South Sudan’s clans’ conflict has become a daily bread

South Sudan’s clans’ conflict has become a daily bread

By: Abraham Daljang Maker

RUMBEK: Communal fighting in Lakes State, South Sudan has become the part and parcel of the daily life among different clans.

“Lakes state has presented a very bad image, we are killing each other every day; it is high time we sat down and repent our sins and purify ourselves with this Holy Communion,” Pastor Isaac Maluth said during the Holy Communion English services.

                     Pastor Isaac Malueth condemning killing during the Holy Communion service, 6/4/2014

Despite the being dominated by one tribe (Dinka), Lakes state has become a home of clan conflicts that rocks its social order daily. In fact, the whole affair has become a daily bread and people are totally used to gun shoots, death has become as normal as eating banana. One lives like an antelope that does not know where and will lion strike, people go to bed at night with overwhelming fear and if you wake up in the morning in one piece, you have every reason to thank God for that. You walk out of your house in the morning without any slight hint of when to come back due to the fear that something might happen to you in the course of the day.

There are two different groups in this society, the ones in town who normally attend the church service every Sunday and the ones who carry guns and follow their cattle in wilderness, the latter are called cattle keepers but to me, I can call them local terrorists. This group is totally cut off from the real world, they fight among themselves and when police intervene to separate them, they turn and kill the police. The group in town who attend the church service have also fall short of their role because there is still a link between them and those who terrorized themselves with guns in cattle camps. The love of God has totally diminished and the hatred has reign in this society. During the church service, you only see women and children who are the majority in churches with a few men. I guess that time will come when preachers will only preach to trees and birds because people have totally taken their own way and forsake God. Life here is for the fittest and you wonder when this scenario will end. There is a prevailing hatred among the communities, from family level to neighborhood and extends beyond.

                                        Dinka service with more women and children and a few men, 6/3/2014

I was one day walking down the road when I came across two children fighting, the little one was being overpowered by her opponents but the grandmother or maybe the aunt was cheering them to fight on. The young one who was overpowered wanted to surrender but the old woman urged her to pick up her stick and fight back. You could see how desperate the little girl was but she had to option than to pick up the stick and tried her best. This broke my heart because this woman was bolding these children to be hostile at such tender age; I shout at them to stop fight but the old woman told me that it was none of my business and I should shut up and move on. Indeed I had poked my nose in their affairs; I turn and moved on as she ordered. This is not totally strange in Dinka community, I can vividly remember when I had misunderstanding with my cousin when I was a child, we were told to fight and sort out our differences. Our fight was a win to win battle, I started beating her and chase her around, she gathered her courage and it was her turn to beat me and chase me around our home, I was yelling on top of my voice. We eventually got tired but we were punished; each with ten lashes even when we had inflicted wounds in our bodies. When I saw these kids fighting, it reminded me about our fight with my cousin but can this be called a discipline? You may say yes but to me, it is a big NO, because this is how children are taught to be aggressive and to grow up with hatred. Do not think I am now aggressive because I had a fight with my cousin, yes, I would actually be one if had stayed in this hostile environment for long, I am now the most coward person you have ever met in this planet.

 Back to communal fighting in Lakes state, I can’t tell you when this vice will finished. May be God will tell us when he will redeem us. The guns are circulating in the hands of irresponsible civilians who use them to kill each other, there are always talks of disarmament but you see no results of this because you still see guns everywhere.

Until we all know the beauty of a peaceful society, we shall never reap peace and we shall continue to die for nothing and we shall continue to be the poorest and remotest nation in the world. We shall not progress unless we put down the arms and embrace developmental activities