Peace and war are great enemies of all times. When peace exists, war tries its very best to overthrow it and the reverse is true. Peace builds people while war consumes them which is why people prefer peace to war.
When South Sudan broke into war in 2013 and 2016, combined, peaceniks never slept a wink trying this and that to make sure peace prevailed. When it became a war of nerves, it changed its version to become a tribal war in which vulnerable people, such as children and women, were killed by both warring parties to annoy one another. This amounted to inhumanity and innumerable atrocities.
With the inking of the Revitalised Peace Agreement in 2018, eyes were set on the leaders to get committed to implementation and indeed, they got committed though the implementation was tortoiselike. This blew life into the lost hope and South Sudanese became hopeful once again.
Peace then was plastered and roofed by His Holiness Pope Francis, what remained was its full embracement by all South Sudanese plus the inclusiveness of the holdout groups so that complete peace is achieved. The embracement of peace was partial as long as gunshots were being still heard in the bush. This made the whole effort being exerted on peace go wasted.
Peace is the mother of prosperity. It is peace and only peace which will restore the bond linking one community with another, thus redefining South Sudanese as one people hailing from one nation.
It is peace which will give birth to democracy so that democracy gives room to equal representation in the government, bars one tribe from prospering at the expense of another, and above all, makes the citizens choose a leader of their choice. This is the formula for calculating one South Sudan, not 64 South Sudan. Until 64 tribes are welded into one big society, South Sudan will get rid of the ‘divide and divide’ system and thereafter, stability is achieved.
After peace, wounds of war begin to heal, but for them to heal as rapidly as possible, therapies such as trauma healing and reconciliation should be administered. Reconciliation makes a wounded heart heal without heaped-up scars.
Through reconciliation, grievances are aired out and the flames in the heart decline to burn and that space for forgiveness automatically creates itself and peace prevails at last. 2 Corinthians 5:18 says, all this is from God who, through Christ, reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation. As the heart heals, rehabilitation is then needed to make peace permanent.
Heart wounds were healing, but the Nasir war had abraded them so badly. Hope is once again lost and further suffering is expected. If there are beneficiaries of war outside there who give no ear to President Salva Kiir’s consistent promise of not taking the country back to war, they should comply with it.
Thanks for reading “Sowing The Seed Of Truth”.