Customary laws and the dynamic societies

By Atok Dan Baguoot 

As the world is becoming closer technologically and socially, coupled with the rapid influx of foreign cultures and so many others, our society is also dancing in the same tone in forging uniform existence with outside forces, our laws and cultures are becoming more and more obsolete not gradually but rapidly. 

This factual dynamism is being catalyzed by technological advancement and inevitable situational changes like the wars plus other related factors which ought legal adjustment. As a society governed by customary laws for centuries and still holding on with deep belief in the same statutory, we are obliged to make a turn within a legal orbit in order to comply with the global direction. 

The world around us of course doesn’t have legal jurisdiction to urge us to revisit our norms and ethos in favor of either Western or Eastern world interests but we as people whose economic might is partially independently numbed, our ancient laws are deemed shortage of standard. 

It is a known fact that Southerners have scattered almost in all countries around the world and come back with motives of doing the undone in societies while how they do it almost contravenes with laws of the land. In the earlier 1970s, three greater regions of Bahr el Ghazal, Upper Nile, and Equatoria had assembled in three different places to enact laws governing marriage among those communities whose cattle are paid as dowry. 

In Bahr el Ghazal, WethAlel was the assembling point whereas, in Greater Upper Nile, they converged in Fangak. Laws were enacted and promulgated in accordance with various cultures and customs in those places. In the case of cattle keepers, cattle were considered as bride prices and also became useful in areas of blood compensation. For a young man in those communities to take somebody's daughter, you pay cows to buy that pretty human being whose ownership is vested upon you the buyer after the required number is met upon agreement by the two families. 

 A certain figure of cows was agreed upon in the case of adultery while pregnancy and child/ren born outside wedlock and brought up in their maternal families had an upper column in those unwritten or oral laws. For the case of Dinka in Upper Nile, six cows were agreed as equivalents of confirmed adultery while that of a lady was two cows and a bull. 

With these rare and unique laws, societal rights were more valued than individuals' rights within those societies hence, human rights were never a known vocabulary, and women as mere assets subject to men's laws. Women's rights were almost next to a taboo if not sinister to society’s progress to the extent that a mature girl or even an underage girl can find herself flat on a men’s bed without knowing where these arrangements were attended to. 

Regardless of age so long the person in the description is a lady, of course, there is no unisex marriage, she is to adhere to elders’ demands after all the bridegroom is considered to be from a high family. Not even my mother can dare tell me that she made her mind independently. Women lawyers of the time read different legal books otherwise; they won’t have accepted such laws to be passed in the elders’ assembly because women were so much victimized. 

Things like forced marriage were nothing but part of obedience that parents impose on their daughters to accept men of choice to parents. Children considered central to conflicts had no right also. A child is surrendered to a regrettable decision without being asked or given time to be able to think independently of his/her family of choice in the future. 

With these laws also there were no definite avenues where defaulters could be punished or held accountable for their crimes especially those from well-off families whose parents at zero hours are able to raise blood prices or compensation without difficulties. 

To them, murder is just a murder without being analyzed why it happened and in such a situation, blood compensation for resumption of normalcy was ultimate. People kill when they are able to compensate the aggrieved and bereaved families. Despite legal hurdles surrounding these undocumented laws, merits and demerits are only visible to those with a background in in-laws themselves or a person liberal enough to comprehend legal logic besides being a fan of the western lifestyle. 

Of course, it was only in the American constitution that the first bill of rights was introduced and this made it so far the best human-made constitution. Bible and holy Quran don’t have verses that talk clearly on individuals’ rights other than t don’ts which almost formed the whole pagination however, adultery and fornication are well spelled clearly as not individuals’ rights, something that is considered as almost a choice in statutory laws. 

In Uganda and Kenya, it is less punishable because it is considered done within the context of choice. My wife can still love after all it is her will to disown me at any time she feels like it. Back to the topic, our laws are totally obsolete because when we compare them with other world’s laws, they don’t have equivalent not because they are better but because they violate fundamental human rights and there is nowhere such law can exist in this global village called earth. For example, women who conditionally parted with their couples during the war and made new settlements after their first husbands today are still being asked to go back to those men they left decades back because those had then paid prices yet they have lived a new life completely. 

Grown-up children fathered by different fathers are also compelled to go to men who had married their mothers before despite the fact that these men have no birthright ownership of these children but because their adopted father had paid for their mother the other time. Refugee families who had resettled overseas got it rough to quell their wives who had anciently lived in the world of denial for a long time thus, divorce became the order of the day because after these women became known for women's rights, kicking started in their houses. 

A number of single mothers is on the rise in places like the US, Canada, and Australia after they became defiant of negative laws. Ok, the only available merit of this law is how it keeps our culture intact while the world around us is losing their cultures rapidly, whereas ours is gradual though demerits still outweigh merits logically. 

In demerits, high bride prices of cattle are one of the hidden reasons why our society isn’t able to make a full complete enjoyment of peace because able young men who had no formal education during twenty years of war with the north are busy with cattle rustling in different villages in the whole of Southern Sudan to raise the required numbers. 

Here, our laws are part and parcel of the promotion of chaos than promoting peace in communities improvised by war. Besides cattle rustling, urban migration is on the rise as more youth are becoming redundant in villages following a drastic reduction of the number of cattle due to adverse conditions known better to animal scientists in addition to fading of the art of traditional keeping of cattle. 

As most youths aren’t able to raise a huge number of cattle as dowries, it provides room for cross-cultural intermarriages leaving a huge number of villages’ ladies roaming in between towns and rural areas to find men that are able to raise what is needed. 

The then-protected adultery and fornication are becoming louder and louder as young men run away from taking care of ladies for fear of being asked to bring a huge herd of cattle while HIV/AIDS has never signed an agreement with laws. Let should lawmakers review our laws otherwise; they don’t have clauses that talk about the internet, video, audio, and condom usage. 

 

Panaruu-Dinka historical, political naivety and leniency towards the SPLM

Atok Dan Baguoot

It would sound naïve and surprising for somebody to start asserting across political predictions of a certain organized ethnic community based on their historical and political adherence to an ideology that they perceived rewarding but ended up disgracing their contributions as things are awarded on how noisy and chaotic one is instead of loyalty. 

 Panaruu-Dinka is one of the Dinka clans situated in the oil-rich Unity state dominated by the Nuer ethnicity and it shares some cultural ties and beliefs with other Dinkas across Southern Sudan. It is a section under greater Padang Dinka historically described as the North Eastern frontier Dinka of Abyei, Alor commonly known as Ruweng in Unity state, Paweny of Atar, Luach, Rut, Thoi, in Jonglei state and other groups of Eastern Ngok of Balliet, Dongjol, Abialiang, Nyiel and Ageer in Upper Nile state. In this context, Panaruu shares common features with other Dinkas more likely with those Dinkas in greater Bor, Lakes, and Warrap and Northern Bahr el Ghazal states apart from the groups in the description. 

 The kind of Dinka dialect spoken in Panaruu phonetically sounds like that of Twic East and West though they share some noun similarities with the Agar Dinka of lakes, however, pronunciation differentiates their accent in one way or the other. Panaruu hardly pronounces “R” at the end of a word like in Koor (lion), they say koo which distinguishes them from the rest of the Dinkas even their Padang class. Their historical disadvantage of being less educated came about during the colonial era when the British government declared all the Nuer lands and areas adjacent to them ungovernable and up to now level of formal education is still less among these Padang communities in Greater Upper Nile minus Padang section of Abyei whose Southern Kordofan administration had an influence over their political status. 

As of now, getting educated old men in their 70s in the Panaruu community is an uncommon thing to talk about. Back to their political and social organization where the emphasis is, their historical contributions to the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement/Army SPLM/A dated back to earlier hours of the inception of the Movement in 1983 when thousands of young men from the community flocked to Ethiopia after armed Murahaleen (Misseriya) raided the Panaruu-Dinka homestead and went away with the millions head of cattle living around thousand people dead in defense of their cattle, an economic and cultural prestige of the Dinka people. 

 The first wave of the Movement they attended in large numbers was Koryom Division followed by other subsequent divisions and battalions. Thousands of them fall in Jekou around Gatjaak territories when SPLA launched offensive attacks on areas controlled by the Sudan Armed Forces SAF to open up routes to Bilpam for new recruits from all over the South and other marginalized areas of Abyei, Southern Kordofan, and the Blue Nile. Their foodstuffs were not spared as it was the daily ration for SPLA new recruits and foot soldiers to Greater Barh el Ghazal, Bentiu areas, and Nuba Mountains.

Where their historical political naivety makes sense came in 1991 during the political split of the Movement along the Nasir group and the mainstream headed by late, Dr. John Garang De Mabior. Panaruu as an area bordering Misseriya northwest and the Nuer whose aggregates formed the Nasir faction in the southern part, waged a series of attacks and raids on Panaruu after they showed adherence to the SPLM/A. As the word naïve implies, their stance was not a politically motivated move but on the fact that they are Dinkas hence, identifying themselves as Dinkas and objecting to what the Nuer whom they inhabited the state proposed. Since they were encircled in, they became bullet porters from Greater Barh el Ghazal to reinforce the area up to the late 1990s. 

