I CHERISH MY COUNTRY, SOUTH SUDAN

By Gabriel Kuchdit Kachuol, Nairobi, Kenya

I cherish you O my beloved country,

When I look, I see potential energy

I see you beaming with youthfulness,

There is ongoing argument for progress.

When I look to Uppernile, I see white-army

marching not against their fellow citizenry

But against violence, illiteracy, laziness;

When I look to Equatoria, I see arrow-warriors

marching not against their fellow brothers

but against poverty, diseases, selfishness;

When I look to Bahr El Ghazal, I see Mathiang-anyor

marching not against fellow countrymen

but against raidings, revenges, carelessness;

I see everyone carrying a brick of talent

to, like Equatoria tower, my country built.

I see bright future for generations.

I see reformation and regeneration.

I cherish you O my beloved country,

I cherish your expansive swamp marshes

prodigiously dancing, dancing in greenness

and patient servitude to our great biodiversity;

I admire your sacred Nile’s gait and majesty

as it dispatches daily load of fresh waters

to the snaking snaky streams, lakes, rivers

and all the way to the North’s thirsty sands.

Your waters tomorrow will irrigate arid fields

of Taposa in the proud days of development

in the proud days when in our land shall reign

peace, liberty, justice, education and prosperity.

I cherish you o my beloved country

I cherish to contemplate the sky

when I see in the rising sun at morns

the lovely flanks of your mountains!

Behold the Imatongs of Torit!

The land whose name rings

memories of first call to arms,

the echoes of our march to freedom;

Behold the Kaya and Kajokeji ranges

which are like menacing mane of lions

sleeping on green mat of generous bushes;

They are impressive, noble and holy shrines,

The seats of our country’s misunderstood spirits

who patiently wait the day our woe betide generation

shall kneel in contrition, penance and plea to be lifted

from degeneration to climb its heights of regeneration.

I cherish you O my beloved country

let me sing the freedom songs

of your seasons, reasons and treasons

I cherish and cheer you with this song:

You Uppernile, you are the father,

You Equatoria, you are the mother,

You Bhar El Ghazal, you are the son.

You Abyiei, you are abducted daughter

You Abyiei are married to Osiris, your brother.

You o my beloved country are the trinity.

You Uppernile, you are the form of the trinity 

you Equatoria are sinews and blood of the trinity

You Bahr El Ghazal are the bones of the trinity.

The poet, GABRIEL KUCDIT KACHUOL, is a South Sudanese student in Nairobi, Kenya. Can be reached via: Kucdidgab@gmail.com

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