John Garang speaks in his own words

By Steve Paterno

August 2, 2008 — It was on this day three years ago that John Garang perished in a copter crash that was transporting him from Uganda to his base in South Sudan. Undoubtedly, Garang was once a touring figure whom his legacies will probably live forever. The founding member of Sudan People Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A), Garang successfully led the war of liberation struggle for over two decades (1983-2005). He was only to die months after concluding an agreement with the regime in Khartoum, saying, “I am not going to fight. That’s how nations are built. They are born out of struggle.” During his life, he has earned as many admirers as well as many enemies. To his supporters, he is popularly referred to as “the Chairman” and to his enemy; he is simply “Dr. John.” The Chairman or Dr. John, never failed to inspire, agitate, threaten, amuse, annoy or even gain sympathy from those whom he crosses path with.

Garang’s origin is rooted from obscurity and into prominence. He is commonly refer to be from Bor, a town in Southern Sudan. His closest relatives are parade of uncles, aunties, and cousins. His parents are said to have passed away while he was very young. Strangely enough, no one ever came forward to claim to be his brother or sister. His date of birth is just a guess like most of his African generation. To many, Garang’s origin of birth is shrouded in mystery just as his death is. However, he assures the public, “I have been alone since I was 9,” even though he ended up dying with as many as hundreds, leading thousands, inspiring millions, and hated by many.

As a young officer in Sudanese army, Garang with a colleague were brought for military training in US in the mid 1970s. At the session of the training, the Africans were asked to stand up to be counted and then it followed by the Middle Easterners and to everyone surprise, Garang and his Sudanese colleague remained seated. According to Garang, “we were obviously African . . . but this is the issue of identity. We don’t know who we are, and that underlies the ambiguity…,” because Sudan “failed to find itself and to have a soul.” This ambiguity of Sudanese identify is at the very heart of Garang’s quest for liberation struggle.

On joining the Anyanya liberation movement, Garang said, “I joined the Anyanya with a view of making fundamental changes in its aims and objectives.” He adds, “I have, needless to say, been on record as early as 1970 about the terms of the unity of the country, which should therefore be on new basis.” Anyanya, according to Garang, “was a separatist and reactionary movement” that needed to be turned into a “genuine liberation movement,” however, his attempt to change the Anyanya was abruptly cut short with the signing of the Addis Ababa Agreement in 1972.

After founding the SPLM/A in 1983, Garang denied the charges that the movement was a communist, reiterating the slogan of SPLM/A as “National unity, socialism, autonomy, (where and when necessary), and religious freedom.” Declaring that SPLM/A “is committed to the liberation of the whole Sudan and to the unity of its people and its territorial integrity….the concrete proof of our belief in and commitment to the Sudanese unity lies in the blood shed with these separatists and bandits in order to preserve the unity of the Sudan.” Garang said, the “ardent separatists, reactionaries and opportunists gave us a very hard time” during the formation of SPLM/A. According to him, “the forces of reaction and separatism were defeated,” which led to SPLM/A and the prevailing of its vision.

To be very clear, Garang said, “we did not organize the SPLM/A to fight restoration of the Addis Ababa Agreement or for reunification of the southern Sudan, or for more and better concessions for South Sudan.” Rejecting Nimeiri offers for vice presidency, Garang, responded, “we are not priests to bless whatever Khartoum decides, we are politicians who want to participate in the decision-making.” He also objected to Nimeiri’s offer of seven cabinet positions for the Southerners, asking, “what about Darfur, the Beja, and the Nuba? Do they have to take up arms before their place is recognized?” He went on predicting the downfall of Nimeiri’s regime as losing “its bearings and is tottering, senile, and is moving toward its final collapse. The regime is like a patient at a terminal stage of illness.”

After the overthrow of Nimeiri, Garang called the regime that was formed, “May II Regime,” an extension of Nimeiri’s May regime. Fifty days later, after the takeover of the government, Garang’s announced, “I call your attention to the following: the gang of four have increased its number to a junta of fifteen generals,” a reference to the members of the government that was formed thereafter.

Following the military takeover of the government in Khartoum by the current international criminal, Brigadier Omar al-Bashirin in 1989, Garang announced, “as you know, our national capital, Khartoum, witnessed on the 30 June a change in government. Today the SPLM/A is the only democratic force in the country that the junta had no power to ban, dissolve or arrest its leaders.”

Dismissing those who are calling for democratization within SPLM/A, Garang said, “SPLM/A is a tool. A tool cannot be democratic. SPLM/A is a tool to bring about democratic change.” Since then, those of Riek Machar and Lam Akol split from SPLM/A, accusing Garang for being “dictatorial and autocratic.” Garang denied that they split, but said, they rather “defected” since they technically joined the enemy, the regime in Khartoum. He fired back at them that they are individuals who “will be known in the history as the people who stubbed the movement in South Sudan in the back—people at the point of victory who stubbed us on the back.”

In signing the Comprehensive Peace Agreement in 2005, Garang declared, “Sudan cannot and will never be the same again. This agreement belongs to all of the Sudan, to its neighbors, to Africa, to the Arab world and indeed to the rest of the world.” As to the worries that the agreement is going to be abrogated like the ones before it, Garang said, “the most important thing about these guarantees is that they do no depend on persons or the other party as in the past.”

Steve Paterno is the author of The Rev. Fr. Saturnino Lohure, A Romain Catholic Priest Turned Rebel. He can be reached at [email protected]