Mourning Justice Majok Mading Majok: My Personal Account of the Iconic Lawyer and Legal Advisor to President Kiir

Eulogy and Tributes: Mourning Justice Majok Mading Majok Anyang

By Kur Ayuen Kou, Melbourne, Australia

Friday, 27 December 2019 (PW) — It was with utmost shock when I learned of Molana Majok Mading Majok’s unfortunate death. I woke up in the middle of the night to find my phone flooded with messages and missed calls from friends who were asking if I have heard anything from Juba or Nairobi. As usual with such mid night messages and calls, my heart skipped for few seconds about what may have happened.

My first stopover was Facebook where I came face to face with the reality of what people were asking. It was all over the internet that ‘R.I.P Majok Mading’. I hibernated with my helpless body trembling with shock with tears hovering over my eye’s lids. But with none to console with in my immediate vicinity as my wife was in deep sleep, I took a moment to reflect on our long relationship that we have built over the years that I have worked with him.

I met Molana Majok Mading when I was working in the Office of the President between 2011 and 2015. I worked closely with him on official matters and there, we developed a strong trust between ourselves given the number of confidential information we share daily. His legal mind vibrates every time he makes a point. He speaks wisdom every time we converse and the Minister and I made him a one-stop-shop for consultation on any issue that is related to government policies.

However, as usual, legal decisions are not always popular politically and different interests will clashed on our door steps as decision-makers but we were assured by his wisdom that we are doing the right thing. Molana Majok will always insisted that “If you want to be safe in political office, always do the right thing, stand with the truth and know the boundary of your duties. He also says never intervene when you are not asked to do so”.

I remembered two incidences that I presumed set Molana Majok a bar higher than his peers from my perspective. A certain Minister of Justice came to the Minister in the office of the President complaining bitterly that the letter he has received to stay a certain case was not written by the person purported to have written the legal opinion. He suspected the legal opinion of which he was holding a copy must have been drafted by this idiot Molana Majokdit (to use his exact words) because of the use of word ‘forthwith’. This is a legal word Molana Majok use frequently to draw attention to the authority he speaks for and to assert the finality of the decision.

His judgement on issues is always realistic and identical to many legal minds. Many people across government relied on him for second opinion. He speak truth, nothing but the truth and this attracted many admirers. Another incident was in Beijing when we were negotiating with a certain partner on the oil for road projects. Molana Majok argued for the use of an escrow account to handle the funds through a third party financial institution but the Chinese Bank insisted that it must be within their bank to manage the funds on behalf of the parties.

Majokdit produced the international legal document on the management of an escrow but despite that evidence, the minister who was the head of the delegation sided with the Chinese against our delegation. The minister invoked his powers, asserting that he is the minister and therefore he has overruled the issue of escrow and the Bank was granted that article in the loan facility. After a day, the Chinese returned that they agree with Molana Majok on the issue of escrow account and therefore it will be rename as a security account. I could see him visibly happy and when we met in the lift after the deliberations, he gave me a high five saying I am vindicated.

On personal relationship, Molana Majok have never calls me with my given name since we introduced each other back in November 2011. When we first met, he asked me about my names and I told him. He was excited that your father is someone with outstanding personalities among our Chiefs in Bor area. He says, I wish you will emulate his characters and grow to be someone responsible. I told him, I promise to live by his example. He recalls my father’s Dinka heritage or prestige name of ‘Agut Chaam’. Since that time, this became my name throughout our interactions.

As recent as in August 2019 during the prayers of Bior Ajang Duot, Bior-Maror who was his brother in-law in Gen. Bior Athuot’s house, Molana Majok came in and found me seated with Gen. Bior Ajang Gen. Deng Garang Beny and Dr. Majak Agot and he called me out ‘Wen Aguut Chaam’!!! Dr. Majak asked me, Aguut Cham ye raan mior manguu? I knew little about it but I guess must be a grey bull, the color of the elephant but I felt challenged, so I call my father to ask him about his prestige name of Aguut Chaam, it turn out that it was a bull with the horn twisted to the left, meaning the elephant grabbed things with a left turn. His cultural heritage is so engrossed in him and this make him feel more comfortable calling me with my dad’s bull name.

Another recent event was when he was conducting the marriage of my cousin Akur Dut Kou and Lueth Thiak Deng in Juba. Uncle Majokdit was the head of negotiations on the groom’s side and my father on the bride side. During the negotiations, people came to consensus with the bride price and it was time for alokthok. It turn out the husband to my aunt Ayor Kou Dut and father to Jacob Lueth Deng known as Jacob Luis was match up with my dad to give him a cow by virtue of family hierarchy on the groom’s  side but Majokdit in between asked my dad, Aguut Chaam, if a bystander was to offer you 100,000 SSP for the cow yet to be found, will that not be helpful and dad responded, if it is a bystander like Molana Majok Mading, he could make it 150,000 SSP and he told the secretary to write it down as 150,000 which was given out after two days.

