South Sudan: Africa’s Bosnia of the 21st Century
5 min readWelcome to S. Sudan, Africa’s Bosnia in 21st century
By Deng Vanang, Dares Salaam, Tanzania
February 28, 2018 (SSB) — In the news of the most heinous human rights abuses against depend less civilians, South Sudan tops the infamous list.
Which only comes second to Myanmar where ethnic minority Rohyingyas are at the receiving end of brutally de facto military junta.
Myanmar follows DR Congo where perennial failed state since independence lost control to marauding rival ethnic militias that exact revenges on each other in more unimaginable ways, despite the presence of largest UN peace keeping mission on earth.
That is according to recently released number of 41 South Sudanese military officials, names withheld, accused of such crimes of immense proportion.
Reminiscent of Bosnia in 1995, UN Human rights body recounted how South Sudanese service men of both sides in an ongoing devastating conflict brutalized their victims, suddenly sweeping away long standing societal traditions that once respected human values.
In which some had their eyes gouged out while still alive, with the rest castrated and left to tell their own chilling tales.
Boys were forced to have sex with grandmothers alongside young women being raped with crude objects in full view of husbands and children.
While others forcefully fed on fellow humans’ flesh.
At play as always, the motivations driving these beasts to carry out such horrific acts, is blind pursuit for power and wealth at the behest of an ethnic bigotry.
With perpetrators not oblivious of the fact: the world’s renowned idols are not the richest and neither the powerful, but the morally upright.
To prove this point of view, think of Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela, Mother Theresa, Che Guevara, Bob Marley, Thomas Sankara, Billy Graham and just to name a few.
A chilly reminder for those going berserk in robbing everyone in sight and in reach with hope of becoming happier and respected.
Contrary to being emotionally high on power and wealth that makes one even more insecure, loathed, antagonized and unhappy.
Simply because over 90% of the world’s power and wealth is illegally acquired by a few rogues at the grim expense of the supposed true owners, the humble multitude.
Public institutions
Something resembling the same greed is to take a courageous peep into Kenya public schools, with ripples effects being excruciatingly fell in as far as UN funded refugee schools in the sprawling camps.
Under closer scrutiny are the newly introduced and government lavishly funded programs of free universal Primary and Secondary education.
Which is not all well as its proponents once envisaged in one of the most progressively promulgated African constitutions, that of Kenya.
On all accounts instead, it is a meticulously rolled up chalice in the poison.
Previously billed to be lesser expensive than their private counterparts, the opposite reality is currently taking its tolls on the children of cart pullers and Sukuma wiki sellers eking out a living on the dusty roadsides of the East African largest economy.
Who miserably fall out of favor with illegally blotted school fees, school expansion and extra-furniture bills.
Others are salaries for illegally recruited teachers to be paid outside the publicly known system, teachers’ motivation bonuses, installation of the most sophisticated communication systems etc. all at the poor parents’ costs.
Which run into multi-million shillings’ mega industry to service the insatiable greed of principals some of whom successfully resisted mass transfers and their entrenched networks of cartels in pursuit of quick riches.
All these telltales also bear a glaring testament of how public facilities usually collapse under the crashing weight of neglect and profiteering oligarchs.
It is the IMF and World Bank of early 1990s getting vindicated in pushing for privatization of the most basic services against public ownership in exchange for much needed low interest rate loans.
To which several 3rd world countries, including those in Africa, opposed the proposal for more, better goods and services.
Which, as suggested, could eventually lead to an economic growth that comes with an increased employment and quality lifestyle for the majority poor.
But the crediting Briton woods institutions’ invaluable advice came with the costs of cutting the aged old patronage-clientele bonds that water the roots of savagely growing 3rd world politics.
Particularly, through shedding off the non-productive labor force by mostly Western business companies that took over the lackluster local public corporations and unceremonious retrenchment of morally decayed politicians.
Who normally shored up the already foregone re-elections bids by encouraging decadent economic dependency of the poor on the rich.
Mostly via delivery of free goods to the impoverished electorate during the ritualistic elections, further driving an already distressed economy into the doldrums.
The few which succumbed grudgingly, such as Zambia among others, miserably failed the flagship test.
Which therefore in turn unforgivably blamed the two Briton woods institutions for monumental socio-economic woes that ravaged the locals, but benefited them and their capitalist Western investors.
The author of several books, Deng Vanang, is a graduate of the Catholic University of East Africa in Kenya with a bachelor degree in Philosophy and political sciences. He got awarded with undergraduate diploma in public relations and management at Kenya school of exports and imports in Kenya. And in later years secured a post-graduate diploma in print media journalism from the University of Nairobi as well as a post-graduate diploma in peace and development studies at the University of Juba, among several short courses certificates in both information and governance from East African region and Republic of South Africa. He once served in SPLM/A during the war of liberation as political commissar and other political groupings in the post-war period. He became a Director in GoSS’ Ministry of Information and Broadcasting in Juba until 2010 while serving as the columnist with various newspapers before and after the December 2013 conflict erupted. He can be reached via his email: dvanang@gmail.com
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