South Sudanese Younger Generation Betraying its Fanonian Mission

Photo: aljazeera.com

We are either destroying South Sudan through physical corruption or through mental, ideological corruption. 

But in South Sudan, like anywhere else in the western world, the youth have been politicized and tribalized with in-your-face, willful ignorance. This is a simple, sad fact. Unfortunately, this simple fact affects what is said or written, and how sociopolitical issues are rationalized. Essentially, there's no neutral party, or a party acknowledged to be neutral, which can sieve issues into helpful epistemes. Everyone is cynically perceived to be a self-interested mind baptized with dark, undesired mole of otherness. And that's why I agree with Fanon that one cannot waste one's  time telling the younger generation that 'hunger with dignity is preferable to bread eaten in slavery.' They've made their minds and just don't care! When we follow (or laud)  corrupt leaders while they send South Sudan into free-fall, then we are no better than slaves.

And the sadness of this reality is heightened when one thinks of President Hoover's words that it's the young that fight and die after old folks declare war. South Sudanese youth in the diaspora isn't the one to go to war  and die so they'd take Hoover's words for granted. 

But Nietzsche captures South Sudanese tribo-political realities very well, that "the surest way to corrupt a youth is to instruct him to hold in higher esteem those who think alike than those who think differently.” This is not only destroying South Sudan now, it's threatening to destroy her future. Our leaders are building a nation of a single opinion, a horde of zombified youth.

Well, I could console myself by looking at the American politics and how childish and divisive it still is after more than 200 years of democratic enterprise (however dirty). One could therefore say that South Sudan has only been independent for about 5 years so South Sudan have not digested the nuances and intricacies of democracy.  'We' therefore need not be too pessimistic about South Sudan. If Americans can elect a child-minded, thin-skinned fellow like Trump and spew unshamed racial division, then one should perhaps excuse tribalist South Sudanese. Why not!

Now, the above stands assume many things. For instance, that South Sudanese need time and they'll be prosperous; and that we are okay with our bad deeds as long as others have their own bad deeds, or that divisive politics is something that doesn't disappear even in two centuries, not just 5 years. But is this true though?

While South Sudanese can be excused given the newness of our political realities and the rudimentary nature of our institutions, one needs to remember that a way to goodness (prosperity) needs to be apparent, clear. But all we see now in South Sudan are sad realities on express lanes. They have passed the precipice and are off into the doomsday abyss. Besides, consoling ourselves with the bad side of the American realities is to ignore the long tradition of American political stability and strength of its institution. America can easily correct her few bad needs (not putting into consideration her morbid racial realities). However, what we have in South Sudan is a whole reality of bad deeds we need to make good. 

We should only pride in our good deeds not console ourselves on others' bad deeds. So what's the way forward? The way forward is for the youth to part way with the sordid culture of our contemporary politicians and chart our own way forward. This is absolutely crucial, but it's understandably utopian given our current realities. The youth are either naive, corrupt or myopic. It's becoming almost impossible to extricate themselves from their destructive uncles. 

"Each generation must out of relative obscurity discover its mission, fulfill it, or betray it," wrote Frantz Fanon in The Wretched of the Earth. Sadly, it looks like we are betraying our 'mission' instead of fulfilling it. We've lost sight of, or have not discovered, the difference between corrective  and malicious attitudes. We've become lost in the myopic darkness of our ancestral pride. I'm not sure if we don't know this or we just don't care!

The future of South Sudan, undeniably, lies in a united youthful voice in the country; unfortunately, this 'voice' is only open and audible when it wants to praise an uncle or when it wants something to swallow. The older generation is destroying the future of our children but some of us are either joining them in such a destruction, or they are cheering them on. 

Until the youth charts its own, united course, it'll continue to betray its South Sudanese Fanonian mission and continue in the same destructive trajectory. Can we stop this South Sudan?

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Kuir ë Garang. Twitter @kuirthiy

ROLES REVERSAL: ALDO AJOU DENG AND ELDERS’ LOSS OF VALUES

Hon. Aldo Ajou Deng

I’ve written a lot about elders acting like young people and young people acting like elders. This is embarrassing and it shouldn’t happen in any society. But this is sadly the reality in South Sudan where elders are the ones beating the drum of war and division while young people beg them to speak the language of peace, inclusion, and inter-tribal togetherness. Given the fact that the country is now in turmoil and risks descending into a genocidal mode as United Nations has recently warned, one can clearly see that elders and the senior intellectual class have lost their way.

