As I follow events in Southern Sudan and add articles to my headlines timeline, people continually ask me basic questions about Sudan. Below I’ve included a few videos that have recently been posted online. They should provide a descent background for those wanting to learn more as Southern Sudanese are set to what is generally believed to choose to create Africa’s newest independent country.

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Sudan: History of a Broken Land

As the people of southern Sudan prepare to vote in a referendum that may see them secede from the North, Al Jazeera maps the turbulent history of a country on the verge of a momentous decision.

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Crossroads Sudan: Sudan’s path to development

Al Jazeera looks at the economic challenges Sudan will be facing after a possible secession of the South.

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Sudan Referendum

On Sunday, Southern Sudan will begin a week-long referendum on whether to break off from Sudan and form a new independent state. The vote is being held under the 2005 peace agreement that ended a nearly four-decade civil war between the North and South that killed some 2.5 million Sudanese. The people of South Sudan are widely expected to approve secession, and the vote has stoked fears of renewed violence in Africa’s largest nation. by Democracy Now

To be eligible to participate in the January 9, 2011 referendum, voters must meet one of three criteria as established by the SSRC: 1) Voter who belongs to one of the indigenous ethnic communities residing in the Southern Sudan (on or before January 1956; 2) Voter who traces his/her ancestry to one of the indigenous ethnic communities in Southern Sudan, but has not permanently resided in the south (without interruption) before or since Jan 1956; and 3) voter who does not belong to one of the indigenous ethnic communities in the Southern Sudan, but he/she or his/her parents or grand-parents are permanently residing in the South (without interruption) since 1st January 1956.

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Below are two video interviews by Ariic Reng, Canadian Outreach Assistant with the International Organization for Migration:

Interview with Dr. Mom Kou Nhial Arou, Assistant Secretary General, Southern Sudan Referendum Commission

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Interview with Gatdeet Wakou, Canadian Representative, Southern Sudan Referendum Commission

We left Sudan because of war and now we are going back for the first time in twenty years.

(source: Map No. 3707 Rev. 10, UNITED NATIONS, Department of Peacekeeping Operations Cartographic Section, April 2007; demarcation line source is US Department of State)

The Sudan has been at war with itself in two successive civil wars since its independence in 1956 from British rule in the southern region and British-administered Egyptian rule in the rest (Anyanya 1: 1956-1972 & Anyanya 2: 1983-2005). Colonial powers may have decided to create Africa’s largest country by maintaining the two administrative regions together but they may just as easily have divided the country along the Jan 1, 1956 Line of Demarcation. Power in a post-colonial Sudan was handed over to the political elite in Khartoum to the detriment of Southern Sudan, Darfur, and other peripheral regions far from the capital. Power, wealth, resources and development have always been tightly controlled by a small click of autocrats based at the confluence of the White Nile and the Blue Nile rivers. This Line of Demarcation is the divide that is now a defining line needing negotiations should Southerners vote for independence in a 2011 self-determination referendum, scheduled in the Comprehensive Peace Agreement that ended the second civil war in January 2005.

In the late 1980s, the war’s front line moved agressively through the border areas now dividing Southern Sudan from the rest of the country. When the war reached Koor’s, Gabriel Bol’s and Garang’s villages near Akon—where Northern Bahr el Ghazal meets Warrap state—everyone ran for survival. Those not fast enough were killed. Some managed to hide. Others, mostly children, were taken by northern government-backed militia and enslaved, like Koor’s younger brother Chol who we meet in the film after he is released from bondage and brought to Nairobi begin school.

Families were scattered as militia burned villages, killed their inhabitants and stole cattle. They ran in all directions to escape. Boys, often quick and nimble, ran the fastest and furthest away from the killing. As the youth continued to evade the war, they found themselves merging into growing bands of lost youth heading east toward safety. More than fifty thousand Sudanese eventually settled into one of five refugee camps in Ethiopia. In 1991, Ethiopia’s Mengistu government, allies to the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A), fell. The new government chased the refugees out of Ethiopia, leaving the film’s three protagonists to roam for another year toward Kakuma II Refugee Camp in northern Kenya where they met.

Chris Koor Garang enrolls his younger brother, Chol, into a boarding school in Nairobi, Kenya. (courtesy Rebuilding Hope)

In 2001, the United States established the Refugee Resettlement Program for 4000 southern Sudanese refugees from Kakuma. Koor Garang was resettled in Tuscon, Arizona. Garang Mayuol went to Chicago, Illinois. Gabriel Bol Deng went to Syracuse, New York. A great book that should be read before viewing the film is David Eggers (2006) What is the What: the autobiography of Valentino Achak Deng. It provides the Lost Boys context in more detail than the film, which will help the viewer better understand where Koor, Garang and Gabriel are coming from.

Each of the three boys’ (now men’s) stories are similar. They are representative of many “lost boys” who immigrated from refugee camps for distant countries, recieved an education and are beginning to return to Southern Sudan. Some are returning permanently to work in the government, to teach, to start businesses, etc. Others are going back as philanthropic visitors to build schools, supply clinics, etc.

