WEDNESDAY SPECIAL: THE DREAMER’S PERSPECTIVE As I post this Note, I congratuate President Salva Kiir and Former Vicce President Riek Machar, for inking a deal to end war in the Youngest of Africa. Let me begin, Last night, I had a crazy dream, Crazy indeed. I was in South Sudan. In a village of hopelessness and loss. Humanity had turned animalistic. There was competition for everything. I was walking from village to village. Then I reached a homestead, where I begun making chapatti. I can’t recollect where the flour came from, but I had about four chapattis in my pan. I soaked them in something that seemed like milk, and then placed them in a frying pan. Within minutes, there was a crowd around me; of men, women and children wishing for my piece of meal. They all wanted a share of my chapatti. I could tell they were hungry, very hungry. I moved to other homesteads and picked extra frying pans. The dough seemed to keep going; I had more and more chapatti on the pans. The villagers were partaking in them. Then I moved to another village where everyone including animals was searching for water. The African cows looked sad, drained, fatigued and depressed. They were moving from trench to trench, searching for a sip. There was nothing but portions of dump earth, mud. The locals too were drilling the earth, looking for the commodity. Then I walked to another homestead where young men were repairing some water system, hoping to find the precious liquid. I offered them some money if they found the water. This seemed to motivate them. Within no time, they struck water! Everyone was happy and in jubilation. It was a lot of water, but all brown. Dirty water, yes, but it was water either way. The locals quenched their thirst first, and then lined up for the commodity, fetching for their animals and homesteads. It was a patient look for the families, on their faces. They could smile, genuinely, at last. Unfortunately, I woke up at this point. I immediately woke up to write what I saw in my dream. I was teary, but I wrote it as above. About three months ago I was in South Sudan, the towns of Juba and Bor. I witnessed the devastation on the faces of South Sudanese children, women and men. Their homes destroyed, relative hacked to death, mercilessly. They called IDP camps their new homes. Everything was scarce, from basics to bathrooms, toilets, freedom, space and privacy. One David Gatkouth, a former South Sudanese student in Kenya told me: “Life is difficult here, there is no good food, there is no money. Th united Nations has been telling us to wait for food, but so far nothing.” Gatkouth lived at the Tromping IDP Camp in Juba sharing it with 27,000 others as of February 2014. At the time, International media estimated the killings at over 1,000 across South Sudan. An army officer in Bor area told us that indeed, more than 10,000 had been killed. Bor town alone had sustained over 500 kilings. I counted 49 bodies in body bags at a mass grave of over 500. The 49 were yet to be covered in soil. Today, more than 17,000 make the statistics. They are dead. Close to a million have been displaced from their homes and probably living in congested and life threatening IDP camps. Looking at my Tuesday night dream, I try to make sense. My Chapatti business makes me see an aspiration of the people of South Sudan, who are looking for peace: Looking for civility, that they once again lead their lives without fear of the attacker; That they may find happiness. There was a rumored deal signing between the warring factions of the political administered by IGad week. I think this is the water that these diligent sons and daughters of Africa were looking for. It’s a promise they are willing to nurture a long as it promises them peace and a thirst quenching sip of life. As the peace deal looms, I can only hope that it will involve a paragraph or two, of how the South Sudanese nationals will be re-integrated. I can only imagine the wound in their hearts. I can only imagine the torture the women, children and men of this nation have gone through. I can only imagine that they are disturbed. If being there for a week made me disturbed, I cant imagine what those Kenyans citizens being ruffed up in kapedo by the kdf are going through. I cant imagine what a person who has been turned to an idp for killings he/she knows not about goes through. I cant futhom what that person who lost everything, including peace and a happy family, ust to be replaced by cufews goes through in lamu. And therefore my hope is that, the deal makers will remember to include a paragraph of how the affected will be counseled, restored in their homes, that they may heal from the wounds of war, hatred and death. Our good neighbor Rwanda has been at it for 20 years now. An honest one will tell you, it has never been easy to heal and reintegrate with your own perpetrators. I hope South Sudan picks one, just one lesson from Rwanda. This is my dream for the South Sudan. I hope it’s real. With emotions!
Posted on: Thu, 13 Nov 2014 03:47:04 +0000
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