 In defense of the SPLM/A political ideology, the area suffered a lot of war consequences from their neighbors of the Nuer and Shilluk whereas; Misseriya on the other hand got something to revenge. In the Dinka power class, they had no representation at the highest organ of the Movement to make them feel a direct stakeholder of the concept up to the current GoSS not even a senior director heading the department is from this politically naive community. 

 This is where the equation and question of political naivety work because you cannot be a diehard of a system that does not recognize your contributions yet the basis of rewarding benefits is on the basis of what one did even former detractors of the Movement got their shares unopposed. Sometimes people say that those who opposed the system were the ones awarded much more than those who defended the system. In the same context of political naivety, Panaruu still defended the SPLM/A against the amalgamation of different militia forces after the signing of the comprehensive peace accord in 2005.

When forces were joined and GoSS was to be formed, they stood with one of the commanders to become the first governor of the oil-rich state of Unity, comrade Taban Deng Gai as SPLM proposed governor and Gai succeeded and eventually formed the government. In the first Gai’s government where he was the chairman of the SPLM and other Nuer tribesmen as deputy and secretary of the party in the state, Panaruu felt marginalized in the party they protected in absentia of the group which they saw to have hijacked the system. 

The state government was also formed in the same nature without putting into consideration the mathematical proposal brought about by the CPA of ethnicity, region, and geographical representation. In that state, nutritional positions in the government were awarded to Taban loyalists whom they saw as Nuer kin. 

But until in 2008 when the SPLM launched grassroots primaries, Governor Gai made a political about turn to seek support from this political unfortunate community which indeed supported him to teeth though he lost the chairmanship of the party to current GoSS Caretaker Minister of Health, Dr. Joseph Monytuil. On the eve of those grassroots elections, a lucrative border checkpoint town of Karsana in Panaruu territory in the northern frontier was annexed to Southern Kordofan under an agreement signed by Mr. Gai which almost detracted most of Panaruu intellectuals from supporting him, however, they connived and voted for him. Subsequently, most of Panaruu deemed that another reason for not supporting governor Deng was his encroachment into Panaruu territory of Mango, another busy inland port without their prior consent and up to now it is being inhabited by Mr. Deng. 

 In the same name of the SPLM and in regard to their political marginalization both within the state and at the Southern level, Panaruu still registered their adherence to the SPLM unknowingly that whatever one does in politics, rewards politically, economically, and prestigiously. Have they benefitted no why because of their political naivety? As it wasn’t enough, the same political adherence was transcended to recently concluded elections in which they supported the SPLM nominated candidate for the post of governor, Mr. Taban Deng Gai. 74,000 was alleged to have voted for Mr. Taban, a vote that springboarded him back to the post which he almost lost to his immediate rival Independent candidate, Mrs. Angelina Jany Teny, wife of GoSS Vice president and deputy chairperson of the SPLM, Dr. Riek Machar Teny. 

The area of contention was the fact that Parieng County had more than 82,000 as a population recorded in the Sudan Fifth Household Population Census an exercise which was later disputed by the SPLM. Southern Sudan went to elections without knowing the exact numbers in constituencies. 

 The area recorded 89,000 voters’ registration, something that dismayed NEC officials in Khartoum. Demographic statisticians estimated the area population to be around 100,000 which probably places the suffrage age at 45,000 if correctly asserted because there is no logical viewpoint where registered voters can exceed the population how much that fact is distorted. 

However, supporting evidence was there that 89,000 voters were recorded and that also justifies the means although logic remains in dispute with that timely fact and falsehood based on the outcome from the court. There is strong evidence versus weak evidence in all directions. 

Parieng County emerged to be the only county out of 79 counties in Southern Sudan whose elections results were negatively questioned. Allegations were aired on media that Panaruu/Parieng county voting was flawed as agents who belonged to other political parties were intimidated and dismissed from polls. National Elections Commission NEC suspended Parieng votes temporarily but later revoked and Taban Deng was declared as a winner of that highly contested post. 

If there was anyone with a justifiable reason for not voting for Brig. Taban Deng as a candidate of the SPLM, it was a Panaruu-Dinka whom he marginalized in both the party and in the state government, and if there could be also a reason for rejecting an SPLM proposed candidate then Panaruu would have had a reason. Their political leniency towards the SPLM and naivety come when one questions why this community always opted in support of the SPLM yet they don’t form the nucleus of the party nor are they found in any set of the SPLM or government of Southern Sudan to show that they are protecting an interest in return. This community is doing empty political work. 

 As they are they always proud to be Padang Dinka or Dinka for that matter, another political calculation is that states' political structure system outweighed either tribal or cultural ties which they always wish to rely on as an alternative if things become tough as Southern politics still an ethnical tribal showcase. Because they are really political neophytes in the electoral systems, the extemporized elections results extrapolated the political survival of this community as extinct among their Nuer community whom they have shown immature political mobility by supporting one candidate without calculating future political repercussions if any of them wish to stand as a governor later let alone another highly contested seat where one would wish to resort home first. 

It is a weak move because their neighboring Dinkas will never come and support them in their political bid despite the fact that Dinka formed the lion's share of the Southern population. You have to try it first in the house before reaching out as an English old adage says, “Charity begins at home and it ends where it started”. 

 Identifying themselves as more loyal citizens of state than branding themselves as tribal political instruments of pleasing far Dinka never have been a preferred option as most Nuers do see Mr. Taban Deng as a Dinka candidate imposed on them. Frankly speaking, the recent voting initiative taken by Panaruu if indeed they voted that way, would have a long negative political effect on them as their Nuer state mates are never happy with the way they portrayed themselves yet they are a minority in the state. A political move and survival of a minority in a democratic society should not always be seen as spearheading or overriding the majority because you might never know what that strong muscle political class would think about you. 

It is it to determine your political happiness. Mark the word happiness. Their political submissiveness and docility led to that rigid one-way choice without proper evaluation of political seasonality and objectivity, thus resulting in that questionable behavior, however, as a new wave of generation is emerging, that political tooled community would either choose to cease being used as political propellers or remain quake to foreign ideas without defining their destiny. 

The issue is not the SPLM but to have a cordial political relationship with your elder brother so that next time he feels lenient on you like the way they liaise with the seasonal political parties. Political parties go but communities remain as what God molded them so it is upon you to determine the kind of relationship you wish to have with your neighbors and this is where political philosophies meander around. It is none other than a game of preserved interest. 

This is actually what kills tribal politics in any given society. People don’t strive to kill tribal politics but associations in the realization of who your next voter does it automatically. Any political miscalculation normally results in political miscarriage, thus creating euphoria of envy along tribal lines without giving notice to why it happened and this is where politicians fail to define the root cause of a situation. When the current GoSS president-elect, H.E. General Salva Kiir Mayardit visited Parieng County the home county of Panaruu for the first time, he made some promises after personally accessing the deplorable conditions in which that isolated Dinka community was and none of the pledges materialized but persistently they continue voting for the SPLM without questioning the authenticity of messages given to them knowing very well that heavy pregnant promises could still be ahead, especially when one talks of the referendum.

I hope H.E. president Kiir will remember his long-awaited promises. Lastly, in any political makeup, there is always an interest that defines why somebody or a certain element supports an ideology to either death or life depending on the chance or possibility but if it is somewhere violated by one of the partners, this is where you see political divorce taking place in regard to its doctrines of allegiance. 

It is only he/she who is politically immature that paid a blind allegiance to a political system without defining what belongs to him and the other party. This was where Southern Sudanese and the rest of the oppressed Sudanese felt cheated by their northern brothers on an account that they fought the colonial government together and after half independence was granted to all, Arabs came and started grinding an ax on Africans to further neo-colonialism. 

That was due to a lack of fulfillment of political allegiance which I think is probably happening in a unity state as soon as the well-informed Panaruu group is assuming political headway of the community This long historical political naivety towards the SPLM is being forged by a certain class of people in the community to foster their self ambitions without rewarding the community for their tough stand in protecting their interest. It would be upon this community to rise against this ill-inculcated selfish message by telling themselves enough is enough as their deeds tend to defame the cultural integrity without a return benefit. 

Where are the SPLA veterans?

By Atok Dan 

“A nation that is afraid to let its people judge the truth and falsehood in an open market is a nation that is afraid of its people,” John F. Kennedy. 

There is always a need to travel a thousand miles beyond our simple perceptions and to meditate beyond our seeing in order to discover somewhere, where our objectives of the revolution went missing and to rediscover why we are so naïve and myopic to the course of our struggles as a nation endowed with greatness not discovered. 

In this defining moment, there is a need for massive support for our government whenever possible and there is a need for a massive uprising to uproot all possible sources which contravene with original objectives of the Movement we wholeheartedly nursed during those nasty and nostalgic hours of isolation and boredom. And there is a need to redefine ourselves in this trying moment in order to rejuvenate our worn-out ideas for the sake of generation and generations. 

Having gone to a bush at a younger age, am an ambassador of Liberation more than most politicians think of who am I. In fact, what the marginalized Sudanese in all the peripherals of the country need is more than negative political rhetoric normally made in rallies in the name of winning support. 

In fact, the two years which preceded the uprising of 1983 were so symbolic and noticeable in such a way that body communication was enough to rely on the magnitude of the flaming fire in most Southerners including people from the three areas. 

What I would want us to remember is that we are not that race with short memories to have forgotten the recent past whom we are still nursing from the wounds incurred, who are indeed myopic to have proved scrambling over the little slide-piece of breed given by the enemy. “Peace is a daily, a weekly, a monthly process, gradually changing opinions, slowly eroding old barriers, quietly building new structures, said John F. Kennedy.” 

If that very spirit was persistent in us, corruption, the grandfather of nepotism, tribalism, and an uncle to rampant insecurity over this tiny piece of land won’t exist but I think it could be because our memories are too short to recall the yesterdays which brought us to today of remorse and regrets. 

I’m intending to talk to my uncles, elder brothers, and sisters heading the train driving the marginalized to the promised land that this very government we brought from the land of deceits is too corrupt, naïve to accommodate us, too weak to foster hope in the hopeless orphans, widows and the crippled heroes and heroines maimed during the struggle and that you are obliged to adapt some reformations which I know your are potential to achieve but only that you might have been not told. 

That’s your greatness to drive this nation out of danger is inevitable given that the population is behind you. my next take to the disgruntled masses is that there‘s never existed corruption, tribalism, nepotism and many other vices in the government but the few seen are the results of your contributions. Nobody has ever dared to criticize his/her relative because of making the government officials their family dynasty in the name of fairness and patriotism. Judge me wrong if all office managers, drivers of officials, and other crucial positions are not occupied by sons/daughters or immediate family members. 

It is very simple to be corrupt than to be fair. Although there is one mechanism that if employed can seal off all possible avenues of corruption and its relatives in a country brought about through just wish. This mechanism is through democratic means by electing leaders mandated in the name of serving people not themselves anymore. 

Lastly, we need not commit mistakes by postcolonial Sudan that people had much trust in their leaders yet only a few of those leaders honored the trust paid to them. Winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, Prof Wangari Maathai said, “Africa needs a revolution in leadership not only from the politicians who govern but from an active citizenry that places the country above the narrow needs of its own ethnic group or community through collective responsibility over individual gains and common feeling of the continent.” 

We need our politicians to be active in advocating for positive change not only supporting transparency but must be reflected in their behaviors. Please SPLA veterans, the ball is still rolling on the firearms front as the LRA and other organized gangs still active. Where are you and your gallant spirit to rescue, stand tall against the hijackers of the movement the enemies of your work?

What is this vague unity all about?

By Atok Dan Baguoot 

“I am a firm believer in the people. If given the truth, they can be depended upon to meet any national crisis. The great point is to bring them the real facts”.

Having learned a lot from all unbelievable cruel deeds done to us in the last 50 years of Sudan’s Independence and count back to historical backdates in those dark hours of colonial periods when South and other areas inhabited by black Africans were still under the Closed District Ordinance administration to Juba 1947 two days conference where the South forged a marriage of convenience with the North. 

Those were years of learning from the nursery, primary to secondary schools, and university in analyzing what is all funny with vague unity or forced marriage in which the kids born by the couples are too old to attend to themselves. It is always a mind bothering question if one is to go the normal vertical thinking trends in relation to the current looming political rationale of this mismanaged vast piece of land on the face of the continent of Africa. 

This is a country that will never agree to itself beyond normal human thinking even if our smooth tongue politicians are trying to buy time by persuading the masses to deface their present sights of viewing the whole matter in its current ruinous state. There are people beyond our lifetime who never knew that peace is exact but not only found on paper as the case here in Sudan. 

These are those to whom the future belongs but not the politicians who have failed this country for almost a century yet none is admittance to the mistakes done to ourselves. For those of you who are Christians, God never got angry with those of Adam and Eve on the fact that they ate that fictitious Biblical tree but on the fact that none of them admitted to having eaten the fruit. 

When God asked Adam if he has eaten the fruit, he never answered yes but weighed the whole issue on the woman God himself provided likewise, Eve went on blaming God for Serpent he has placed in the Garden until the serpent didn’t exchange blame to anyone but I think if there was a fourth party he would have done it also. What I’m trying to tell you and I is that, our Northern colleagues whom the whole issue rested upon their shoulders are ever in defensive moods; wanted even to add more weight to the existing messes they have created. 

 As a person familiar with this old existing game of deceits from a certain direction, we better go for another option because we had been deceived for so long that enough can emerge as the best term to describe it by saying enough is either too enough. An English language adage says if a man deceives once, shame on him if twice shame on me because it is a sham on me I who is able to be deceived twice. So our deception by the Northern brothers is too enough. 

As people with distinctive cultures, distinctive languages, norms, values, beliefs, colors, and even distinctive physiques as well as a wizard that represents our political ideologies, we can better suffer on our own instead of always crying faults while pointing accusatory fingers at their praying direction. It is better to be cheated by our own political wizards than to be always prey to an individual whose terms thereto are unique in the name of forging this natural unstable parasitic existence in a very vast ecosystem where any of us can stay without bothering each other. 

Due to all these political inconveniences, entrusting our affairs to those whose political allegiances are questionable was and is a deadly decision ever taken by anyone on this planet unless that person who opted for such a decision is naturally half like us in Southern Sudan and other marginalized peripherals in Sudan. We are half because we refused to identify ourselves and even refused to forge our own economic stand simply because there are people somewhere who wanted to be consulted first before you can name your child born tonight. 

This actually falls within the description of the enemy and total slavery as defined by the SPLM in its manifesto of July 1984. Books and big volumes have been written by many scholars on the relationship between the North, South, and marginalized areas in the plain language of calling spade a spade but not a big spoon, yet our numbed senses couldn’t tolerate interpreting why all these foreign scholars see things within us far away when we cannot see them. 

Dinkas say what a child cannot see while standing can be seen by an elder seated. Even our elders don’t see things while standing today because they would have seen all tricks of NCP and advised young ones to be cautious of foreign intruders. Arabs and Africans are foreigners to themselves and there is no way you can make them become one and not even the best scientists of the modern era have succeeded in doing it. Unless when we want to abuse nature, Arabisation and Islamisation philosophy can become realities in Sudan. with traditional and primitive weapons, Anya Nya 1 succeeded in defending the territorial integrity of the South until the historical Addis Ababa 1972 peace agreement was signed when the Sudan Army with sophisticated weapons could annihilate disorganized and unprofessional Anya Nya soldiers. 

Not we to be either Arabised or Islamized with equivalent weapons. SPLM with meager resources also ventured through until the CPA we are enjoying today came to what most redundant northern politicians confused us on in its implementations. Not even a single old mum or dad in the villages of Southern Sudan has to awaken up, asking for compensation for his/her lost son in the battle yet our learned colleagues are going here and there confusing people in the name of voting for NCP. I thought we would be talking the tongue of the vote for the SPLM so that we obtain what had been denied us for centuries. 

Qualitatively, I doubt the kind of education given by Arabs to Southern Sudanese and other marginalized black Africans in their northern universities. One time I told a friend of mind in a casual discussion that if Dr. Garang graduated from Khartoum University, he would have retreated in the battle like the rest of his graduate colleagues who deserted the battlefields for Khartoum. I refused to go to Juba University in Khartoum when Southern Students from East Africa were granted that privileged. In fact, it is not the education acquired in the North which is the problem but the way Arabs subdued Southerners is what I didn’t like because I was ideologically different given my background. 

“Whatever spoken within a reach of a child turn to the formation of a character of that child”, I refused Khartoum-Juba University until is brought home. Be aware that any political destiny determined in the north in our names in the South here, is worth none of the support in the South and that’s why SPLM-DC is just like a shoe brushed in the eyes and minds of normal Southerners. 

If there are people to sue in the court of law because of our wasted youth and childhood happiness, it is those Southern politicians who opted to affiliate with the north in determining our political fate. If there is anyone outside there who still holds on to those Arab's fallacy of Southerners being unable to manage their affairs, tonight is your answer to evacuate from that well-calculated negative statement of subduing your senses to their control. 

Since none of us can reverse his/her past but all of us are able to change our future, tonight is your turn to reverse your fixed thinking of yourself because you had been in the den of lions and that you can be a completely independent being for you were created to as independent without cost. These elections whose process is rigged are soon coming to pass therefore, your target is the referendum in which you will determine your political destiny. Late Dr. John Garang De Mabior said if you opted to continue as second class in your own country, it is absolutely yours. Enough is enough, so let SPLM runs by our own brothers and sisters be the one to do those bad things to us if we really liked to be mistreated forever and ever. 

