South Sudan needs peace through brotherly love

South Sudan needs peace through brotherly love

By: Abraham Daljang Maker

JUBA: South Sudan plunged itself into an ugly and senseless war late last year. The fighting was caused by some elements with personal interest but to many people’s dismay, it took a wrong dimension that will ever be regretted in the history of this country.  

It would been better for those who want to climb the ladder of success to call upon each other  to fight in a boxing ring so that we the innocents just see them punching each other on the face so that we only cheer them up. And the winner would just walk away with champion waist belt. But to my heart breaking, it is the innocent people who are being killed, being amputated, forced out of their homes to take refuge, Oh My God! May God have mercy on the innocents!  

 It was hearsay to me but I saw it all today, people walked on crutches with that helpless sight. I could not help holding my tears back, because all this human misery has been caused by the fellow humans and the ones who are suffering don’t even have a slightest hint on why they should suffer. As I walk through the corridor of that clinic, I saw my fellow brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, mothers and mother in-laws, in pain and anguish. All I had to do was just to clench my teeth as I held back the tears, I am so contemplative in whatever I see and in most cases, I cry when I fail to get an answers to all those questions that ring in my mind. They (patients) were smiling but in the back of those smiling faces, I saw a lot of pain and torment; deep down in their hearts, there is a big wound. Why is it that whenever an elephants fight, it is the grass that suffers most? Why is it that whenever there is political tension, it is the citizens who suffer most? Why is it that whenever fathers fight, it is the children who die instead?  Why? Why? Why??? 

I have come to realize that a country is like a tree, the leaves and branches are the citizens and the roots are the leaders. In my ordinary levels science, I learnt that the leaves manufacture food through a process called photosynthesis during the day, and the same leaves produce energy through transpiration that facilitates growth. I presume that photosynthesis for case of human is that, the citizens are the ones who vote in the leaders and the respiration is that, the citizens are the ones who pay taxes but at the end, they are the disadvantage. In this case the leaves and the branches have a major role in making a tree to stand, unfortunately, when the roots get their own infections in the soil, instead of them to suffer their own consequences, they tend to make leaves and branches dry as a result of their own problems. This is exactly what is happening in every nation across the world, when leaders have their own problems, instead of them to lie in the bed that they have made; it is the leaves and branches (citizens) who become the victims of the circumstances, what a mess?? 

For the case of South Sudan, the sense of brotherhood is totally broken, no love exists at all, that is why you hear about clan conflicts, tribal conflicts and even family conflicts. I think we need to think twice and see where we have gone wrong, maybe we need to ask God to bring us love among ourselves, maybe we need to repent of our sins and ask God to forgive us. Maybe we need to know that each of us can never progress alone but need the support of each other. We should adopt this attitude that, “I can never be anything without my brother, sister mother.” Maybe we need to know that a brother is not that one who is born with you by the same mother and father, but that one who comes to you in time of distress, that one who feels the pain when you are in pain, and that one who gives you food when you are hungry. We need to know that no country in this planet which is homogenous (one tribe, one clan, one family) but we all exist in heterogeneity (many tribes, clans and families) and this is the reflection of God’s creation, God’s Love. 

No man is an island but we all mean to each other despite colour, race, culture, tribe, clan, section and family. When you look at yourself, you see the whole body as a combination of many parts and if one part is lacking, the whole body suffers, the Bible puts this clearly in 1Corinthians 12:17-20 that “If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? But in fact God has placed the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. If they were all one part, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, but one body.”

 

I am just wondering how you would feel if you plug out one eye, won’t you feel the pain? try and if you feel any pang, then you should not hurt your own body by hurting your brother, sister, mother etc. today when I held back my tears, it was a clear indication that the part of my body is having a pain…

 God have mercy on South Sudan and restore our peace and unity.

 À bientôt au revoir……….