South Sudan: It’s Time to Bury the Hatchets and Inflate the Reconciliatory Balloons
By Kuir Mayen Kuir, Nairobi, Kenya
Tuesday, October 30, 2018 (PW) — Who ever imagine that there would be peace in South Africa today? I doubt if there is any one! The Africans in South Africa were among the very first Africans who were highly disadvantaged in the process of questing for freedom, justice and prosperity. In the year 1948, an apartheid policy emanated from the whites where they adamantly disregarded Africans and took them for an inferior race that cannot make a worthwhile decision singly without white intervention.
This thought was met by a stiff resistance from Africans that was graced by African unity and cohesion. However due to the sophisticatedness of the white weapons and a renowned knowledge of tactical measures to deal with Africans, they overpowered them .Some vibrant young African men and women fell victims of torture, mishandlements, maimed, imprisonment and a painful tearful death.
This didn’t bend them in anyway, they moved on pricking white men’s ribs where they could until the time when peace and reconciliation was the only choice for both parties. The priorities were set and peace and reconciliation was the top agenda. It was an unanimous decision and one of the most sagacious decision made by the warring parties then. It had to be implemented within a nick of time for the benefit of all the parties.
The war that had taken nearly 46 years had to be ended. When the reconciliation process finally kicked off, seminars and meetings were organized to disseminate the same information. Commissions were formed such as the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC). A body that was trusted to restore South Africa after the end of apartheid regime.
It was to investigate victims of gross human right violations and bring them to account for their deeds. Many South Africans conducted the face to face reconciliations where testimonies of gross atrocities were cited and apologies brought forward thereafter. Through these practical means, peace was obtained easily.
If you read or watch the story of apartheid regime and how reconciliation was conducted through TRC (Truth and reconciliation commission) in S.A and still find it hard to reconcile yourself with your own brothers and sisters, then I will not hesitate to find a more comprehensive allegory in Rwanda after the genocide fury. One of the worst atrocities that had happened in Africa so far.
A brutal exercise that almost cleared the face of one community in the country within a span of 100 days. It is again in Rwanda that a very high level reconciliation was orchestrated soon after the agreement to reconcile the nation. President Paul Kagame emblematically took the lead in the reconciliation process by forming what was locally known as “umuganda”. Umuganda in Rwanda was an exercise that majorly led to the kind of tranquility that is being enjoyed now in Rwanda.
Umuganda was a culture that was deliberately instigated into the system in order to enhance working together and hence national integration. It was enforced to work because it was of great benefit to the entire nation. The whole village was supposed to come out at the end of every month and complete a certain job together. Anyone who would violate that without any pardon from those who were put in charge, would risk fine and even arrest.
Even as Rwandan citizens assiduously came out with so many ways to re-engineer social structuration, I would request the readers to focus on the story of one Ms. Jacqueline Mukamana who was 17 years by time Mr. Sendegeya spearheaded merciless killings of her six(6) brothers, five(5) sisters and nine(9) uncles and the parents. These members of her extended family were murdered in her watch.
She was excluded because she silently escape the knife of fatality which prematurely squeezed her relatives to their respective graves. Nobody could imagine that this fined lady would regain the courage to forgive Mr. Sendegeya at one particular time. When Mr. Sendegeya later came back from prison through a prison fellowship Rwanda, he remorsefully took upon himself the whole killings process and traded blames on the Rwandan government that was in place then.
He sought forgiveness from Mukamana and surprisingly she afforded to forgive the demon who baptized her forcefully with her new title, orphan. As South Sudanese I would also encourage all of us to copy and paste the same spiritual nourishment that took over Mukamana during the time and apply the same now in our situation. We need forgiveness more than we need development because when the country is at peace, we will be able to forge new avenues for development.
That is to say, we have all the reasons to support peace and reconciliation which our president H.E Gen Salva Kiir Mayardit has brought to our doors.
On 31st of October 2018, President Salva Kiir and Dr. Riek Machar will be addressing the crowd in John Garang Mausoleum about peace and reconciliation. This is a good initiative in its preliminary position but as for me, I would urge Mr. President and his former deputy to assume after the occasion that nobody attended it and therefore take it upon themselves to take peace and reconciliation to the people in their villages.
This to say that the duo should take common tours across the country together because the impression that their togetherness leaves in people’s mind is permanent and a sense of good progression. Mr. President need to hold hands with his former deputy in the same vehicle and head to the remote susceptible villages where wars always escalate with agility in order to inform those people about peace so that they are not left behind.
As I communicate this important suggestion, I want President Kiir Mayardit to proof the people who doubted this peace deal wrong by committing himself to the full realization of a long lasting peace agreement. Maintain the same momentum towards taking peace to the people before Dr. Machar goes back to where he will be waiting for his full coming back as per the agreement. In simple terms what I am saying is that it should not be assumed that people have seen the reconciliation.
I know the occasion will be live on national televisions but there are millions of South Sudanese who are not access to these important avenues. Please Mr. President put them into consideration. Lastly I want to assure President Salva Kiir that there is no substantial number of South Sudanese students wherever they are who are against your decision to make peace.
We all are the immediate main victims after those who persevere on the frontlines. Nobody among us would like his or her education being cut short because the artificial reasons which can be ironed out with ease and allow life to move on. Therefore, we welcome it and we shall support you where we can.
The author, Kuir Mayen Kuir, is a student of Economics and Statistics at the University of Nairobi, Kenya. He can be reached via his email: Mayen Kuir <mayenkuir@gmail.com>
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