 Otherwise, the time has come for the old to listen to the young because the old is too old to be listened to. Both history and contemporary events have taught us that we hardly are deceived. Northern-born SPLM-DC of renowned politician Dr. Lam Akol is one of those ancient north-sponsored programs of set the South in disarray. Indeed, events that took place in the government of Southern Sudan after its inception was really unexpected because these were actually characteristics of Old Sudan hence, deserve transformation but they don’t need someone to be sponsored in the North. If Dr. Lam had stayed in the South after he lost his Foreign Ministry portfolio and form SPLM-DC in the South, he would have been the right option to correct them but when he extended his tentacles to the North for blessings, Southerners see Bashir in the big picture of Lam. 

Beyond that, Dr. Akol remains a great thinker and a liberator who only missed taking the child to its rightful and supposed birthplace. Not even a stupid politician can form a political party as an option for the purpose of the South in the North and thinks of garnering huge support when you know very well that our traditional minds set towards the north is so negative that even blinds and deaf can see and hear. What happened to Dr. Akol can be compared to adding table salt to acid as a solution to stomach ulcers and sitting back expecting your patient to cope with the treatment. 

Because of the North, Sudan Africa Closed District Union (SACDU), Sudan African National Union SANU, Nile Provincial Government NPG, and SPLM/A, and many other splinter groups that did not work were formed. Of cause, the Nasir group, SPLM United, SSIM and so many others are living examples of war against the north. 

Children were orphaned and widows plus many malfunctioning incidences have occurred in between the Arab North-South political relationship and that’s why somebody like me can have a lot to say. Any outcast politician in the South is the one that is affiliated with the north whereas; the best politician is the one who stood pressuring their ground while advocating for the South in the South despite his intellect. 

If Dr. Lam had done that, disgruntled masses in the SPLM like the Independents, plus many others who felt rigged off in the recent Political Bureau nominations including me would have flocked to the SPLM-DC camp for a political settlement.

Intermittent discrimination of public service vehicles along Wazarat road in Juba town

By Atok Dan Baguoot. 

The public transport sector in major towns in Southern Sudan is always a headache especially during the rush hours more so in Juba town where almost 80% of the roads are undergoing maintenance and tarmacking, given the normal traffic police duty in providing decent security protection to our VIPs and other credential visitors of the South who normal need special services when on the road. 

Wazarat road links Juba town with Konyokonyo, Ministries and other busy trading centres in Juba. It is the only service-providing pathway that can ease public and private businesses in terms of quick service delivery in the autonomous capital. As a poor young nation that has just emerged out of the longest war on the continent, almost 98% of the Juba population lack personal vehicles which facilitate faster transport to their daily workplaces hence, public service vehicles (PSV) are highly used regardless of social status. 

According to GoSS Labour and Public Services Ministry, the normal working minute starts at 8:30am -5:00pm and within that time allocated all workforces have to click in at that very time so that you end up having worked for eight hours at the end of the day. The regular stressful experience on Wazarat road in Juba is the intermittent discrimination of public vehicles on that very road in the name of providing security to VIPs. 

Public buses are denied the use of the road, especially during the rush hours which normally resulted in late reporting to workplaces whose effect is reduced performance from an economical logical viewpoint. There is a need for decent protection of our VIPs given the dominance of terrorism and terror-minded activities all over the globe, and also to offer them special time as their calendars are occupied, but there is also a need to weigh the yield of combined efforts exerted by the entire public whose success in the economy depends shall be judged. 

Public service vehicle users formed 95% of our workers hence, their contribution is also 95% and this is a fact of reality if we are to liberate ourselves economically in order to realize total freedom. Hoisting our beautiful flag higher above the sea level is just an inch unless our efforts on market go higher than that and the barometer of determining it, is an efficient transport system. 

We need time and road apportionment. Signals of VIPs' motorcades are enough to make public buses offer safe passage for our beloved leaders unlike putting total barricades for some hours in the name of offering a safe journey. It has a quality of discrimination because while prohibiting public service buses, GoSS numbered cars and other private motorists do go simultaneously while offering space for VIP motorcades to penetrate. 

Here, it doesn’t make sense when we want to talk in terms of security provisions for VIPs. To me, these private motorists/cars pose more threats than even public vehicles frustrated travelers battling with life to ensure that bread is availed on the table of his/her family at the end of the day and denying them quick travel to their markets/workplaces at times is like depriving them oxygen. 

Lastly, traffic police have to patrol to monitor the movements of these economic crucial sectors without subjecting them to high time. I’m a traveler of the said department and I normally find it hard to tolerate because my normal morning plan is to get to my work in time with a lot of ease.

Let war be history in these elections

By Atok Dan Baguoot

“In the democracy of the dead, all men, at last, are equal. There is neither rank nor station nor prerogative in the republic of the grave” Voting for SPLM in these elections would be a definite genesis of the second liberation for Northern marginalized, Islamized, and Arabised African Sudanese that were not directly or indirectly involved in the two decades war of liberation fought in Southern Sudan of which other exposed peripherals like Southern Blue, Nuba Mountains as well as eastern fronts participated. 

In fact, debates heated up the atmosphere between the SPLM and the National Congress Party NCP during the 2008 Sudan Fifth Household Census on the questions of Ethnicity and religion with a consistent stance by the SPLM to overhaul the questionnaires of inclusivity of questions on ethnicity and creeds, besides demographic facts. 

In every Census, there are predominant factors considered why census ought to be carried out in any nation especially in rare cases where the civil population was partially involved in protracted wars and massive migrations whether be it internal or external displacement like the case of Sudan. It is always a global assumption that lives were lost and children were born in the continuity of normal life but with intention of equating death to birth rate, besides the emphasis on how conflicts affected normal traditional settlements of the people hereafter long unrest, the census is always preferred to establish facts. 

Sudan is never exceptional because the civil population was displaced, lives were lost, and the traditional economic aspect of the people was in ruin leaving the rural population in total destitute, and in economic disarrays. Urban settlements were overhauled as the population moved to safer zones for periodical safeguards. Today, major towns in northern Sudan outburst as the population shot up in the shortest time as opposed to normal population growth given the fact that this very rural population urban and migration was forceful and given the deplorable conditions in which they are subject to, societies, communities, and individuals end up bending some of their traditional norms and customs to forge a new way of survival in that new environment and hence, assimilations through marriages of conveniences resulted into half breed offspring whose identities remain loyal to economic muscular individuals. 

The victims of such an unintended ploy were Black African tribes in both the South and the North and whose social beings were disrupted by social injustices as well as cross-cultural settlement patterns. Their daughters went for light-skinned or Afro-Arab men for the sake of survival because these men were historically privileged on the expenses of oppressed Africans. 

These were reasons why questions of ethnicity and religion were thrashed off as a matter of denying the true natural account of what this unfortunate country faceted. With false preaching in Northern Sudan pronouncing this country as both an Arab and Islamic state, these facts would have prevailed wrong in the previous census if the two components of ethnicity and religion were answered in the exercise. Now Sudan remains an Arab and Islamic state because of political dishonesty through genocidal procedures. 

Force displacement, trickery assimilation, and economic tortures amount to genocide in one way or the other. 

People lose their cultures, land, and even direct torturing and killings which deprived them of their cultural pride, subjecting them to a state of cultural inferiority or even seeing themselves as either a weak race or society, based on these silent intended strategies. But because these very people still have that cultural ego not completely deleted in them, the Arabs reinforce the strategy through a force like by inculcating into them rejection, self-identification, giving them Islamic names, and a forced belief. 

In the case of Sudan, Islamic names and beliefs were enforced as substitutes for their African norms and beliefs. In order to break these cycles, it is only possible through voting in SPLM in these elections so that a new political dispensation is created to provide equal opportunities to all the Sudanese people who are oppressed for so long. As a political force founded among the oppressed and none privileged Sudanese, it is ready to awaken our recess genes in recalling who we are exactly. It is called self-recognition. 

 Having stayed in slavery for a period older than my thirty years on earth, these black Africans actually need a concept of total liberation to dominate they are gone to recess genes so that they are able to stand tall in their persons and communities to revive and rejuvenate their cultures minus the conditionally acquired Arab cultures. Voting for SPLM to be the dominant party in Northern Sudan in these elections would actually catalyze recuperation processes among these culturally enslaved people because SPLM envisioned this war for cultural, economic, and social identification. That‘s why a renowned Southern Sudanese professor and an advisor to United Nations UN Secretary-General on Genocide and Mass Atrocities, Dr. Francis M Deng titled one of his famous books “War of Vision and Conflicts of Identities” referring to the protracted civil wars fought in Sudan. 

