In life, not everyone is remembered. There are a few people who are remembered while a majority just go like that. They are remembered in the circle of their own families and the remembrance ends there. Such people who are remembered work not for themselves, but for their people.
They risk their own lives because of others. They offer shoulders to the failing people to lean on. They extend the helping hands to the fallen to rise them up. They offer their backs as a ladder for their people to climb up. They sacrifice their lives just to see their people living in freedom. They put first the interests of their people, not their own interests.
One of such people is Pele in football. One of them is Messi. Another one is Ronaldo in football. In revolution, such people who come only once in a generation are Dr. John Garang de Mabior of South Sudan, Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana, Jomo Kenyatta of Kenya, Kenneth David Kaunda of Zambia, Samora Machel of Mozambique.
Nelson Mandela of South Africa, Emery Patrick Lumumba of Congo, Haile Selassie of Ethiopia, Julius Nyerere of Tanzania, Idi Amin of Uganda, Robert Gabriel Mugabe of Zimbabwe, Martin Luther King of America, Che Guevara and Fidel Castro of Cuba, Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria, Muammar Gaddafi of Libya.
The list of genius Mahatma Gandhi of India, Mother Teresa of India, Johannes Gutenberg and Albert Einstein of Germany, Chinua Achebe of Nigeria. The list is too long.
Up to this very moment, such people are still irreplaceable. Most of them died some centuries ago but none of those alive now is equivalent to them. Take Jomo Kenyatta as an example. His biological son became the President of Kenya but still, he has not made the sacrifices that his father made, including his own life.
Africa is already independent. It does not need one to take up arms and liberate the country for him to be someone who comes once in a generation. There are a lot of ways to become what they call the G.O.A.T; the Greatest Of All Times. And there is what makes one be called the G.O.A.T.
In South Sudan, John Garang came only once in a generation, and ears have been opened widely, expecting someone to pop up and unfortunately, no one is prepared to get there. But the good news is that someone from sports is preparing to get there and that person is Luol Deng. When you put the map of your country in the atlas it never existed before, then who denies you from being the G.O.A.T?
It needs nothing, but commitment and consistency to be that person who comes once in a generation. Be a people’s person. Die for people. Work for people. Serve people and expect nothing in return. Let your salary be “thank you”. When someone tells you “thank you” for the work you have done, it is more than a salary.
If you are an aspirant, lobbying so hard to be a person who comes once in a generation, you must have South Sudan at heart. Each South Sudanese must occupy a special place in your heart. You must feel every citizen’s pain. You must be fair enough to treat everyone equally. You must have the qualities of the person who comes once in a generation.
When you serve everyone with a good heart, that alone is a ticket to becoming the GOAT. When you serve with bloodless hands, when you die for others and when you lead by example, you have already secured becoming a person who comes only once in a generation.