South Sudan: the Case for Independence & Learning from Mistakes

By LB Lokosang

This work started some few years ago, motivated by internet discussions involving a group of South Sudanese in the Diaspora. A question was floated by the author: "Why must South Sudan become an independent state?" a number of forum discussants contributed with answers to this key question. The contributions were substantial and provided the mould of this book. I therefore want to salute the efforts of my compatriots Dr. Charles Bakhiet Saki, Mr. Rogato Ohide and others who added some bits of answers to that key question. Their individual intellectual contributions to the initial manuscript are invaluable. If this Book scored some mileage, these compatriots are part of the acclaim.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris UK
• Release date: Sep 10, 2010
• ISBN: 9781453573754

LB Lokosang

The author, Mr. Lailà B. Lokosang, was born in 1961 at Lalyo in Lainya County, South Sudan. He attended schools in Lainya, Maridi, Juba and Ed-Dueim in Sudan from 1969 to 1981. He has a Bachelor of Science and a Master of Science degrees having attended University education in Sudan, the United Kingdom and South Africa. He is currently studying for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in South Africa. Mr. Lokosang served in various professional capacities as civil servant in his native country and as an expatriate and consultant in Malawi (United Nations and various international organisations). His current preoccupations include writing and contributing opinion newspaper articles and scientific journal articles and consultancies with several organisations and projects.

Book preview

Copyright © 2010 by LB Lokosang.

ISBN:   Softcover   978-1-4535-7374-7

ISBN:   Ebook   978-1-4535-7375-4

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

This book was printed in the United States of America.

To order additional copies of this book, contact:

Xlibris Corporation

0-800-644-6988

www.xlibrispublishing.co.uk

orders©xlibrispublishing.co.uk

300865

Contents

Dedication

Administrative map of South Sudan

Acknowledgement

Preface

One

A FERTILE GROUND FOR CONFLICT AND INSTABILITY

Two

THE DAWN OF PEACE AND GLIMMER OF HOPE

Three

A PRELUDE TO THE CASE FOR INDEPENDENCE

Four

LEST THE DARK HISTORY REPEATS ITSELF

Five

UNFAVOURABLE POLITICAL ENVIRONMENT FOR DEMOCRACY

Six

ECONOMIC IMBALANCES UNLIKELY TO BE OFFSET

Seven

THE LEGACY OF IRRECONCILABLE AFRO-ARAB ETHNIC AND RELIGIOUS INTOLERANCE MUST END NOW!

Eight

STRATEGIC REASONS TO REINFORCE THE CASE FOR INDEPENDENCE

Undivided African identity

Magnificent territorial location

Small is beautiful and strategically advantageous

Abundance of strategic commercial commodities

Nine

OPPORTUNITIES FOR AN INDEPENDENT SOUTH SUDAN

Political stability and peace dividends

A horde of economic opportunities

Salvaging national dignity

A lifetime opportunity for promoting its unique cultural identity

Surviving social extinction

Sigh of relief for Christians

Ten

THE CASE FOR SEPARATION IS STRONGER THAN IT IS FOR UNITY

Northern Sudan as a historical land of South Sudanese; a notion overtaken by time!

Unity can be made attractive over time; what a fallacy!

Explosion of Somalia-like unrest is mere fear of the unknown

Hegemony of larger ethnic groups over smaller ones is a glitch exploited by the North

Bigger is powerful and more influential is a tasteless adage

Land-locked and vulnerable South Sudan is a misplaced worry

‘Blacks are majority’: What’s in a colour!

Eleven

INDEPENDENCE, HOW TO ACHIEVE IT?

