A nightmare of festive season for the people of South Sudan
By Malual Bol Kiir, Kampala, Uganda
December 30, 2016 (SSB) — Previously, when I was a young boy, if I could remember well, the community used to come together slaughtering animals. Being it a bull, a goat a sheep or chicken, would be the best feeling for the day. The teenage night count down moment ooh God! This can’t get out of my mind. Imagine that moment where all in your possession, are new, being it a pair shoes, the yearly Madiba shirts and silky trouser. Waooh! The feeling of Christmas could be the best feeling someone who is a kid could ever have in his or her mind, soul and spirit. Christmas! Christmas! Used to get long to reach to us because of the strong urged for it.
Coming together as the extended families, to enjoy and share the Christmas together would be the nature of the day. The day used to be characterised by exchange of gifts, hugging and cheering, wining and dining together as a families. With the vision of working hard for the prosperity of the future grand generations. Oh God! I can’t forget of that time when the Congolese Lingala type of music would be the only sound of rhythm. It could cover the air waves, with people dancing and chanting at it with a lot of joy and happiness.
But now I am in a world where sorrows and gunshot have turned in to our music rhythm. Tears of joys have turn into the tears of sorrows, mourning is now the nature of the day. No more peace, no more happiness at all, thinking about how the families back in the country are doing since there is no mobile network communications. I am just mourning the people whom I have lost in the current ongoing conflicts in South Sudan
In the camps, the NGOs staff, doctors and nurses whom we see as brothers, sisters and parents as well as the soldiers protecting refugees have gone. They have gone to embrace and celebrate this cheerful day “Christmas” with their families. Life has turned to be so hard, the food we receive from the UN is not even enough to sustained families who have been enjoying awesome Christmas back home before crisis.
Christmas has eventually turned in to a night mare. Joy and peace time has translated in to the mourning time. All I could be thinking of is, when we shall ever get out of this chronicle cycle of problem. When shall we ever have time to show our children the benefits of coming together and living in harmony?
My dear friends, Christmas use to teach us a lot of lesson. Am writing this because of the sense of loneliness, I the IDPs and the refugee community have, the feeling of homeliness, the feeling of frustration and hunger, the feeling of retaliation, the feeling of not knowing where you belong.
Christmas does not seems like Christmas at all. While the rest of the world are cherishing Christmas with their families, South Sudanese are just thinking about their family’s well-being and whereabouts. The families mourning lost ones, thinking of the uncertainty of the future for their children’s. Life will never be the same again in the IDPs and the refugees’ camps. We are tired of this wars.
My fellow young men and women of South Sudan, lets join hands and forget about the tribal differences and work for everlasting peace in the country. We are the fountain of change and have the power to bring about the change we seek in our beloved nation. It is our sole responsibility to make Christmas happen again.
We need to make sure that we come together to regain our social cohesion and share our common identities as south Sudanese, let love ourselves as one people with common vision.
It doesn’t matter how far we can go but what matter is how many we can go as the African proverb goes, “when you want to go fast, go alone but when you want to go far go together”
The author, Malual Bol Kiir, is Refugees and Youth advocate, Peace and Education activist Executive Director, African Youth Action Network – AYAN Advisor, UN Progress Study on Youth, Peace and Security, UN Security Council Resolution 2250. He can be reached at his email: malualbk2005@gmail.com
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