First Southern Sudanese female airline pilot

By Maker Mabor Marial

September 23, 2010 — Despite tragedies that had dominated her life, starting with her mother death when she was just 9, and the passing of a father a few months after she graduated from Florida Memorial University in 2006, a 27 year old, Aluel Bol Aluenge excelled against all the odds. She was licensed as an airline pilot a year later and was employed instantaneously by Ethiopian Airlines. She at the present flies Boeing 737s all across the continent.

Her story was unveiled on Monday by The Seattle Times, a local newspaper in Washington State, USA. Aluenge’s family migrated to Renton, WA in 1991 after being driven off by then the destructive conflict in her homeland Sudan. The Sudan civil war that caused two millions lives and displaced over five millions from their homes scattered Southern Sudanese worldwide.

Aluenge’s story is one of the unique stories that tell us that our ladies are better than the animals, they have equivalent thinking ability as men, and can sometimes out do their male counterparts.

With free will to think about her future, Aluenge first sought fashion model for a career and won a talent show at the age of 16. She later left college to pursue a career in fashion in New York and London however she would always be turned down and told that, “we already have someone who looks like you,” referring to her dark skin color.

After failing to acquire her dream job in fashion, Aluenge returned to college in hope to finish her degree in international business management and get a job somewhere else other than in fashion. However, in school she met some students who were studying to be pilots. Aluenge, like any other young woman in Southern Sudan who dream to be something else but are not allowed to pursue their dreams because of parents’ desire for cattle, had always dreamt of flying an airline someday.

For that reason, after hearing from aeronautical science students Aluenge’s childhood dream was brought back to life; she became interested in it and decided to change her major from international business management to aeronautical science. She worked hard in years to come and got her aeronautical science degree. She spent another year preparing to get a license and was licensed as commercial airline pilot.

Aluenge seems to be the first Sudanese or southern Sudanese woman to fly an airplane in the African continent where female pilots are rear.

Knowing that bride-price in term of cattle is not the only way a girl can give back to her family, Aluenge is supporting her relatives to start businesses and manage a farm and other properties in Sudan. She is stepping in her father’s shoes and does what her father had hoped to do to help his relatives.

Flying Ethiopian’s plane, Boeing 737s, Aluenge will continue to bring to the family more than 100 cows they would have received in bride-price if she was to be forced into an early marriage. The cattle Aluenge will bring to the family will always be theirs and free from man coming back and take them as a result of being insulted by his wife, probably Aluenge. Many men intimidate their in-laws whenever they have some disagreements with their wives and therefore seek compensation, (awiec) in Dinka. This is usually done to repair the marriage; in-laws give back some cows to calm down the man.

Aluenge is our role model, and she brings back to us memories of our brave women during struggle. During years of horrendous conflict, many courageous women joined their brothers and husbands in the battlefields and fought along side them. Some remained at home to cook for the SPLA soldiers and care for children whose fathers were also in the battlefield. That’s why; the SPLA became very successful in the battle field.

Aluenge adds to those Southern Sudanese women who have done something extraordinary, these include Rebecca Nyandeng de Mabior, Awut Deng Achuil, Ann Itto and many more. These influential women have shown us that women can also be powerful as men. For example, in the aftermath of the 2005 mysterious helicopter crash that killed her husband, Dr. Garang, Rebecca Nyandeng stood firm and encouraged Southern Sudanese to remain calm and pursue the full implementation of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) instead of going back to war. Awut Deng Achuil, the then Minister of Public Service, Labor and Human Resource Development on the other hand worked tirelessly to clean all the ministries’ payrolls of ghost names. And as a result, her initiative has saved the GoSS and State governments millions of dollars. Furthermore, Ann Itto has been rising as a powerful woman within the SPLM rank. Her political strength contributed to bringing greater success to the SPLM party by winning widely in the April elections.

For this reason, there are millions of young Southern Sudanese women with aspirations of doing something extraordinary in their lives like Aluenge however cultural believes and lack of spirit from GoSS to ensure that force marriage does not exist is hindering their dreams. They will therefore remain that way until the current elected women to Southern Sudan Legislative Assembly (SSLA) stop being women in the parliament and push for the toughest laws specifically aimed at protecting the rights for women in Southern Sudan.

The author is Southern Sudanese and lives in the United States. He can be reached at [email protected]