Dr. Majak & Dr. Miamingi: A Response to Prof. Rita Abramhamsen's letter to George Clooney on the Sentry Report
8 min readDear Dr. Rita Abrahamsen: “We will prevail over the flaws of our leaders with the same will and resilience with which we fought and defeated colonialism.”
September 19, 2016 (SSB) — We wish to respond to your letter to George Clooney of 15 September 2016, published on the website of the Centre for International Policy Studies.[1] We write not to defend Mr. Clooney but to correct some assumptions used to critique his work on behalf of South Sudan.
We were particularly troubled by your suggestion that South Sudan’s independence resulted solely, or mainly from the work of international actors; or some kind of ‘dumb stunt’ by a Holywood celebrity which has gone awry. We don’t deny that countless individuals, institutions and countries supported our tortuous route to liberty. We deeply appreciate the material and moral support we received.
Helping a people in need should never been seen as a mistake, cravings for fame, or self-exoneration –and certainly not in the case of South Sudan. As the tragic events in South Sudan have not shot Mr Clooney to stardom in the humanitarian field; it is unlikely that these can take shine off his stardom. No any other outsider to be blamed for creating the mess we find ourselves in today. As South Sudanese, we take responsibility for our successes and failures.
As you must know, given your expertise in the region, millions of our citizens–not just heroes and heroines of our war of liberation; but also our entire civilian population — paid the ultimate price. It is, in fact, this widespread and wanton devastation characterised by scorched-earth policy and war-induced famine which pricked the conscience of individual activists and governments in the West to come to the aid of the victims.
An gruesome view of “Vulture Stalking a Child” captured by South African photographer in Upper Nile in March 1993 is a rare empirical evidence of Khartoum’s acts of brutality. Such inhumane acts moved individuals like Kevin Carter, a recipient of Pulitzer Prize, to commit suicide at age 33 in 1994, out of empathy for the people of South Sudan.
By every moral standard – even as your abhorrence to this line of thought has featured more abundantly in your letter to Mr. Clooney – enslavement, plunder, and oppressive rule of successive colonial administrations – especially of the Northern Arab mercantilists cannot be justified, whatsoever. Our people suffered for centuries under this duplicity and the very complex geopolitics of contiguous colonialism which South Sudan experienced.
Despite the gaping dichotomies that existed, the territory was viewed as seamless extension of Khedival Egypt and/or independent Sudan. At the forefront of these designs, were – and still are plethora of experts, apologists and cynics whose role is concerning until today.
To suggest that South Sudan’s march to statehood was always destined to fail, based on five years of nationhood, contradicts your own argument that nation building isn’t a photo-op or a movie but an endless journey. Failure is in no way inherent in us, any more than it was elsewhere in Africa or in the United States, which experienced its own civil war not long after independence. Suggesting that after 50 years of struggle, South Sudan is worse off today than under the colonialism of the Arabs is disrespectful of our collective sacrifices as a people.
Whilst this argument sounds logical, we are not in any way inclined to justifying the abrasive risk appetite of South Sudan’s power elites who have been responsible for the catastrophic blowouts in 2013 and 2016. But what we can assert is that the current and temporary setbacks have not cuased ‘decision regrets’ for the overwhelming vote for South Sudan indepedence in 2011. South Sudan is fragile but could have still muddle through without self-destructing, if its current crop of leaders were visionary.
Regardless of the blundering of the present South Sudan’s ruling gun class, South Sudan is independent and will eventually shape up. We acknowledge that this country was borne with greater promise and huge international goodwill and was likely to be a success story of postcolonial Africa. Unfortunately, we keeled over and squandered that opportunity.
Yet, we are capable of picking the pieces and putting the country back again on the stairway to nirvana. We will prevail over the flaws of our leaders with the same will and resilience with which we fought and defeated colonialism. In this new struggle, the efforts of individuals like Mr. Clooney, though imperfect and only surface-scratching; are incredibly valuable in our quest for accountable and pro-people leadership in South Sudan.
