Southen Sudan: Background and context...

I.
So this, I suppose, is to be the beginning of what I hope is an informative account of my time and activities throughout this project. As many of you reading this may know, I have a horrible history of recording my travels not only in Africa, but in England, and in life. Although I believe this difficultly comes from a rather healthy fear of permanently recording feelings and perceptions that may be naïve, misrepresentative, or completely wrong (and recanted later in life), at the ripe old age of twenty-three I figure that if I don’t trust myself now to as least relate my feelings and understanding of a situation then when will I ever. Thus, after the preface (disclaimer) I will try to organize this, my first blog entry into relevant sections which may more easily allow me to organize my thoughts.

II. The journey:
This journey for me began figuratively and literally at Howard University. As a senior I became not only interested, but rather obsessed with the situation occurring in Sudan. I think the immensity of the situation coupled with what seemed to be a passive neglect that was reminiscent of what surrounded the Rwandan genocide are what originally caused me to pause and take interest. I remember having many sleepless nights unable to get the images of swarms of displaced and suffering people out of my head. This interest, obsession, or whatever, culminated in an ill thought out plan to go to Sudan and… who knows what really… perhaps, be helpful in some capacity, but more importantly not be afraid to go to a place full of women and children with faces that look like my own now matter how seemingly dangerous. And secondly to return with a more informed determination to not sit by quietly as another generation of an African people are wiped out by very preventable circumstances. Well, needless to say, despite the earnest passion that fueled this desire neither I nor anyone else I had appealed to for this renegade operation were able to get the necessary funds and technical support needed to travel to Sudan at that time. One year and three months later here I am prepared to leave for Southern Sudan in two days time, and in my mind I thought that I would mark the beginning of this journey with a trip back to Howard. Somehow I thought the environment would encourage me and give me strength, not just for Sudan but for all of the visions and hopes I once had that seemed to fade away into irrelevance after the devastation and heart break of hurricane Katrina. So I rode to Howard on a Chinatown bus and went to the last place where I remember feeling academically capable, universally significant, and culturally and racially responsible to earn the sacrifices that were made for my opportunity. I did get that same encouragement when I returned to Howard, from the friends and other students who had the same dreams and aspirations as myself. I will try to bring this encouragement with me along the way, for it is not just my dream to be here and affect change, but many others who must receive the experience through my own.

III. The Sacrifice:
Prior to leaving Louisiana I spent a night in the hospital with my grandmother. I had been instructed to monitor the nurses as they recorded her vital signs and turned her in her bed. Well, after this interruption every fifteen to twenty minutes all night long, I woke up to find that I looked like a Chia Pet. My hair was tangled and enormous, nevertheless, in the larger scheme of it all it was the absolute least important thing in my world. Throughout the day everyone I encountered, justifiably, asked “what in the world is wrong with your hair?” By the end of the day I had decided that perhaps this was Gods way of showing me that for others to recognize my sincerity and devotion to more significant issues, I would need to shed the visual and physical distractions. This among other things convinced me that now was the time to fully commit to this thing and literally cut away all that would impede my ability to focus on the task at hand. That said, by the time I cut my hair in Nairobi not only was I unemotional, but I was rather impatient. I was upset that it was going to cost me more money that I had anticipated: I am staying in the part of Nairbi where all of the Western foreigners live, appropriately called “Westlands.” Nevertheless, I knew that this was the only place I could have it cut right away. Afterwards, I felt nothing but I looked in the mirror and surprisingly thought that I looked the way I felt; a bit young, a bit bare, and a bit cut off. After this past year many of my family and friends are in need of restoration. After being cut-off we all need to grow back, my hair will undoubtedly grow back, and, I am happy to say… so will I.

IV.
Since my arrival in Nairobi, I have met numerous people working for World Vision Sudan. Whether it is appropriate or not, I am surprised to say that most of the people I have met have been African. Either from Kenya, Ethiopia, or Sudan itself. This reality has affected me in several ways: on one hand I am encouraged to see that African people are in charge of these operations as they should be. On the other hand, I am angered at the world perception that only white people sacrifice their time and energy to for Africa. Why are we as black people so marginalized in the conversations about relief, recovery and development when we are often doing the most work at the most sacrificial levels? I was also surprised to find the number of people who have asked or insisted that I stay after my two-month term. Each time the subject comes up I explain that I am way to poor to stay here in a volunteer capacity and that I must go home to help in Louisiana. All reply by saying, the need is greater here, and you will have no problem finding a paying job, immediately followed by, I will talk to someone for you…Now I don’t know what that means for my life, but I offer the outcome up to God. As always, his plan is better than my own and so I submit to the greater order of destiny however that may turn out.

V.
Lastly, I will share some of my thoughts and concerns about the official project in Western Equatoria as well as my personal project: From the briefings I have received from various World Vision Workers Western Equatoria is among the most pleasant places in Sudan. The Climate, unlike most of the country, is tropical and very green. Everyone comments on how much fresh fruit they have in Western Equatoria: apparently there is absolutely no infrastructure and although it is one of the few areas not suffering from starvation the war has devastated the region no less. The more pressing and relevant reasons for the project in Western Equatoria has to do with rising tribal tensions due to a Dinka dominated SPLA (former rebel group now Government of Southern Sudan) as well as the conflict of lifestyles and customary law practices between the agriculturalists Zande and pastoralists which have relocated as a result of the conflict. While I am not sure whether the constraints of time and our resources will produce something which will be adequate for the needs of the Zande I am, however, convinced that the codification of customary law is a necessary first step toward a development of a Southern Sudanese government structure and legal system which does not disrupt and alienate the majority of the population (which still live primarily under customary law systems of government). On another note I am incredibly anxious about the idea of attempting documentary type data collection. Primarily because I find that I never feel as though I have the right to record other peoples lives in a way that may be extractive and subject to misinterpretation. Although, I am not sure to what degree I will be able to work towards solutions in Southern Sudan I am determined to not be a contributor to the problems.

VI. Conclusions:
I am still working through some of the details of how I am trying to focus my energy within this project, thus I have no idea the direction that these blogs will take in the future. As I am not yet in Sudan I hope that this posting will provide context for the project if nothing else. I look forward to sharing more of my experiences in roughly a week’s time.

Related Posts: