South Sudan: Dumped in the mouths of Khartoum SPLM traitors
By Taban J. Aguek *
October 5, 2006 — When somebody tells you ‘fadhol’ you better think more than twice before you accept the offer, because the word could mean many different things. We know from a long time in history that we are some of the most hospitable people the world ever has. Not only do we rush with water when guests come in our homes but we also put a plenty of it align our streets for any passers-by to quench their thirst or wash their dusty feet. We get up in our seats to give way in the best fadhol style to the new comers even though some may not feel like sitting or may want to sit only on the arms and edges of the chair for fear of the host’s red-eyed angry look.
True, no one can surpass a Sudanese in the way we say welcome either for food, water or even land. Were it not for our generosity how many landless tribes could have been wandering around Asia and Middle East? And if it were not for our kindness how many salt merchants could have been flown away during those strong hurricane days. Who settled who is not the problem but the ironical thing about this situation is that he who said fadhol in the past is now being lured into accepting different kinds of it. Nevertheless, we continue to say welcome and get welcomed. But if the way we say words was no longer different from what we mean then the story could have been different. In the past, ‘fadhol’ was a ‘fadhol’. The black Sudanese inhabitants said welcome to their Arab brothers unconditionally and in good heart. But that was that time because now things did change a lot. From the way we laugh to the way say welcome. It takes a careful soul to realize how many of us today laugh with their teeth; not their hearts. We may tend to look at the eyes of others when they welcome us, but if one lives to trust people’s eyes in the current generation then one stands on the delicate strings of deceit.
Man is not able to go directly into the heart and mind of another. There are times we keep things that we need to throw off and when times catches us up late before we dispose all this dirt we tend to look for nearby garbage – usually our stomachs. We swallow many things and we drink a lot everyday; and no matter a human blood then so much the best. One drinks blood drained from the arm of his own brother. The reversed system of the body results and still do not even wonder if there was anything wrong with him. Instead of the mind doing the thinking, the stomach does the job and in the end doing it poorly. Many of stomach’s decisions are not only misleading but also fatal. It is even worse when the mind and the stomach try to do the cooking together – one with salt and another with chili-sauce spoiling the national broth.
Although we know very well that the word fadhol sometimes means the opposite, we take very little care about its side effects. It is not true to think that people mean fadhol every time we find them on a tray of food. But we say things sometimes for the sake of saying them or at least to show that the word is characteristic of a Sudanese culture. Meanwhile, the truth behind this is that people would say fadhol expecting you to turn down the offer; and don’t be surprised some people may look really regrettable after one is tested with a fadhol and he accepted. Similarly, there is another misunderstanding building high in the belief that the more the number of times a person repeats ‘fadhol’ the more genuine his welcome is. These detectives are too old. What matters is the relationship that existed between you and the one who gave you the offer. It is good to see how many times you shared your dish with him before so that you are not only taken for a hungry man by a friend who hides his trust behind the smile of his teeth and whose honesty is only in the edges of his words. I am sorry to say this but one does nothing at the delivery of his grand child voided the miscalculations of his son’s marriage. It can be a regret and over. With food and cards on the same table the game could be very hard and if any kind of new hope just after a short warm welcome of ‘eat with me and talk for’ then it is good for a person to remind himself that today it may be a warm welcome and a very cold one the next day. Similarly, if somebody said the word ‘fadhol’ three times for you today then expect two tomorrow and the next day if you passed this same route he will still say ‘fadhol’ in the same traditional way and with the same smile but he will actually hate you. And if you doubt then do it repeatedly, you will see that he either changes his meal schedule or his dining place. If you usually found him outside his house he will start to take is meals inside his room. Rejected, you think you better go back to your roots and just talk like the Bible’s Prodigal son only to find that strong flood swept them away.