Kind regards,
Dr. Majak d’Agoôt: Former Deputy Minister of Defence and Member of the SPLM Leaders – Former Detainees
Dr. Remember Miamingi: International Human Rights Expert
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September 19, 2016 (SSB) — I’m writing to say that I think you are a great actor! And, of course, handsome beyond belief!! I loved you in Oh Brother, Where Art Thou? I laughed my socks off watching you in Burn After Reading. I even felt sad for your hardened, self-possessed character in Up in the Air. I’m sure you get many letters from your admirers, especially women like me. So at this point you are probably tempted to stop reading. Please don’t; I have something very important to tell you.
That report you just released on South Sudan — wow! Congratulations on once again capturing the limelight and drawing attention to the suffering and injustices of the world’s youngest country. You and your friend John Prendergast campaigned fearlessly for South Sudan’s independence, and your involvement helped convince the US and the international community to pressure Sudan to let go of its southern territory. When South Sudan was born in July 2011, you celebrated. The new President Salva Kiir was your friend, providing many a photo opportunity. You looked so handsome in those photos, exuding political vitality, making us believe in the humanity and goodwill of all people.
But things did not turn out quite the way you thought, did they? Nation building and peace processes do not follow Hollywood scripts, and there is not always a happy ending. South Sudan soon plunged into the most gruesome of civil wars. Killings, rapes abductions, the torching of villages all became routine. Tens of thousands have been killed. Two million have been displaced. There are more than 16,000 child soldiers. Meanwhile, South Sudan’s political elite have profited enormously, enriching themselves shamelessly and using their militias to profit from the war.
None of this is news, George! We have known for a long time and we did not need your two-year-long investigation to learn that the South Sudanese political elite is a corrupt, self-interested war machine. The international headlines may laud you for “revealing” and “exposing” the corruption and venality of South Sudan’s leaders, but what I want to know is why did you not speak up before?
Here is one scenario: In a Hollywood script, there must be good guys and bad guys, and in your quest to save South Sudan, President Salva Kiir and his former Vice President and now opponent Riek Machar were made to star as the heroes against the villains of Sudan. Complex political realities were made into a morality tale of good versus evil, of freedom versus oppression. Critical voices cautioning that independence might bring its own problems were brushed aside. The craving for media publicity was satisfied by simple stories. For a humanitarian activist in a hurry, there was no time for hard thinking and detailed analysis.
Now you turn around to find that the warnings have come true, that real life politics is anything but a morality tale: The heroes have turned villains, the morally good and oppressed have become the oppressors, the thieves, the murders, and the rapists. Some people say “I told you so,” but you feign shock and surprise, because of course you cannot admit that the warning signs were flashing like Hollywood marquees. The only way out is to pen another Hollywood script, this one starring George Clooney and John Prendergast as the lionhearted investigators exposing the venality of South Sudan’s political leaders and once again appearing as the saviours of this poor African country. Needless to say, the script carefully omits any mention of your longstanding support for these very same leaders.
Your character in Up in the Air leads off his motivational speeches with the question “What’s in your backpack?” For him, the question encourages a life free from burdensome relationships with either humans or material belongings. What’s in your backpack right now, George, is a relationship of political complicity with the situation in South Sudan. You may feel that your recent report atones for having overlooked the warnings and the atrocities without protest, and I agree that action now is better than no action at all, but that doesn’t absolve you from having contributed to creating this evil mess in the first place.
Like many people, I admire and welcome your political engagement, and I’m happy that you care about human suffering. Your activism can make the detachment of academic research seem bland, perhaps even irrelevant, but I do wonder — and sometimes worry — about the consequences of a global politics that increasingly resembles a beauty contest or a morality play. More than two years ago when I was editor of African Affairs, the premier journal in African Studies, we published several articles that documented the greed, corruption, and self-enrichment that your “investigation” has now revealed to such international surprise.
Needless to say, these African Affairs articles could garner none of the media attention lavished on your report, perhaps because they do not offer either simple solutions or comforting stories of good and evil. So, I’m pleased that you have helped to draw attention to a situation that experts on South Sudan have warned about for several years. My fear, however, is that once again your involvement will not only reduce complex political issues to nice morality tales, but will also lead to emotional politics and irresponsible short-term activism and interventions.
I hope you will forgive my frankness. Meanwhile, I look forward to your next film.
Best wishes,
Rita
[1]http://www.cips-cepi.ca/2016/09/15/letter-to-george-clooney/
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