By Keji Janefer
Members of the National SPLM/A Youth League started attending a public lecture on Nationalism in the context of Pan-Africanism on South Sudan at its headquarters in Juba.
The training which is expected to continue for six months is aimed at equipping the youth with the knowledge of understanding Nationalism and Pan-Africanism.
The chairperson of the national youth league, Daniel Aboche Ali said the lecture was organized to make SPLM/A youth league members to love their country.
Africano Mande, a Senior Cadre in the SPLM party and one of the trainers said, the beauty of the two topics, Nationalism and Pan-Africanism; is that you can define them the way you want. According to him, nationalism is a result of something that a group of people who jointly struggle to free themselves from a situation that oppress them.
“A number of times we tend to look at nationalism as a strong passion, as a strong thinking towards our geographical territory which is our country or towards our race or towards our ethnicity or even towards our interest group” Mande said.
“This is how we look at nationalism, meaning being a nationalist, am willing to serve in my country, am willing to toil and labor for my country” Mande explained.
The concept of nationalism emerged in the world as a result of a problem, “it is born as a result of one entity rejecting the other or it is born as a result of rejected entity trying to fight back” Mande added.
Dr. John Oryem, SPLM/A Deputy Secretary of training and research, urged the youth to take the lecture given by Africano Mande. “You are quite aware that our people are waiting for us as leaders of these country” Oryem emphasized.
Amos Manygang Mathet, one of the trainees and the Secretary of Education and Culture SPLM Youth League at Starford International University, urged youth of South Sudan to grow in the spirit of nationalism, “am very sure if the young people of South Sudan are to analyze and follow the procedure of these lecture am very sure they will grow in a nationalistic way and try to promote nationalism in South Sudan”.
Another trainee Daniel Lukudy, SPLM/A Secretary of Political Affairs and Mobilization said all the trainings handled by SPLM youth league are geared towards upbringing of the young cadres of the party.
While giving answers to some of the questions raised by the participants, Africano, told the youths that nationalism is an important instrument to transform and unite the young men and the citizens of South Sudan.
“There is need to create a philosophy which is a cocktail of Pan-Africanism and nationalism so that we can die for it, when it comes to our flag, we can die for it” said Africano.
He however, encouraged the youth to have institutionalized structures stressing that people come and go but the institutions remain.
Africano urged the youth to visit other countries and interact with other political parties on how to build strong institutions
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