Has the Republic of South Sudan Betrayed the Heroic Contributions of the People of Nuba Mountains and Southern Blue Nile?
The Nubians heroic participation in the War has granted them nothing but compartmentalization-Tearful faces
By Majok Arol Dhieu, Rumbek, South Sudan
April 7, 2016 (SSB) — First and foremost, let me explain in details where Nuba Mountains is situated and who inhabited it. The Nuba Mountains (also referred to as the Nuba Hills) is an area located in South Kordofan, Sudan. The area is home to a group of indigenous ethnic groups known collectively as the Nuba peoples. The Nuba Mountains is inhabited by various tribes such as, Dilling people, Heiban Nuba, Kadaru people, Katla people, Kanga people, Karko People, Keiga people, Keiga Jirru, Koali Nuba, Krongo Nuba, Logol people, Moro Nuba, Nyimang, Tira people, Otoro Nuba, Tagale People and Talodi People.
These people of Nuba Mountains together with South Sudanese have withstood a scorching heat from Khartoum Military forces for two decades. I therefore want to remind all South Sudanese specifically stakeholders in Government and NGOs to remember our people and give them employment. Treat them also like Kenyans and Ugandans who contributed indirectly by giving South Sudanese shelters and other services during and after Sudanese Civil Wars.
For those who might have not heard Nuba people’s contribution in the Sudanese Second Civil War, you will today know what they have done in Nuba Hills particularly and in other areas of South Sudan at large. The Nubian people were the first people to be oppressed by Arab. This made Yousuf and his Nuba students formed ‘KOMOLO’ in 1975, a youth movement to strengthen cultural and political awareness among Nuba and to realize their identity as an Africans.
Nubian together with Yousuf Kuwa understands the real nature of the Sudan’ conflict after Yousuf had been a democratically elected MP. Although Sudan is a country with multi-racial, multi-religious and multi-language society, Yousuf and other Nubians then judged that politics of Sudan upheld a dichotomy between marginalized and the privileged. Kuwa with other few Nubians then joined SPLA insurgency led by Dr. John Garang after having known and read the SPLA manifesto in 1984 as Sudan slipped into civil war.
After some earlier incursions by the SPLA, the Second Sudanese Civil war started full scale in the Nuba Mountains when the Volcano Battalion of the SPLA under the command of the Nuba Yousuf Kuwa Mekki and Abdel Aziz Adam El Hilu entered the Nuba Mountains and began to recruit Nuba volunteers and send them to SPLA training facilities in Ethiopia. The volunteers walked all the way from Nuba to Ethiopia and back in which many of them perished on the way.
When Sudan government was unable to defeat the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) in military direct confrontations, President Bashir authorized Sudan Armed Forces to direct its violence against the civilian population and sealed off the Nuba Mountains. For 15 years and half, the Nuba suffered relentless attacks from government forces. Khartoum Warplanes bombed the area sporadically, hundreds of villages were shelled and burned, thousands were killed and tens of thousands were subjected to famine. There were more deaths since there were no health facilities in the area.
Please follow the link below “EYES AND EARS OF GOD PART 1-6ˮ DOCUMENTED BY TOMO KRIZNAR to witness the suffering of the Nuba people https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FQ9DE4tAZsE&index=2&list=PL61773FC2FF46F738
I therefore in this writing appeal to all South Sudanese wherever they are to respect Nuba people and give them accommodation & shelters, support them should they need facilities because their hardships years of fighting a common enemy were the years of wastefulness since both insurgents made an agreement with government in Khartoum to make ends meet, and a condition of popular consultation was farmed out to Nubian in the Comprehensive Peace Agreement to decide their fate.
Therefore, they were about to make popular consultation but, the presence of Khartoum heavy military in the area didn’t give a chance to Nuba people to choose whether they will join South or North Sudan. It was indeed not formally good to left them in the hands of the cruel enemy who poured rains of cluster bombs on them daily but there were no other options rather than accepting a popular consultation in the Agreement. We as public were presented with a fait accompli by Dr. John Garang when he visited South Sudan towns explaining in details what CPA means and the areas that have got separate protocols.
I want to repeat that Nuba people although they were left out by the CPA, they are still our people. What made me to believe them as the part of East African Community is the poem written by Yousuf Kuwa while studying at the University of Khartoum which reads as follows:
My Africaness, Brothers, With Thousands of my apologies forgive me! Forgive me for frankness and my courage! Let me tell you, despite all the talk about my Arabism, my religion, and my culture. I am Nuba. I am black. I am an African. Africaness is my identity, it is entrenched in my appearance, and it is engraved in my lips and manifested in my skin. My Africaness is in the sound of my footsteps, it is my bewildered past and in the depths of my laughter. Brothers, with Thousands of my apologies forgive me! Forgive me for my frankness and courage!
Despite my grandfather’s humiliation, despite my grandmother’s sale into slavery. Despite my ignorance, my backwardness and my naivety. My tomorrow will come. I will crown your dignity with knowledge. I shall light my candle. In its light I Shall build my civilization. At that time I shall extend my hand. I shall forgive those who tried to destroy my identity, because love and peace is my aspirations. END.
In his own words although Kuwa was raised a Muslim, and actually grew up believing he was an Arab, he wanted to joined South Sudan. Kuwa was a clever student who changed his course of life after he had realized in a comment made by Arab Secondary School Headmaster that Arabs women shall be helped in the kitchen by Nubian. He disputed it clearly by saying that “what is the use of teaching Nuba who are going to work as servants in Arab houses”.
He was really misled by his father to become Muslim, he was trying to say that he would change in the future and that was why he named his first child Nyerere. Yousuf Kuwa despite being a big fish in the pond, he was very brave with his group and can still be remembered as a Nubian’s pathfinder by all South Sudanese.
Until today, another fat hits the fire in the Nuba Mountain on 5th June 2011 which is believed to be Third Sudanese Civil War. This was when they have realized that Comprehensive Peace Agreement had put them on separation with South Sudanese. Unlike neither fish nor fowl Durfarian who were used by the Khartoum government to suppressed South Sudanese insurgency, Nuba people have indeed fought tooth and nail alongside SPLA throughout 21 years of war with Khartoum. They must to be given back their supports. Such superheroes people with absolute commitment must be supported to get what they want.
Let us collectively, join our hands to support them financially and give their educated people jobs. The South Sudanese Associations must initiate it. These are our own people; we cannot relax and watch them on daily basis struggling with Sudan government to live an independent life. No need to tell you that the situation is disastrous in Nuba Mountain. The facts speak for themselves.
The writer is a concern citizen and can be reach at majongaroldit@gmail.com
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