The culture debate in Juba who is right and who is wrong
By Khorhok Gar
October 14, 2008 — The recent culture debate in Juba that resulted in arrest of 30 young women by the police, and the removal of the County, and Juba Police commissioners by South Sudan President Lt. Gen. Kiir for enforcing the city ordinance, is not just an isolated case; it’s a top of iceberg. Juba when compared with rest of cities in the South, people are more liberal or tolerant to embrace new cultures than those in Upper Nile and Bahr el Ghazal regions. The incident has revealed the dilemma south Sudanese are in after the return of peace in the region. The postwar South Sudan has many challenges ahead and more are yet to come. One can imagine the situation in which the returnees found themselves in with authority.
Instead for politicians to trade accusations on who is right and who is wrong on this issue, they should have taken this time as an opportunity for them to have a serious debate on which directions the country would take. For many years foreign cultures has been influenced our traditional values, virtue and social order. It’s time for public to know where some politicians stand when it comes to social issues, like dress code, abortion and racism. But what we seen in Juba is same blame games, some even rush to conclusion by portraying the matter as a human right and gender issue, which I don’t believe it is, because we don’t know exactly where the public opinion lie on this matter. And the people who are affected by this saga are both boys and girls.
Sudan has been at war for almost a half a century. During the war many Sudanese immigrated to neighboring counties, like Uganda, Kenya, Congo, and Egypt. Some even went far a way to European counties and the United States of America to search for better life. These immigrants learned new cultures and new lifestyle from their host communities and they are bringing these countries customs with them back to Sudan.
The question is where do we draw a line to consider what is appropriate and what is not? Traditionalist argued that foreign cultures undermine Sudanese conservative values and any attempt to impose foreign cultures will have negative effect on Sudanese society. And also it will backfire to those who are imposing it. They lucid that what may be appropriate in Ethiopia might not be accepted here in Sudan. Some people believe there are forceful processes operating that encourage the acceptance of new ideas and new cultures. For that reason the government shouldn’t be an obstacle for these social changes. Both sides may be right, but unregulated culture norms will destroy our social fabric. I believe special measures like Juba city ordinance are needed to safe guard our social way of life and democracy.
And at the same time as a country we can embrace change and resist it if we deem it will have negative effect on our communities. We are all for change (positive one) but spreading hazardous behaviors like seen in Juba should be treated as a crime, because if not bring into an end untimely it will infest the entire nation. It is good to learn new cultures, but most people in Southern Sudan have strong feeling about foreign culture, especially the Hip Pop culture. Many parents believe it has no value in our society. It will be grave mistake for parents to let GOSS get away with this, because allowing this type of culture in undeveloped cities like Juba will lower their children’s self-esteem and preferment in school, which I don’t think we can afford at this time in history.
Khorhok Gar can be reach at [email protected]
Alaak, Lual
The culture debate in Juba who is right and who is wrong
Hey Bravo.
There is something you have failed to note here. You cannot give plenary powers to executive or else they would quash us to death.
Changes are occuring around the board and you cannot expect our citizens to behaviour the ordinary ways of the past. For the last two decades, there have been a lot of changes happening in Sudan as so such came Arabs recogising our rights.
In similar correlation, it is the facts underlying that all citizens in the south at the moment are of translating their unpercieved injuries to precieved injuries therefore giving them legal sufficient.
My Comrade, it would be worthwhile enough should we depart from being too conservative the better or we end up being extremists.
Remember, the two regions you have mentioned here in the past have tendency of weaking no cloth, so remember. Our President has done a good job by removing a Trousers Commissioner. There is nothing in our Constitution suggesting that our government officer acts improperly. My friend, we must live by the Constitution which has enrenched the bill of rights. In the same vein, police cannot shield their failure to curb insecurity by loitering around and harrassed young girls for wearing trousers or tighten cloth when the insecurity is looming in some part of Sudan. So my learned friend, I am not in the old school, and therefore would be incline to my opinion that our Constitution does not authorised such as vexious act.
By piathetik
simon kupal
The culture debate in Juba who is right and who is wrong
the debating was okay because people may know their right or wrong.
It’s great,hope it will positively materialize in time.
Madhod
The culture debate in Juba who is right and who is wrong
Thanks for your stand on this issue, but I have hard time trying to guess what you are talking about! I did get the fact that thirty women were arrested for not dressing appropriately according to the city ordinance. But you should explain what had happened exactly so that people might have idea about what had caused the arrest of the women and the firing of the county police commissioner. There is nothing wrong with the article’s content. It is just too broad and not specific about the detail of incident. The only thing I got away with, is the fact that 30 women were arrested and police commission was fired. But I don’t think many people know why?