In this context, Dr. Francis Deng specifically summarized the Sudanese quest for freedom in a title of a book because it is all that SPLM was founded on, with a derivative core conception from the Pan Africanism as seen in Sudan African National Union SANU. SPLM and SANU were offspring and abstracted from the idea of the Closed Districts Ordinance then during the colonial periods. But unlike the SANU, SPLM had vibrant and lively objectives with a lot of zeal and enthusiasm among the Africans from those areas referred to as closed Districts. Current SPLM deputy chairman, Malik Agar, and Late Yusuf Kuwa Mekki are prominent examples of those who ushered the way forward among the northern black Africans enslaved in northern parts of Sudan. 

In my descriptions, they are never exceptional, however, their stance shaped the Movement into a recognized national liberation army that wanted to liberate the whole country from Arabs hegemony. It is the African tribes that were subjected to neo-colonialism in the country in spite of their massive contributions to realizing the independence of Sudan on 1.1.1956. 

For this matter, SPLM is the only choice and preferred option among the Northern marginalized African nationalities if they are to live a free life like the rest of their kin and kiths later in independent South Sudan as secession is eminent, comes the year 2011 referendum for the people of Southern Sudan. In the case of Abyei, the ax is already grounded despite the fact that it is a bitter pill to swallow among our northern brothers. 

As a person bordering Nuba Mountains, I know how costly it would be for the Nuba people to stand together advocating a uniform voice in ushering a new destiny in their popular consultation due to their existing ideological and political differences apart from deep Islamic influence on the region. In such a case, SPLM remains the only preferred option if they like to be a Nuba well adjacent to South Sudan, unlike their brothers the Nubia in the far North whose social settlement, political life, and traditional settlement were straddled across the international boundaries of Sudan and Egypt, the former political mentor of Sudanese Arab descendants in Sudan. 

In reference to the SPLM principle of liberating the marginalized, this concept would have been widely accepted amongst them because its referential sense made more impact in the north than in Southern Sudan the birthplace of the party. SPLM is their rightful remedy because if South Sudan secedes without them being granted their inalienable rights, it would be very difficult if not impossible for them to forge a cultural pride and identity or economic leverages due to their cultural docility and submissiveness to Arabs as signified by their easy acceptance to Islamic Cultures. 

It is a known fact today that Arab tribes form the majority of the Sudanese whereas Islam remains the religion of the majority thus, the two qualities of an Islamic state are met on assumption that Darfur, Nuba Mountains, and Eastern Sudan are cultured Arabs especially when some of them don’t voice in their tribal tongues or languages and don’t profess their African faith. Southern Sudan has withstood this simple temptation of Arabisation and Islamisation by tough adherence to indigenous customs and beliefs. 

If SPLM had succeeded in persuading NCP to add questions of ethnicity and religion on the census form, professors of history in Sudan would have been taken to the court of law for having misled the country or their academic papers would have been confiscated if not revoked because new history is to be rewritten and Sudan becomes a nation historical misled by educated fellows. To me, a graduate of history today in Sudan is worth none of the paper he/she holds because he underwent training through distorted syllabi. 

It is also worth mentioning that SPLM as the only vocal instrument that has shown up as a tough challenger to NCP and its extremist ideologies is optional because life would be normal if they take over in the north despite a separate South Sudan. Let marginalized survive SPLM in the North so that it advocates for their long denied and hidden rights. It is because we had learned enough from all other Sudanese political forces that have ruled Sudan since independence. 

If they had the political will to grant rights to the marginalized, they would have done it since there were neither visible nor invisible barricades preventing them from doing so voluntarily. So marginalized cannot rely on any political party in the North because enough is enough. 

Therefore, the only possible avenue the hope among the marginalized Sudanese is to vote for the SPLM whether be it at the presidency or in various legislative Assemblies in order to have decent human life otherwise, there would always be an unfilled vacuum of political doubts as our country is characterized by political dishonesty especially the ruling class which we have known for sometimes. Voting for the SPLM would remain the beginning of the second liberation for the oppressed Sudanese in northern Sudan.

Let’s defend our political titles

By Atok Dan Baguoot. 

In a nation where titles are shared, the only person robbed of the prestige is the president. Today in Southern Sudan, titles are shared regardless of the positions and rank a person holds. In many countries, only the president, vice president, ambassadors, and other few dignitaries deserve the title of “His Excellence” normally abbreviated as H.E. In our case, almost every dignitary carries that title but the funny thing here is that an outsider could wonder what specific title to use when addressing a boss in his/her office. 

Ministers share the same title of H.E. with the president, vice president, ambassadors as well as County Commissioners and head of independent Commissions. In Southern Sudan, president, his vice president and ambassadors are robbed of that title of H.E. It is a country of excellence performers. 

The philosophical concept behind the use of such titles is associated with its acquisitions. You earn a title or acquire it through recognition from a respected institution. For instance, the title honorable is derived from the academic title honorary, and his excellence also originated from the nursery school concept of motivating young kids to concentrate on their studies. 

Whenever a child gets some good marks, the tutor has to reward that child with that title in order to make him/her do much and also to motivate other kids who might have not gotten it to do the same. Some teachers do stick a yellowish shine decorated cartoon-like structure in an exercise book of that kid who has done well and if it is seen by others, they all strive hard to get that too. 

Nevertheless, these titles are accorded in same manner. A president and his vice deserve that title because after being preferred as the only persons to head a nation out of many who competed for the post, only one person is opted for by the whole majority therefore, he/she becomes H.E like a kid who has gotten the required marks proposed by the teacher. 

An Ambassador also qualifies for the title simply because he represents his nation in a foreign country alone out of the many that would have done too. In a country where leaders rise to high leadership position through other means apart from democratic elections, the title becomes imposed. South Sudan is not exceptional and whoever carries that title does so because of either historical background of liberation struggle or any other equivalent means. 

The President of the government of Southern Sudan and his vice also became suited to the title because of their struggling backgrounds. Life in the bush was unbearable and many didn’t dare to withstand the hardship hence, they deserve it too. But not all deserve it also because it becomes monotony and as a result it would either sound like mere mockery instead of decent and respectful address, besides it distinctive use. The title Honorable is commonly used in the like situation derived from the competition though it has definite distinction where it can also suit the bearer. 

Apart from it being an academic title, a member of parliament can also have it before his/her name to signify how he acquired the title MP. A Member of Parliament competes with the rest in order to win the interest of the constituency to become their representative in the parliament. Without that subjectivity, you cannot be honoured with the title but unless there is a dictate signifying the use. 

Our current MPs have that condition qualifying them for the title. But the question next door is that as their constitutional term expires, will they retain it or fresh mandate is needed from them? The term is so comfortable that one always wishes to have it up to the last day to the grave or world where there is no title, not even academic doctorate. 

For those religious, a saint is a title that people scramble although it is left in the cemetery with white clothes a dead body is draped. That is the fact about the world of true equality. Let’s go for free and fair elections so that we continue using our distinguished titles without complains, otherwise, they won’t make meaning. Our president spoke nicely in Monday’s peaceful demonstration telling the public that the registration exercise was peaceful and this signifies peaceful elections. This message went to those who had in the back of their minds to retain their titles in dishonest manner. 

The only person who knows how tough to run a government where almost everybody is appointed is the President. He said he is tired of answering phone calls instructing him to remove any of his legislators and governors every now and then. H.E. President Mayardit said he will be relieved from answering phone asking him to remove a leader if all leaders are elected by their own people. Not even a fool will dare call Mr. President to remove anybody if all are democratically elected. 

It would also be a chance for those fearing the weight of their titles to lift them lighter. Honorable will be truer and unconditionally imposed. As the constitutional term of our MPs expires, it would be very difficult for the President to form another parliament without elections because deriving to criteria for selecting the next incumbents of the August House would prove tough. For instance, if H.E. the President goes for Mr. Atok Dan to be the next honorable for Parieng County in juba parliament, in his mind will be the criterion of getting me out of that one hundred thousand population of Panaruu Dinka.

This personal question will also transcend in the minds of local persons deep in the village asking the president the same question how he got that person whom we hate most again. By the way I like the prefix honorable but the question lingering in my mind is that, do I have what it takes to be so before I reach them the “barometers” who will gauge my performances? 

This is the question that keeps away most of our current MPs from their constituencies. Those rating zero in their constituencies will never even think of uttering even a mere negative political rhetoric before their populace and thus, they either prefer a unilateral declaration of the independence of the South to a peaceful referendum or a magical shortcut to a referendum without elections so that by God’s luck they continue enjoying their tenant without disturbances yet not knowing that the whole South wants elections because of them. 

A president can run a nation with his cabinet plus the effort from security forces but for the sake of accountability and proximity of power to the people, an answerable parliament ought to be so that power is closer to the people in a devolved manner so that it links the people with the further center. Lastly, let’s quench our bloody thirst by instituting an answerable system which our kids and generations would be proud of before historians could settle with their facts as history does not forgive. Be careful of reckless utterances otherwise our intuition tones dance in compliance with whatever we speak.

