spend money they earn over a year to adorn their arrivals in the countryside. Youth and politicians from the urban centers have that secret competition of showing their generosity to capture the attention of the villagers by hosting celebrations. Wealthy villagers also slaughter cattle as banquet for the gathering of the clans.
However, this is not the case with the South Sudan of today. Christmas comes with dilemmas. Rural areas have turned into bushes were people are butchered; hence no one wants to see his life being ended prematurely. Secondly, citizens have fled the countryside to seek haven in the refugees, IDPs and UNMISS camps. Therefore, some town elites end up going with their heads low to spend their Christmas holidays in the displaced camps where their families reside. In this case, it is no longer a celebration to such groups but rather a stressful time where one is exposed to the horrors of life.
Some of those who make money through whatever means decide to fly to the foreign cities for Christmas seasons but on reaching there, they find the people of their class driving to the countryside so as to celebrate with their relatives. They therefore become lonely dignitaries in foreign cities. Hence, Christmas in foreign cities means one is not really celebrating but hiding from his home. Those who spend Christmas in Khartoum, Kampala, Addis Ababa and Nairobi know very well that there is something they are missing in life. Yes, everyone has a choice to celebrate Christmas anywhere, but how many ministers or MPs from the neighboring countries spend their Christmas holidays in South Sudan?
Some celebrants also choose to remain in the cities like Juba, Rumbek, Bor, Malakal, and Bentiu just because they have no option. While these people spend the Christmas holidays in this low mood, minds wonder on how they have offended God to live in such a joyless life. Those who look at the world from the religious perspective think that God has cursed them but they fail short of explaining the cause of their curse. Those who heard a lot of Ngundeng and his prophecies question the ability of a departed fellow human being to manipulate public affairs divinely.
Rational minds keep wondering Whether Ngundeng’s prophecies were curses or blessings. Although prophecy is a prediction of the future event, Ngundeng’s prophecies sound as if he decided what will happen to whom in the future. There is this prophecy which claims that, Dr. Riek was born following the appeasing of prophet Ngundeng by Riek’s grandfather, Teny-Dhurgon.
This prophecy explains that while Ngundeng’s shrine was being erected, some Nuer folks were not ready to endanger their health by cutting and carrying heavy poles for the shrine. They chose to cut smaller portable poles. However, Teny-Dhurgon, Dr. Riek’s grandfather cut and carried the heaviest and the longest pole. When Prophet Ngundeng Bong saw him struggling under the weight of rik (pole), he summoned him and blessed him by decreeing that “in your descendant, a leader of these people will be born; he will be as strong as the pole that you have cut for my shrine. You will call him Riek (literally, the Pole) and no person will ever defeat him”. Ngundeng believers believe that this prophecy transpired into the birth of Dr. Riek Machar.
To add more weight to this claim, Dr. Riek supporters keep inventing these prophecies to match his real qualities. Attributes like a left-handed leader, with a wide gap between the set of his upper teeth are said to have been foretold by prophet Ngundeng. Funny enough, these creative supporters stare at Riek and created something from a close look of him and link it with Ngundeng’s prophecies.
However, this prophecy provoked another thought on prophet Ngundeng’s controversial prophecies. Ngundeng also made another contradictory prediction in the course of the construction of the same shrine in which Teny-Dhurgon contributed massively. When the construction of the shrine became tedious, a gigantic Nuer man with six beautiful scarifications across his face evidently disappointed threw down a pole with a loud thud and exclaimed “wɔa”. With this indignant expression, he left the site of the shrine.
Many Nuer men followed this disappointed deserter leaving Dinka men sweating in a very hot sun. Irritated by the desertion of the Nuer, Prophet Ngundeng cursed the Nuer people by declaring that in whatever development South Sudanese will be doing, Nuer will never contribute for the progress of the nation. Those who believe in Ngundeng’s prophecies also translated this curse as fulfilled by the 1991 mass defection and the fact that none of the Nuer signed any protocol in the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) that led to the succession of South Sudan.
However, all these prophecies are false on the basis of the contemporary realities. In the modern world, no man has divine traits to the extent that he can direct the national issues. Also in the 2011 referendum, Nuer voted for secession with massive figures. Besides these, the Nuer ministers in the government of the Republic of South Sudan are amongst the best performing Ministers. The Ministry for Education, the Ministry for Health and Foreign Affairs are not being surpassed by other ministries in services delivery. Therefore, Nuer people like the rest of the South Sudanese are contributing towards the development of the nation. Hence Ngundeng’s prophecies are being coiled up by individuals who want the country to move in the direction of their wishes.
Thus, the sufferings the citizens are going through are independent of God or prophet Ngundeng’s command. The poorly played politics which has defeated the values and set people against themselves is the basis for the confusion. The ethnical ideologies have buried nationalism; consequently, the citizens are denied the need for co-existence and the right to life.
It is horrible that Christmas which is celebrated globally is foiled by politics in this marvelous nation. Look at those beautiful Mountains of Equatorial region which deserve cathedral churches to be built at their pinnacles. These mountains are God’s special gifts. Should they be irrationally stained with bloods?
The SPLM leaders (In Government, In Opposition and G10) should not look at supernatural beings as the cause for the national disintegration. It is time to accept responsibilities and act or else, the nation will keep dropping into chaos. The 15 December 2013 tested the credibility of handling political crisis, with this fresh lesson, new ways of running national affairs need to be embraced in good faith.
The author is a student in Uganda and can be reached at: mayenreech@gmail.com or +256 772 727 857
The opinion expressed here is solely the view of the writer. The veracity of any claim made are the responsibility of the author, not PaanLuel Wël: South Sudanese Bloggers (SSB) website. If you want to submit an opinion article or news analysis, please email it to paanluel2011@gmail.com. SSB do reserve the right to edit material before publication. Please include your full name, email address and the country you are writing from.
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