(National day of prayer for self-determination, courtesy Pete Muller © 2010)

I always return to Pete Muller’s photography website and his blog when I need to get close to Southern Sudan from my desk in Montréal. He is on the ground and when I look at his photos I can feel the Sudanese sun on my back and smell the dust in the air. He allows me to return from my arm chair and reminds me why I want to go back for real.

It has already been 17 months since my 7-week visit and details are blurring. I now edit the third video from the Video Portrait Series, which brings me back, but give little feedback to the time that has past since the moment of their recording. What is going on in Southern Sudan as it approaches its most important decision. Will it be better prepared that it was for its April 2010 elections?

Waiting in line at a polling station during 2010 national elections, courtesy Pete Muller © 2010)

I began following Pete’s blog during Sudan’s national elections last April, which are considered by most to have been manipulated, and undemocratic. The people he captured through his lens seemed familiar and close. I recognized (and still do) people I met during my visit in nearly each of his photographs. I appointed him as my surrogate presence, someone who would capture the people and their current affairs in a way that I was unable.

I would like to return for the 2011 referendum but the tenuous dates are rapidly approaching and uncertainty prevails. If I go, I will have to meet with Pete in Juba to get myself back on the ground. If I don’t go, I will continue to follow the stories he tells of the Southern Sudanese to keep me up-to-date with the moments that are marking their history with so much potential. Keep up the great work!

Exhibit poster

[Montréal, Québec, Canada 17°C] Southern Sudan was a place I had not heard much about before my seven-week visit to the East African region of the continent’s largest country. It is a part of Sudan where over eight million people are now recovering from a 21-year civil war that ended six years ago after the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) was signed. The southern rebels fought Sudan’s army and its militias for a generation, trying to bring freedom to the south and end the military junta’s systematic repression of the Nilotic South. The war devastated the land and its people, leaving two million dead, four million internally displaced and one million refugees.

I arrived in Juba on February 26, 2009 during the dry season and met with temperatures that reached 45°C in the shade. I visited mine fields being cleared around the southern capital and observed mine risk education projects in villages still waiting for de-mining teams to remove the hidden danger. Farmers are still reluctent to till the land for fear of stepping on landmines that continue to kill and maim.

I flew to Aweil and visited dozens small villages in Northern Bahr el Ghazal. Here, people are returning to the homeland they ran from when they were attacked with a cruelty more recently witnessed in neighbouring Darfur. I interviewed men, women and children under their villages’ biggest trees. Here, up to 90% of the population have returned in the previous two years after living in displacement camps for ten, fifteen, even twenty years. They arrived without enough wells to supply drinking water, without sufficent schools, without clinics. They are finally on land that is theirs and want to stay, despite the hardships.

In the state of Warrap, I accompanied a vaccination program to the village of Lurcuk. Two medical assistants spent five hours giving innoculations against measles, tuberculosis, polio, diphtheria and tetanus. In all, 276 children were vaccinated.

Later, before my flight back to Montréal, I revisited the youth from Sud Academy, a school for Sudanese refugees in Nairobi, Kenya. I met them before my journey to Sudan and promised to return with images of their homeland, a place they barely remember and dream of returning. Most of them haven’t seen their parents or siblings since they ran from their villages, scrambling to escape the killing.

The photographs represent some of the people I met and who generously shared their stories.

The vernissage is Thursday, June 10 from 16h00-19h00 at Café Rico 969, rue Rachel est, Montréal. Videos I took during my visit will be shown at the vernissage.

I haven’t had the opportunity to post in the last two weeks as I continued to visit sites, interview people and learn more about the complexities of Southern Sudan.

Once I return to Montréal in early May, I will begin to review my pages of notes and hundreds of photos taken during the sevens weeks in Southern Sudan. I will view the hours of video footage and listen to the dozens of audio interviews recorded during the visit. The books, newspapers, reports and other written documentation collected during the visit will be read and analysed upon return.

Here are a selection of photographs taken during the visit that portray remnants of Sudan’s civil war that ended in January 2005 with the signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement. Most photos were taken in Abyei Transitional Area and reflect the city of Abyei since the May 2008 Crisis that erupted in fighting between the Sudan Armed Forces and the Sudan People’s Liberation Army, leaving the town much destroyed.

IMAGES FROM WAU:

IMAGES FROM ABYIE:

We drive for one and a half hours, averaging 25 km/hour, along dirt roads that will become impassable during the rainy season, which is expected to begin toward the end of April and last until October. As we approach the village of Lurcuk, Community Health Workers place the megaphone speaker onto the roof of the vehicle and announce their arrival. We continue toward the big tree by the local clinic and its borehole to set up registration and immunization tables.

Registration starts immediately after a public education information session about immunization. Mothers and their children continue to arrive. The two Community Health Workers who give the needles into the arms and legs of the villagers, and dispense the polio drops into the mouths of children work at a frantic pace for four hours non-stop. I am amazed at their patience in dealing with screaming and crying children who resist their efforts.

In total, 276 children were immunized for various childhood diseases like measles, tuberculosis, polio, diphtheria, tetanus and 167 women of childbearing years received tetanus vaccines.

Below is a portrait gallery of villagers from Lurcuk, North Tonj County, Warrap State, Southern Sudan, who just received vaccinations under the big tree by the local clinic. They are each holding a piece of paper, on which is written their name, the vaccines they received and the date. All the photos were taken on Friday, March 21, 2009.

Lino Madut Angok

The first photo is of Lino Madut Angok, who used to be a student in Sud Academy but has since changed schools with the help of Kellee Jacobs and contacts she has in Canada. Profiles of Lino and four other students who have just left Sud Academy to finish their last year of high school at Riruta Central School can be found on Kellee Jacobs’ blog. Kellee has been actively working with Sud Academy during a volunteer stage there and has written about it on her blog.

Lino carries around the accompanying double-sided letter to inform people of his situation and his history to help get support wherever possible. He showed it to me while visiting him at his new school and allowed me to post it here. It is apparantly a common practice for these boys (men) to always have such a letter to use when needed.

The following portraits are of the student leaders from the Sud Academy whom I asked to point out the badges they wear that represent their leadership role at the school. Although there wasn’t enough time to speak with each of the following students individually about their personal stories that brought them here as refugees, these portraits provide a glimpse into their respective personalities, their shared histories and the perseverance that will carry them forward.

Maduok Magok, Assistant Head Boy

Philip Manyok, Debate Chairman Primary

Daniel Deng Yel, Head Boy

Deng Maduok Deng, Deputy Chairman Duties

David Deng Yel, Time Keeper

Rose Aweng, Office Girl

Augustino Agoth, Prefect

Mayom Madjieu, Treasurer, Student Union

Peter Jok, Deputy Debate Chairman Secondary

Joseph Deng, Chairman Duties/Deputy Information Officer Student Union

Achieng Alice, Assistant Prefect

Kuol Bol Kuol, Advisor Student Union

Reich Maluak Abraham, Chairman Student Union

David Laak, Deputy Chairman, Student Union

Nyang Makuach Wol, Information Officer Student Union

Peter Mariak Akeen, Secretary Student Union

Tina Gon, Treasurer Student Union

Rimond Ayii Kiir, Prefect

Gregory Dut, Deputy School Captain

Wol Makuach, Prefect

Abraham Mawut Achuil, Assistant Environment Prefect

Dangan Pap, Deputy Advisor Student Union

Linet Naliaka, Prefect

Machar Biar Dau, School Captain