By Ngor Khot Garang
Dear unborn children hope this letter finds you in a good mood. I’m here for the first time in a while to bring to you the latest development in your broken world. But don’t expect something interesting from me this time. I understand that these words hurt and I’m sorry, but I have no choice but to keep sending you more letters because your world is inflamed with blood every single minute and keeping quiet would be another mistake that I would never make as long as I still live.
I don’t know your number or the time you would be born but if there is anything I’m well assured, it is the fact that some unfortunate children will one day be born, and they will have to struggle for the rest of their lives to put everything together only to end up in tears. Little ones look no further, you are the ones I’m talking about and I’m very sorry that you have the price to pay for the mess we made ourselves. If we had chosen the right path, little ones, you would have been the happiest people in the world.
Killings and rape would have been stories of the past to you. There would have been tall buildings, good roads, schools, and hospitals but I’m sorry and very sorry that there is nothing you would get, not even food to eat except graves and dry bones.
Little ones, people are starving here and animals and scavengers feast over human flesh and they are always in the waiting line for any human that may fall down. Isn’t it frightful? As a child, how would you feel and how exactly would you describe this life? Watching a 16-year-old girl getting married to an octogenarian.
A child begging on the street. A 50-year-old woman was gang raped by young men. A 17-year-old boy carrying an AK47 assault rifle heavier than his normal weight and a woman drenched in blood. And how exactly would you feel little ones when you see young men working in mortuaries and cemeteries because there are no jobs in the country. Little ones, this is what you will automatically succumb to and it sucks but little ones if you were asked today to choose the world to make your home, will you refuse or will you give it a trial?
You must be afraid and I’m sorry to tell you that more shocking news has not been told and some are still in the making. The world is a bad place, and it is not just the world but the people in it are nothing but the devil themselves.
Maybe when you come later, you will learn of devils. They are imaginable creatures but when you meet someone later in life who is corrupt, tribal, and killer at the same time, little ones you have to run as fast as your legs could carry you because that person is a devil himself. We have them in abundance here and I’m very worried about you. I’m not worried that they will kill you or destroy your future because your very future has been torn to pieces years ago and fixing it together would be your own task and it makes me cry even more for you.
I still worry about you, and I will still be worried, and I will remain so until the world comes to an end but what is it that I’m worried about? It is you because some days you may decide to be like us (the devils) and when you choose to be like this, it is better you die because what this country wants are people who will act differently from the current ones and these are the right people who will shape the future of this young nation that is pitifully suffering in the hands of people who only want to see it suffering even more.
Little ones, what on earth haven’t we seen? Most of the children have seen their mothers raped in their sight and on top of that killed. We have seen 70-year-olds bury 20 years old. We have also seen people burnt alive and the starving majority burying their loved ones daily as if the burial was the only business assigned to them by God.
Little children, when we look at you, we feel ashamed of ourselves, and I wish this is not the kind of life that you should live again. We want you to be like AMERICANS or CHINESE or if you can’t reach that far at least we want you to understand that every human being deserves the right to live in dignity and in peace without the fear of having to run for the fear of their lives.
We want you to respect every human and understand that there is only one tribe and that is South Sudanese. We want you to understand that stealing public funds is murder itself and it is a crime punishable by death but little ones when you are in power you will amass public funds and forget the masses, but nobody will punish you because you have all the vested powers. Don’t do it in your time and if you are greedy enough, please do it with your family and don’t harm the poor. Don’t forget this in your time little ones. Don’t forget. It is bad and God will never forgive you. Don’t kill your people when you become a leader later and make sure you become a ladder too.
We also don’t want you to be robbers or drunkards at your age because that is what most of the young people are doing here. “But in its nature, it is a very bad life, why are they doing it?” You may sometimes ask but dear little ones, these young people are very innocent and most of these young people, if there was somebody investing in them, would have been great people in the country. They are talented and they can do better in any field if there was somebody standing with them, but they are unlucky and that is why they are living this kind of life. Stealing and drinking are the only opportunities they have but the price is always physical.
The majority of these young people have got responsibilities, especially those who lost their parents during the war. They had to pay the price of taking care of their families, but they are not working because there are no available employment opportunities, and they are not in school. Now what do you think they will do dear little children? Of course, doing anything even if it means stealing to survive would be the only thing they will do because it is not completely easy here even for those with strong parents.
It is a strong struggle between life and death and who wins most of the time is what I will never tell you because the signals are crystal clear that some if not all of you will experience this kind of life in a few years. You will wonder why at that age, and you will die asking yourself that similar question without answers. The world will just stare at you without answers, and you will just break down on your knees to cry. It is a problematic, mostly man-made, problematic world. The choice is yours whether to make a world where there is peace, respect for human life, love, unity or you end up in a gun-ruled world worse than the ones we had. Make the decision right now because it is still not too late and may God guide you in your decision-making process.