A Message to Actualizers of Doom: President Kiir and Dr. Machar!

 It’s an undeniable fact that South Sudanese former Vice President, Riek Machar, and South Sudan’s president, Salva Kiir Mayardit, have done something most of us will not find easy to forgive. They’ve reminded us of the past nightmares and caused unspeakable bloodshed! Intentionally or unintentionally, they caused Jieng and Nuer to turn against one another with vengeance …and they’ve now turned young people against one another on social media.

The conscientious and strong-minded youths have resisted mental tribalization; however, many youths have been divided along tribal and clannish lines. They are calling themselves names and writing statements they’ll regret tomorrow when sanity returns.

I blame the leaders for starting the mess and I also blame the young for being overly gullible and markedly credulous!

As most of you know, I’ve always criticized President Kiir’s leadership; however, I’d accepted the fact that he’s a humble person being misled by power-seeking people around him; and that he’d soon see the truth and change the country for better.  I was being too optimistic!

And I’ve always believed that Dr. Riek Machar has seen a lot of needless bloodshed when SPLA/SPLM split in 1991…and that he would never, ever support armed rebellion in South Sudan again. I was wrong! Riek’s support of the rebellion is unforgivable. I am a living witness of 1991 atrocities as I lived through it to the end!

Besides, violent removal of the president should have no place in South Sudan no matter what!

Riek Machar

We all know that President Kiir had turned autocratic and a little lax when it came to meaningful transformation of Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) into a well-functioning political party. In addition, we all know that you and your colleagues had given President Kiir enough chances to do the right thing.  There’s no doubt VP James Wani Igga and President Kiir have made fun of you in their public addresses instead of showing true leadership. Arguably, the events leading to the mutiny and the mutiny itself can’t be blamed on you and your colleagues per se!

Maker Mayek's too simplistic perception of Jieng people!

Maker Mayek Riak’s article on SSN dated December 20, 2013 is an interesting and worthy read. What I appreciated the most from that emotional, polemical and personalized article is the fact that Maker criticized his own tribe, the Jieng. This is a positive step if all tribes adopt it.  If we start to sincerely hold ourselves responsible for whatever we do then South Sudan would be a better place.

Thus: Nuer-Nuer criticism; Jieng-Jieng criticism; Bari-Bari criticism; Acholi-Acholi criticism; Zande-Zande criticism; Nyangwara-Nyangwara criticism; Didinga-Didinga; Uduk-Uduk criticism…etc.

It therefore goes without saying that there is indeed much cultural dynamics wrapped around the manner in which each and every tribe treads through every aspect of our society. These cultural matrices influence our views in Ethics, politics, economics, health, modernization, metaphysics, religion and perception of governance and power.

Like any other tribes in South Sudan, Jieng and Nuer have had their world view affected by their cultural perceptions.  Their grasp of foreign ideas and languages is also affected by their cultural realities.

Among the Jieng people I belong to, the Twï of Jonglei (always erroneously included as Dinka Bor because of their past inclusion in the now defunct Bor district) some of us have a problem pronouncing ‘l’ and ‘n.’ Chinese have the same problem too. Instead of saying ‘morning’ you hear ‘morling’; instead of saying ‘one’ you ‘ole’.

This is something Maker's section of Jieng doesn't have. Even Twï's neighbors (Bor, Hol and Nyarweng) don't have that problem. There are cultural things Maker's section of Jieng does that we don't do. There are words we have as Twï of Jonglei that Maker's section of Jieng doesn't have.

In the end, Maker needs to be patted on the back for that courage because not many people in South Sudan would do that regardless of what tribe they belong to.

However, a word of caution would be appropriate for Maker in regard to his simplistic presentation of the realities of the Jieng and Nuer people and his use of the premonitory and superstitious word, ‘cursed.’

I won’t waste time with the word ‘curse’ because of its superstitious nature. However, Maker presented Jieng and Nuer people as if they are some kind of homogenous tribes. Internal differences and realities can’t give anyone any ground to over generalize ethnic realities.

Simple differences are presented above.

To make it even worse, Maker uses his family’s example as an exacting fact of the Jieng’s and Nuer’s realities. This is not only factually irresponsible, it is misleading.

For Maker’s account to be taken seriously, he should have given a fact-based contrast between these two tribes and other tribes in South Sudan. How different in terms of cultural tendency to violence are shilluk, Murle, Toposa, Madi, Kuki, Bari, Moru and other tribes from Jieng and Nuer?

Well, Mundari and Bari fight over cattle raiding, Bira fights Didinga over cattle…etc.

A responsible account would have presented a contrast between the tribes in question and any other tribes in terms of how their cultures influence perception of economics, politics, power, violence and so forth.

While Maker’s emotional outburst is understandable, his polemic could have been presented in a more believable manner. These communities, and every community in South Sudan, need intense soul-searching and self-criticism in order to move the nation forward. However, this is something that needs to be done in a responsible and informative manner because some people use them for references.

We shouldn’t undermine our intellectual roles by presenting writings that can be seen as comedy by others. Jieng and Nuer are the largest tribes in South Sudan and their dirty laundries are easily known nationally and internationally