Yearning for equality: The final death of cultures and traditions in South Sudan
4 min readBy Deng Akok Muoradid, Juba, South Sudan
February 8, 2018 (SSB) — In South Sudan, there is no culture which condones corruption, criminality, selfishness, prostitution and indecent dressing. All the cultures of the 64 tribes never tolerate corruption, indecent dressing, greediness or any act of crime and that is why the people were in peace among themselves during the pre-independent period.
The South Sudanese in the pre-independent period were God-fearing people and they were well administrated by their respective kings and chiefs compared to the current situation in which some citizens have reached the level of undermining God. South Sudanese cultures are the best among all the cultures in the world and they are in accordance with the Holy Bible because bible itself doesn’t allow the people to corrupt the public resources, dress half naked or practice prostitution.
However, the introduction of western culture has put our cultures under the threat of extinction and some have already extinct. In addition, the life difficulties that were created by the current austerity and inequality in the distribution of public resources have forced our people to turn into robbers, others are killing their brothers because of the cattle, others are corrupting the public resources to satisfy their needs, others are abducting other people’s children, others have become gangs and drunkards in order to forget the conditions that are facing them, our ladies have joined prostitution and some of them have bleached their skins to attract the wealthy people.
Our people have adapted sinful methods of acquiring wealth and leadership. For example, the current ongoing conflict is rooted in the competition for the control of resources. Everyone has a vision of becoming a leader in order to get the chance of corrupting the public resources. Therefore I am taking this opportunity to advise my fellow S Sudanese who have a dream of becoming leaders to use the right channel for acquiring leadership.
During the pre-independent period, it has never happened in any tribe or community for the people to fight over the leadership because the use of violence to acquire leadership is prohibited by our cultures. In South Sudan, it is easy to acquire wealth but difficult to maintain because a wealth being achieved through corruption is like rainwater which covers a vast area of land within 12 hours but dries up in less a day.
Our ladies should know that buying a white man’s color is a sin because it underrates the God’s gifts. They should feel proud of our black color. Who was not created by the God? All the human beings including the blacks, whites and Arabs were created by one God and all of them will be judged equally irrespective of their colours, cultures, languages, religions, technological advance etc.
According to the S Sudanese culture, a notorious human being can neither be allowed to marry nor be respected even thou he or she is rich. In those days, a notorious human being could not be given a chance to talk at the meeting or any other important occasion leave alone giving him/ her front seat. However, these cultural morals have been abandoned and replaced with the sinful cultures that have spoiled both our cultural identity and God’s image.
Nowadays, people are measured and respected based on possessions rather than the merit. In our traditional societies, an individual is highly respected if he or she is a great advisor or in case he/ she has a big family. Being rich doesn’t qualify you to be respected because wealth attainment is associated with devil practices, corruption and hard work. None of the above methods qualifies you except hard work.
For instance, in my tribe, the word DIT cannot be used to address a notorious human being or anyone under the age of 45 years. But nowadays, it is randomly used to address the criminals or corrupt people.
For example in one of the occasions that I have attended in Juba, I was very surprised to see a child of 17 years being addressed with the word DIT and given a front seat because he was a son of a rich man. So the concentration of the country resources in the hands of few individuals has compelled our people to abandon the culture and God.
The author is a student at the University of Juba. He is a former booking officer and an operations manager of the defund Golden Wings Aviation Company Ltd at Wau office. He can be reached via email:dengakokmuoradid@gmail.com or mob: 0954764508
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