By Peter Makuach, Juba, South Sudan
April 15, 2016 (SSB) —- William Shakespeare wrote a play called Macbeth which is sometimes referred to as The Tragedy of Macbeth. The play is about a brave General, Macbeth, who on his way back home after defeating enemy forces is met by three witches who prophesied that he will become the King of Scotland one day and the descendants of his colleague Banquo will become Kings of Scotland.
Macbeth shared the prophesy with his wife Lady Macbeth who immediately started to pressure her husband to fulfill the prophesy as she has had massive ambitions to become the Queen of Scotland and they hatched a plan to invite the King to their Palace for a feast and he eventually assassinate him and then went ahead and killed Banquo but did not manage to exterminate his family. Macbeth was subsequently crowned the King of Scotland.
There is a striking similarity between the Tragedy of Macbeth and Riek Machar’s fate in South Sudan. Riek Machar and his equally over ambitious wife Angelina Teny are obsessed with Riek becoming the president of South Sudan. According to Riek and his wife Angelina; Ngundeng had prophesied that a left handed and gap toothed Nuer will rule South Sudan. Riek with his blind ambitions and taking advantage of the ignorance of his Nuer supporters seized this opportunity to mobilize his people and make them believe that he is the “chosen one” to lead South Sudan.
This belief is what prompted Riek to rebel against SPLA in 1991 which resulted in massive suffering of our people and caused the deaths of thousands if not hundreds of thousands of South Sudanese and this delayed the emancipation of our people from the tyrannical regime of Khartoum. If it was not for the steadfast resolve of our Nation’s father Dr John Garang and those who have stood by him, there wouldn’t have been anything called South Sudan. We would have been stuck with an agreement similar to the dubious Khartoum Peace Agreement.
Instead of atoning for his past transgressions, Riek yet again stabbed the people of South Sudan on their backs and again subjected the populace to untold suffering over the last two years by attempting to fulfill his delusional prophesy of him becoming president. He tried to topple the government by engineering a coup but he failed miserably.
After his failure, the desperate person that he is, Riek retreated to his tribe and exploited them to fight on his behalf. Riek used witch doctors or kujurs such as Wurnyang to mobilize Lou Nuers and he lied to them that when they fight even when they are killed in battle they will rise up just as the fabled phoenix and that they were fulfilling Ngundeng’s prophesy. That is why the White Army cover themselves in burnt cow dung.
Once again in the recent fighting he is known to have used a witch doctors or Kujur known as Dak Kueth to mobilize Lou Nuer youth to fight for him and many of them were killed in various battles around Sudan Safari, Bor, Ayod, Mathiang and Gadiang. Riek was shown in numerous videos online setting up a shrine in Gadiang and lying to his followers that the shrine is for Ngundeng.
Riek is also known to consult fortune tellers and astrologers regularly especially Darfuris. On his recent trips to Chad, Sudan and Nigeria he visited Falata Kujurs and rumours has it that he was told some things that he did not like and that he will never become the leader of South Sudan. That is one of the reasons why he has been very reluctant lately to return to South Sudan.
Angelina Teny is notorious for being very pushy on her husband in order to fulfill the “prophesy” as she interferes with her husband’s work in order to achieve her lofty ambitions at any cost.
Lady Macbeth later was overcome with grief and guilt for her actions and as a result became mad and eventually committed suicide. Macbeth on the other had become delusional and tyrannical and tried to use every means possible in order to stay in power. He eventually was overthrown by his own people and killed.
What shall be the fate of “Macbeth and Lady Macbeth of South Sudan?” Is it going to be the case of life imitating art?
You can reach the author via his email: peter makuac <petermakuach75@gmail.com>
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