Fate or Folly: Is South Sudan’s Suffering Preordained or a Consequence of Misguided Naivety?
Is our suffering our fateful destiny or a result of our naivety in South Sudan?
By Deng Bol Deng, Kampala, Uganda
Saturday, 08 June 2024 (PW) — It is said that history is the greatest source of truth and there is no other greater truth than our own history of misery and plight as South Sudanese. Ever since we were opened up to the outside world, we have barely known of any time of peace and prosperity. Right after the Ottoman Turks and Egyptians came, it was all about slavery and looting of our resources. Then came the Mahdiya state with its Islamist agenda which was confined to enslaving us and destroying our communities.
Next came the British with their imperialist agenda but they saw of little value in the land and people of South Sudan. They neglected development of our land and instead focused on developing the Arab North of Sudan. They also disregarded the complex differences in the cultures of both the Arab Islamic North and the black African South. Their mistakes later resulted in an unholy union which brought bloodshed. Next last we had the Arabs who came to destroy not only our communities but also our black identity. It was the worst period of misery in our entire history as a people. The horrifying images from that war still hunt up to this day.
Then at last we finally got our independence. How happy and joyous we were when our shiny and colorful flag with its golden star was raised at the moment of our independence! Only Shakespearean words could describe the emotions felt by the proud citizens on that day. After over 50 years of war and discrimination we at last had our own nation where we could be proud of our black identity. All we hoped for as South Sudanese was a bright future for all of us. A future where we could forget all the misery, we had endured to get our independence unfortunately that was not to be the case.
Just after 2 years, our leaders revealed their ruthless and brutal characters that they had kept hidden for a long time by starting a civil war. That moment alone was enough to undo the achievements we had struggled to build. It was enough to usher in the lost decade after independence. A decade in which misery and humiliation returned to the people of South Sudan. The faster the years clocked forward, the more ruthless, corrupt and incompetent our leaders became.
13 years later, the misery and humiliation continue to afflict us with an economic crisis that no one can hope to survive in. Still thou the South Sudanese people have endured. Even when our leaders have long forgotten about us and the future seems darker than ever, we still press on with perseverance. Suffering itself has become part of our culture and identity. We have survived the famine and hunger, we have survived the Antonov warplanes, we have survived the mass murder and atrocities of the NIF regime in Khartoum and we have survived the most horrible diseases. There is nothing horrible that we the people of South Sudan have not faced except hell itself.
So once again may I ask, is suffering our fate or is it a result of our naivety? It is easy for one given our history of tumultuousness to conclude that suffering is really our fate. But personally, l believe the world is not based on the mysteries of fate and luck but rather a result of our own actions. We cannot control the events that happen around us but we can control the way we react to them.
Rather than being stuck in the mindset of superstition and hallucinations, we can go and read from history and not just our own history but the collective history of the expansive world. In history we can find out the truth that relates to our present, it gives us ideas on why events are unfolding the way they are and how we can react to them for our own improvement.
I undoubtedly believe our present suffering as South Sudanese is as a result of our naivety to see beyond the flames that engulf us. We tend to be lazy and superstitious on how we view events around us instead of being brave, courageous and having the curiosity to try see how the negative events around us could change if we reacted in a way that would favor us. We tend to be conservative and criticize any acts of audacity while hallucinating and dreaming of the old good days when we thought our leaders still cared about us. We keep hopping that if we maybe can just endure like we have throughout most of our history, it could work out this time.
Unfortunately, even our own history clearly teaches us that we had to resist our oppressors in order to get our freedom. We ought to understand that an oppressor has no skin, whether he is in our skin or not. We continue to suffer because we are naive like sheep. A wolf in sheep skin can oppress a flock of sheep and the sheep because of their naiveness will do nothing simply because they believe the wolf is one of their kind, in the end they continue to suffer.
If we want a better future as South Sudanese, a future where we no longer suffer and face humiliation, then we should abandon the sheep mentality. Let us embrace unity, courage and boldness in order to change our fate. Even if we can’t control our fate, we can control the way we react to it. The bold and courageous can change their fortunes but the sheeplike and timid cannot escape their bondage.
The author, Deng Bol Deng, is a South Sudanese university student currently studying in Kampala City, Uganda and can be reached via his email address: Lord Scipio <lordscipio6@gmail.com>
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