Turning old into new – a South Sudan gravy recipe

So South Sudan is one month old

By Yoletta Nyange

August 23, 2011 — While the newborn nation faces daunting challenges, governance is by far the largest of all. South Sudanese have an unshakable determination to succeed, however, one cannot help but notice that they have fallen into the same traps that some of her older African sister countries have been struggling to get out of, starting with ethnicity.

The government – headed by President Salva Kiir, of the Dinka majority – is mostly formed of Dinkas and Nuers (the second largest ethnic group of the 61 the country counts). But the Dinkas are increasingly being resented by the other ethnic groups for wanting to take over the country, and are seen as the “new Arabs”, a reference to the people of the North who dominated Sudan’s national life before the country broke into two in 2011.

There are many internal dissensions within power circles as anywhere else in the world. For example, the key ministries – Justice, Finance, and Defence – are filled mainly by Dinkas, and people are starting to read between the lines. The Nuers and Dinkas have historically been competing against each other, and between the two of them can ransack the whole country. If they choose to, the Nuers could galvanise the smaller ethnic groups against the Dinkas.

As a preventive measure, President Salva Kiir has been favouring the Nuers, thinking that he can buy them off by giving them positions in government at the expense of other groups, like Muslims or women. But some see it as a weakness and use it to get more power. In the long-term interest of the country, Kiir will have to distribute power more evenly or risk another “Rwanda Moment”.

The South Sudanese ruling elite is a peculiar blend of military and intellectuals, the former having been appointed in recognition of their blood sacrifice, and the latter drawn from the pool of sharp diaspora-educated brains whose wives and children reside in the West. There again is another time bomb, for while some function by the rule of the word, others only abide by the rule of the gun. Here as in many places around the world, the elite risk dropping the country down from success to failure because of purely manufactured inequalities.

Quite a few intellectuals show signs of impatience and condescension towards the old generals, who they consider to work in slow motion, attributing it to their alleged “ignorance”. But it is these old warriors who helped to bring South Sudan to this point. And it has to be acknowledged that with or without knowledge, with or without sophistication, the generals brought independence to the people of South Sudan. They are part of the collective ignorance and should be given a way forward with compassion and not be brushed off.

Another worry is the constitution of the country. Voted in a hurry in the fortnight before independence, the transitional constitution is a source of anxiety to many people for it grants the president the power to hire and fire governors and dissolve parliament, which comes in total contradiction with the ongoing decentralisation process, whereby the ten states are autonomous, each with their own government and parliament. The constitution valid for another four years, also makes the president untouchable – he cannot be impeached by the parliament. Some have argued that this evil is needed in this post-war era. But this is the same corny old tune that the Ugandan and Rwandan governments have been using for over twenty years now to shut voices down. Even Zimbabwe’s Mugabe, South Sudan first and oldest African ally, has fallen into that trap.

In fact, the real constitution that was passed, written or non-written is that to follow the leader. And that in turn has translated into a narrowing of the political space, where the SPLM has become a one-state party. Just a month before the independence, the National Congress, an adversarial party disbanded and joined the main SPLM party in the North. What was that for? Will we see the SPLM branch in North Sudan also joining Bashir’s party?

But since John Garang untimely death, the SPLM, the country’s ideological spine, seems to have been overtaken by the Sudan People Liberation Army (SPLA). The party has had no manifesto, no raison d’être, and appears to have had little influence over the administration for the past five transitional years. It is the political power that should command the military and not the other way around. Never does the army constitute a proxy for the government or a substitute for the opposition.

On Independence Day though, Kiir’s hailed speech was the closest thing to a manifesto, the first ever document to give an indication of the direction he now wants to take the country and for which he can be held accountable. And if Kiir stands by his words, with the support of the government’s institutions and civil society, then South Sudan will have a good future.

SPOT THE ODD ONE OUT

It is worth noting that the President of South Sudan shares a similar profile with that of the rulers of Ethiopia, Uganda and Rwanda to cite but his closest neighbours. Like Zenawi, Museveni and Kagame before him, Kiir has devoted the best part of his life to the armed liberation struggle of his country. Like his fellows, he inherited the leadership of a heavily foreign-sponsored army and subsequently led his troops to the victory.
But the common denominator between these heads of states is the impossible-to-miss presence of the famously mysterious character of “Uncle” Roger Winter, the former USAID Director and CIA strawman.
“Uncle” Roger tells his story of how for the past thirty years he “was involved with the NRA in Uganda, and when the genocide started in April 1994 in Rwanda, had been in Rwanda for some time and flew from Rwanda to Nimule in South Sudan and slept under a tent” to attend the first Soudan People Liberation Army (SPLM) Convention.

