A piece of political autobiography

by James Gatdet Dak

Messages sent to me included a question which reads, “When was the first time you joined politics, and how did it start?”

Before I indulge in this, I should admit that I don’t understand the motive behind the question, whether it is a compliment or a challenge. But let me try to answer it in a form of an autobiography, although not comprehensive.

Honestly, I am not sure exactly when I entered into politics per se. Nonetheless, here below I am sharing how it developed!

To begin with — in addition to my previous exposures to Anya-Nya Two leaders since my childhood — I was formally recruited by the SPLA/SPLM or SPLM/SPLA under the leadership of our late Chairman, Dr. John Garang de Mabior. This happened in Bilpam in late 1985 when I was still an adolescent while in primary school.

I took a bit of basic Cuban language course in Bilpam for months into 1986. The purpose was for me to be sent to Cuba with the rest of my classmates for further training to become a medical doctor—I was told.

If I can recall, we were two groups of students at that time in Bilpam. One group was led by late Order (Howdoar) Thabach and another group led by late Deng William Nyuon Bany. I was in the students group led by late Order Thabach.

However, the process was cut short when my uncle, late Peter Puot Lampuar—-an Anya-Nya I veteran who was residing in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, by then—-protested against the idea to go to the “Communist Cuba.” He instead took me to his residence in Addis Ababa in 1986 to continue with my formal education from Primary Seven (7).

I later on qualified for the United Nations (UN) refugee students sponsorship program in Addis Ababa because they deemed me to be brilliant in classes (a brag). This also made it possible for me to continue in high school as an urban student in the Ethiopian capital. I was receiving monthly allowances for accommodation and feeding from the UN. Thus, I never went to Cuba.

But could that Bilpam recruitment in 1985 be actually my introductory entrance into political life, or political liberation struggle?

While in Addis Ababa from 1986, I used to visit the office of the SPLM/SPLA and chatted about politics with whoever was available. This was when Honourable Deng Alor Kuol was in charge of the office in the Ethiopian capital.

I left Addis Ababa and moved to Nairobi, Kenya, in 1992, and at times lived in a refugee camp. While in Kenya I became an active supporter of the Nasir Declaration faction of August 28, 1991, on the right of self-determination for the people of South(ern) Sudan.

This was after the SPLM/SPLA office was dismantled or evacuated from Addis Ababa in 1991. It followed the fall of the regime of the former Ethiopian President, Mengistu Haile Mariam, and the subsequent split within the SPLM/SPLA in August same year.

While in Nairobi in 1992, I with my other friends sometimes used to visit politicians of the Nasir Declaration faction, including late Justice John Luk Jok, and late Professor Bari Wanji, etc. We used to chat with them and hence received informal briefings from them on political developments in the Sudan. The representative of the Nasir Declaration faction in Kenya that time was Dr. Richard K. Mulla, if I can recall my memory correctly. We pretty much acquainted ourselves with political matters, which we also used to disseminate to others.

Again, I am not sure what to describe that political support or affiliation. Was it my introduction to political life?

Then in the year 1994 I left Kenya and moved to the United States of America (USA).

I actively became a political activist online in 1997/1998 in USA, although I was still young in my 20’s. And that was the first time I made use of the internet and saw its power to spread messages worldwide through social media.

There was this internet website called ‘Sudan Discussion Board.’ I believe it was the first Sudanese online website by then. It was moderated by a Sudanese diasporant called Mauz.

The website provided a platform for daily debates on issues related to the civil war and peace in Sudan. By then the SPLM/SPLA had already split into two—years back– as mentioned above. Our late Chairman, Dr. John Garang de Mabior, continued to lead the mainstream SPLM/SPLA faction, which was also known as the Torit faction. Another faction — the Nasir faction, also known as SPLM/SPLA-United, was led by our current First Vice President of the Republic and Chairman and Commander-in-Chief of the SPLM/SPLA (IO), Dr. Riek Machar Teny-Dhurgon.

In fact, after the split, the SPLA/SPLM was for the first time reversed in order to become the SPLM/SPLA. This was done by Dr. Machar and his colleagues in the Nasir faction, including Dr. Lam Akol Ajawin and late General Gordon Koang Chuol Kulang. They wanted to give an upper hand to the political wing rather than the military wing of the Movement.

Dr. Machar then signed the Khartoum Peace Agreement (KPA) on April 21, 1997, after he renamed his faction as the South Sudan Independence Movement/Army (SSIM/A). This was to champion the main objective or drive towards independence of South Sudan. The Agreement introduced the right of self-determination for the people of South(ern) Sudan into the constitution of the Sudan in 1998. It was for the first time in the history of the Sudan that a regime in Khartoum enshrined self-determination for the people of South(ern) in the constitution.

Dr. Machar and colleagues continued to champion it!

