By Charles K Mark
Jonglei State Minister of Culture, Youth, and Sports, urges the youth to promote a culture of peace using their talents.
Mabil Makuach Dau was speaking at Peace Festival last organized by UNHCR Field Office and Jonglei State Ministry of Peace Building in Bor.
A wrestling for peace tournament was organized to conclude the festival.
Mr. Makuach said the activities supported under the South Sudan Reconciliation, Stabilization, and Resilience Trust Fund (RSRTF Project) were meant for youth to use their talent to promote peace.
“My message will be particularly to my dear performers. This nation, as well as this state, needs all of us,” he said. “You have something unique to deliver. You have a role to play in nurturing our state in a peaceful way,” he said.
As a minister concerned for culture, Makuach expressed happiness and privilege for welcoming the youths for their contribution towards peace.
Renowned wrestlers were drawn from groups of Kampala Road Boy, Bor Town, and their fellows from Greenland Boy to wrestle for peace.
The Kampala Road Boys defeated their opponents, the Greenland Boys, by 5–4 points. Winning with a difference of only one point.
The winner went away with a heifer (a big and fat bull), while the second runner-up was awarded a bull too.
The initiative, promoting wrestling in Jonglei State, has sparked chants and reactions from fans, who view it as a symbol of unifying culture and sport.
Nial Awol Nial, one of the wrestlers, said, “Today is for peace, and there is no need for war again.”
Joe Mayom Gabriel, a fan, passed his message, saying that in such games as wrestling, the youth see themselves as brothers in unity.
“If you see these two groups, Kampala Road Boys and Greenland Boys, we have colleagues and brothers in both areas. So when we wrestle among ourselves, we feel like we are creating more ties and bonding among ourselves,” Mayom expressed.
“It is not our first time to wrestle with Greenland; the last time we lost to them by numbers, but our main actor won, only that they had more points, so this time it is us, but still there is no problem; in any game, there is a winner and a loser,” he added.
Mabior Marko, Secretary General of the Greenland Wrestlers Team, said they would make sure the game fulfilled its purpose, which is peace.
“So far, there are no issues of revenge in this county, and now that we have no conflicts among us if it is about the abduction, it is the government that must address it,” Mabor reiterated.
He said the misconduct of the youth in neighboring Pibor is so bad that the youth and the people involved are heavily armed.
The S.G. stated that maybe, for a proper dialogue to take place among youths of both communities, sports activities should be organized to bring both Bor and Pibor youths together.
Head of UNHCR Bor Field Office, Viola Makema, said the approach focused on community outreach strategies as well as political engagement to resolve challenges including community violence, abduction, and inter-communal conflicts.
“The most critical and tactical approach of the campaign was to end women and child abduction across Greater Jonglei and Greater Pibor Administrative Area (GPPA) by the youths,” Makema emphasized.
The Peace Week intended to use music and wrestling to mobilize the young people in order to pass and impart messages of peace so that the youth would reduce the cycle of violence.