In risk of alienating my new South Sudanese family, it is the same “Uncle” Roger who on the dawn of the independence, had misty eyes: “How many people in their life can be in so much conflicts like I was for thirty years in all over these places, how many can really see they actually did some bit of a contribution in good direction?”.

What part of “good direction” is there in Uganda’s witch-hunt against opponents, largely inspired by Rwanda’s 17-year Reign of Terror, itself drawn from Ethiopia’s crackdown on human rights?

To say that “Uncle” Roger is worshipped is an understatement. The man inspires the same awe as some sort of walking, living divinity would in the eyes of South Sudanese who believe they still need a guardian angel – get over it.

At the 2006 UN Assembly, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez referred to the former US President George W.Bush in the colourful terms of “the devil came here yesterday, and it smells of sulphur still today”.

And it will continue to smell of sulphur for as long as individuals like “Uncle” Roger will be roaming in African decision-making centres to engineer their demise, spark the fire and run into hiding to cackle at their protégés collapse.

Except that the architect of the doom, “Uncle” Roger is a sweet-faced grandpa who recently turned seventy, a self-confessed adrenaline junkie who doesn’t “like to sit in the office” and fought the elements over the past three decades to go into “unsafe territory sometimes open war fields”.

Somebody needs to show this thrill-hungry old man another hobby than meddling into other people’s affairs – windsurfing, sushi-making, or even tattooing could get him the high he’s looking for.

Alternatively “Uncle” Roger would take more pleasure at relaxing activities such as playing with his grandchildren, gardening or using his generous retirement allowance from the US government for pilgrimages at the world’s Holy Sites to try and redeem his own soul, not Africa’s.

We are in the midst of a Sisyphean nightmare. I have yet to meet an Asian say from Hanoi, a Latin American from Ushuaïa or even an African from Alexandria, Maputo, or Zanzibar City who works in a capacity of “Personal Adviser” to the Presidents of Western Superpowers like France, UK, Germany or the US. Someone who would feel bold enough to address them as “my boy” or “my girl” (should it be the case of Germany’s Merkel) as “Uncle” Roger calls the President of South Sudan, General Salva Kiir.

This is the very mental bondage that kept other African nations stagnant and needs to be undone in its early stage if South Sudan is to rise. At least the Arab youth has understood this.

With the Arab Spring came the utmost humiliation for the West, as it revealed to the world that the West had been backing the wrong pawn. So it is hoped that President Kiir will not choose the way to a tragic end of rule such as that of the former Tunisian and Egyptian presidents, Ben Ali and Mubarak and all the other pending ones.

PANDORA’S BOX

They say that when raising a child, one doesn’t shout at it if one wants results. Instead you praise it and point it into the right direction so that it grows in strength and confidence.

Of all ills though, South Sudan suffers from an immense ego problem caused by centuries of a perceived inferiority complex that renders them prey to a toxic flattery. But sweet talk is not a commodity yet. It doesn’t buy you toothpaste, pay for hospital bills or kids school fees. And Birds of Ill Omen have flown en masse into the country carried on the carpet of obsequiousness.

Appointed officials once recipients of the silent treatment the West reserves to dark skins, now in Juba dressed in bespoke suits, expensive shoes and flashing luxury watches while being ushered around town in those flamboyant Hummers, are gorging on their new titles and don’t miss a chance to remind you of that. Mind you. I even met with an intelligent and articulate government engineer who shook my hand and introduced himself as “I am His Excellency so and so”.

Fair enough Mr His Excellency. Probably more than any nation in the world, the people of South Sudan have long felt unloved, ignored, and were hungry for recognition and dignity. Now dignity and recognition have come, and the world is torn between a genuine delight while remaining on the watch for this country. Despite that, however daunting the future looks it is my strongest belief that we’re much better off than before for now there is a starting point.

