The Unfortunate War
By Koang Tut Jing
August 28, 2006 — We live in the world daunted by all sort of problems. Unlucky ones find
themselves waging war they are not ready to fight but dragged into by
others. Ever since the internet usage surged for many southern Sudanese in
the Diaspora unnecessary wars of words in the internet have risen
dramatically. I believe those wars we waged here through the internet are
not only destroying but damages person reputation as well as harming what we
stand for since the first movement till today. In this message I apologise
in advance for having reduced myself to the level below. It is a matter of
fact that the old Anyuak guys in the USA have been relentlessly waging a
media war again Lou Nuer. My first response against ill and misinforming
messages they yearly send to media since they have been in the US was just
few weeks ago but it wasn’t an exclusively article aimed to answer their
allegations instead it was a wakeup call to GOSS to keep the spoilers like
Anyuak old guys in the US under close watch. To discredit the deception of
some Anyuak in the US, here I will elaborate the facts they didn’t want to
say and the lies my fellow citizen Ojoch has written about.
First of all, in the mind of those Anyuak old guys in the USA, everyone of
Lou living currently in Akobo is “a settler and occupier”. A statement which
I strongly dispute because they know how the Lou became part of Akobo but
they don’t want to say this as that may weaken their position. Actually, the
Lou didn’t come to Akobo recently nor by force. The reason being is because
the first comers from Lou to present Akobo areas were only few individuals
led by four elders namely Gang Lual Thien, Puot Dol Thien, Key Dhil Kuayie,
and Kot Wal Dey. They had no capability of conquering the land by force.
Gang settled at Wec-Thoah (which he paid his bull for to own it), Puot at
Wec-Puot, and Key Dhil Kuayie at Bilkey (the current site for Akobo city)
and Kot Wal Dey at Wec-Kot wal in Meer. The question is that, how could four
people force Anyuak out of their land if there was no deal made to let them
stay? Ngundeng, also once Nuer prophet who fore-told a lot of issues
regarding Sudanese centuries ago knew about Akobo and he called it Bilkey
(after a Nuer man who first inhabited it) which he predicted a lot of blood
shed in it. He died in 1906, how did Ngundeng knew Bilkey if it wasn’t there
during his time? Our fore-fathers came to live in Akobo through peaceful
means. As one of those old guys claimed no places along the Akobo River were
given to Lou free of charge as Ojoch put it. As a matter of fact our
grand-fathers paid in form of cattle to live in those areas, how can a tiny
small group of Jo-joa community of Lou penetrate that huge land by force?
The old guys in the US know that what is around Akobo is a small fraction of
Lou in which a forceful occupation of Akobo won’t have worked. Before the
war broke out in early 1980s, I know the two Akobo’s resident communities
each occupied opposite side of Akobo River. The Anyuak were living in the
side where the first Akobo town was established before it was moved and the
Nuer occupied the current site of the Akobo town.
By then the present site was known as Bilkey after the first Lou Nuer who
inhabited it before the Government took it over. Because the government
didn’t want to change the name Akobo to Bilkey, this site still known today
as Akobo but actually it is not. It supposed to be known as Bilkey, the
correct name for current Akobo site. Also the present town of Akobo is in
fact should be called New Akobo because the original Akobo is still intact.
A place they Anyuak have been living until 80s when they were displaced
because of a war the Anyuak brought upon them. The old Akobo site is now in
the other side of Akobo River opposite to Bilkey or New Akobo. The
government move to relocate the city to Bilkey wasn’t Lou fault but nature
because the Lou didn’t make the old Akobo a flood plain. These facts if you
the old guys in the US do not appreciate then I question your wisdom. They
say wisdom comes with age but I am sceptical if you have it given the lack
of critical judgement all of you got. Yes, presenting a genuine concern to
president Kiir should not be considered tribalism, I agree in principle.
