Garang’s death exposed Sudan’s pain
By Vukoni Lupa Lasaga, The Monitor
KAMPALA, Aug 9, 2005 — On the day that four African heads of state traveled to Juba, the southern Sudanese capital, to bury John Garang de Mabior, his compatriots in Illinois, USA, marched in downtown Chicago to urge the United States and the world to watch over the fledgling peace process in their country.
A sprinkling of Ugandans, Kenyans, Ethiopians, and US citizens joined them in their quest to refocus international attention on the grim realities that make the pursuit of peace as perilous as the 21-year war that the African peoples of Sudan waged for equality, self-determination, and social and economic justice.
With or without Garang, the Sudan is still a troubled country dominated by a ruthless elite from the minority Arab population. That elite, in both its military and civilian manifestation, is far from unanimous in recognizing, much less accepting, or even least of all embracing the historic opportunity to wind up the totally bankrupt enterprise of Arab supremacist rule.
That is why, hell-bent Muslim preachers exploited the spontaneous rioting that followed the news of the demise of the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) chief to call on armed Arab militia to prosecute a jihad against southern Sudanese.
Challenge Malual Awak, the keynote speaker at the Chicago event, put his finger on the achy spot when he said, “The challenge for us is to turn the tragedy of Dr Garang’s death into a positive outcome for the oppressed people in Sudan.”
Despite the deadly riots in Khartoum, overall, southern Sudanese, in and out of their country, maintained a stoic dignity and restrained their anger in the face of the tragic end of the man who fought fiercely and loyally for their own place in the sun.
For now, the scores of very eloquent and palpably heartfelt tributes to Garang from both African and foreign leaders sound reassuring. For example, South African President Thabo Mbeki, who attended the funeral in Juba, turned his weekly “Letter from the president” into an elegy and an unflinching analysis of what’s ailing Sudan.
Although he stopped short of explicitly comparing white supremacy during the days of apartheid in South Africa with the status quo in Sudan, Mbeki noted in his article that “the last census conducted by the British before independence said the Sudanese population was 61 per cent African and 31 per cent Arab, with 8 per cent being west African Muslims who had settled in Sudan while on their way to or from Mecca.”
Amazingly, despite the contrary realities on the ground, the ruling clique in Khartoum succeeded, for much of the last 50 years, to hoodwink the world, including sadly many Pan Africanists, that Sudan is an Arab country whose minority African population was assisting Zionists to fight a neocolonial war.
Wading through hundreds of articles, including Mbeki’s, since the 30 July helicopter crash that killed Garang and several others, I get the sense that across Sub-Saharan Africa, there is now a much better understanding of why the SPLA and other rebel groups in Sudan have been fighting successive governments in Khartoum since 1955. Thus, Garang’s death has forced into the open a near-consensus among the political leadership in Africa that the SPLA’s cause is a just one.
Even in Uganda, where the desire to score cheap political points has at times clouded the judgment of politicians on Sudan matters, Garang and the SPLA were finally recognized by the leaders of various parties as authentic freedom fighters.
Garang would have found many of the utterances extremely satisfying because he often was frustrated that the struggle for the rights of millions of Sudanese never captured the imagination of Africans like the other wars of liberation on the continent.
Within Sudan, during the 21 days since he took office in Khartoum and in death, Garang has been transformed into the national leader he always aspired to be. On the day he landed in Khartoum, a large crowd, running into millions, welcomed him.
Some of the attendees travelled from Darfur, in western Sudan, Kassala in the east, and from other places where decades of quiet endurance has exploded into full-blown insurgencies.
Those who had risen to challenge the fiction of an Arab nation, were now looking up to Garang for leadership.
In death, Garang may also have planted the germ of an elusive dream – to unify all southern Sudanese behind a broader vision of transforming Sudan, not merely seceding from it.
Although the eulogies and messages of condolences from African leaders may seem like bankable goodwill, there always is the danger that a month from now, the world will return to its old preoccupations, and Sudan will once more be forgotten. That would be more tragic than Garang’s death.
Garang’s widow, Rebecca Nyandeng, deserves tons of bouquets for the magnanimity, resilience, and leadership she displayed during this most trying week of her entire life.
When many men collapsed in a heap from the shock of her husband’s death, this strong African woman spoke not of her pain but a nation’s future.