A number of young people, including this author, have been accused of targeting one self-proclaimed, infamous group of tribal elders’ whose language and agenda are divisive, abusive and myopic. These group, commonly known as Jieeng (Dinka) Council of Elders (JCE), came to political and public prominence after December 2013 mutiny and subsequent civil war. They became so vocal and tribally divisive that their writings and interviews became too hard to ignore. While supporters of JCE, most of whom tribally motivated, claim that these elders have both democratic and constitutional right to air out their views like any South Sudanese civil society groups, one needs to note the kind of messages they pass along and the motivation behind the existence of such a group.

None of us would have much to say against JCE had they focused on Riek Machar and his politico-military activities without targeting Nuer and Tribes in Equatoria. Undoubtedly, these elders have every right to criticize Riek Machar or any political party they deem unacceptable given political affiliations they embrace. However, they have gone above and beyond what could be considered a democratic and constitutional right. They resorted to the denigration of non-Jieeng tribes in the states of Equatoria and the former Upper Nile region; something that is contributing to more hatred and tribal division. Vilification (as Anei did on his book tour in Australia) of other tribes, no matter the motivation, is not only morally wrong, it also contributes to national instability. Given the powerful role these elders play in government, and given the fact that the president is Jieeng, any denigration of Non-Jieeng tribes becomes inexcusable.

I have written and posted videos as respectful as I could, urging these leaders to use their organization to bridge the gap between and among various tribes in South Sudan. And more importantly, I have also urged them to be the ones to advise youngsters against impulsive actions or tribally-charged utterances against other tribes. Surprisingly, there are people (including JCE) who accuse this author of having instigated hatred against Jieeng. Really? Asking my own people to be responsible and inclusive in order to avoid fueling tribal hatred is being considered, bizarrely, by some people as ‘garbage.’ That's really out-worldly bizarre. 

But no article, from JCE, has garnered much attention like the recent one by Uncle Aldo Ajou Deng Akuey. Notable in the article is the divisive and abusive language, historical inaccuracies and a manner of speaking not expected of an elder statesman, intellectual and seasoned politician. Our elders, essentially, have lost their way.

ELDERS VS. YOUNGSTERS

The first thing that horrified me and many others is the simplistic and embarrassing level the elder statesman has gone in his abusive and divisive language. I expected Uncle Ajou to correct young people he believes have gone astray without mentioning where these young people come from and without being abusive. Pitting different sections of Jieeng against one another is not advisable to anyone leave alone an elder and veteran politician. 

I have my critics and to some extent, ‘haters’; however, I have never resorted to calling them out by where they come from. I either call them out based on their own personalities or by their political affiliations. Tribes or clans are things I avoid when calling people out in terms of political differences unless I feel part of the group I'm calling out. The only people I have called out on clan basis are leaders from my own Jieeng section, the Twi of Jonglei state. Charity begins at home and that’s why I criticize leaders from my own sub-tribe or tribe.  I cannot criticize leaders from other areas of South Sudan when leaders from my own tribe are at fault.

Ajoudit could have criticized his young critics without referring to Jonglei or Bahr El Ghazal or any tribal associations for that matter. Besides, he could have also done so without calling them ‘foolish’ or people with ‘blocked’ minds who ‘skipped’ history in school. Where can we [youngsters] go if elders are the ones holding up the big, red flag of division and abusive language? It’s darn scary!

HISTORY

It’s very true that Ajoudit has been in Sudan’s and South Sudan’s political arena longer than many of us have been alive. However, that doesn’t mean we should take his historical narratives as true at face-value. Like any learned persons, we need to fact-check his historical claims. This is neither to disrespect elders not is it an assumption that ‘one knows it all.’ We are educated to think for ourselves, to find out truth by ourselves. History is not formulaic. It’s usually twisted by people writing it to suit their sociopolitical or socioeconomic agendas as long as no one subjects their historical narratives to facts-check. Please fact-check all the historical incidences I’m citing here.