Seed of South Sudan

by Majok Marier

  “There were many challenges. The school was started when the border was open,” but now because of both Sudan and South Sudan positioning themselves and engaging in attacks over the control of oil fields not too far away, the border has been closed, so materials could not be brought from the north. Fuel from contractors also became very expensive. But now materials are coming from Uganda (400 miles south) and a road, the first ever in the area, is being built. The UN is building a hard-surfaced road to connect two refugee camps, Yida and Ajuonthok. Yida is a major refugee camp for northern Sudanese from the Nuba Mountains. They fled from Southern Kordofan state in Sudan because of attacks going on from the Bashir regime, continuing to kill its own people. Thousands are being cared for at Yida; there is also a school there, built by UNHCR.

  Lubo and Ngor’s school, Nyarweng Primary School, was started in 2011; the work slowed in 2012, and the school was constructed finally between February and May of 2013. The school actually began operation in 2012, occupying a building that was not quite finished. For a community that had no school previously, this was a small compromise to make. Finally, the Nyarweng Model School, the first of its kind, is open.

  “There are two teachers paid by the state; three are volunteers. There were over 300 students, and they have moved back from Bentiu, the state capital, and other places in Payam district where they had to go to in order to have school,” Ngor said, obviously proud of his and Lubo’s work. “Mom and Dad can attend, too!”

  The next phase, the school in Aliap, awaits more funding. Mothering Across Continents, Raising South Sudan from Atlanta, and Sudan Rowan will all be involved, as will other volunteers and contributors in the Atlanta and Charlotte communities and around the world.6

  Fourteen

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  South Sudan’s Future

  What does South Sudan need, and what are its resources to achieve it? In the warm afterglow of independence, many ideas about the new nation and its future have emerged. Everyone is glad to be independent; after a 21-year war, and a six-year transition to independence, northern Sudan no long dictates all affairs in the world’s newest country. Now, depending on who is speaking, it is the beginning of a bright new era, or a daunting task. It certainly is both. There are a great many needs, and a tremendous number of new opportunities.

  The country is mostly composed of rural villages, with subsistence farming and cattle raising providing the economic activity, although cattle are rarely sold off, unless there are extreme weather conditions resulting in no grain.1 As outlined in the discussion of John Garang’s ideas of development for South Sudan, there are many approaches that can be utilized to create an economy based on the rural village and town model, but it will need to be done carefully. Looking at the country as it is, with large swaths of unadulterated land, some cultivated for crops and most for cattle grazing—it has to be remembered that there is no outright land ownership, but only a government-recognized right to use land.

  Looking at the situation of South Sudan, with its eons-old traditions of a pastoralist society, now attempting to come of age and develop, next to a relatively advanced country, Sudan, it is possible to compare it to the point when European settlers first came to North America and found Native Americans. At that time, once depredations on either side occurred, the reaction was to conquer and destroy as a way of dealing with the intense differences in the societies. What if, instead of that approach, more advanced social systems for cooperation were used to help bridge the wide differences in capacities for industry, agriculture, commerce and education? What if the conquering groups had done things differently then? What can be done now to help a similar transition among pastoralist communities in South Sudan as they face the challenges of the future?

  Conflict within Sudan at the time of this writing, just past the second year of independence for South Sudan, is increasing. Salva Kiir, the president of the Government of South Sudan (GofSS), on July 22, 2013, dismissed a top vice president and former leader of a Civil War revolt against SPLM head John Garang, Riek Machar, and dissolved the government.2 (Garang was Dinka; Kiir is Dinka; Machar is Nuer, the other largest ethnic group in South Sudan.) Meanwhile, articles in the Sudan Tribune indicate peaceful efforts to resolve differences.3

  Then there are charges from the Sudan government that South Sudan’s SPLA are supporting rebel groups in Darfur and in Blue Nile areas of Sudan where groups are organizing and fighting the Sudanese Army to bring about a secularized Sudan. That is the line that Khartoum is using to hold up the talks about dividing revenues from the only oil that either Sudan or South Sudan can currently pump, that lying in the disputed South Kordofan state. These oil fields, at Heglig (Arabic) or Panthou (Dinka) are actually in Ruweng County and are part of South Sudan. Abyei, an area nearby, does not yet have oil drilling, but has oil underground.4 This area was to have its own referendum at the time of the South Sudan independence referendum in 2011, but mapping to define the referendum area was delayed over charges from the Sudan government that Misseriya tribesmen who grazed their livestock there should be included in the electorate. This objection has stopped implementation of referendum guidelines that had been agreed to after extensive mediated negotiations by Khartoum and the SPLM.5

  The Key Issues: Oil and a Reformed Economy

  All this points to the biggest, most important issue in South Sudan’s economic life: the oil that lay in what was deemed southern Sudan lands was historically pumped north and the revenues supported development in northern Sudan. Now those revenues are needed for schools, government operations, security and the many other needs of a new government for a people totaling an estimated 8 million. But matters are at a stalemate as the Bashir government halted the oil production in April of 2013 and, as of this writing, oil pumping was coming to a total stop.