Youth, take over the leadership of this country

By Atok Dan Baguoot 

The time has come for us to say goodbye and bye to old ways of doing things to express and exercise our choices in a fashion of queues and lines in determining our shaky and always gloomy futures as analysts put it. The time has come for us to put aside our broken of yesterdays and to begin new dawn, full of hope, happiness, and joy for our generation and posterity. 

“The torch has been passed to a generation tempered by wars, who bore the hardship of economic distress and political turmoil” US President Barack. The time has come for us to put our names on the white and black register book for the forthcoming elections in which most of us are going to vote for the first time in our life. 

I who was born late 1970s is also on board with us. Register now and check that you have registered and confirm that your name is spelt clearly. Days are numbered. The torch has been passed down to us the youth of Southern Sudan, three areas of Abyei, South Blue Nile, and Nuba Mountains, and the entire marginalized who bore the brunt of civil wars, whose life shrunk beneath the feet of absolute destitute. Let us register to vote. 

There are only a few days that are left in this calendar year in which our country will try the long coveted and desired moment of democratic elections of choosing who to sit in our parliaments and other palaces, who to decide on our daily and future affairs. Our forefathers fought for it likewise we tested the same baptism of fire at our earlier ages. Our time is ripe enough to spearhead the exercise. We had been robbed and denied of our chances: that series of generations passed without testing the taking over their rights. In fact, the secret behind a presidential term limit in modern leadership power transfer is to give each and every generation there chance. 

For the case of five years, two terms define exactly what a generation is and if the tenant goes beyond that very limit, then a certain generation has been robbed or denied. So many generations have been robbed of their chances for instance, President Bashir has snatched chance of one generation and that generation is ready to sneak away with chance of another generation and the game continues to generation and posterity. This defines a series and generations of conflicts on the continent of Africa. Sudan is never exceptional. 

In the African context of leadership, elders do tell young people that their time will come, and indeed when that time comes, they deserve it. In Dinka Society, midwives begin identifying a baby at the birth of what talent that baby will grow to. Hunters, metal workers, medicines people, born leaders, and all sorts of careers were identified at a young and whenever they grow up, elders were able to know exactly who is to do what. 

This concept actually was automatic alternation of power transfer. Leadership was not robbed, unlike the White written theory which says “Power is 20% given and 80% taken. Youth, let us go for the 80% slogan because our elders are never ready for that and the only way of penetrating through is by registering now and later on voting in our large numbers. 

In African Unchained, George Ayitteh says :cheetahs and hippos, that cheetahs are the young with fresh blood to move Africa ahead while hippos as the old one whose term limit has come to an end yet they still cling to power, fiercely defending their base of attack. He said let these hippos leave watering hole and retire to shade. 

Agile and dynamic minds are needed to move us ahead for the next miles before we also retire to others. It is a natural order of things. We do not want to cause chaos to others when time comes for them. It is youth that am writing to so that they able to direct their energies to their rightful cause and cease from petty tribal and clan politics of patronage. 

Politics is never an accomplished game; you do yours and leave the rest to others. It is never a privilege to us but a duly inalienable right. “There is nothing shameful in falling down as long you are willing to stand up each time you fall”. These elders will never and never relinquish power to us. Strive for change and strive for leadership that has an oasis of hope.

Shisha smoking rocks Southern Sudan war torn cities

By Atok Dan Baguoot 

It might sound vague and fake when not properly defined but Shisha or (molasses tobacco) is a sticky dark-brown honey-like substance that has a partial sweet smell at a close distance. It is normally placed in a small silvered plastic plate metal connected with a well-decorated burette or long neck bottle that resembles a conical flask with water meant to reduce the concentration of smoke that passes through while light grayish smoke comes out of the smoker's mouth and nose building cloudy environment around them. 

Its chemical contents and compositions remain illusive although researchers believed that Shisha provides smokers with a high appetite for all sorts of foods. While smoking (sucking), a person sweats severely which signifies relief and displacement of natural body chemical energy through idle processes. Second, to that, is the question of the eating affinity of idle Shisha smokers who claimed to eat without work. What they eat remains an unanswered question in the minds of mentally realistic persons. 

It started along the Arabian Peninsula amongst sailors who do overstay in the sea coldness while sailing to all parts of the world pursuing lucrative businesses hence; it found its way to modern Arab cities both in the Middle East and Northern African cities of Egypt, Tunisia, and Algeria and eventually into Khartoum by surprise. As a matter of religious facts and denials, Arab traders used it to substitute pure tobacco smoking and drinking prohibited by Islamic laws and Sharia which actually gave it unquestionable passage in those lands of facts distortion. 

Couple to that it was found not to contravene Islamic creed thus creating wider opportunities for redundant youths in all Egyptian cities to hurriedly pick it up immediately and move Southward of that glorified superior Arab nation where if something starts there then you don’t have to question. 

After it gained considerable fame in Egypt and also realized its repercussions they subsequently promulgated Parliamentary acts which barred it in public places as well as smoking during working hours but already its roots were now deepened in the Afro-Arab world's largest slum known as al Khartoum where 60% of its populace is idle according to International Labour Organization (ILO) facts finding research. 

As facts transfer, it rushed to its fertile zones of redundancy and idleness known as Southern Sudan after it was also barred by Khartoumers who had earlier on seen its negative contributions toward development. South was also its rightful place because it is a lawless and regional dumping zone of all sorts of junks discarded from all four cardinal points of the world. Prove me wrong if you can not see pictorial facts of young people smoking Shisha and drinking at 8.00Am in all our war-torn cities of the 21st Century which some people can either call our wrongful or rightful place of all kinds of illicit drugs. 

Somebody might wonder what a fake and vague idea the presenter is trying to bore him or her. Shisha is a hetero-practice of the jobless regardless of their age, sex; color even skinned bleached people religion, and region although few regions are found to be on the forefront in terms of Shisha smoking. Analytically, Southern State Capitals bordering Northern Sudan emerged the worst meanwhile our Juba is also tallying behind them. 

Mathematical figures indicate that Bentiu Unity State where the majority is supposed to be many busy leads an average of eight out of ten to be idle and smoke, while five of ten do in Aweil, Northern Upper Nile is six of ten which smoke due to redundancy. And the prime reasons that accompanied the practice are; their proximity to the North, as well as the frequent influx of Internal Displaced Persons (IDPs) from Northern Sudan the second birth place of Shisha meanwhile other illicit drugs used, are also found dominantly along the Southern Sudan and East Africa.

Let’s maintain government properties properly

By Atok Dan Baguoot 

Unlike the formation of the government of the autonomous Southern region after the 1972 peace agreement where resources were scarce, officials of the government then had limited resources, to begin with. Few cars which were there were used in alternating phases. 

The only car which used to carry the President to the office had first ferried the Ministers to their offices earlier in the morning in order to give time for the big boss Mr. Joseph Lagu. Other government officials normally find their means to offices punctually. Uniquely, the Government of Southern Sudan (GoSS) brought about by the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) had many advantages of which technological advancement played a pivotal role in its quick access to modern resources. 

Deputy Directors have personal government numbered plate cars which they can use even at their private businesses. Departments have a variety of resources ranging from modern office equipment. The government has provided Laptop computers owned by heads of different departments to ease the tedious jobs of lap paperwork with internet services where information is taped from office to office, although it has minimized job for office messengers. 

Because of all these resources, government properties are highly being misused by none other than office holders in the name of many that will come. We treat ourselves when sick; likewise, veterinary doctors treat animals when they are sick also. What is wrong when we take good care of the government properties, why we are unable to repair government properties more so cars which are subject to weekend damage especially when driven while half drunk? It is this very government that we had been yearning, crying about, and disturbing the whole universe to have self-determination which will soon never be a dream but reality. 

Taking keen interest on the little would give you hint on taking care of much. Sooner shall the other 50% of the oil share be given to us if the referendum affirms separation as preliminary opinion polls always suggest. “For in reason, all government without the consent of the governed is the very definition of slavery,” said Jonathan Swift. It would be seen as a source of evil slavery if we cannot take good management of government properties if we cannot use properties as personal maximum care. We will be impoverished and economically enslaved. 

From the period of 2006-2008, GoSS numbered cars formed 80% of the automobile machines on this few kilometers roads of Juba, but as far now, the number is dwindling on daily basis due to reckless use. And why because of I don’t care attitude mentality and mentality of not being held accountable. And why more are coming, why because we are going away as an independent state able to manage its own affairs. Taking care of your nuances is the genesis of independence and this actually defined why we don’t understand what is needed where and when. 

I’m bothered seeing all these Japanese machine wreckages littered ever where yet they didn’t come on their own. We opted to stay hungry and spent money on these tools in order to facilitate much we needed in the future. Let there be GoSS garages where these machines should be treated before their real expiration. Allow me overstep my duty in suggesting that, the government should devise means to punish culprits accused of mishandling public property on account that good care for long lasting management is achieved at the end of the day. 

