The depopulation of the countryside: Will Jieng Bor really revives her past glory?
6 min readBy Kur John Aleu – Bor, Jonglei State
May 15, 2016 (SSB) — The distinctive of ethnicities are cultures, norms/believe, languages and village set up and the preservation of those heritages is the manifestation of the resilience a give community has and it is therefore a benchmark for the community pride. However my recent trips through the former villages of Bor County to Duk County through Twic East County have given me a reason to worry that if nothing is done soon then some villages will be a history. This is happening because Bor has surrendered its leadership to selfish, greedy and visionless leaders that it has never had in history, leaders who only come to visit graves in their respective villages, they jet in by air not bothering whether there are roads that connect their villages to urban centers, it is not their business. I can’t imagine that in some places the only medical center is being run by a charity organization, where has the Constituency Development Fund (CDF) for last 10 years gone? That is why I called them selfish because their kids and families are not in such awful condition and therefore it is none of their business, greedy because they don’t feel ashamed of embezzling public funds knowing that the uninformed public will not ask them to account.
In my first ever trip to Athooc, Twic and Duk last week I was excited because I was eager to see those popular places I use to hear during my childhood fortunately next to me in the car we boarded was a man whom I think might have made several trips along that route because he knows all the centers along the highway. Yomcir was one of the places I really wanted to see because I use to hear about it as it was the headquarters of the SPLA unit which was based in Bor in mid 1990s, what I saw shocked me because it is presently identifies by trees. That this tree was a traditional court center, that where this tree is was a compound of so and so. The great Twic East is where you find a center and aspect a village settlement ahead but in vain, it is also the same case even for my own Makuach Payam which is just 15km from the state capital Bor, the center of power.
Duk County has a reason as to why it is in such awful condition, imagine the whole of Mareng which was then the Headquarters of Duk County is now a history, completely burnt and ransacked by Riek Machar forces together with the two popular Duks (Padiet and Payuel) it was heartbreaking when I saw people in Poktap and Duk Padiet in temporary shelters as if they will continue with their Journey tomorrow to their mother land when in fact they are in what is their ancestral land and will not go anywhere. The level of suffering there is beyond description and what came into my mind was ‘will Bor really regained its glory’? Will it really have organized villages again? Will the children I saw really have a day to sit in a classroom and listen to a teacher?
But the only man of people was with his people, the commissioner of Duk County Mr. Malual, I like him because he loves his Job and his people, Imagine for the whole period of two weeks I spent in Duk county he is there with them and I got/left him there unlike his counterparts who spend ¾ of week days in Bor town or Juba in Hotels, Dongchak a village in Duk Padiet near Paborkoi is his resort, I don’t know how many people live in that village but could be less than fifty household. Surprisingly the very people who burnt their villages are now being hosted by them as IDPs, it is a rare forgiveness and I believe God will one day bring happiness to them.
However, the resilience and hope I saw in Wernyol the headquarters of Lith Payam of Twic East county Reminded me of a Biblical story in the book of Nehemiah 1:1-end when some patriots/faithful came back to Jerusalem to check the level of damage of the wall of Jerusalem, the Temple and the whole city and begin to clean the city for expected return of their people from exile to Babylonia when they were held captives by King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylonia.
As we came driving I saw about 5 young men mudding the church and about 6 women cooking just at the road side I guess they were cooking for the men who were mudding the church, within the same area stand other young men holding a tape measure as the grader opens up roads in what was a town, I asked a friend who was next to me of what these people of the grader and the tape measure are doing, they are demarcating/surveying the area’ he told me’ I could not see people who will take up those plots being demarcated because the only people were the one at the church compound and those doing the surveying work.
Could these people be preparing the place for the expected return of their exiled population? The determination and hope I saw from them made me strong and begin to believe that one day our people will resettle if they put God first. Mudding the church building in that deserted area is the faith I haven’t seen anywhere but only God knows what he is doing among his people.
This article is therefore a reminder to the sons and daughters of Bor that you are nothing without your ancestral villages; you can’t be respected by anyone if you don’t organize your villages. It is time to start addressing our own issues and stop wasting time on national issues, even Jesus state it clearly that charity begins at home and that it is a foolish act to remove a speck in your brother’s eye when you have a very big log in your own eye .
The author is a civil Engineer and currently working in Bor. You can reach him at kurjohnaleu@gmail.com
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