  Control of oil so that South Sudan could support itself was one of the main reasons for the Second Civil War. The Comprehensive Peace Agreement hammered out between Sudan and the SPLA after lengthy negotiations and signed in 2005 left the borders between the two countries subject to further discussions, and those talks have not resulted in a solution, as noted above. Without oil, the new country has no revenues. They have to resolve the issues of sharing revenues and the status of the lands themselves before World Bank loans or any other consistent form of funding government operations can be realized.

  In the meantime, the efforts to educate young people, a hope of all who worked for conclusion of the war, is greatly affected by the stalemate. For the new model school that Lubo and Ngor worked on, there is the achievement of a large facility with four classrooms and housing for teachers to be proud of, together with a rebored well and latrines, offering a great improvement in village sanitation. This was paid for by individual donor and grant contributions to the Raising South Sudan project of MAC and partner nonprofit Sudan Rowan, based in Salisbury, North Carolina. Yet the teachers are still often volunteers. For a new school, the GofSS commits to pay the salary of the headmaster and at most one or two other teachers. As the government struggles to generate revenues, these are not the most secure incomes.6

  Salaries are 300 South Sudanese pounds, or about $75 U.S. a month.7 Numbers of people in the United States have raised the question, why don’t the Lost Boys go back to South Sudan and help the country? In many cases, they have, but in others, the lack of infrastructure and jobs that will pay consistently and well keep them from doing this. They are able to send significant parts of their U.S. salaries back to South Sudan, and that has resulted in more cash being available in the local economy. Lost Boys pay for medical care and some of the conveniences mentioned in Majok’s story of his family and his marriage and child. According to Mothering Across Continents Executive Director Patricia Shafer, there are project manager jobs available due to the building of a new pipeline from South Sudan to an Indian Ocean outlet either in Kenya or Ethiopia. Lubo, for instance, is employed in Unity State as a community development project manager by
a Chinese oil firm.

  But like much in South Sudan, things change rapidly from the original announced plans. Seeking to maintain job security, many Lost Boys stay on in the United States believing they can do more good for their families from overseas.8

  Schools, water wells, clinics, scholarships to send South Sudanese students of promise to advanced education for the country’s needs—all these are either delayed or just barely being provided in South Sudan today while the resolution of oil revenues disputes are being attempted. Still down the road are plans John Garang outlined and others have suggested to reform and improve the way farmers produce crops. Getting to a crop surplus situation where excess can become a major product for markets is still a way off. Creating a tourism industry that will take advantage of the wildlife in the vast areas of the countryside and the traditional ceremonial life in villages is still to come.

  Key Issue: The Ability to Resolve Conflicts

  Since the Rwandan and Somalian tragedies and since the end of apartheid in South Africa, the African Union has formed and taken an active role in trying to mediate disputes in countries on the continent. Likewise, the Union, which has developed a structure echoing that of the United Nations, with multiple functions to address a series of economic, political and emergency situations among the 54 member nations, has provided mediation help in the dispute between Sudan and South Sudan over the oilfields.

  The oil pipeline moves oil from the wells at Heglig in Kordofan state, an area claimed by South Sudan, to the northern outlet to the sea, Port Sudan. In the Comprehensive Peace Agreement, the sharing of the well revenues was to be 50–50. Omar al–Bashir, president of Sudan, ordered the pipeline shut on June 8, 2013, because of hostile actions from local rebels. An article by Agence France-Press in July 2013 said the two sides wanted even faster help than was being proposed for bringing the impasse to an end.

  “In a statement, Sudan and South Sudan confirm their acceptance of the AU plan and call on the African Union” and the prime minister of Ethiopia, chair of another regional body, “to put it into action immediately.”9

  Such steps presumably will be delayed as a result of South Sudan president Salva Kiir’s dismissal of Riek Machar, the South Sudan representative in those talks. But Majok is optimistic that the changes will be accommodated. He says that more attention should be paid to the tribal disputes that feed the larger conflicts. (Intertribal conflicts have killed hundreds in Jonglei state since South Sudan’s independence, according to the Sudan Tribune, and the conflict is feeding the Sudan–South Sudan dispute over oil.)10

  Using Tribal Resources for Resolving Disputes

  What happens is that they will shift people around, but the direction and the vision will not change. In terms of conflict management, there are some things that South Sudan can do that will resolve a lot of problems. Most of the conflicts arise on the local level, between groups raiding each others’ cattle. This is a huge problem. When this happens, it’s often part of a tribal rivalry, or it becomes more so because of the raid.

  These people who are trying to reduce the conflict at the higher levels need to go to the people. There’s a three-step way to bring these fights to an end:

  1. Take the talks to the cattle camps. Meet with the leaders of the communities who have their cattle out in the bush, and talk with them to reduce the fights and raids between the communities.

