If there were museum where stronger people are kept for future studies, it would be dominated by the people of South Sudan. In fact, this very world is good with South Sudanese. The world is very troublesome and so, is good with people who sleep in troubles, blanket themselves with trouble, eat trouble and pursue troubles as their dreams.
Such people are none other than South Sudanese. From war to war. From bad governance to bad governance and from this economic crisis to that economic crisis!
If you meet a South Sudanese on his way, you may think that he was discharged from hospital yesterday, but he has never been admitted even for an hour. He is starving, but he never wants to let the people know about it.
When you try to tell him that the solution to why you and your other fellows are like this lies in your hands, and this solution is to, for instance, call for a new president, he will slap your face and tell you that I love my president, let him continue leading. If he dies, he dies and if, by the grace of God, he lives, he lives.
Meet your defender, I mean the person who underwent a number of military trainings and thereafter was armed with a gun to fight Arabs for the independence of South Sudan. I’m talking about a soldier, not just a soldier, but an SSPDF soldier.
When you meet an SSPDF soldier, you may think you have met an SPLA soldier who had escaped from the army in 1990s but has just come to claim his rank and that, he must be in military uniform. His military uniform looks dirty, it’s torn on the shoulders and his boots look like they have never been polished for 5 good years.
He foots from Shirkat to Bilpam to attend a military parade and returns home footing. He stays for 4, 5 or 6 months without salary, and if he looks into it that there is no news of the salary completely, the only way to go is to pick an axe, go to the forest and cut down trees for charcoal. This goes on until the government decides to give out salaries on its month of choice.
When you go for strike, calling for a regime change or step down of the incumbent leaders, the soldiers, whom you are fighting for their welfare, immediately pick guns and shoot you down. They love suffering the most!
When you meet an Internally Displaced Person, ask him whether he was displaced by a natural disaster or war because it is necessary to know the cause of displacement. Anyway, he looks terribly emaciated with a scaphoid stomach, dry skin and lips, sunken eyes, and scattered hair. He moves barefooted and almost naked.
His food assistance gets diverted by the government officials assigned to oversee the distribution from the donors. But when you closely look at him or have time to talk to him, you could find that he never minds this great suffering and that, he’s strong to move on like that.
In general, South Sudanese are starving, but they look like nothing is happening or has happened. They look stronger! Others are even chasing their goals with those weak bones. They have sat on the solution to what is facing them.
They laugh when the situation needs crying. They say ‘go up’ when the situation needs ‘come down’. They know what to do, but they do not want to do it. I think South Sudanese are good people to use for research.
The author is a medical student, University of Juba.