Commemoration of July 30th: Is South Sudan Worth the Blood of our Martyrs?
4 min readBy Gabriel Kucdit Kachuol, Nairobi, Kenya
Tuesday, July 31, 2018 (PW) — Today is our martyrs’ day! I believe it’s a day to commemorate and also reflect on what, why, how,….questions entailing how far we have come as a nation to the stature we are in today – for better or for worse. It starts with “who am I” that South Sudan question bothers me?
I identify myself as concerned South Sudan citizen akin to one of the ten (10) anecdotal blind men sent to feel and describe the “elephant.” They all gave variant but, more or less, an accurate description of the gargantuan animal depending on the part each one of them touched.
However, in my description of this “elephant” (South Sudan), I have used the analogy of a “thorny nest” set up by a “monstrous bird.” The nest is “thorny” because the sticks constituting its framework and the edifice are imported from different trees transforming the nest to be more a nasty dungeon than a comfortable place to live in.
The bird is “monstrous” because it smash her own “eggs” for which the nest was established. The perplexing question is not why the bird used such pricking “thorns” to build a nest but, more daunting and paradoxical question is: what is this bird that destroys her own eggs?
Metaphorically speaking, the “nest” is the “alien/foreign” modern state (nation/country) known as South Sudan, which, from colonial orientation, began to take shape from 1821-2011. It’s thorny, in that, it’s a predatory and marauding system, which in absence of countervailing check and balances, is susceptible to be used to rape, loot and trample upon human rights leaving only human debris and carcasses on its wake.
(Note: the word “alien/foreign” is deliberately used to avoid the inevitable debate that often ensue as a result of the assessment of the systems: modern state system juxtaposed with the indigenous African institutions (stateless or decentralised and the centralised societies – kingdoms and empires)).
The “bird” is the disgraceful leadership only there to advance the egotistical interest of the elites with abominable political monstrosity. The “elites” are amorphous groups of “educated” Africans who, though form a small minority of the national population, thinks that political power is their prerogative; it cannot be shared with “backward masses” whom they regard to be too uneducated to understand such esoterica as “constitutional rights”.
The elites perceives themselves as having natural right to rule and deem it sole responsibility of the government to provide not only jobs but also other basic necessities of life. The distinguishing sign of the elites from the ignorant masses is the possession of academic paper: PhD, degree, diploma, certificate or army title.
The “eggs” are the citizens and their values and property.
Truly, South Sudan, the potential giant of Africa, did not deserve to spiral down from colonial subjugation to sovereignty (“independence”!) and then to civil war again. We ought to have learned from other African states like Rwanda!
Our country should be a prosperous country because it’s endowed with enormous mineral deposits, rich arable lands for agriculture, the backbone of any country; forests, rivers, lakes and mountains and other physical features of tourism, a source of hard currency; and above all, the most resilient and talented population.
Sadly, without any brief period of successful self-governance, nascent nation is “booming” in economic mismanagement, corruption, senseless civil conflict, political tyranny, flagrant violation of human rights, military vandalism etc, all thanks to arrant misrule and plunder!
One can’t help wondering if this nation is worth the blood of our countless martyrs?
The author, Gabriel Kucdit Kachuol, a student in Nairobi, Kenya and can be reached via kucdidgab@gmail.com
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