The Strength Within Us

(Photo Credit: Flickr/UN)

By: Ogeryath Oger

Times are tough on us nowadays and lives look worthless and of no value in human sense, from the people of one united country that previously demanded for independence and freedom from oppression and all sorts of things that erode human dignity, we now have chosen voluntarily to divide our communities that we were once united and peaceful into tribal bases and our actions now are of no difference to the actions of those we called oppressors and all we can speak is the language of guns and elimination of our communities and people into ashes.  Most of our own people celebrate with great joy when they gain refugee status in neighbouring countries because they feel secure and free from the mess that has engulfed our beloved motherland, South Sudan. 

What has drastically changed in that South Sudanese are divided into tribal bases and only speak the language of hate and division? Where are the pre-independence dreams of justice, liberty and prosperity? Have we forgotten that we were once in the same boat seeking for freedom decades ago? Why has our mentality changed to an extent that all the countries around us host our own people as refugees, and why has our country turned into a consumer state that is only depending on the imports from our neighbours and international institutions like United Nations agencies to provide life necessities and security to our own country people? 

Though times have turned tough on us and division has clouded the skies in our country, we still possess unbelievable strength within us that can totally transform our country into a stable and prosperous state which can provide security and all the life necessities to all the people living in South Sudan, but we need to first free ourselves from tribalism, division and the negative mentality that we possess in order to be able to build a country that is really united and free from fear and oppression. South Sudanese can learn from the neighbouring countries and other countries in the world, the countries which experienced massive bloodshed, division, alarming tribalism and total state collapse, but the same countries were able afterwards to rise and overcome all the so-called life impossibilities transforming into stable countries with prosperous economy and united people who are capable of living in peace and freedom.   

The strength within us has the unbelievable power to transform South Sudan into a stable state, a state that provides security and hope of life to all South Sudanese. The strength within us is the pre-independence unity that kept us on one path of peace and optimism, to an extent that we never prioritised our own tribes as the source of our security and hope. We need to revive that unbelievable strength once again in order to put South Sudan into the right path. The responsibility starts with all of us, since South Sudan is our home. We cannot seek for peace from neighbouring countries forever and depend on their imports in order to feed our population, we cannot entirely seek assistance from international institutions to settle our differences and forge unity among us. We can transform South Sudan if we truly need transformation just like other people in the world we are capable of creating unbelievably beautiful state, a state with functional institutions, working and promising economy and in general a state with leaders who are thirsty to provide for their own people security, peace and stability and exploit the resources of the country for the development of South Sudan.  

The strength within us possess unity that opposes division and war that is irrelevant to the population that looks up to their leaders for stable country and developmental policies that can transform our country into a united stable state, we can unite and transform South Sudan through calling for unity among our illiterate and tribal-minded population and leaders.