Although the momentum has passed, attention has not faded. Let whoever dreams of grandeur and wants to be remembered in history, act accordingly “grand” and build schools, hospitals, water pipes and make a tangible difference – returns in honour, glory, streets named after them and post stamps at their effigy 100% guaranteed! South Sudan should be careful not to become infatuated with herself, for descending into narcissism can turn her into the butt of jokes.

Sure there is a multi-level post-traumatic groundwork that needs to be done on a massive scale to eradicate the remnants of oppressed minds, enough to redesign the entire SPLM’s agenda.

Greed and corruption have also escaped from the Pandora box with some South Sudanese officials trading their access to national resources for a seat on the board of Western oil companies implanted in the country, and others long-serving diplomats who confessed wanting to bring their tired bones back under the sun of Juba in hopes of inserting their paws into the manna jar early enough to get their share of wealth before their untimely HIV-induced death.

But then again, even in the all-civilised über modern land of Her Majesty the Queen of England, corruption is on the menu as the unfolding News of the World scandal highlighted for example. And Her Majesty the Queen of England has also been served with a Civil War branded as “Riots” raging throughout her almighty queendom.

TOWARDS A WELL-OILED FUTURE?

With 98% of the government’s revenue coming from oil, news of the oil pipelines redirected to the Port Lamu in Kenya was much welcome.

For now, however, a quarter of the South Sudanese budget will continue to go to security and defence. And with reason. The sound of Khartoum boots at the porous disputed border of the oil-rich Abyei state, Khartoum-backed rebellion led by the former Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) officer George Ator in Jongolei State, the conflicts in South Kordofan, Blue Nile and the ghost of Al Qaeda that the locals say came with the Somali migrants, pose a serious threat to the new nation.

The recent defection of Maj. Gen. Peter Gatdet Yak from the leadership of his own 6000-force militia of the South Sudan Liberation Army (SSLA) in Unity State, has left questions on many lips. It is said that President Kiir bought Gatdet out for the sum of $3 million plus benefits in the nature of a villa in Nairobi’s poshest neighbourhoods, in exchange for Gatdet’s support in tackling the alleged nascent insurgence of the Garang’s Boys, suspected of planning a coup against the Head of State and his government.

But is the former outcast nation prepared and ready to engage with the sneakiest brokers at a fair negotiating table for citizen-focused priorities and policies?
In South Sudan there is a popular joke that goes by that when missionaries came to Sudan, they would tell the locals to close their eyes to pray. Meanwhile the missionaries were stealing while no one was watching. Gone are those days?
South Sudan has attracted the lust of the world’s largest nations – the US, Germany, China, India, Malaysia, France, Sweden among many others – and of the dodgiest investors – from those trying to sell luxury yachts and fleets of Harley Davidson to officials to a bevy of unscrupulous vultures exploiting the greenness of South Sudanese in the conduct of business and public affairs.

I cannot get over the feeling that for all her aspirations, South Sudan lacks the well-rounded soft skills “to give what is commensurate with the market” as Gokupilan Thambapilai, the Namibian legal counsel of NamPower once described that “because it’s Africa and so on, we’re being expected to pay more, asked to give unfair securities and unnecessary government guarantees”.
When I asked a South Sudanese Ambassador if South Sudan would consider borrowing the expertise of Nigerians for the purpose of the oil exercise, the answer was a straight “no, we don’t want these Nigerians. They will take the country over.”
Possibly. Although the number of foreigners appointed in Juba dismisses that claim. Juba feels like the promised land, not so much for locals as for the thousands of foreigners who have beached there: from ministries workers, to the traders, street vendors, engineers, boda-boda motorbike drivers, to hotel managers and restaurateurs all are foreigners, most coming from Kenya, Ethiopia, Zimbabwe, Uganda and China.

South Sudan indisputably needs the knowledge, expertise and advanced technologies of foreigners’ experiences to fully benefit from its huge resources.

And real investors look for real opportunities. While South Sudan is a platinum one, the challenge for the people is to feel empowered and picky enough to trade on their own terms. Oil should be guarded jealously and doled out only under the strictly fairest win-win deals outlined in capital letters and no small fonts.

It is greed both from the foreign investors and governments’ failure to their own people, that gave birth to movements such as the MEND guerrilla group in the Niger Delta and serial piracy across Somalia and Benin, once small-scale actions that graduated into serious organised crime with international connections. With the breathtaking landscape she was gifted by nature, is South Sudan ready for a remake of the Lake Naïvasha that was turned into an open-air human and environmental cemetery by Dutch flower farms?