During the USA debates on that online Discussion Board in 1997/1998, I was initially the only South(ern) Sudanese supporter of Dr. Riek Machar. I was defending the Khartoum Peace Agreement on the right of self-determination for the people of South(ern) Sudan. I was almost debating against all the other South(ern) Sudanese members on the Board who supported late Dr. Garang, for a secular democratic united Sudan.

If I can recall, some of those who were on the Board supporting Dr. Garang included uncle Dr. Peter Adwok Nyaba, former Minister of Higher Education, Science and Technology. He was residing in Kampala, Uganda, by then. Another debater was the current South Sudan Ambassador to Ethiopia, Ambassador James Pitia Morgan, who was in the USA with me by then. Uncle Dr. Peter Adwok was once a senior official in the Nasir Declaration faction, but re-defected to Dr. Garang’s Torit faction along the way.

I tried to mobilize other supporters of Dr. Machar that time in USA who could know how to use computer and internet and were also good in English as well as passionate about politics. It was difficult to find willing participants despite the fact that majority of South(ern) Sudanese in USA by then were supporting Dr. Machar. But some joined me in the debates at a later stage.

I was lucky because I had already learned basic computers in university, and could type fast, and I knew how to browse the internet. These were some of the basic requirements. I was also good in English language and became one of the interpreters/translators for Nuer community members in my state who could not speak or write English well. I could interpret/translate for them in government offices, in hospitals and in courts, etc.

No YouTube or Facebook or Whatsapp or Instagram or many other social media platforms were created that time. Only Google was predominantly used as the main search engine on the internet and Email plus Blogs/Websites, etc., as far as I could remember.

Also, screen touch mobile phones were not yet available to public that time. We only used desktop or laptop computers in order to browse the internet.

I tried to mobilize Ezekiel Lol Gatkuoth to join me in the online debates. He was a good supporter of Dr. Machar by then and was also a university student in Washington DC. But it didn’t work out.

Luckily, I was joined by brother Dak Machar Kok who was residing in Sweden and did Computer Science studies. Then we also reached out to late Honourable Daniel Wuor Joak, who was residing in Norway, and was a political activist. Now we the supporters of Dr. Machar became three active participants on the Board.

Many others joined in the online debates later on.

In January 1999, I returned to Africa in order to get married. And after getting married in Addis Ababa I then travelled to Khartoum in June 1999 and joined Dr. Machar in the Khartoum Peace Agreement. I stayed with him at his residence in Khartoum as his guest from the diaspora.

Dr. Machar was then the Assistant President of the Sudan and also the President of the then Southern Sudan Coordinating Council (SSCC). The SSCC was a regional government and the first to be semi-autonomously in charge of the ten states of South(ern) Sudan. Its sole purpose, inter alia, was to coordinate the implementation of the peace agreement and organize a referendum on self-determination for the people of South(ern) Sudan in four years by 2001. The four years countdown was from April 21, 1997 to April 21, 2001 —- as stipulated in the Khartoum Peace Agreement.

When the Khartoum Peace Agreement was abrogated in the year 2000 — as Dr. Garang was still fighting — we subsequently moved to Nairobi, Kenya, again. I was officially appointed by Dr. Machar as the person in charge of the Information Desk (Media) in the office of the Chairman, his Office.

On January 6, 2002, Dr Garang and Dr. Machar reunited their respective movements in what was dupped as the Nairobi Merger Agreement. They agreed that both self-determination and secular democratic united Sudan be accommodated and allowed to compete in the process of finding a peaceful solution to the Sudanese conflict. The unified and revitalized Movement further reengaged the Khartoum government with peace talks.

The self-determination clause — which was to be exercised in a referendum by the people of South(ern) Sudan in the dishonoured Khartoum Peace Agreement —- was again probably copied and pasted as the first protocol signed in Machakos, Kenya, the same year in July 2002, with the former regime in Khartoum. This gradually gave birth to the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) signed on January 9, 2005, and we became a government.

I have had continued to carry on with this ‘Special Mission’ as the person in charge of the public outreach desk in the Office of the Vice president from 2005 to 2011. At the same time, I was also a senior correspondent in the Office on behalf of the state-run radio and TV, now SSBC.

After we became an independent country on July 9, 2011, I became the Press Secretary in the Office of the Vice President — now the First Vice President. I also became the Official Spokesperson in the Office of the Chairman and Commander-in-Chief of the SPLM/SPLA (IO).

In brief, this was quite a long journey on how I gradually entered into politics! It is not a shortcut, unfortunately.

But, note this, I was first a Christian church participant before I also became a participant in the political liberation struggle.

And I insist, that let us use the power of the internet or social media to promote peace and unity among our people, including through the sharing of God’s words.

Peace!

• The author is the current Press Secretary in the Office of the First Vice President of the Republic of South Sudan, His Excellency, Dr Riek Machar Teny-Dhurgon. He is a veteran journalist and writer. He is the author of the book, ‘My Painful Story: Abducted from Kenya, Imprisoned in South Sudan.’ He can be reached at: [email protected]