By Malek Arol Dhieu
From the level of Africa as a continent to that of South Sudan as a country, many gifted leaders have perished in a manner that the pointing finger does not go straight to the known enemy minus passing through a few servant-hearted Africans for the case of Africa or South Sudanese for the case of South Sudan.
Continentally, the fight against neocolonialism can never be won if the form of our fight is not changed to that fight in which some of our brothers never side with our enemies. It is patriotically hard to win a fight in which your brother or sister sides with an enemy while another brother or sister coaxes to have joined you in frontline. Because as you aim at the enemy, a patriotic heart instructs you not to release bullets as you may unintentionally harm your brother or sister and while you struggle to make the final decision, your own brother or sister whom you stay with awaiting the enemy hits your neck at the back.
Did Patrice Emery Lumumba and Thomas Sankara not die in the same manner? Were Kwame Nkrumah and Haile Selassie not overthrown in the same manner? Was Nelson Mandela not jailed for 27 years because of brotherly betrayal? Did other African leaders not die in the same fashion? A brother against another for nothing other than power. Up to date, I first fingerpoint at some African leaders before I straighten my fingers to the colonialists when I recall the sufferings of the great African liberators.
Now, one comes to South Sudan. During the liberation struggle, there were so many betrayers, vividly called in Arabic as “aduu’fiket”, meaning enemies within, who tried their very best to dwarf the movement, but God didn’t sleep a wink at them. Some were identified and others are being identified now by the diarrheal diseases that result from eating resources of the land they once betrayed. Do they think God is stupid? Our God and us are working to fail them for life.
When South Sudanese voted for separation, a fraction of South Sudanese voted for unity, these were enemies within, who swore never to see South Sudan attaining independence, but it happened satisfactorily. The same fraction of people ran to the celebrating scene first to start celebrating for the independence, but promised themselves to cause mayhem before South Sudan graduates from crawling to walking. South Sudan is mentioned at last now because of such enemies.
In post-independent wars, there were/are enemies within who support (ed) the rebels following their own calculations that if the rebels win, they would be maintained and be like they have killed two birds with one stone. Some of them are battling now with the curses of the young nation, and sooner or later, they will regret. This happens in all aspects of life, for instance, for every individual attack, there must be a friend or cousin who sides with the enemies to destroy your progress or that of the community.
For every uprising, there must be internal enemies who locate the weakest part of the government for the enemies to target. This is considered self-betrayal. Finally, when you betray your country or colleague, even the collaborators can’t trust you. Thanks for reading “Sowing the seed of truth”.
The author is a medical student, University of Juba.