The three grown men share the common goal of locating their families that they haven’t seen since the war sent them fleeing their respective village so long ago. Some members of their families now live in the same villages from which they ran. Others now live in larger state capitals. Some have fallen victim to the war and were killed like two million other Sudanese.

Gabriel Bol Deng in home village (courtesy: Rebuilding Hope)

Chris Koor Garang is studying to become a registered nurse and works as a Licensed Practical Nurse. He has set up a Non-governmental Organization (NGO) (The Ubuntu) to provide medical supplies to the modest Brown Back Medical Centre in Akon, to distribute mosquito nets to local people and share his skills with care givers there.

Gabriel Bol Deng finished his undergraduate degree in mathematics education and is a strong believer that education is the answer to relieve poverty for his people. He started his own NGO (Hope For Ariang) to build a school in his home town of Ariang. When he arrives in Akon, Gabriel Bol meets an uncle at the market and asks the whereabouts of his parents. He is told to go to his home village to find out because he is not the one to say. Upon arrival in the village, an aunt walks up to him, revealing that his mother lives on in Gabriel’s eyes that resembled hers. He later shares an intimate moment under a large and healthy tree and tells us:

Our ancestors, when they die, they know what those people who are alive are doing. And I believe my mom really, and my dad… they know what I’m doing. The tree grew out of where my placenta was buried and it’s where my mom was buried… My mom is giving something back in the form of a tree. This tree is the greatest blessing ever and the greatest connection between me and my mom… There is no better way to honor them than really, to help people and contributing to making life better in Ariang village.

Garang Mayuol's homecoming (coutesy: Rebuilding Hope)

Garang Mayuol’s main goal during his first visit home is to seek out and locate his mother who he hasn’t seen in twenty years. He would also help his two friends with their NGOs. All three of them realized, as they distribute mosquito nets and sewing kits to villagers, that the need quickly surpassed their supplies. The anguish from not being able to provide for everyone is self-evident on each of their faces, particularly when one man repeats to Koor over and over after being told that there are no mosquito nets, “Just one will be enough for me and my kids.” While buyig supplies in Kenya, they decided to purchase less mosquito nets than expected due to weight restrictions on the charter flight to South Sudan. A decision that weighed heavy on their shoulders.

The historical background provided in the film is minimal but it still provides context to the war that displaced four million people, sent one million into refugee camps outside of the country and killed two million. Post-colonial power, typical for the British in retreat, was distributed to a select few to British best interest rather than the best interests of the population as a whole.

Gabriel Bol describes the source of conflict in Sudan when he states that the main source of the problem lies in the hunger for leadership. He says that clicks and specific groups are dominating politics and using religion to divide the people of Sudan.

The film portrays divisions between Arabs and non-Arabs in Sudan within its historical narrative. When referring to the divide-and-conquer strategies of Sudan’s central government in the civil war (Muslim north vs Christian South) and in Darfur (Arab vs black non-Arabs), Marlowe suggests that non-Arab black Darfuris are natural allies of Southerners. The divisions exploited by the Khartoum government are much more complexe and are not necessarily divided along religious, linguistic or ethnic lines. They were exploited along political lines to control power and share wealth to suit their political ends. It is dangerous to hint about such cultural/ethnic divisions prior to a self-determination referendum, because the minorities on both sides of the North/South border will suffer if political powers continue to exploit these divisions to prevent or promote separation of the Sudan.

Despite this, Rebuilding Hope gave me a glimpse at something new in Southern Sudan. The diaspora who left their homeland because of war are returning with hope for the future and a with strong connection to the land and its people they were froced abandoned so long ago.

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Jen Marlowe recently wrote an update about South Sudan and updates us in her article: S. Sudan makes some progress amid possibility of war.

More from Jen Marlowe on Untold Stories: Pulitzer Centre on Crisis Reporting, including a video about education and health care in South Sudan.

Have you seen another film about South Sudan, Lost Boys or about changes taking place in Sudan that we should now about? If you are South Sudanese and have regturned to your homeland to rebuild after being in exile, what is your experience? Please share in the comments below.

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movie trailer:

Now there is little to do but hunker down and wait four to six weeks for an response. A favourable response, of course because it is not possible to consider otherwise but I know I must. “What is you plan B?” I’ve been asked more than once. What if the funding proposal is not accepted?  Do I have a plan B? I’m working on one but I’ll keep it to myself for now until I need it, to avoid jinxing myself. An ace in the hole.

The process or compiling the dossier had the effect of adding the thermals under my wings gliding me closer to East Africa. At this point, there is nothing I’d rather work toward.

Before leading myself to South Sudan, I would have claimed total ignorance of the situation there. Its history, geography, economy were all vague or altogether absent in my mind.  One has to dig to get information about this southern autonomous region of Sudan because no media attention is given to a place that has left war behind. All of Sudan’s media coverage is now focussed on the western Darfur region. The situation in Darfur deserves all the scrutiny it can get. But what will happen to Darfur when the killing is over and safety returns to the battered area, when the refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs) return to their homelands and rebuild? How does a place recuperate from years of war and devastation? How do its people recover from large-scale slaughter, long-term displacement and distrust?