Even after the independence, there are reasons to be sceptical about the motivations of the West to put this country together in the span of six years. Yes South Sudan is a US creation, but as Professor Taban Lo Liyong from the University of Juba would say “we needed that day to come with the help of our friends”.

The real question is who was not aware that South Sudanese fought for over fifty years? And who is the new country really for – South Sudanese, oil or for another West-China hegemonic ego clash?

The US-EU arranged marriage is back on the scene, this time with Germany on the front row. With the Scandinavians, Germans are the least despised large European nation so far as Belgium, France, UK, Portugal and The Netherlands have burned almost all of the bridges they had with their former colonies, and to say the least still inspire animosity – look no further than your Western neighbour, Chad, that struggles to deal with an increase of kidnappings of French oil workers.

About two years ago, Germany’s African foreign policy was completely redesigned still with the same old European flavour but in a very German straightforward touch outlined on the German Foreign Ministry website – on which by the way the Sudan and South Sudan are the focus of a separate attention than the whole of Africa.

By 2010 or ninety-two years after the country’s defeat in World War I, Germany had paid off its 112 billion gold marks reparation debt for its role in the war (with €125 million interest) leaving it free again to compete in the scramble for resources.

And they’re back in the game. Some German diplomats openly worry about “China willing to get so deeply involved in African affairs in such a robust way”. As if they (the West) had not seen it coming – China’s been in the country for four decades. And “if the new government will allow the Chinese to stay along Western companies.” Why not? Indians and Malaysians are in the run too.

The same-old European arrogance: “The goods that are being produced in Germany are fairly expensive compared to world competitors and are very high tech. For the trade to pick up, this would mean for South Sudan to first have the necessary infrastructure to support the more sophisticated items that German companies can offer” said another German diplomat.

“But in this situation the profits will be much higher than under normal circumstances, so we can wait because German companies are exposed in Asia, China, India and make big business there, and no German company has to invest in a country where there is war and high risks”, concluded the visionnary veteran diplomat.

As usual, in this US-EU white marriage, at the first signs of trouble, the EU will hide behind the US and blame it for all wrongs – look at Libya being sold as an Americano-British-led war when the one remote-controlling the bombs is no other than Sarkozy.

At the end of the day, with or without Europe, China and America’s economies mirror each other. In fine, America and China are the enemy brothers South Sudan will see confront each other.

In the meantime, oil consumption has grown at nearly two per cent each year between 1994 and 2006, with an average of 88 million bdp daily, and is expected to peak by 2030.

The usual suspects have had quite a tough time lately: Iraq did not turn out as smooth as planned, Iran is uncooperative, and the Arabs are angry. Thus South Sudan and DRC (look out for the upcoming elections in November 2011) appeal was restored. An authentic Chinese Finger Puzzle indeed.

Eventually, it is the same song, even the dancers haven’t changed: Communism vs Capitalism, two equal evils. More than the benevolent military dictatorship the country is drifting into, there is going to be a war of big bucks in South Sudan of unprecedented magnitude.

WHERE ARE THOU AFRICA?

Since South Sudan has entered the international scene, an apparent discomfort is unfolding among African nations.

South Sudan is the one-month old baby sister of older African nations, that ought to firmly hold her tiny hand, show her the pitfalls ahead, help her stand on her frail legs so that she can rise to her full potential.

Yes congratulations were half-whispered and soft soaps read in a drone – for some like Kenya, Uganda or Ethiopia a self-sufficient South Sudan would directly affect their volume of exports.

But so far, the majority of Africans seem clueless, dumbstruck, voluntarily blind or just freaking scared should a similar geographical blow happen to them. And South Sudanese are only too aware of the lukewarm reactions their independence has caused in Africa and in the world.

Ultimately, this is the single occasion for Africa to square things up with history. And to do so, one single universal law need be applied: unity.

If the West pull their hair out over bailing Ireland, Portugal and Greece out (with France and UK to follow soon), why couldn’t Africans unite to protect and guide their newborn sister, South Sudan?

From all what tears us apart (language only – the rest is imaginary), if there is anything Africans share at the core of our body cells, it is a deep-rooted sense of humanity.

