A country is liberated even when it is already liberated. After the liberation from colonialists or co-colonialists, just like the case of South Sudan with Sudan, another liberation, what they call the liberation for prosperity, commences and remains in motion until the end of the earth. And when will the earth end? No one knows.
After South Sudan got liberated from Sudan, another liberation, a weaponless liberation for prosperity, should have been set in motion to make sure the chronic wounds of the 21 years get healed. This would too heal the trauma and reconcile the people to live a harmonious life.
Schools should have been built to liberate people from the illiteracy inflicted on them by the civil wars. Hospitals should have been built to liberate people from mortalities and morbidities. Roads, bridges, railways, and airports should have been built to liberate people from inaccessibility, poor infrastructure, poor economy, and insecurity.
International ties should have been strengthened and new ones built to liberate South Sudanese from hunger, mistrust in regional and international cooperation, membership termination, sanctions, and arms embargo.
The then SPLA, now SSPDF, which liberated the country should have been moulded into an army that can wear a blue helmet for peacekeeping inside or outside Africa.
The ruling party’s National Secretariat should have been the one occupying Equatoria Tower (UAP building) as its own structure. But unfortunately, it is now operating in fabricated containers. The ruling party’s youth wing aka SPLM Youth League should have been the muscles of movement in all walks of the country. But unfortunately, it is now incapable of moving itself forward.
The communities around the oil fields should have become the Kikuyu of South Sudan. They should have been the richest communities in the country, thus shouldering the role of extending a helping hand to other communities. But unfortunately, approximately one baby in one hundred babies born is born with a defect as a consequence of oil hazards.
The only good thing is that students are being sponsored by the oil companies, but even if they are sponsored and their younger brothers and sisters are being born with one eye, leg, or arm, is that compensation equivalent to such permanent defects?
The borders of South Sudan should have been well demarcated to avoid encroachment by the neighbouring countries. But unfortunately, the map of South Sudan, if drawn according to the areas inhabited by South Sudanese now, cannot have the same look as the one in the Geography textbooks.
If there were a liberation of prosperity in motion, there would be no communal clashes that are upgraded by politicians to become the causes of rebellion. No liberator tells another liberator to look up and see how far their own communities are left behind. Liberators are like cows taken to where they graze pastures.
They saw the green pastures and found it a delicious food to eat alone without paying back those who used to contribute cows, goats, food items, and their dear sons to participate in the army during the liberation struggle. It is South Sudan itself that is liberated, but South Sudanese are not yet liberated. Liberation does not end; it continues and continues and continues still. It should continue.
Thanks for reading “Sowing the Seed of Truth”.