This essay by a South Sudanese student won first place in a writing contest organized by the US Embassy in Juba.

The article, in the form of a letter to classmates, contends that Dinka (‘Deng’), Nuer (‘Riam’), Equatorians (‘Ladu’), and other tribes can live side by side peacefully.

Dear my friends and fellow students,

With so much patience, love and understanding we once stood our ground with queues stretching across churches, schools and open fields enduring the extreme coldness and the blinding darkness of the night all bound together in a single chain of unity extending across our hearts to tell the whole world that we have only one word and that is freedom, and free we became.

Friends let us never be unmindful of the terrible past from which we came, we should use that memory to realize how strong we can stand as united and that our destiny despite our diversity lies in the very fact of our existence as South Sudanese.

And as our nation is fast spiraling into the dark tunnel of hatred, violence and intolerance I believe we still have the consciousness to reverse the gear with the propelling force of forgiveness, love and equality to realize our collective dreams. We therefore need to extend the hand of repentance and quest for forgiveness to our neighbors, for reconciliation is impossible without forgiveness and remember an eye for an eye will leave this nation blind.  And as we were not born hating one another and so we can forgive one another.

My dear friends a boat doesn’t go forward if each one is rowing his own way and so our nation cannot prosper if we keep on thinking as tribes but together as Shilluk, Moru, Nuer, Kuku, Dinka etc, we can take this country further, for in walking together we can go a thousand mile.

Therefore friends for us to live together we must know each other, we shouldn’t see our diversity as a threat and let anger and intolerance blind our reasoning and understanding and we should appreciate and respect others for being who they are, and as youth we should understand that we all share the same dream of a South Sudan that lives up to our expectations irrespective of our tribes and that no any tribe or ethnicity is a threat to that but is an entity to achieving that.

And hence we should reflect back to the days when Deng, Riam and Ladu can be neighbors and were able to compromise and solve their differences and live in peace and harmony for hundreds of years, to the days when Bona can go on foot from Nimule to meet Deng in Rumbek and never worried of lodging or food on the way for everywhere was his home.

We should prove to the whole world that we are brave to forgive and that we can hold our hands together again to make South Sudan a better place for not only our generation but our children’s generation. Thanks

By Emmanuel Stephen Bona

File photo: Dancers at the independence referendum, January 2011