The Sudan civil war, and those who poured their parental guidance into nurturing us [Part 1]
By Kur Wël Kur, Adelaide, Australia
December 10, 2016 (SSB) — As you start reading this article, think about those who made you rather than those who broke you. Our veterans die every single day: they die when we blame them for what happened in the past, they die when we blame them for what matters today, and they will die when we in the future blame them for woes and losses.
Today, I sit here pressing the key of every letter of the alphabet to help me convey my appreciation to two of my living heroes. As limited as the time is, I will mention their names as quickly as possible, just to give you a freedom or permission of deciding whether to keep reading or clicking off.
The living heroes in my mind today are: Sebit William Garang Dut and Awur Mawel Malual. As soul-shattering as war is, humans including myself have accepted war as an integral part of humans in this life. It makes or breaks people. As scattered as SOUTH SUDANESE are, war has made them who they are, whether for the best or for worst.
But the worst sin in our souls today is forgetting or insulting our heroes, alive or dead. Forgetting by not talking about them. Insulting them by lying about and disregarding the parental care they gave us.
So, readers of PaanLuel Wel: South Sudanese Bloggers (SSB), join me in how the two legends became parts of my life. Remember, war makes or breaks people.
The Sudan civil war
War is a three-lettered common noun; and it has existed since humans lived in colonies in caves. War is a liberating or destroying act of humans and other animals. Anything can cause war. From the primitive lives of cave-people where waterholes, hunting/gathering grounds and safety caves could trigger brutal conflicts, to the most advanced lives where the superpower nations sniff around for economic prosperity and to spread political ideologies(democracy, communism and socialism) in the weaker nations.
However, some nations slithered into civil wars for religious, political and economic freedoms. In case of Sudan civil war, our heroes initiated a series of armed struggles for these freedoms. Dr. John Garang, articulated the reason for the 1983-2005 civil war in an enlightened manner as a war for co-existence in Sudan. After he signed the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) with the Khartoum regime of Omar Al Hassan Bashir, he toured some places inhabited by Sudanese in the United States, selling the CPA to them. We heard him say the following lines in one of his numerous videos:
“We’re all Sudanese, whether we’re of Arab’s origin, or of African origin; we’re all Sudanese. What’s this insistence on our “arabiness”? Let’s become Sudanese; what’s wrong with this? … Arabism can’t unite us; Africanism that’s opposed to Arabism can’t unite us; Islam can’t unite us; Christianity can’t unite us, but SUDANISM can unite us because it’s the common factor.”
With this ideology in his mind, Dr. John and his colleagues – the founding fathers of our nation, ignited and prepared for a long and a daunting ideological war. So, everything that occurred during the war geared into the direction of the common goal, attaining freedom in all three areas that characterised the human existence: economic, political and social sectors.
The exodus of thousands of boys in 1987 and in 1990 was one of the things that the founders engineered for the sake of attaining that freedom. Obtaining the boys from their parents involved bits of force and bits of lies just as the politicians from advanced and free countries do to their citizens when they want to send young people to wars to fight in foreign countries.
In the civil war for South Sudan freedom, there were no distinctive politicians and military generals like in the democratic countries where wars are billed and debated in parliaments by politicians, then handed over to military generals after they (the billed and debated wars) survived parliamentary scrutiny.
The initiators of our revolutionary war were doing both: political and military wars. So, can we hang them for the crimes committed during the revolutionary war? Well, it’s up to us to give any answer in regards to this question, but I believe that anything that happened to us during the war was our little or great contribution to the great course, to gain freedom.
So, my people of my great country and my age mates: “Pinyuduans” and “Palatakans”, I will turn to how we became the boys under other adults’ care. God forbid, there must be no lying for us or by us regardless of a tincture of bitterness.
Thanks for your time, and lookout for: Those who poured their parental guidance into nurturing us: [Part two: Introduction]
Kur Wël Kur has a Bachelor Degree in Genetics and Zoology from Australian National University (ANU). He was the former the General Secretary of Greater Bor Community in Adelaide, Australia. He can be reached via his email contact: kurwelkur @ yahoo.com
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