Since the end of Sudan’s 21-year civil war between the Khartoum-based Government of Sudan and the southern Sudan People’s Liberation Movement, Southern Sudan is living through recovery. A protracted recovery guided by the three-year-old Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA).

Through this project that will (hopefully) bring me to South Sudan, I want to learn about the challenges facing the South as it recovers. I want to get familiar with peace sustainability issues rather than conflict. And I want to share what I find with anyone interested.

What are the challenges faced by the millions of refugees and IDPs returning to their homeland where basic infrastructure (schools, roads, wells, etc) is often lacking for the receiving communities already living there? What is the international community doing to help and what of South Sudan’s civil society? What crucial role are women playing in the South’s emergence into itself? What role are the media assuming as they emerge in South Sudan with upcoming elections and a secession referendum as mandated for 2011 by the CPA? What is the South Sudanese diaspora in Canada are doing regarding their homeland’s newfound peace, because from what I understand, many men who came to Canada as refugees—and who brought their families with them—have returned to South Sudan to participate in its development?

I’ll continue to dig into the issues from here in preparation for a visit to South Sudan, and I’ll continue to share my impressions as they evolve.

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In the meantime, here is a video about Sultan Jambo or “Kabara Bera”, the unofficial town crier of Juba, south Sudan’s capital, who drives around the city broadcasting information through speakers atop his pickup truck. He has become the fastest way to get an urgent message across Juba. Fifty-one-year-old Sultan tells eager listeners the latest news of the day and other relevant messages.

Juba Town Crier — UNMIS — 2:06

(source: UniFeed, 19 Sept, 2008)

I got off the bus at Ottawa University and walked to my first meeting with Rachel Vincent and Erin Simpson at the Nobel Women’s Initiative‘s modest offices on Slater street. Their space belies the clout of the organization that represents 50% of all women Nobel laureates in the prize’s 107-year history. The Nobel Women’s Initiative was established in 2006 by sister Nobel Peace Laureates Jody Williams (1997), Shirin Ebadi (2003), Wangari Maathai (2004), Rigoberta Menchú Tum (1992), Betty Williams (1976) and Mairead Corrigan Maguire (1976).

source: Nobel Women's Initiative

They recently lead a delegation to Thailand (including the Thai-Burma border) Ethiopia, South Sudan, and Chad from July 21 to August 6, 2008. The delegation was led by Jody Williams, Wangari Maathai and Mia Farrow and included Dr. Sima Samar (UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in Sudan),  Qing Zhang (Chinese Labour Activist) and Reverend Gloria White-Hammond (co-founder of My Sister’s Keeper, a humanitarian women’s group that partners with women in Sudan).

Rachel and Erin were very generous in providing me with contacts they made while in South Sudan, like women from the US-based Sudanese diaspora organization Sisterhood for Peace, or Sudanese Women’s Empowerment for Peace (SuWEP) which played an important role in the development of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement between the Government of Sudan and the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement. The also gave me a dozen maps of South Sudan that show many development data, including, locations of wells and schools, road construction, tribal distribution, etc. Anyone who knows me realizes how much I love receiving such a gift of maps considering I used to make maps myself.

Afterward, I sat in a café for a good 3 hours with Hamid Ayoub, a 41-year-old Sudanese man from El Obeid, North Kordofan who has been living in Ottawa since 2001. Hamid has a Bachelor of Arts degree in From the College of Fine and Applied Arts from Sudan University of Science and Technology. Not willing to do military service to fight in a civil-war he actively denounced, he was forced to flee his country, leaving his wife and kids behind.

Hamid began a one-year to refuge himself from Sudan after in 2000 by heading westward from Khartoum to the border with Chad. He crossed into Chad to continue his journey which brought him to Canada. The need to distance himself from his homeland, Hamid passed through Chad, Cameroon, Nigeria and Niger before arriving in Canada where he sought and received refugee status.

He now teaches young immigrants in the Ottawa region to express their relationship with their new city through painting at the Ottawa Community Immigrant Services Organization (OCISO). Hamid has ‘landed immigrant’ status and has since been joined by his wife and children. He has exhibited his work in The National Art Gallery of Canada, The Museum of Civilization in Hull, and is now preparing for a January 2009 solo exhibit at Ottawa’s Heartwood Gallery, 153 Chaple Street.

None of these meetings would have been possible without the help of JP Melville who is consultant at the The Coalition of New Canadians for Arts and Culture (CNCAC), an organization that supports the diverse interests of immigrant and refugee individuals and community groups who want to be actively engaged in arts and culture in Canada. It was JP who led me to the others I met in Ottawa. On a side note, JP and the above-mentioned Rachel are getting married in two weeks. I swear, I had nothing to do with it!

Unfortunately, I did not get the opportunity to meet with Tony Lovink, who is now writing his PhD dissertation about the religious and ethnic adaptations of the thousands of South Sudanese refugee families in Canada, and their diasporic linkages. I will call him from Montréal for a lengthy telephone conversation in the hope of being able to meet the next time I’m in Ottawa.