However, the way you are presenting your plight is based on fabrications and
unfounded allegations against the Lou Nuer. The fact that you left the areas
Lou are now occupying out of will you failed to recognise that, you fell to
explain the fact that the militiadom in south has engulfed every community
in which Anyuak are not exceptional, you didn’t recognise how the Lou
themselves suffered under the Arab regimes since the first movement till
today, you admitted your low visibility in the SPLA/M during the war but put
off the fact that Lou members of SPLA and other endured difficulties around
Akobo and between Akobo and Waat ambushing the armed forces reinforcing
their troops in Akobo between 1984 and 89 you didn’t acknowledge it, what
truth were you saying?
Let me elaborate on these further for you and readers. My fellows’ citizens
of Bilkey honestly nothing happen for no reason. Our old guys in the US are
currently using their low self esteem against Lou for no apparent reason
apart from inciting hatred toward Lou. In fact we fought each other for
three years in a large scale war in which the Anyuak we love were the
causative of that misery. Saying that the Lou used the Anyuak vulnerability
under the cover of jalaba is baseless because of several reasons: In 1975,
the mutiny in Akobo against the Arabs ill intention was led by Nuer and
supported by many from Lou of Akobo both in army and intellectuals. As
revenge, the Arabs’ government led by Nimeiri slaughtered all the
intellectuals who didn’t escape to Bilpam. You know this Ojoch! In 1985 to
89, the villages of Wec-gah, Meer and Dhul became SPLA camps in the middle
of civilians where their reconnaissance was Wec-Nyang close to Bilkey town
where they kept watch of SAF activities day and night. That made everyone in
the area target of the SAF indiscriminate shelling. Mind, you I remember how
narrowly our barn was missed by two rocket shells from Bilkey army barrack.
I say this because you seemed to be denying the persevering of the Lou
community under the Islamists in Khartoum. Third how a vulnerable community
can be as aggressive as Anyuak were?
I thought a vulnerable community can’t dare to launch series of attacks
massacring innocent Nuer across Bilkey (Akobo) areas! Those attacks include
the killings of children and women at Meer at the start of 1981 rainy
season, the massive moved against Dengbuonge and Pereny by Anyuak in the
middle of 1981 and the numerous attacks against inhabitants of Rine and
Pakang where the Lou lost their famous man known as Pajok Liah (sparked the
broad day light attacked against the Anyuak in the city during the dry
season of 1982). What can Nuer do if Anyuak declared war on them? Can the
then fighting force sit and see the weakest of their community finish off by
Anyuak? Mind you, I am the young writer who you referred to in your article
and who in fact escaped twice your community merciless killings but my two
sisters didn’t make it out of Meer when your likes attacked them. Ojoch,
there is no precious life; we all share the same values even though we have
not equal resolves. The killings of innocents defenceless Nuer at Meer,
Dengbuonge and Pereny was the gravest mistake you ever made and it was good
that Tap Opieu paid for it! It was the reason why Beel, Old Akobo, Dimmo,
Nyikan, Ober, Obor, Chiban etc were all destroyed by Nuer. The Nuer acted in
self-defend, why would it be considered as aggression when you surely know
the truth? In 1980, it was your chief Jiok-jiok who happened to warn our
chief Kueine in advance as a precaution that Kueine needed to order the
“evacuation of children, women, old people and livestocks to Padoi because
Anyuak young men have come in great numbers for war against Lou”. The
children your chief talked about I was one of them and I appreciate the
protection our fathers and brothers did in defending us. We inherited this
conflict clean and this generation of Bilkey will not let down aging
community members in anyway whether physical confrontation or politically.
You accused our generation of confusion and termed it as “lost generations
who learnt nothing from their fathers”. Mind you, most of us can trace back
their descendants to the last man. Frankly, I haven’t seen the main land Lou
but I can narrate all the eleven steps between me and the great grand-father
of present Lou community. How can I be lost if I know my route within Lou,
where we settled first (Cieng Kueer Ka Kuong in Fangak in which my
grand-father told me some of their close relatives could still be currently)
before we came to present Lou and what section of Nuer is Lou belong to in
Bentiu? With this fact hence we don’t live in a false world as you assumed.
