THE HYPE OF HATRED VS IDENTITY (Part 8)
7 min readConclusionary Part
By Thiik Mou Giir, Melbourne, Australia
May 1, 2016 (SSB) — During the last seven weeks I have been trying to address issues, which I believe have contributed in creating a downward spiral social situation in S. Sudan as well as in Diaspora. These issues which are the topics of my articles. They are: the saying that ‘Jieng people are: ‘The Foolish Majority’, ‘Jieng are Cow-headed People’, Land Grabbing, ‘Born to Rule’, ‘We Liberated You!’, and ‘Jieng council of evil!’ These issues we have created act like virus in our subconscious. When they influence what we do and what we say, we find it difficult for us to form positive working relationships. Lack of trust and love deprive us from having a sense of community and of nationhood. Our people think they have a country to themselves, yet if they cannot travel anywhere they want within S. Sudan without fear of being persecution, if they cannot build their livelihood and avoid being forced into refugee camps or forced to take refuge in neighbouring countries, what does liberation mean to them? Let us work together to get rid of any virus.
I write and what is driving me to write is not to directly promote the current government, the SPLM/A-IO, or any other political party. I write from the point of view of the down trodden, from the point of view of the people who have no voice but are in need of having their livelihood and freedom in their own country protected. I write to tell my people that we need a different kind of a liberation movement. I write to tell every single S. Sudanese that we need to liberate ourselves from ourselves and from our past. Each one of us needs to start from oneself, then from one’s family, then from one’s clan, one’s sub-tribe, from one’s tribe and finally from one’s country or one’s whole community. The sky is the limit. Hatred has taken root in our minds and in our hearts and we will find it hard to let it go without exerting extraordinary efforts from all of us. We need social and cultural revolution. We need to stop relying on international community to make peace for us, to feed us, and to think for us. We need to stand up as men and women of S. Sudan and start building the country.
Nothing is free in this world and if you depend on others, you will never develop as one people. Foreigners will go into the country and your sleepwalking people will become the opportunity for them to become rich. The case of foreigners repairing your people’s cars while your young people are playing dominos is not a positive one. The case of foreigners opening shops and more shops while your adults are spending hours, weeks, and even months in order to collect enough cows, or whatever, to offer as dowry for the hand of a single girl is not a case that is compatible with how the world is moving forward. In this world, you compete and live as strong, or be a slave and die as poor. Simple as that. The world does not care whether you have a tradition, or the tribal mentality that keeps you down there in the mire or not. Think of that. The world is moving on and is dragging you along, not as people with your own mind, but as slaves, slaves even in the country you think is yours. You will continue to know that S. Sudan has so many natural resources and you will continue to wonder why so many S. Sudanese are still so poor. People from other countries will go into your country to teach your people lessons on how to run and develop the country and you will continue to wonder why your people are not running and developing the country the way it should have been developed. Who taught those people who come to S. Sudan in order to teach S. Sudanese lessons? They learned by trying and failing, trying again and failed again, and tried once more until they succeeded doing things for themselves. What is keeping you from not doing the same? Hatred, jealousy, tribalism, and the notion that tell you, unless the white man and Arab are doing it for you, it is no good.
Relying on yourself is the best way to grow and the best way to reach maturity. This means you have to work as a big team. A team spirit must prevail in your country as well as in Diaspora. This means you must not tolerate those who want to see certain groups of your people as minorities or ‘not as important’ or ‘liberated’ or ‘the foolish majority’ or ‘cow-headed’, exc. Hatred begets hatred; love begets love. Hatred destroys; love builds. If you focus on things that are positive and on things that promote love, you will soon realize that those things that you once considered evil, those things that you once considered negative, have become unpopular and they have died out. I have not met a person who is growing and at the same time have not changed for good or for ill. The same is true with tribes or any group of people; the same is true with the countries. Let us guide the direction we want our home country to become by focusing on what is good for all our people.
Those who attack other tribes are traitors to all of us. They are enemies to all of us, including the very tribes they are members of. We must defend our work of building our new identity as if it is a mater of life or death.
The Construction of Our New Identity is the only vision that will let us overcome tribalism and the only way that will let us have the guts to identify ourselves as ‘citizens’ rather than ‘tribesmen’ and ‘tribeswomen.’ We can put this into practice by launching ‘dialogue’ activities. Our people need to discuss, not to avoid discussing, things that are keeping us down, things that are outdated, things that are in discord with the concept of ‘coexistence’. If we refuse to give up things that are keeping us apart, if we are not flexible, how on earth are we going to move on as one people? We must put everything we have inherited from our forefathers on the table. We must discuss each one of them in turns and then categorize them as ‘to get rid of’, ‘to keep’ and ‘to continue to have a debate on’. By doing this, the outcome will have a positive impact on our lives. We will become better people who will be ready to compete with other people of the world, such as the Egyptians, the Ethiopians, the Ugandans, the Kenyans, etc. and why not South Africans? We need to think big while avoiding pitfalls of victimizing own people, of stealing from public funds, of depending on international communities’ aide, and of misusing our time while we are still on this earth.
Until I see this happening, I do not know what you mean by saying we are a liberated people. I have a good grasp of how the world works. I have studied so many things in the least developed country in the Arab world; I have also studied so many things in one of the most powerful Arab countries; and I have studied so many things in some Western countries. I have enough information and enough knowledge to enable me reach the conclusion; namely, you cannot avoid being manipulated, you cannot avoid being enslaved, mentally as well as physically, and you cannot avoid being despised until you stand up on your own feet and fight as one people.
Now that the Transitional Government of National Unity has been formed, it is time for our people to forgive and to open a new page. It is time to reflect on this question: ‘we have a country for ourselves, what are we going to do with it? How can we develop it and make it become the best country for our people?
This is the final article in this series, entitled, The Hype of Hatred Vs. Identity. The feedback I have been receiving so far from those who had read the articles had been informative, inspiring and encouraging. Please know that I have learned a lot from you and I appreciate your comments very much. I am sure we who debated on the topics had opportunity to learn from each other and to respect each other’s opinions.
The writer can be reached at thiik_giir@hotmail.com
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.
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