Twelve

FAILURE OF SELF-DETERMINATION IS SELF-DESTRUCTION

Continued insecurity

Legacy of self-inflicted poverty

Further corrosion of national cohesion of the African stock

Possible return to civil strife

Thirteen

GETTING IT RIGHT: LEARNING FROM MISTAKES

Getting it right from the start

Vision and Strategy-driven development agenda

A rethinking of the early rush to decentralisation

Civil Service Reform

Implementation of strategies for attracting professionals from the Diaspora

Nipping corruption in the bud and cultivating national integrity

Down-to-earth leadership

Fourteen

ROLES OF PROMINENT FREE SOUTH SUDAN NATIONALISTS

Aggrey Jaden (1924-1985): A pioneer of the independence dream and the South Sudan Ghandhi

Fr Saturnino Ohure (1921-1967): A true shepherd, who played his role passionately and martyred in the course of national duty

Chief Lolik Lado (unknown-1986): A community leader with a difference

William Deng Nhial (unknown-1968): First of the Pan African Dream martyrs in Sudan

Paul Ali Gbatala: A typical of example unsung heroes

Samuel Gai Tut: A raging fire of liberation extinguished too soon.

Martin Majier Gai Ayuel (1940-1983): A qualified justice activist ironically muzzled for eternity

Gordon Muortat-Mayen (1922-2008)

Joseph Oduho Haworu (1927-1993)

Michael Loruwe

Eliaba James Surur: The Solid Rock of democratic values and clear, undivided vision for South Sudan

Fifteen

SELECTED BOOK REVIEWS ON THE SUDAN PROBLEM

DUNSTAN M. WAI:

YOSA WAWA:

BENAIAH YONGO-BURE:

JACOB JIEL AKOL:

DOUGLAS HAMILTON JOHNSON:

FRANCIS MADING DENG:

AROP MADUT AROP:

DR. PETER ADWOK NYABA:

ANNE MOSELY LESCH:

JOK MADUT JOK:

Special Addendum

A TRIBUTE TO THE SILENT ARCHITECTS OF PEACE AND FREEDOM: DR. SAMSOM L. KWAJE WAS ONE OF THEM

Bibliography

Dedication

To the fallen heroes, who threw their bodies to shield off open

and disguised enslavement and secure lasting and dignified freedom

for the next generations of South Sudan.

Administrative map of South Sudan

image001.jpg

(Not drawn to scale—sketched)

Acknowledgement

This work started some few years ago, motivated by internet discussions involving a group of South Sudanese in the Diaspora. A question was floated by the author: Why must South Sudan become an independent state? a number of forum discussants contributed with answers to this key question. The contributions were substantial and provided the mould of this Book. I therefore want to salute the efforts of my compatriots Dr. Charles Bakhiet Saki, Mr. Rogato Ohide and others who added some bits of answers to that key question. Their individual intellectual contributions to the initial manuscript are invaluable. If this Book scored some mileage, these compatriots are part of the acclaim.

Some friends have personally encouraged me to compile my initial thoughts into a book. I also take pleasure in saluting these angels of love. Their trust in me will go a long way in building my confidence and spurring me to dedicate more time to writing.

Last, but by no means the least, I want to acknowledge the reader for opting to buy this book, sharing it with other concerned people in the plight of my country, and for committing time to reading it. Please be encouraged to give your feedback if you find it of any worth. I have ever written opinion articles which were published in some local newspaper, but this one is my first attempt to speak to the reader through a book. I, therefore, sincerely appreciate the reader’s kind support of any form.

Laila B Lokosang

[e-mail]

Preface

This book is not a novel; it’s not a textual narration of historical events; it’s not by any measure a compilation of political, social or philosophical theories. Rather, it is a presentation of thoughts based on realities and experiences. This book is a move to answer a number of lingering questions in the minds of many an interested party in the destiny of the territory of the Republic of Sudan called Southern Sudan, which for good reasons will be referred to here as South Sudan. The subsequent presentation of accounts in this publication will justify why the latter name suits the territory in question. For one resounding reason, the vast country whose name is a shortened version of the Arabic "Ardh al-Suud or Ardh al-Sudan", literally translated as land of the blacks, as it represents a big portion of what is historically known as Sudanic Region (representing the territory south of the great Sahara Dessert, from west of Ethiopia to Mouritania), has not enjoyed any sort of nationhood since its creation in the latter part of the nineteenth century A.D. Ethnic Arab migrations, which systematically dismantled indigenous African civilizations along the lower Nile basins, resulted in various forms of ethnic marginalisation and domination. Rich Nubian cultures south of Egypt in what used to be called Kingdoms of Alawa and Nepta, were undermined and replaced by Arab Islamic cultures. As usual, settling groups become more proactive politically, socially and culturally. It is to be noted that in the text of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement, which flagged the end of hostilities between the South and the North (1983-2005) used the expression South Sudan throughout.

Again, just as Christian missionaries used the Bible as an entry point to edify superiority of western cultures and civilisation; Islamic clerics led the foray of Arab influence into the Sudanic Region of Africa. Sketchy historical records testify to cases of forceful indoctrination of native Africans. For example, male and female circumcision, Arab dressing code and speaking in the Arabic language was to become an acceptable norm in the society. It is a foregone conclusion as to why the African breed of Sudanese, who have stuck to their ancestral heritage, abandoned their original settlements close to the intersection of the two Niles at Khartoum: the White Nile and the Blue Nile and move further to the southerly third of the country. Among the groups known to have migrated southward are the Chollo (Shilluk), Nuba and Dinka. Worsened by the reign of British colonialism, the southern tribes were condemned to a so-called closed districts area which meant they never benefited from any share of the development budget of the government of the day. Worse still, the Southern tribes were repeatedly raided by armed agents of Arab slave traders for sale to European buyers. That predicament was later to earn the Southerners the indignities of being referred in northern conversation circles, or boldly whenever a Southerner is believed to have gotten into the nerves of an Arab Sudanese, as ‘slave’. Actions speaking louder than words, the accounts in this book will demonstrate that Southerners have not enjoyed the fruits of independence of Sudan from its colonial masters of the 19th and the 20th centuries: the Turko-Egyptian and Anglo-Egyptian rules. Hence simply, South Sudan is anomalously referred to as Southern Sudan, when in fact it is not.

The book is divided into various chapters which systematically debate the question of why the case for independence of South Sudan is not only strong, but genuine and unequivocal. The reader is first led to understand the current circumstances and political atmosphere that has stimulated the thinking around production of the book. The circumstances surrounding the aftermath of a protracted war, waged predominantly by Southerners, and which spell out a sense of hope (when the question of self-determination is made a choice), have certainly necessitated the writing of the book. The subsequent sections describe in more depth the reasons that have instigated the call for independence of South Sudan. Another part of the book discusses the political and economic situation of South Sudan after the 21-year war, which ended in 2005, where a semi-autonomous government was set up, and examines expectations, challenges, fears and even causes of pessimism and scepticism regarding the fate of South Sudan.

The author assures that reading this book to its conclusion will paint a clearer picture of the virtue of independence that South Sudan so desperately needs; now rather than later. It is therefore hoped that the reader gets to appreciate not only the root causes of the conflict in Sudan, but also to recognize that the cessation of its bleeding part—the South—is a necessity and guarantees peace to either side of the political divide.

One

A FERTILE GROUND FOR

CONFLICT AND INSTABILITY

When you visited the north, you must have noticed the differences between the Arabs in the north and us here in the South . . . they are red-skinned and we are black . . . their names were Ali, Muhamed, Osman, etc. and our names here are Deng, Akol, Lual, etc., we have no shared ancestry, they pray differently but they want to force us to believe in their gods, they try to impose their language upon us and they have killed our people in the process over the years. They chop off women’s breasts during the raids; they have taken our people and forced them into slavery. Their climate is arid and hot and ours is cooler and vegetated, and they want our land. Their economy is more advanced and we have nothing here because they have extracted our resources for their own use, their entire way of life is different from ours, they are dishonest, they have no respect for kinship, they take their own cousins in marriage, and now you are asking us if we can live together with the Arabs as one people in a country where we, the black people, do not have a voice? If you really want to bring peace and you have the support of people from other countries in this mission, my suggestion to you is that you treat this country like a piece of cloth, have John Garang grab one end of it and Omer Al-Bashir the other, and you take a knife and cut it in the middle. I assure you, the Arabs are not people we want to share anything with and history speaks for us. We have never been one, we will never be one . . . They have done terrible things to us. We are not one race. Cited from Jok (2007), quoting Chief Makwec Kuol Makwec of the Malual section of the Dinka tribe of Northern Bahr el-Ghazal State at Malualkon, during a visit of General Lazarus Sumbeiwo in 2003[1].

