Opinion | Upper Nile’s music: Governorship’s spat is glorified by politicians

By Taban Gabriel

OPINION – The row over Upper Nile governorship’s position has turned into a household music and the Deejays who are majorly politicians from Upper Nile and other regions of South Sudan seem to enjoy the tune of the disparity to the fullest.

The anti Olony’s rhetoric have dominated the political airwaves in the country and the tribally drank kinsmen adds their voices on to it, juicing-up the all tune. Oh yes, the same melody has also infiltrated the presidency making it  not only difficult but also tricky to handle the issue of Upper Nile due to fear of unknown.

But thank God the President whois above everyone in the country as granted by the Transitional constitution and has the prerogative to decide on the fate of the repeated music is doing all the best he could to restore sanity among the population of Upper Nile State.

Serious business;

On date 9th/12/2020, the Presidency agreed on a reconciliatory community conference for all the tribes of Upper Nile State.

The Conference which was slated to commence on date 16th/12/2020 was later postpone to a yet to be announce date

Meanwhile before the postponement of the Upper Nile conference became public, some sections of politicians have already decried the leadership responsibility of the conference accorded to the FVP.

In a letter dated 15th/12/2020 a group of 6 Community leaders among them Honourable members from the Padang communities in a letter widely shared on social media, rejected the call for the conference to be headed by the FVP

The letter whose heading was “Rejection of the Upper Nile Conferences called by Dr. Riek Machar”was address to the President of the republic and copied to the FVP.

After traversing through the letter, I felt and concluded that more over for all this while, it’s not the President nor community’s leaders who have protested the appointment of Upper Nile governor but rather some sections of disgruntle politicians with conflict of interest.

These politicians have completely hijacked the row over the governorship issue

They have utterly forgotten the Love and compassion shared by the communities of Upper Nile State for all this while.

History has it that, thepeople of Upper Nile have enjoyed a historical jovial and pleasant relationship for a long time with each other

Malakal Town which is the State Head Quarter has accommodated all the tribes of Upper Nile for all this years until the date we got our Independence, why then now?

Some of the historical relationship can be attributed to the several shared customs among the communities of the State. These include;

Social affiliations; Language and dressing cord cement the long historical relationship among the people of Upper Nile State.

Dressing Cord; “Lau” and necklace beads dress cord by women and men during weddings is a common trend among the diverse communities of the state

Language; The Shiluk, Dinka and Nuer languages are spoken by every community of Upper Nile.

In one of my encounter with some youths from Upper Nile here in Juba, it was quite hilarious and tricky at the same time to see them speaking in all the commonly spoken different languages of the State as cited above. Thanks to the embargo on traditional face brands that made it difficult for me to easily identify their communities

On the other hand, marriage for instance, has played a key role in building the historical relationship among the Upper Nile State citizens, especially between Dinka section of Padang and Chollo.

One Chollo elder who spoke to me on an off record discussion claimed that most of the current youth’s generation of Padang community owes the Chollo people the uncle ship’s right. Here he meant that most Chollo daughters were married off to men from Padang communities, that alone brings closer their relationship gap

Finally let me sum up my thought with a reconciliatory message to the people of Upper Nile State;

Reconciliation can be a very painful thing and sometimes it seems to fail. It may appear like there is not going to be anyway to re-establish communication and a viable relationship.

But must the process of reconciliation among the communities of Upper Nile flop and the animosity continue to grow between them?

No, Communities of Upper Nile Can still resolve their spat without the self conflicted politicians. And this will only come through genuine reconciliation

Peaceful co-existence will prevail to the people of Upper Nile. Merry Christmas to All!

The Writer is a Freelance Journalist, for any comment about the article, he can be reach at the email address; Gabronn2014@gmail.com.