Every year on 9 July, we commemorate the anniversary of our country’s independence. This year marks fifteen years since our glorious independence, amid an unwavering determination to continue the struggle to establish a people’s republic upon the ruins of the tribal republic that exists today. Our hard-won independence has become hostage to the ambitions of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) regime, led by General Salva Kiir Mayardit, whose tribal dictatorship is sustained by the threat of arms and seeks to impose a hateful system of internal colonialism upon our people.
On 9 July, amid widespread public anger over the state of the country, we marked fifteen years since our glorious independence—an independence that has become, in many respects, the most disappointing chapter in our modern history. The independence we dreamed of has, at best, been reduced to an arena for settling political scores based on tribal and regional affiliations. Yesterday’s liberators have become today’s tyrants, leaving us trapped in a republic of tribalism where there is neither freedom, justice, equality nor dignity. Such is the inevitable outcome of the new separatists’ manipulation of our glorious independence.
Amid this chaos, we witness with our own eyes how history repeats itself with unparalleled brutality. Death continues to claim innocent victims betrayed by the regime in wars that crush their dignity. Ignorance spreads like wildfire throughout our society. Extreme poverty strips the marginalised and forgotten of both life and dignity. Politics has become a tool for justifying an abhorrent system of internal colonialism, while everything stands in contradiction to our people’s aspirations to build a modern and prosperous state. These are the inevitable consequences of a regime that has failed to govern.
Today, managing our glorious independence with the mentality of the new separatists—the tribalists and opportunists within the SPLM—constitutes a national crisis in itself because of its devastating political, security, economic and social consequences for the very existence of our state. The SPLM has placed our nation on a knife’s edge, consumed by competing interests over its future, despite the simple truth that no nation can achieve prosperity through tyranny. This project of domination, driven by the interests of the new despots, seeks to entrench internal colonialism—the very injustice against which the first shot of liberation was fired on 18 August 1955 in the steadfast town of Torit.
On this glorious occasion, it is essential that we remember the sacrifices of the first generation of freedom fighters, who illuminated the path of glory and dignity with their pure blood and priceless sacrifices. We honour heroes such as Gen. Emilio Tafeng, Gen. Paul Ali Gbatala, Gen. Joseph Lagu, Fr. Saturnino Lohure, Gordon Muortat Mayen, Aggrey Jaden, Daniel Jumi, Marako Rumi, Both Diu, Ezebon Mondiri, Dr. John Garang, and many others from that remarkable generation of freedom fighters, living and departed alike, who remain a source of pride and honour for our beloved homeland, for whose liberation we stood united.
It would have been far more fitting had we drawn upon this history—our national heritage, our national identity and our collective memory—to build our young nation upon agreed national principles, far removed from the exploitation of our independence by the new separatists in pursuit of malicious agendas. Instead, we are confronted by the ruin into which our country has fallen today and by a society increasingly unable to accept itself as one people.
The republic of tribal segregation that the oppressive regime in Juba defends today does not embody the will of our people as expressed in the 2011 referendum. On the contrary, it reflects the will of tribal separatists, many of whom have been exposed by our independence for the political hypocrisy that lay behind their claims of being progressive forces.
A decade and a half of undeclared war against the true meaning of our glorious independence places upon us a profound national responsibility to reclaim that independence from the grip of the mafia of power and wealth that exploits Salva Kiir’s regime to oppress, humiliate and impoverish our people while threatening the future of generations yet unborn. We must therefore strive to establish a people’s republic that embraces us all as free citizens without discrimination, where equality in rights and human dignity is guaranteed to every South Sudanese.
In conclusion, let us proudly raise our hats in reverence and gratitude for the sacrifices of our righteous martyrs, through whose courage and selflessness we stand here today, commemorating our glorious independence under exceptional and tragic circumstances. Resisting this injustice today, rather than tomorrow, is among our noblest national duties. Within this spirit, we must also salute the unknown soldiers and honourable freedom fighters on every front of change, whose continued struggle seeks to liberate our independence from the grip of the new separatists.
The writer, Sokiri Lo Poni, is a concerned South Sudanese. He can be reached via Sokiril8@gmail.com.
The views expressed in ‘opinion’ articles published by Radio Tamazuj are solely those of the writer. The veracity of any claims made is the responsibility of the author, not Radio Tamazuj.
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