WE SHOULD DO BETTER THAN CHARACTER ASSASSINATING OURSELVES
When South Sudanese are portrayed outside, most times we are often portrayed as hostile, violent, arrogant, careless spenders who do not know how to spend to develop their own country. Truth is that we do not have such terrible character traits generally although still not all of us are saints.
Reports of our country men being involved in a communal fight in Sudan, a country in which they have been hosted is rather disturbing. It is a great thing to keep peace with your neighbours – more especially the person who hosts you. An African proverb goes, “do not bite the hand that feeds you.” If we keep on keeping our terrible reputation – leaving it to precede us, do we not care about the relations with our neighbours, friends and host communities in which we are seeking refuge?
South Sudanese change the narrative of our character once in a while. The talented sports men, women, models, outstanding business personnel and successful individuals who have succeeded to achieve their goals especially those in the diaspora who are refugees and those who gained citizenship after a while.
“The fact that our men basketball team has won and not just winning but have surprised the whole world. Today they are not talking about human right issues but asking themselves how comes this country has qualified and has gone beyond 60 countries ahead of them.” Dr. Barnaba said about the country’s Basketball team after their enormous win that changed the reputation of the country for a second.
We can do better than manifesting the dubious image that we have to others.