Building monuments in memory of the heroes and heroines who held a true vision of South Sudan would be a great thing. But shouldn’t there be a slightly deeper reason attached to this? For instance, is the country seeing the fruit of their cause? Did the deaths of these brave and important men and women have a great effect? Because considering that the nation is still battling conflicts, cattle raiding, violence among each other, this is clearly not the vision that those martyrs had in mind as they fought for freedom even when death was right in their face.
This would be a good idea but also considering that President Salva Kiir said that these monuments can not be constructed right now because of the insecurity in some of the states. What a game changer!
The more important way for the country to truly honor these important fallen heroes of our country is by living up to the peaceful, equal, free nation that they envisioned everyday that they were in the wars to free us. The monuments, as a physical symbol are a thing that can be broken down in case of insurgency but a peaceful nation, equal, free, having justice and basic services to the people will be a more remarkable symbol instead. It will be independence in all its totality.
Statues and monuments are temporary. Once people realize or are later convinced that the person being hero-worshipped is actually a fallacy, they will quickly take that monument down and frustrate it all. Half a loaf is better than none at all they say but also the same people warn that people living in glass houses should not throw stones.