Sudan: Life in the peace process

War and anarchy. Key words in describing southern Sudan. With the peace agreement, things are changing slowly: These are happy but still poor times

By Kimbowa James

Landmines are all over. And a safe haven to Kony, the rebel terrorising Uganda. Those are the sad pictures in many people’s minds when talking about southern Sudan.

“I hope you do not get captured by Kony,” said a friend when he learnt that I was going to southern Sudan.

There is much more to the Sudan, Africa’s largest country. Crossing the border at Oraba in Northwestern Uganda, the most significant changes are a big sign cautioning you to keep right when driving, and soldiers dressed in different uniforms, or no uniform at all: A person clad in civilian carrying a gun is not a rare sight.

Then begins the vast abandoned land, almost like passing through a game park. The few trading centres have grass thatched huts with people selling banana and small items like three spoons of sugar wrapped in polythene paper.

From the Sudan border post of Kaya, the drive north is on a fairly good murram road. Along the road, some people carry bows and arrows and in the villages others are ploughing.

“I accept the peace and I am happy that I can now see relatives in other parts of southern Sudan. But we still do not feel free because we still do not have what we had,” says John Lasu, the Chairman of Mugwo Community Development Forum, MCDF, an MS partner organisation that is teaching people farming and entrepreneurial skills.

“Many Sudanese would like to return home from wherever they took refugee but most places have no infrastructure. There is no water or health services, and no food. So some people have come to prepare for the rest of the family by building shelter and planting food. The official repatriation caters for people with basic needs for a period of six months but this can not be extended to all the estimated four million Sudanese living in the diaspora at a go,” he adds.

The MCDF Health Secretary draws the attention to another challenge, common to rural Uganda:

“We are bothered with early marriages. Our daughters enter marriage before they are ready and end up coming back home with many grandchildren. This leads us to struggle hard to maintain the families,” says Cicilia Gire Anania.

The fertility rates of both southern Sudan and Uganda are about 7 children per woman.

Yei, 70 kilometres north of the border, is a busy town. In the morning primary school pupils flood the streets, in school uniforms but mostly bare footed. At water points, the great number of jerry cans indicates a population straining the resources in town. Yei has no running water or public electricity distribution. Only international NGOs and private businesses run power generators or solar power systems. And the high prices charged in the drug shops show, the need for health services and essential drugs in the public health centres.

On the streets, most people are dressed in neatly kept second hand clothes, however new style and fashion is not easily seen. Few women wear hairstyles like in Uganda and those who do, draw attention. Specially from idlers by the roadside. Unemployment is a big issue in southern Sudan.

“It is mainly the NGOs and the road works companies that offer jobs. But they require an education standard and one year experience that many of us do not have,” says one Anthony, aged 17, who the Newsletter met while he was helping a relative to run a road side grass thatched kiosk.

Establishing public administration structures is still in infancy.

“We work on a voluntary basis,” says the officer in charge of Yei traffic police.

During the first six months of peace, the government of southern Sudan is to strengthen the administrative structures and put in place a conducive environment for civil society to contribute to the reconstruction of Sudan.

“People expect rapid change just after the signing of the peace protocols but I think it is important that we understand that we have started another war to have our motherland get developed,” says Paulino Kamba Kenyi, the Yei County Education Officer.