  2. Talk to the elders in the communities. These are the people whom other people listen to. They are looking at old age, and they don’t get to participate in the community as they did when they were young. But they have a very large influence on the people in their community. Get their advice and have them give their counsel to the people who are fighting and raiding each other.

  3. Those who are preaching conflict—work with them to stop that. There have always been those who were not happy—before the Civil War, during the Civil War, and now after. They need to stop preaching revenge and reprisal, and instead preach cooperation.

  We need all the tribes in South Sudan to make this country work. The Sudan government loves to divide us and to set us against each other. But we need to stay together and work together. The conflict work needs to be done at the level where it starts—in the cattle camps and in the small villages.

  Tribal councils come together to make what we Dinka term “the good decision.” When conflicts arise or situations present themselves, the people, led by their chief and their elders, will sit in a circle to discuss what needs to be done. This is the traditional way, and it apparently has worked over many, many generations.

  Ngor Mayol gave an example of this in a discussion of the increase in the price of cattle and the pressures to provide more cattle as bride-prices, especially since the Civil War. Bride-prices of 100 cows or more were being reported as common in some tribes in recent years; in past years such a price would have been an exception. The average price of a cow or bull has also increased dramatically.

  “My tribe was affected by the war,” Ngor said of the Dinka Pan-Aruu group he belongs to in northern Unity State. “Many people had been killed, families did not build their cattle herds—they lost a lot due to the war. So after the war, my tribe came together and said that a marriage, which used to cost 45 cows, should bring 25 cows. That should be the norm.” In that way, the burden of creating bride-wealth could be reduced, and the high competitiveness that had come to mark it in some other communities could be avoided. This is a matter that was handled at the tribal level; the government does not get involved, Ngor said. If a marriage was to end in divorce—it does not happen very often—again the tribal court would make a judgment, awarding the groom only 25 cows even if he paid more, because this became the new custom among the Dinka Pan-Aruu.11

  Counting Rich Resources, Developing Realistic Expectations

  South Sudan has so many resources—oil that lies undiscovered, minerals we have yet to identify and find. The land offers a good climate, and little of the land is desert. We have the great expanse of the White Nile River. There are so many crops: sorghum, okra, millet, groundnuts (peanuts), casaba, sweet potatoes, tomatoes, melons, cabbage. Our trees give us kumquats, mangoes, shea butter and lemons. But building an economy based on these resources will take patience.

  People in South Sudan need to know that South Sudan is not going to happen all at once. The first thing that we have to provide is water for our people—in the form of water wells. Providing water will help assure our crops can grow—that we will have food. Then we need to have schools and hospitals.

  All these things will take time. It will take a while to be like other nations. We are moving in this direction, but it’s going to take a while. If we try to have all that we think we need at once, we’ll be disappointed. We have to be patient.

  Other Countries Help to Raise a Country

  South Sudan had a lot of help in coming to life from the countries on the same continent as well as from around the world. Its citizens and military suffered death and destruction and large-scale dislocation. As it gets on its way, it has help from a lot of individuals and countries as well.

  The African Union, the union of 54 African states, has played a major role in encouraging resolution of differences between the two countries, particularly over the issue of oil, as noted above. As of this writing both countries were urging the assistance of the African Union in resolving the dispute.

  The Union of South Africa has been very strong in support of South Sudan and in providing post-conflict reconstruction and development assistance in step with the African Union’s focus on that nation-building capability. In 2011, it trained more than 1,600 officials from South Sudan’s government in an effort to increase the abilities of the new nation to carry out government functions.12 According to Ngor, the police and security forces in South Sudan are being trained by South African government police officials.

  The United States has been spurred by the many efforts of individuals like the late Mickey Leland, the congressm
an from Texas who died in a 1989 plane crash on a mountain slope in Ethiopia while trying to bring to light the massive starvation and desperate conditions at Pinyudo and other refugee camps; NBA player Manute Bol bringing food to Pachala; George Clooney focusing international attention on the eve of the referendum vote; and the thousands of news items that came out of the Lost Boys’ stories as they arrived in the United States as well as Canada and Australia. Whole communities across the United States took the Boys into their homes, schools, and businesses. Many churches have become involved, and several nonprofits have been created to assist those back in South Sudan. Now men (and women, as those brought into foster care in the United States included girls), the Boys continue to educate anyone they can about the atrocities that occurred.

  In addition, there are many South Sudanese in the diaspora, people who escaped to Egypt, the Middle East, the United States, Canada, and Australia, who watch U.S. and other countries’ support of South Sudan as it continues its efforts to survive despite efforts of Sudan to circumvent the Comprehensive Peace Agreement.

  The Obama administration’s then–U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Susan Rice, told NPR after the referendum in 2011 that the United States regards Sudan as a state sponsor of terrorism, and that it will only consider lifting sanctions against the country if they abide by the CPA. She said the issue goes “back to 1993, when it was necessary for us to put Sudan on the state sponsors of terrorism lists, as they were housing and harboring Osama bin Laden and supporting many other terrorist organizations at the time. And then there have been subsequent sanctions, both imposed legislatively and by the executive branch.