In a different way we say ‘fadhol’ to give up a seat to a new arrival. Yes, one offers a chair but when dealing with people who talk not with their mouths but with their eyes at certain intervals then one should be more than double careful. Some people are so short sighted that they don’t even see what is hidden at their own feet. And when somebody alarms that they are standing on a bomb they say it is going to explode when they are in the grave, forgetting the pain and agony that his descendants will shoulder. This is worse that politically and socially matured men, with long long CVs and frightening experience, fail to differentiate a today’s seat from the tomorrow’s whip. I believe we don’t look at words but we actually see them; and the word ‘fadhol’, though not political pronounced, is very clear. Moreover, if you ask those who studied Arabic language fluently you will realize that the word a ‘fadhol’ also means ‘go’. As a result, we fail to notice how people tell us ‘go’ when they said ‘sit’. The word ‘fadhol’ is usually accompanied by brother like, ‘fadhol brother’. These are very simple things that many people know better than I do but we don’t put our approach to a wider scale and follow the truth to its depth, for a brother does not always mean a brother here. When somebody tells you ‘fadhol’ pulling for you a chair in a manner that it almost broke your leg then he did not mean ‘fadhol;’ neither was he a brother.
Let us understand each other well here. Food can be in any form – and in its form of money it could be very dangerous. Likewise ‘fadhol’ is not only welcome. But if one thinks that the starving Sudanese communities in the North are liable to accept any kind of fadhol then it is wrong. Beginning from the plenty of 6pm Ramadan breakfast to other material needs they said no whole heartedly. Instead, and disgusting of course, the few who accepted fadhol immediately after the CPA and whose rogue campaign is led by one of the SPLM prominent members in the Government of National Unity. I know you may long for his name but let it just remain at the tip of my tongue for a while.
When it comes to football then the South Sudan has some of the worst players. Not because they are weak but they have an art of scoring own goals. Our big mistakes usually is that in our line up we put names preceded by anything like Dr, Prof. to be the central defenders and these people at the critical times of the match turn to put goals in our net. Then shamelessly they celebrate these goals. People have become so vulnerable that even the strong guidance of Nyikang is unable to reshape them. For years I never knew that house, money and cars would buy one strong man. This is contrary to what we expected. In actual fact, we did not know that people we proudly called Dr. so and so would cost material wealth, for we mistakenly valued them about half the Sudan. When the CPA was signed we had hoped these people we thought to be national defenders to come to Khartoum and serve this nation fearlessly regardless of any threats. NCP has never been so defiant like this even by the time we were at war because now some of us in the government in Khartoum have opened up the way for it. Now they play games with the agreement and pull strings as we dance to their tune simply because some few individuals in the government of national unity are not only betraying the SPLM but the dignity of the whole of South Sudan; just because their mission has been turned the other way round by what merely started as ‘eat this’ ending up in ‘say this’ as they continue to hear fadhol and they go on their knees. If not so, why then would a party and the leader in Juba say ‘we go to the right’ and some started heading to the left declaring ‘Sudan’s victory’ after a cash flow at the end of the journey. What a paradox!
More so, all this is done at the cost of the poor. There is no more forgiveness this time. If one is clever he better do a different thing from what food in the stomach dictates. If there is a place where many fadhol are going to come then it will definitely be the South and some people will never be part of it this time round because South Sudan is ours and was ours even during the war. The people whose visions are being guided into large mansions, big cars and big sums of money will always have their stomach aching even in their graves. If at all SPLM mission is at stake, which I strongly doubt, then it would be better if one would enjoy his bread quietly rather than give himself to be used as a walking stick.
One of the worst businesses in the world is to deal in human sale and this is what is happening. Whoever would want to make a living out of the innocent people of South Sudan will be severely punished. Even if the Sudanese forgive these people then the blood of all the fallen heroes of the South and the God above will curse them. We edge closer everyday to the total freedom and it is not wrong to say that things will never be the same again. At the moment the South all belongs to the Southerners. CPA may be on the verge of collapse but the integrity of the Southerners stands stronger than ever. People of bad wishes celebrate when they hear of our tribal clashes in Unity State, Rumbek or Malakal. They dance when they hear controversies over Juba being the capital of the South. What these people do not know is that these are things we can drop easily in case there is an overpowering external issue. Let’s meet in the South after 2011.
* The author is a Sudanese working in Khartoum. He can be reached at [email protected]