So fifty years of war wrangling is about to be concluded with the idependence of Southern Sudan from what people in the South Sudan lumped together has arabicization and Islamicization just to use these two ill-accepted English words. Where do people begin? And where can Southern Sudan starts from? What about the North and rest of the country?
The truth, nobody knows what answers to these questions are going to be except to let history places itself. This means, people have to pause and be cognizant of every move they make as such moves can either tip off the scale in the wrong direction that nobody wants to travel especially after what people in Sudan have gone through.
But three things are clearer, Southern Sudan is going in its own direction. At this point, there is no doubt or debate about whether Southern Sudan is leaving the fragile united Sudan. The question that remained to be answered is what does South Sudan departure mean to the whole country and even the whole continent of Africa. To shed light on this matter, I started with Eriteria departure from the Ethiopia. Some historians pointed to Eriteria and possible Southern Sudan exiting has bad precedents for the rest of the contienent where historical maps were redrawn by the European Imperialists to suit their majestic interests. The results of course have been the lumping of people who have no historical ties to one geographical location and called it a nation. The typical example that I can think of is Uganda and what would be the newest state on the continent, Southern Sudan. In these two nations, people find one ethnic group scattered beyond legal national boundary. The Acholi and Langu of Uganda happened to have their ancestral relatives scattered all over in Southern Sudan.
But wait, this scattering of ethnic groups is not a major challenge or problem that the continent is facing. The real problem that may come with the precendent that Southern Sudan departure is going to be felt in places like Ogaden in Ethiopia, Somaliland, Western Sahara, Nigeria, and Ivory Coast where there have been revolutionary activites by various rebel groups who want some kinds autonomies. With the possible departure of Southern Sudan, these regions in Africa are going to be politically affected in a big way. In Nigeria for example, the problem that people are experiencing is exactly what the Sudanese have been experiencing in the last 50 plus years. The people of Northern Nigeria being mostly Muslims and Southern Nigeria predominately inhabited by Christians happened to be exactly a replica of the Sudan half century struggle. Thus, the possible independent of Southern Sudan is two pronged swords, one with one end to brighter future and the other with an end possibly to stir up political fire burners in some parts of the continent. With this in mind, there is a greater concern about what people on the continent of Africa would make of the precedent set by Southern Sudan independence.
The second thing that I think is clear is that, despite unanimous agreement that war is bad thing, I am personally convinced that civil war in Sudan was neccesary. It was a neccessary in seveal ways. First, people in South Sudan were denied their rights as citizens of the same country for almost a 60 plus years. They were treated unfairly, oppressed, marginalized, and more importantly, they were forced to live under laws not of their choosing. All these were seen as provocations by many Southern Sudanese of which no human beings are not supposed to live under such conditions. Second, the people of Southern Sudan gave peace a chance in 1972 when Addis Ababa Peace Agreement was signed to give peace a chance in Sudan . However, peace never materialized with this agreement. Instead, the North used this as an opportunity to restrategize on how to silent Southern Sudan forever. Thus, the only hope for Southern Sudan was to achieve peace by standing up to the North through military means because peaceful means of achieving it in Sudan were exhausted leaving Southern Sudan with no other mean.
Finally, I am convinced that people of Southern Sudan understood war and its impacts. Therefore, I am more optimistic that Southern Sudan as a new state will be a nation full with hope and promises because this what many people gave their lives for. Everyone I talked from the South tells how he or she wants to live a life of freedom, prosperity. Sometimes, people can sense attitude from the street of Juba, Torit, Bor, Wau and many other cities were Dinka, Bari, Zande, Toposa and other ethnic groups of people are mingling and living side by side as one people with a common destiny. This to me is a sign that coexistence, diversity, and tolerance are becoming common destinies for many Southern Sudan.
As I close my thoughts here about what I think is going to be a big century for the people of South Sudan. I challenge all Southern Sudanese to two three things, first, educated yourself because the future of Southern Sudan will require a strong nation building stills. I encourage the diaspora Southerners to reconsider contributing to the development of Southern Sudan. Second, I encourage everyone to work for peace, prosperity by discouraging nepotism, violence and resist temptation to betray your own people. Third, remember that Southern Sudan referendum vote is just a start and not the end to our dealing with Northern Sudan. Even if Southern Sudan becomes independent, we still have our brothers from Abyei who we still have to figure out how to make them part of the Southern Sudan. This of course would require us to still have a working relationship with Khartoum. Then also be mindful of the neighborhood, we don't want to have hostile neighbors living on our Northern border. We also have post referendum issues like border demarcation which is not finished as of right now, the oil issue of Abyei, National debt which I completely disagree to have anything to do with it, but still we need to present our disagreement to national debt debate in a constructive manner that shows who truely we are.
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