Ambiguity of lands issues in Juba

By Atok Dan Baguoot 

“Liberty sets the mind free, fosters independence and unorthodox thinking and ideas, but it does not offer instant prosperity or happiness and wealth to everyone.” Boris Yeltsin.  

History of wars and civil unrests had pitfall development of South Sudan to the extent that not even a single place is ever identified as the common ground where people can assemble without utterances of land grabbing. Contests on land rights and land usage are never alien, nor it is an endemic condition to South Sudanese nationalities. It is a global phenomenon in the sense that when the concept of state and nation-state cropped up in the minds of philosophers, centralism of administration also found its way into nascent states. 

After the invention of nation-states, centers started to develop rapidly, replacing ethnic territories or traditional forms of administration centers which were based on social and cultural affiliation and lineages. There used to be no inter-ethnic common centers unifying different nationalities, meaning ethnicities were politically far apart. Each and every ethnic community had its own head center for both social, political, and ritual gatherings. 

Most of the current European countries were founded on this basis, unlike in our case on the continent of Africa where nation states are heterogeneous in nature. The US moved its assembling point from Philadelphia in Pennsylvania state to Washington DC to serve the interest of the unified states of America. In our case here, when the British disbanded the traditional administration system, Khartoum became the center for all the Sudanese regardless of their geographical localities, and Juba identified as a center for the then semi-autonomous Southern region of Greater Bahr El Ghazal, Equatoria, and Upper Nile until former president Jaffar Mohammed Nimeiry administration divided the South into three mini provinces. Juba acted as the capital until North’s sponsored agenda (Kokora) through greater Equatoria came to light. 

Subsequently, came the 1983 Bor Mutiny which gave birth to the current South ruling party the SPLM. SPLM succeeded in capturing major towns from the government of Khartoum in South Sudan in the late 1980s and established its headquarters in several towns, first Kapoeta, Torit, Yei to Rumbek until the signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement CPA which brought us to Juba again for the second time after Any-Anya. The second coming to Juba as an interim capital of Southern Sudan for the lifetime of the CPA was actually an influent both internally and externally. 

The SPLM/A leader, late Dr. John Garang De Mabior was not of the idea, although he succumbed to those influences and accepted the idea while knowing that Juba would never be an ideal place because of several experiences. You all know them. He made a personal proposal for Ramciel to be the future capital of South Sudan, regardless of the outcome of the recent referendum. 

The current Vice President of the Government of Southern Sudan, Dr. Riek Machar Teny was to engineer it. In the Interim Constitution of the government of Southern Sudan, Juba would remain the Interim Capital. After the cancellation of famous Ramciel project, Juba became the most preference to the SPLM leadership because of existing infrastructures. They were built by Nimeiry’s regime to lure the former Anya-Nya politicians that development had become a reality in Southern Sudan and to accommodate their government of the time. 

 The size and the number of people in Juba then were almost four times less than the current one, so land grabbing by certain communities was still not much compared to today. The ambiguity of land issues in Juba as an interim capital has depicted certain communities in South Sudan in a state of second-class citizens in their own country. Lands grabbers today in Juba are either known as Nuer or Dinka, why because of their natural large numbers. 

The majority of them in Juba are either serving in the army forces, GoSS, NGOs, or doing private businesses because Juba as capital has attracted the outside world. Few others who might follow are other ethnicities from other states apart from the Central Equatoria States. Because of the ambiguity of these land policies, certain people are seen as a second class who had never had decent life or those who have never had lands to settle on. 

The intra-cultural respect amongst Southern Communities is fading off because of that. Coupled with ambiguous policies, there are no clear procedures for acquiring lands, especially among the low-income earners who form the majority of our population. Even the SPLA soldiers who labored the whole of their lifetime, fighting in bushes to liberate the same costly lands from real grabbers are subject to the same description of being lands grabbers on the same lands they liberated.

Well, I’m not saying we have to settle anywhere in any empty space but there have to be some criteria guarding the tenancy of the land if we are to stay permanently in Juba as the capital of Independent South Sudan. Expecting an SPLA soldier who earns 300 SDG per month to buy a piece of plot that cost 15,000 SDG is equal to regrets over the 20 years he spent fighting without family. Stay renting a house that cost him the same 300 SDG every month tantamount to minus eating, let alone other social amenities a normal human being undergo. 

If we are to stay in Juba as the capital of an independent South Sudan, as nobody in the government talks of the issue of a permanent capital city where all of us would be equal or subject to the same rights, not privileges this time, there is a need of serious laws protecting all of us equally without being discriminated on the basis of ethnicities when asking for a house to rent. Renowned writer, Dr. Francis M Deng said that “what divides is what remains unsaid”. As a person from the caliber of low-income earners is asked of my tribe on several occasions whenever going around asking for a house to rent. 

The end result is obviously rejection because I can’t hide my identity as a Dinka. Because our lawmakers earn the lion's share of their monthly incomes, they are never bothered by what affects individuals of their constituencies residing in the national capital. They are able to acquire lands at whatever price given by the landlord. 

As now Ramciel Project is dead with Late, Dr. John Garang, we the constituencies outside Juba need a well thought laws that would guide us in the future capital Juba but not the former interim capital Juba whose policies were ambiguous to even lawmakers. 

Personally, I need a national capital where my identity would not be used as a basis of awarding me land, where the guilt of a crime committed by my tribe mate is not used as soft ground of judging me wrong and where certain tribes would not be known for land grabbing if so. Laws are made out of logic and realities affecting people based on scientific advancement. We are never excepted from those natural facts. 

The lawmakers have to ensure that they are lawmakers not just to adore speeches made by leaders. In order not to inherit the legacy of tribal resentments and prejudices towards each other in the Independent Republic of South Sudan, the recent formed Constitutional Review Committee decreed by the President of the Government of Southern Sudan, H.E. Gen Salva Kiir Mayardit has to devote its energy in the formation of a rapid constitutional commission that would oversee the nature of laws suiting the dynamic society. 

The majority of people spent the whole interim period in Juba in a disgruntled mood, however, the timeliness of the CPA kept every sort of argument related to the lack of lands at a low profile. Now onward, Pandora's box is held high opened in the air for all sources of doubts and questions. 

In all the bitterness incurred over lands in Juba, none is held accountable this time until we see our lawmakers either making or failing to make laws protecting us in the near future. We need to write off the legacy of big man/woman owning everything of the land. In the law of nature, “every size is proportional to its size” unless that particular size wants to be happier than the others which is the natural source of all discords.