By Deng Akoldit Ajuong
There is a village man. He spent his whole life in the village, after cows. He is quite tall and strong in appearance. He is the village headman. In his village, young people are going to the township to study, when they come back from the township during the holidays, they sit in open places and read their books in spectacles.
One day the village man realized that he is everything in the village; in other words, no one is above him, he was well oriented during his early initiation to be a man, knowing everything and faces. The village man is illiterate; he only knows cows; apart from that, he doesn’t know even the ten states of South Sudan. The geography of the world is another thing to him. He does not know how to read and write.
He does see people in his village, coming from Juba town to read books and newspapers in spectacles. The village man thought that if he bought a pair of spectacles, he would be able to read and write like these people who came from Juba town. He said to himself, he must travel to the township and buy himself a pair of spectacles so that he can be able to read books and newspapers like those who come from the township.
One early morning, he woke up and told his wife that he would be footing to the town of Juba. He spent about 2 weeks along the way to Juba. Around 2 p.m., when he arrived in Juba, he could smell the delicious food far away, about 2 hours away from the town. The dust has dirtied his feet, as you could see. At 4:00 pm, the village man arrived in Juba town. To his surprise, the roads are full of cars and busy. With the help of a women standing beside the road waiting for taxi bus gave him a direction to Juba town. You know the village man can walk quite fast. He walked to the town and asked the spectacle shop. He entered the shop for the and asked the shopkeeper to give him a reading pair of spectacles. He tried the first, and again and again, he told the shopkeeper to give him the other one. The shopkeeper gave him all the spectacles one by one. But he couldn’t read anything.
He told the shopkeeper that he didn’t need all these spectacles. The shopkeeper looked at him incredulously. Then he looked at the book. It was upside down! The shopkeeper said you may not know how to read. The village man said, no, I don’t know. I want to buy spectacles so I can read like others. But I can’t read with any of those spectacles. The shopkeeper had a hard time restraining his laughter when he found out the real problem of this illiterate village man in the town.
The village man went out disappointed, left the town to sleep on a nearby street. He knows one of the uncles in the city of Juba, but he doesn’t know the direction of the uncle’s house. The following morning, he returned to Juba town and asked people about the house of his uncle, once a famous government official. One old man seated under a neem tree in Juba town directed him to house. With the help of the old man from Juba town, the village man managed to get the house of the uncle. The old man under the neem tree could hear and understand him in his native language.
He arrived at his uncle’s home. The uncle was not in the house. He stood at the door until the children came from school and knocked on the door. They entered together with the children and stood beside the concrete building, and a group of women were drinking coffee at home. He greeted the women from far away in the local language, and no one could reply to him. The village man waited for some time until he took a stone and sat on it. In the evening, the uncle arrived with about eight bodyguards; good enough, the uncle reorganized him. He greeted him and asked him to follow him into the sitting room. Obvious water was brought to him, and he shared his long journey with the uncle. To cut the story short, the village man stayed at the uncle’s house for a number of days. The uncle employed him as a gateman; he could open the gate when people were coming in and out. With that interaction with the children, he managed to learn a few words in Juba Arabic.
The following month, he started lobbying and went to Juba town for politics while seeking a job at the same time. Since he is staying at his uncle’s house and his uncle is the most powerful government official, the friends under the tree suggest to him that he talk to his uncle to recommend him as an assistance director. In the evening, the village man arrived home, and he could talk with the uncle. He asked the uncle politely, and the uncle said, which ministry do you want me to recommend? He replied that he needs to be recommended to the once-resourceful ministry. The uncle asked his secretary to write the recommendation to the village man; the letter was well written in standard English. The secretary brought the letter to him and signed it with a stamp. He handed the letter to the village man. The following morning, he started went to the ministry complex. One to two weeks later, he manages to secure a job at his uncle’s recommendation. He was appointed as the assistance director in one of the government ministries, and his life has changed. He earns a good salary. His business in the town is going well. Perhaps the village man married 10 more wives, bought 60 plots outside the country, built the tallest building oversea in his time of tenure, and bought 10 V.8s for his new wives. In the morning, his breakfast cost about 300 USD, the lunch could cost 500 USD, and the family meals cost 1000 USD per wife. Because of the presence of in-laws, immediate family members, the village man’s life became story-changing in his village. He became a wealthy man. During a local association meeting, he could contribute to his people with about 5,000 USD. Now the village man is so blessed. We clap our hands to this man because God has blessed us with a powerful man.
May God bless our village men!
The writer can be reached at Email: dengakol865@gmail.com / 0925966085.