Uncle Majokdit was one of the few senior staff of the Office of the President to have visited us during our incarceration at Juba Central Prison. During the visit, he says, he is coming as Majok Mading Majok, not as legal advisor to the President. He says, there is nothing that prevented him to visit and he has nothing about the case that he want to discuss. His visit is purely humanitarian as he heard some of our elderly colleagues were not doing well health wise. We knew the fear other colleagues like him were in but uncle Majokdit took the courage despite the risk involved to visit us and he inform the concern authorities accordingly since we were briefly denied visitation to the hospital.

My last interaction with him was on 25/11/2019 when I went to see him before my return to Australia. A visit to J1 has been something I have tried to avoid given the argument that ensues with security guards but paying a courtesy call to uncle Majokdit has been something I have contemplated for a very long time. It turn out the guys on duty were known colleagues and I was ushered to his office few meters away from the main entrance. After greetings and welcoming, the bell range and the messenger came in to give me water, his signature welcoming. We had a bite of chat and told him that I am going to travel to see the family since I have been in Juba for six months. We warmly greet each other hopping to see him back again but now, it is sad not knowing that was the last time to see him alive. Uncle Majokdit was in joyest mood except the swelling on his right foot. He was visibly thinner compare to last time I knew him. My good guess was, it is good for his health but little did I know it may be a sign of the worse things to come.

To know Molana Majok sense of humility, simplicity and humbleness, he will always greet you standing up across his desk or swing around to give you a chest thumping and handshake. There is no single day I can remember Majokdit greeting me sited on his big desk. He take no for sharing a cup of tea and no number of NOs that will dissuade him from asking you to have a tea or a bottle of water before leaving his office. Such hearts of kindness are in shortage in our public offices. I can attest, no single staff member from the Office of the President has ever cross path with uncle Majokdit despite the incessant competition in public offices. His department of Legal Administration in the office of the President is an instrumental department in the Office of the President that supposed to be included in the President’s overseas trips, but Uncle Majokdit has never made it an issue why there is no staff member of his department accompanying the President. But still, he is call to advise on legal issues when he has been left back in Juba.

Molana Majok take no offence on what he judge to be right and he will never take you an enemy when you disagree with him. His colleagues, students and other peers alike consider Molana Majok as one such individual who have never change career since he graduated from the University. This set him at par with other lawyers because law is the only field of his expertise. I remember the former Sudanese Vice President Bakhiri Hassan Salah asking one of the ministers of South Sudan to greet him when we were in Addis Ababa back in 2012.

His personal relationship with H.E. the President was as solid as a rock during our time in the office. The President tended to always called him out jokingly during Christmas meet and greet, Nesip ci yen de emeen (in-law, how is everything) and Molana will responded, all is well wuunda. I remember him narrating how H.E. the President one day call him during the crisis and gave him a doctored security report against him which recommended to the President to remove him but the President told those people off to their faces, that they are wasting their time.

He thank the President for having defended him in his absent with the charges that he was sneaking information to G10 of which one of the members is his direct relative. He told the President, despite the blood relationship with the suspected cousin, he can never act contrary to his professional code of conduct. He told the President his service is to the country and there is no reason he can serve when he has opposing views. That was Majokdit in nutshell, very ethical, candid and humble.

Knowing Molana Majok Mading is knowing the truth that he has sworn to defend. During our trial, he was called as prosecution witness to testify if he has received items that were alleged to have been delivered to his office. He became a hostile witness to the dismay of the prosecution. Uncle Majokdit took it a notch higher by coming to court with the samples of the goods delivered to his office contrary to what the prosecution expected him to say. He was facing the same charges as Uncle Chaat Paul that they claimed to have received items from John Agou companies which the prosecution believed were not delivered. But Majokdit proved them wrong with the sample he brought with him to court. But truth was not the guiding principle of the case, uncle Chaat became a victim of state machinations.

Our country has lost a dedicated professional who cut across age group. His friendship with his immediate staff is a display of father and his children. Managing one of the most heated office with controversial decisions did not make Uncle Majokdit a public mockery but an icon that deal with his work ethically and professionally. Balancing relationships is a skill he has performed with high distinction. I remember the high authority want him to do things as directed but given the seniority of the Presidential advisor on Legal Affairs in the office of the president, he has to consult with them on critical issues.

I am personally touch by his death and still in denial that some miracle can happen but I just have to come to term with the reality as known. I lost a friend, a father, a mentor and above all a leader you can meet without the slightest arrogance. You will never think twice about wanting to see Molana Majok. How you will be receive, greet and send off can never change. It is so sad death is cruel to people who are doing good to the society but I am sure we love him and God love him more.

To the family, the fall of uncle Majokdit will be a loss of unimaginable proportion and I have no word to console you rather than we have been robbed by the merciless evil. We will continue to share with you his good deeds that run across cultures, politics and society. May our heavenly father bless the soul of my dearest uncle Justice Majok Mading Majok. You will be forever remembered my uncle!!

The author, Kur Ayuen Kou, is a South Sudanese Australian and can be reached via his email: Kur A. Kou <nile.kou@gmail.com>

About Post Author