The foregoing quoted text caps it all. It is an example of a popular opinion in South Sudan. South Sudanese, no matter what ethnic group they come from, regardless of whether they lived in any part of Sudan, mince no words in articulating their differences with the North and the stress they are enduring to try to coexist in a nation state with Northerners. Experiences of war, of both groups and individuals add to the emotional soreness. For the Dinka to the north of the Bahr el-Ghazal river, they have seen all forms of human indignities perpetuated by Arab militant tribesmen. They were raided, disgraced; their cattle and property pillaged, their children abducted, taken as war booties and enslaved; their wives and daughters raped and their bodies were mutilated. Then, to suggest that the two traditional belligerents could live together again is to suggest that a victim of crocodile attack, just rescued, could go back to the river.

Peace in Sudan has remained an elusive bird to catch for generations. For any intellectual observer who has followed events in the country from an interest position, it is easy to diagnose that such country has come into being by sheer chance; like an attempt to bond a metal piece to a wooden block. It is an experiment that has failed the test of time and as pointed out above, the very beginning of the country’s evolution was messy and ill-prepared. If the colonial masters who ruled Sudan left a worse legacy in another former colony, one would wonder what aspect of that country is worse than in Sudan. The British handed over sovereignty to Sudan in January 1956; making it one of the first of its former colonies to regain independence. Yet the country has today, in economic terms, remained as it only became independent some 15 years ago. This imperative definitely sits on the realities of persistent instability as a result of mistrust and lack of good faith from the point of view of the North, which seem to have assumed the role of the former colonial masters by practicing it on their southern and other indigenous African races among the Sudanese populace. Various forms of systematic ill-treatment of Southerners, as to render them second-class citizens, took place. These were later known to have been the root causes of a conflict that was to last close to 50 years.

Two major armed conflicts flared up in South Sudan, which the North-led governments resorted to violently quell but failed in both cases. The consequence was numerous battles that claimed an estimated four million people between them. The first war was sparked by junior soldiers in a regiment of Armed Forces (then known as People’s Defence Forces), who mutinied to resist and avenge mistreatment by Arab-Northern officers at the southern garrison of Torit in 1955. This rebellion was later to be joined by South Sudanese politicians and reorganised into a military resistance movement called the South Sudan Liberation Movement and code-named the Anyanya Movement and Anyanya Army. As expected, the rebellion was ignored by the North-based government of the time, which mobilised to crush it. However, the initially puny guerrilla movement proved a hard nut to crack and various North-led forces failed to subdue it militarily for 17 years. President Jaafar Nimeiri, who had overthrown a democratically elected civilian government led by Al-Sadig Al-Siddeeg Abdel Rahman Al-Mahdi, used the way of political shrewdness to cajole his less shrewd Anyanya counterpart, General Joseph Lagu to a peace negotiation, which against the wishes of southern politicians of the time, culminated in the infamous Addis Ababa Peace Agreement, on the third of March 1972. The former three southern Regions of Bahr el-Ghazal, Upper Nile and Equatoria were constituted as a self-governing region headed by the President of High Executive Council (HEC). This southern government, which was later exposed to cunning ploy by the North-based Government of Nimeiri, to lure the Southerners to lay down their arms, while being prepared for systematic manipulation and assimilation, became a castrated bull. Nimeiri replaced the President of the HEC at will, dissolved the southern parliament and abrogated the Addis Ababa Agreement in its core.

When a highly educated southern army officer by name Colonel John Garang defiantly rebelled in 1983 to form his Sudan People’s Liberation Movement and Army (SPLM/A), another armed rebel group was already in the formation called Anyanya 2. This new armed rebellion was to be an extension of the first Anyanya Movement, which fought in the southern bushes for 17 years (1955-1972). But the educated and witty Garang managed to convince the pioneers and eventually subdued them to form what became known as the SPLA/M. Thus another episode of war that was to last for 21 years was born. This second war claimed an estimated two million lives, injured millions, displaced millions, created immeasurable vulnerabilities and plunged the region into further degradation.

The second and