The policy of you destroy it, repair it can best work here but this does not mean burdening our young innocent drivers who are up-to-date for their duties, whose leisure rights are infringed because they work up to bars at night. The weekend is not exceptional for them due to their docility. They go stay waiting for their bosses even if it is not working hours. As a person in the heart of the government, pilfering of public properties is on high record without concern. 

Never blame our young parliament since it is a place where you go and sharpen your political blade for more political aspirations. It isn’t up to its mandate it was meant. Watch them come back to the second CPA’s parliament if they were for that job. In fact, it sounds nonsense in the minds of a few indulged but the majority will agree with me that it is a frontline job. 

Let my colleagues of the SPLA department not sit back that they are nowhere to my discourse. Their red number plate cars are under severe extinction given the nature armies do their things, although they are much stricter in handling their affairs. They are smart but their smartness seems to be fading away. To them, Bilpam road has become the real rogue Bilpam path to Bonga in which most recruits lost their lives before facing the enemy back in Sudan. 

Bilpam road is killing most SPLA sophisticated cars before facing the real tough terrains at the country sites. Lastly, a computer virus has bogged down our machines in offices yet the internet there is being used for chatting with girls and boys friends more so youngsters called the dot com generation. Few sugar mummies and daddies informed are also chatting among themselves. 

Please my dear, extra use of internet apart from chatting, sending messages and accessing other crucial information is to active antivirus on our machines so that they do work efficiently. Computers in Southern Sudan Radio where am working is the pilot project.

Projections of pools in Unity state

Atok Dan Baguoot 

If these elections are to be free and fair, the outcomes would be marvelous, interesting, and surprising because neither I nor you won’t like it and that is all about true democracy of the real democrats like what my senior college Nhial Bol called democracy of non-democrats. 

Nhial was actually right because the way SPLM nominated its flag bearers to contest in various positions indeed contradicted the wishes of the marginalized that it had been advocating to grant justice, freedom, and decent services. It is an unfortunate situation in South Sudan that a spade is normally called a big spoon and the spoon as a toothpick but if reality was to be there, they would have retained the original versions rather than that total iron. 

It is actually a simple task to fight for a just principle but hard to live to it. SPLM, like any other liberation movement on the continent, had to experience interval power wrangling and contradicts itself in executing its principles. It was never a rare and unfortunate incident for SPLM but a normal phase encountered by any movement to get to its maturity in politics but it would be up to the political party to handle its affairs without fear and favor among the cadres. 

Nomination of candidates by the political party usually portrays how united and mature is that every entity is handling its matters without favor and fear so long as the party is guided by a common ideology and belief. SPLM betrayed some of its powerful prominent leaders in the process of filing the candidates. In that concerted event, some leaders have seen themselves as being underestimated while others either got it as overestimated hence, internal rifts got conducive breeding ground. 

This actually signifies by rampant independence of most of the former party's strong diehard without a blessing from the mother party which nursed them throughout their political life. I would like to take us to a unity state where the rift was at its peak since its grass root primaries in 2008 when the former chairman and incumbent governor Taban Deng Gai lost the chairmanship of the party to his comrade Dr. Joseph N. Monytuil Wejang, the current GoSS minister for Health in a disputed manner. 

In that election, a division within the SPLM ranks was born in an oil-rich state and up to now, the two gentlemen had never sat together as people bounds by the common ideology to shape the future of the party in that state. These two gentlemen are from the same Nuer tribe, well educated and patriotic, and also from the same division according to the internal geographical and political division that unity state used to be divided in sharing power. 

The two gentlemen polarized the state population in their own neo-ideologies contrary to the common SPLM existing ideology to which the diehard of the party is supposed to adhere to. Public servants were assigned jobs in the same favor. In fact, they became bipolar (two centers of parallel powers that never met) and SPLM became a laughing stock. 

Population from the two Dinka Counties was Tabanised and Monytuilised to the extent that daily bread for living is earned based on the two great ideologies. Now that Joseph Monytuil is no longer in the competition in the post of governor according to the decision made by the party's highest organ, the political bureau and another strong woman has emerged as independent candidate and given the fact that affirmative action is also posing its way into our political way of life, coupled with grieve dislike of Taban Deng in the state. 

In reality, predictions of such a volatile event are always hard but with help of scientific opinion research, one can predict to the nearest. NCP has also filed a former governor, Paul Lily as their challenger. Masses in unity state are eager to change to the extent that they will violate the principle of better the devil you know than the angel you will know. 

The nomination of Mr. Taban Deng as the SPLM flag bearer in the post of governorship is really a blow in the face to none other than SPLM itself because it is contrary to what the southern Sudanese masses fought for in two years to decide on the kind of governance and who to govern them. In the eye of true democrats, the masses would have been allowed to choose who to represent them in a manner that respects both the party and the masses. 

The imposition of leaders on people is what Late Dr. John Garang used to describe as a regime of few cliques in Khartoum deciding on the political future of the Sudanese in their favor. If this election is to be free and fair, and with the mentality of change couple to Southern Ideology of leaning towards SPLM and if one is to be brutal frank, Angeline J Teny will win without a doubt. Why? The population is tired, bored of Taban even when you just happen to say in Arabic (ana Taban) am tired, people misquote it of Governor Taban. 

In fact, the NCP candidate will never win because Southerners are fatigued with the North and whoever is supported by the North is definitely seen as betraying their cause. Besides, that gender is an issue that needs special heed in today’s politics. In the current government of GoSS, there is only one woman out of nine men as governors thus, the three current women governor’s candidates are likely to win especially the Warrap and Unity state through Western Equatoria is somewhat still skeptical but based on her previous performances, she is to convince voters. They all come from three states found west of the River Nile in the South. One would have come from East of the Nile to at least equate well.

Back to the prediction of the same pools in the election of other candidates to various parliamentary seats, the state SPLM office failed to institute their electoral college hence, the whole thing was decided by the political bureau. Power sharing logic was applied to represent the two blocs between the Tabanised and Monytuilised affiliates and loyalists. 

Whatever did by the political bureau reflect the same ideology instead of personal contributions to the party. Equal numbers were nominated in all the counties representing bipolar as a mechanism of solving that deep-rooted difference in the state. 

 The campaign will also follow the same chain so predicting the outcome of the election would only be determined by whose loyalists have the popularity but not a party. A group affiliated with the current government would be accused of intimidating the rest while those others will cry loud of being denied access to polling centers. 

If SPLM was ready to have peace in that state, it would have nominated different candidates apart from the two as a smart way of defusing the crisis but the nomination of Taban was plainly seen as a promotion of external hegemony over the state because there is no way somebody outside can recommend me as the best yet my kids and wife in the house differ in that recommendation and you insist that my family members don’t know me.

Let’s embrace unity to overcome these political hurdles in our life time

By Atok Dan Baguoot

“To state, the facts frankly is not to despair the future nor indict the past. The prudent heir takes careful inventory of his legacies and gives a faithful accounting to those whom he owes an obligation of trust”. In spite of all these political hurdles within the rank and file of opposition forces in the country as a response to this current political turmoil fuelled by the rigid stance posed by the National Congress Party NCP to make elections something for national healing, peace is still needed so that the country is not plunged into an untended war of selfish motives. 

This country is bigger than any of us whether it be a political party or individuals representing these organizations. For this reason, there could still be a need to make war history because we came from a very long way to where we are therefore, let our political decisions be guided by national interest since it is this very nation that gave birth to those political parties and without this political unfortunate country, this very confused NCP would never exist. 

We the marginalized Sudanese especially the African ethnicities at the peripherals need to be much more cautious because all these trickeries and dishonest politics would disadvantage us at the end of the whole saga, regardless of our geographical whereabouts. 

For the SPLM having pulled out of the republic presidential race at the last minute could possibly be seen as a kind of quiet or even translated into so many possible reasons that are beyond my perception here, still, our collective efforts as marginalized are of paramount given that referenda and popular consultations for the two regions of Southern Kordofan and Southern Blue Nile are on the political pipelines scheduled. 

SPLM didn’t quite; it would have quiet on the battlefields. If all marginalized were not people with natural short memories, we would have not forgotten why things go like that and we would not be allowed our sons and daughters in the Sudan Arm Forces SAF up to now, a threatening element that the NCP uses to distort all national calendars in their myopic understanding of the Sudanese problems.

Despite those political hurdles, what counts in politics is numerical strength which we already had. South alone in its mutative wars with proxy and auxiliary helps from Nuba people and Funj pressured rest of Sudan, whereas the recent political paradigm shift made by the Darfuris people provided the helm for the unity of Sudan to approach elections as one united country. 

 It would never be far from the truth that the marginalized black Africans would embrace their peripheral unity and wage a joined war against the north if it is the Arab north that is the bottleneck towards national stability for a century. And since it has become an eminent fact and crystal clear that descendants of Arabs in Sudan don’t respect any legal agreement, the only way they will be able to grant others their dues is through genocidal wars, like what they had been advocating since then. 

