South Sudan’s Accession to EAC- Finally!
By Mayen D.M.A. Ayarbior, London, UK
March 6, 2016 (SSB) — Finally, South Sudan’s quest to formally join the East African Community (EAC) has come to its logical conclusion. In light of the country’s political, security, colonial and blood ties with the region, EAC heads of state’s unanimous acceptance of South Sudan was a fate accompli. This is surely the case within the current circumstance, given the fact that the country’s political, economic and security standing at the time of accession is much worse than at the time when its initial application was technically pended until further notice. But nothing else determined our eligibility more than the fact that we had already been part of the region.
Last week’s formal acceptance of South Sudan is a fate accompli because it was long decided by the British colonialists in their “Southern Policy” which separated the region (Southern Sudan) from Northern Sudan (Khartoum). In consequence to the Milner Report of 1920, the three Governors of the Southern Provinces would not attend the meetings of Governors in Khartoum, but went to meet with their counterparts in East Africa (not yet EAC). In effect, technically speaking, we have had an observer status since then, up to recognition of full membership in 2016.
Not only do we trace our membership that far, we could even go farther to the time of the ‘Scramble for Africa’ during the Berlin Conference of 1884, where arbitrary lines were drawn by European powers who divided the continent among themselves. As they ignored ethnicity, colonial powers divided families, tribes, and clans between two or more countries. On our side, ethnic and linguistic groups like Acholi, Madi, Kuku, Kakua, Taposa, Didinga, Azande, Nuer and Anywak found themselves divided in more than one East and Central African state. Now they will again ignore the colonial arbitrary division as they become citizens of a larger economic block.
It is a fate accompli because East Africa had provided safe refuge to millions of our people who fled Khartoum’s scorched-earth military campaigns. They (EAC states) have never stabbed us in the back throughout our two long wars against oppression and enslavement. They have never gotten tired of us. In fact, it is now an open secret that they even sent their sons to do more than training our gallant soldiers (mostly rural folks) in modern and guerrilla warfare.
Personally, as it is for many others, it is a fate accompli because EAC is a region which hosted me (among tens of thousands of our people) as a refugee in Dadab refugee camp in north eastern Kenya. It is a region where I lived as a student and earned my first degree. It is a region that generously gave me a passport when I needed one. And it is a region where I married and got blessed with children. It is a region I have always called home. Now, to me and millions of us, accession is a long-time-coming dejavu.
Notwithstanding all the sense of gratitude and belonging which millions of us have towards EAC, we must accept that we have joined the economic community for our citizens to economically benefit. We have joined as one of the largest consumer markets in the region, since we almost produce nothing. We have joined one of the fastest growing regional economic communities in the world.
However, being a consumer market does not automatically translate to being exploited, as some ignorant and paranoid analysts often suggest. Our status as consumers of EAC goods will give us a great advantage, almost a ‘breathing space,’ as we sense our first steps and proceed to develop our unique industries and provide goods which are needed in other EAC countries. But such mutual benefits would only materialize when we immediately ‘roll-up our sleeves’ and start manning the one thousand tractors which are currently in arable fields that are thirty times the size of Rwanda.
Finally, our full accession is a fate accompli in the sense that the five EAC presidents and technical teams that presented favorable views on South Sudan’s eligibility may have just sealed what nature and history had already determined. Hence, it (accession), legally speaking, is de jure recognition of a long standing de facto status – i.e. legal recognition of what has already been there on the ground. Just a stamp of approval, as it were.
Congratulations South Sudan! Now wake up and go to work.
Mayen Ayarbior has a Bachelor Degree in Economics and Political Science from Kampala International University (Uganda), Masters in International Security from JKSIS-University of Denver (USA), and Bachelor of Laws (LLB) from the University of London. He is the author of “House of War (Civil War and State Failure in Africa) 2013” and currently the Press Secretary/ Spokesperson in the Office of South Sudan’s Vice President, H.E. James Wani Igga. You can reach him via his email address: mayen.ayarbior@gmail.com.
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