Again if I can ask you, what is Lou? Actually, the name Lou has nothing to
do with Dinay descendants who presently occupied the Lou land. Lou was a
name of human eater animal who once ruled that land after the Dinka Padang
died out of thirst. That animal is called Loal and the land is called
Loal-land but due to wrong interpretation people call it today Lou or Lou
land. When Loal, the human eater was killed by our grand-grandfathers they
named the land after that animal and eventually the people inhabiting became
known as such. Loal has nothing to do with us but we supposed to be called
Dinay family instead of Lou. This is for your information, Ojoch!
Again you accused us of being the militia back-bone which I think is somehow
true at a limited extent but you didn’t appreciate the fact Anyuak too have
their part in the militiadom game in the south. If you deny the above fact,
how did people like Paul Anadi die? What was he doing in pochala with
Sudanese Armed forces when SPLA launched the war against the town in middle
of 90s? What was the status of late Simon Moris who defected from Riek
movement in late 1994 to Khartoum? What about late commander Atari? Mind you
the last battle for Akobo between militia and SPLA in 2004 left many militia
commanders dead and the deceased were said to be included some Anyuak, Nuer
and even Ethiopians, what do you make of that? Another big lie was that you
failed to accommodate the fact that Bilkey (New Akobo) was liberated from
Arabs. I can’t consider this a lie but lack of integrity in you. The SAF
stationed in Akobo between 1983-89 saw endured series of attacks against
them and several wars fought between Waat and Akobo in an attempt to prevent
fresh reinforcement from entering the town. Mind you, the men from SPLA
first commodo, a mixed company of Jamus, Tiger & Timtha, 104 and 105
deployed at Tieguol many of them paid their lives for you and me. Please do
not deny their honest service. Further company from Akuilla (mainly Bor) and
a company from Eagle (Bharelgazalians) both from Muor-muor division sent to
Akobo in 1985, their corpses and blood spillage the soil around Bilkey which
you need to know and appreciate. On top of that Yoany battalion took over
from the above forces and became the formidable forces saw the Arabs’
deserting Bilkey in 1989. You said Akobo wasn’t liberated from Arabs, are
you honest? I question your knowledge here! Okay if I consider what you
termed as “liberated from Proxy militia” in which Lou are the back-bone
according to you, who were then fighting the proxy militia? Mind you SPLA
didn’t send mixed forces to Akobo apart from members of SPLA within Akobo.
Yes, we fought each other but at least Akobo is one of the history making
currently in term of voluntary disarmament.
It wasn’t surprising to see you questioning my loyalty to the SPLA, how can
a desperate person come to term with this? You went as far as saying I
denied the SPLA during the resettlement process as if you know who I am,
this is a big lies because I didn’t come to west as independent. Apart from
that there are no betrayal stories in my form even if you happen to look at
it yourself. After all verbal loyalty is nothing and I won’t mind absorbing
your accusation per now. The Lou might be the spoilers of CPA but do not
forget that they made a significant contribution which brought about CPA.
Talking of who did what, it is unfortunate that the Anyuak are claiming
loyalty which they don’t deserve however, this is what happens when you can
fabricate and get away with it. Mind you, my fellow county Ojoch, in Zal-zal
red army we had 5 to 10 Anyuak boys mostly from Pochala but most of those
boys deserted us before we reached Jebel Rad in 1987 and then the last group
left us when we arrived at Dimmo. What do you make of that? Despite how
badly you depict Lou our contribution in the past, present and the future
will remain significant in both south and the nation of Sudan!
One thing I can assure you about is that the fight against discriminators is
just starting. The Lou of Akobo once voted against their son in favour of
Anyuak man and that the same way our generation will follow base on the
ability of individual to lead. If there will be a domination of any sort in
Akobo you will not be alone in the cold. The fact that we took up arms for
equality and justice always remain a cause of which human must continues
fighting for. God bless!
* Koang is a Sudanese living in New Zealand. Reach him at [email protected]