From Algeria to Zimbabwe, the strong one looks after the weak one, the rich after poor. Individualism is no African word. Ubuntu is.

And in line with the African tradition of conflict resolution through community consensus, it is time for the world family-at-large to gather the sum of our wisdom and experiences to uproot the arising unease in South Sudan.

LET’S GET PHYSICAL

At the end of the day, this country is a miracle, and needs all the support it can get to be lifted up in lucidity and truth.

With seventy percent of its 8.25 million sparse population being under the age of 30, there is plenty of man- and brain-power available for South Sudan to tap into and achieve self-sufficiency within no more than three decades.

But there is a lot to do.

The country has 82 million hectares of land surface, but only 4% of the land is farmed. By the independence however, 10% of the land or an area the size of Rwanda had already been leased to foreign investors.

Food is scarce because the people stopped farming after seeing their harvests looted over and over again by the several military groups that ruled the country for decades. Also, since the 1950s, everything was coming from Khartoum. As such, the South Sudanese people have grown accustomed to being handed food without working for it, and occasionally rations from the World Food Programme (WFP), which many accuse to have killed agriculture, and want it banned from their newborn country. “Let us die from starvation or let us dig our own food as we used to do before. Let WFP go. Instead we need the Food and Agriculture Organization to come and help us introduce crops so that we grow our own food,” said one.

At least, this would definitely secure the government who presently places public tenders for staples like onions, lentils, cooking oil, sugar or soap from foreign suppliers.

THE FUTURE IS NOW

As the 54th African nation, 193rd UN member state, and 196th country of the world, South Sudan, has been admitted into the East African Community and at last into the African Union. South Sudan has also been overtly flirting with the Commonwealth, EGAD, Comesa and is even eligible to enter the Arab League of Nations (which might not be to Khartoum’s taste).

Although in my humble opinion, joining all these world-renown clubs is not essential, as the countries they represent will anyway court South Sudan for her resources.

As far as human memory goes, none of these all-star alliances have ever prevented hell to break loose, especially in Africa. To the contrary.

South Sudan would be better off becoming a combination of Switzerland, a politically neutral yet active trade partner internationally, and Israel for nobody messes with Israel – it is divine law.

Like Joseph and his older brothers in Pharaoh’s court, if she chose to, South Sudan could as well become the arbitration country and legal hub for her older African sister-nations, and host for example an superior version of the infamous International Criminal Court – which is jubilant at the forthcoming Gaddafi & Sons’ drama trials – based on international laws and above all free from Western interference.

And in fairness, transparency and based on the very African values on which mankind is built, call for the trial of all crimes committed in Africa by Africans and others for a change.

Why should Gaddafi & Sons be the umpteenth African leaders to be dragged inside the Den Haag circus arena? And why are all the Westerners who’ve been doing business, mingling and sleeping with them not in the box too? For the sake of the next Africans on the ICC radar (writing these lines I could become one too), this has to stop.

MERCOSUR, the South Americans or ASEANS the Southeastern Asians for example could also duplicate a similar model, until each nation will be inspired enough like the Middle-Easterners (Israelis, Tunisians and Egyptians) to trial their own leaders on their own soil.

Through South Sudan comes an avenue for the healing of Africa and the world-at-large as the younger generations will not inherit grudges and distrust from their elders.

In this post-financial crisis, post-WikiLeaks, post-Arab Spring, post-Ben Laden and post-corruption era, South Sudan simply cannot afford to become a failed state, for as the Chinese say “Fortune does not come twice. Misfortune does not come alone”.

The people of South Sudan are some of the most splendid I have ever met: they are warm, open, trusting and generous even in the little they have.
There is a dazzling energy in the whole of South Sudan,that of people haemorrhaged for too long now determined to take their destiny in hand.
But I feel their sincerity will be abused.

Perhaps, it is no accident that South Sudan came last in order of independence, and happens to be blessed beyond imagination with all kinds of resources.
For the only thing left in Pandora’s Box is Hope.

Yoletta Nyange is a Rwandan-born broadcast journalist who has lived and worked in Belgium, UK, Venezuela, Tunisia, South Sudan. She speaks five languages and covers business and international affairs. Her work is regularly featured in media outlets worldwide, and she can be contacted via her blog.
Extracts of this article were previously published in the August/September 2011 issue of the New African magazine. © Yoletta Nyange. 2011.