I know genocide is bad but when everything reaches its saturated point, the human mind becomes nothing but a mere rounded object on top of a person. Therefore, it would be upon the aggrieved to devise means of rallying behind the SPLM and gain both cultural recognition and political momentum by brushing aside all that Sudan had been called a sovereign nation because this very sovereignty has no meaning if the country continues to torture its citizens in the name of abused sovereignty. 

Historically, Sudan has never exchanged fire with any of its neighboring countries but it has never rested in fighting its masses since independence. Having depleted all the former Soviet countries from firearms deals, it has shifted gears to bloody thirst China with poor human rights records in the same deal to continue killing its citizens. Who is the target of these denounced chemical weapons acquired from China, it is marginalized in Darfur, in the Southern Blue, Nuba Mountains, let alone Southern Sudan. 

It would have been mechanized agricultural fields if not for the sake of God's mercy. Whether scientifically, socially, economically, and politically, Sudan will never be a country that runs at the expense of the underprivileged as it used before, instead it will be smartly disintegrated into several ugly shapes based on who likes who and who hates who. Begin bidding for your option if you are from the northern marginalized. Exceptionally, 

SPLM has bypassed all these premature hurdles thus if life is to be normal before we could assume our political rights and privileges, there is a burning need to huddle together with the SPLM and echo at the top of our hoarse voices for our long detained rights. It is factual evidence that a right never defended by an owner is never granted on a silver platter so, the only advisable remedy to our political problems in Sudan is through the barrel of a gun. 

Failure to do that, never think of signing any peace accord with the group within the description because there will never be a smarter document than the CPA and other accords. I’m not trying to incite violence but a nation that is afraid to let its people judge the truth and falsehood in an open market is a nation that is afraid of its people, so there is a need to make people learn what is lacking and what is excess in order to pass correct diagnose of this long illness. 

I know we are political prisoners but there is a light at the end of the tunnel through SPLM. Most of my senior colleagues in the profession do call me a journalist who has deviated from the ethics but I do tell them that the unlucky ones today in the South are those who assume adherence to the ethics of their careers yet their deeds are contrary to believes, unlike me who is openly exercising facts in a brutally frank manner. We will never heal from this infested historical wound unless we define why we cannot find a lasting solution to the very always problem yet a series of generations have been involved in correcting it. 

Inside us is a genetic settlement for less hence, our friend enemy explores and exploits deep within our corridors of alternatives. We don’t do one thing wholeheartedly because of that inferior option. We have settled for tree top and ended up with tree trunk as the highest echelon of achievement leaving the whole sky to be explored by them. 

If all marginalized were my own kids, we would adorn in SPLM dresses and discard those few existing hurdles within the party with the objectives of dispensing a new chance for all the cornered Sudanese generations to aspire to inspire before our expiration dates so that a new legacy of hope is left for our kids and let that business of forwarding unfinished work to another generation comes to an end. 

Finally, massive unity amongst us the marginalized would be the only outstanding strategy in addressing this confused political saga because what NCP is advocating for today is the establishment of a supreme Arabs state in this country which none of us ever thought of calling it African Christian state due to its heterogeneity. 

What is so fanny about an Islamic and Arab state when we all don’t profess that chauvinistic shallow and selfish thinking? Let us swallow our internal differences and embrace one agenda because the current magnitude of this confusion will never know whether you are from SANU, UDF, and forth but they know the language of hitting a slave with a slave when God who created everything has never created any of his creatures inferior. 

 It is in this context that SPLM would always remain as a huge stone that we can gather around it and advocate for rights with unwavering and relentless efforts if the issue of second citizens is to be a history in our lifetime. There shall come a time that everything shall come to pass but our identity shall never.

Its belief and creed are of forceful persuasion

By Atok Dan Baguoot 

Its true colors are distress and hopelessness 

Its wings are of despair and hatred 

Its bone marrows are of jealousy and envy oil 

Its claws are of sorrow and regret 

Its skin is itchy and troublesome 

Its breathing is of fire and hot humid 

Its eyes are of ill-watch and curse 

Its name is of deception and cunning 

Its first character is of Nasty worst “N” 

Its middle identity is Curse “C” 

Its last perception is of perjury of bad “P” 

Its long problematic tail is of anarchy 

Its forsaken cradle land is of frying pan 

Its newly and forcefully acquired land is of a boiling pot 

Its old cousin is of fire swallowing family 

Its land is of explosive chemical for hatred 

Its belief and creed are of forceful persuasion 

Its name is of coercing and association 

Its doctrine is of falsehood and none of inquisitive 

Its name is never of free choice 

Its name is of deceitful lineage and descendant 

Its newly forced name is none of tolerance to my ancient name 

Its name is of pretense and protest 

Its healthy wish is of ill wish to me 

Its wise thinking is of my dull thinking 

Its attitude is toward disasters in my life 

Its greed of my natural wealth is of my destitute 

Its greed of occupation of my cradle land is of my devastation 

Its greed of my honey is of my early death 

Its greed of my fertile black mud is of displacement 

It greed of the hospitability of my sufferings 

Its abuse of my acceptance is of my regrets 

Oh God of justice and freedom,

Oh creator of appropriateness 

Oh giver of trust, oh taker evil 

How just is my creator, how selfish is my rival 

Turn for my rescue, turn for our oneness 

Turn for my jovial happiness; turn against my sadness and despair 

Turn for my oneness, turn against our division

His flattery tongue, is his silver tongue

By Atok Dan Baguoot 

Perfectly, he made it 

Made it perfectly for them the oppressed 

Molded it into your perfection 

Perfection of your innermost desire 

Desire you covetously desired 

Accord him the credit he who made it 

He made it for you 

To relieve you the oppressed 

Oppression beyond your ancient history 

The oppression that molded you 

Into laughing stock 

Into shoe brush likeness 

Into his utmost happiness 

Relieved you relieve, rested it upon you 

Upon you was his seat

The seat of his usual comforts 

Comfort of dishonest

Comfort upon he likes most 

But he who made it perfect had dared 

Dared for your total perfection 

He is for your perfection 

For your perfect perfection 

Never is never more oppression 

Out for more oppression, is out for more perfection 

In for more oppression, is out for more perfection 

In for more slavery, is in for more ignorance 

In for more deceits, is in for your own more short memory 

In for more self-hatred, is in for more self-humiliation 

In for more self-gossiping, is in for his self salvage 

None of a self-defensive right is self rights 

Rights never identified are never righteously granted 

Accord him he who defended, for he defended 

Accord him he who still in for it, in it for you 

Voluntarily did he do it, did for self-discovery did he do it 

He who did it yesterday is him who does it 

He who humiliates me is him who humiliated me then 

Never has he never changed, is never but him 

His flattery tongue is his silver tongue 

His present peaceful tongue is his tomorrow’s war-liked tongue 

His present persuasive tongue is his tomorrow’s harsh tongue 

His current hoarse voice is his tomorrow’s adamant voice 

His voluntary offers are his defensive cajole 

Comparative value is his comparative devaluation 

Does his devaluation, is his credence 

False credence, is his force credence

Tolerate to sit away even in a second.

By Atok Dan Baguoot 

It is done 

Properly done 

He did it wholeheartedly 

It is a deal done completely 

It is done to block him from further entry 

He was fond of entry without 

And nobody bothers to ask 

Not even a plain piece of it 

He too signed it unknowingly 

The past will never 

Never will it happen as alleged. 

It is properly signed 

Truly signed to alter falsified past 

A past meant to strengthen us 

He isn’t here 

Because it is so 

He depleted my house 

Once occupied 

He then called it empty 

Empty not even a living thing 

Yet he called me a mud-like structure 

Mud that he can not do without 

Black as it appears 

With an ugly black appearance 

That he can not tolerate leaving 

Tolerate sitting away even for a second. 

He was shortsighted Shortsighted to figure its value 

Its darkness 

Its darkness outweighed 

Its colorfulness 

Black that outweighed colorless soil 

He one time pronounced it empty 

But occupied 

Occupied by him whom it was meant 

Meant to be in without disturbances 

But he created it when he entered 

Not because he is reckless 

But he was cursed by him the giver 

A deal done is done 

But still pilfering 

The empty dark black mud 

He then called it empty 

Empty of his evil denials 

He needs to apportion himself part of this black mud 

He is in again in large numbers 

Numbers that outweighed mind 

Because of ill-gotten power from black mud 

Gift of this empty black mud 

The power that manipulates the source 

Sees how powerful he is 

He even speaks the tongues of black mud 

Empty mud He rejoices when I’m at worse 

He rejoices when I’m a mess 

He only appreciates my failures 

He doesn’t expect me to prosper 

Not even a notch of it 

Not even an inch 

He is a monster that dies courageously 

He rejuvenates through my faults 

My chaotic mood is his source of survival 

Let us watch 

Watch in stillness 

He sleeps less in a year to conquer me

He is a nocturnal like-creature.