In recent days, we have learnt about the election ballots papers being printed by the governmental currency printer, the threat by Omar al Bashir to expell international election observers, thousands of missing names on voter lists in Eastern Equatoria, or the SPLM refusing the Sudanese Armed Forces to transport ballot papers to Southern Sudan.

It’s time to bring a bit of artistic creativity into the fold. Maybe spontaneous dancing will bring people together outside music shops in the markets of Juba and Khartoum, outside radio stations in Malualkon or Rumbek.

Sudan Votes asked musicians from all areas of Sudan to produce songs to promote peaceful, political participation in the upcoming April elections. On April 11, 2010, Sudanese will participate in the first elections in the country since 1986. Most people will have never voted before and popular education is an important facet to public participation.

The message of the music is “Yes to political participation! Yes to fair and peaceful elections!” A sort of election anthem. More than 120 submissions were received and 12 finalists were chosen by Sudan Votes journalists and German folk, soul and rap artist, Max Herre. Emmanuel Jal figures prominently among the finalists. I particularly like the track by Emannuel Kembe that you can listen to below.

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The above tune is one of the 12  chosen tracks included on the Sudan Votes, Music Hopes cassette compilation that is distributed throughout the country.

(source: Sudan Votes)

All of the 12 tracks can be downloaded from the project website for free but people are encouraged to make a donation. The total donations will be divided evenly among the 12 artists in an equitable democratic process: Download what you like while supporting the initiative of each of the artists.

It reminds me… I bought six cassette tapes in the Aweil market during my last visit to Southern Sudan and I haven’t played them yet. I guess it’s time to dust off the old tape deck and give them a listen!

I recount anecdotes of my time in Southern Sudan to friends, family, journalists and am reminded of how little we know about the place, which beckons a second visit. How the media focuses on the war in Darfur, or the International Criminal Court arrest warrant against Sudanese President Omar el-Bashir but completely ignore the immense challenges facing the southern part of the country as it adapts to times of relative peace four years after the signing of the January 9, 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA), which ended 21 years of civil war.

Few people I’ve spoken with realize that Sudan is divided in two: Sudan and Southern Sudan with a coalition Government of National Unity dominated by President Omar al-Bashir’s National Congress Party for the whole of Sudan, and a semi-autonomous Southern Sudan led by President Salva Kiir Mayardit’s Sudan People’s Liberation Movement. Salva Kiir is also First Vice-President of Sudan under the power-sharing peace deal. Even fewer people I’ve spoken with are aware that under the mandate of the CPA, Southern Sudan is scheduled—at the end of its post-war six-year interim period—to hold a referendum in 2011 that will determine whether or not Africa’s largest country will be divided, giving independence to the South.

In the meantime, what has happened to the one million people that have been living as refugees in neighbouring countries for up to two decades, or to the four million Internally Displaced People (IDPs) who were uprooted from their homes when they fled the fighting? More than two million have already returned to their traditional homeland in the south, which was devastated by the war. How are the returnees adjusting to the tenuous peace now that they have returned to regions they no longer recognize, or for the younger ones, have never lived in?

Below are IDPs during their return to Southern Sudan in 2008 as coordinated by the International Organization for Migration (IOM). Nearly all of the Southern Sudanese I had the pleasure of speaking with while visiting the south have returned to their traditional homelands only within the last two years. Many left when they were very young while some were born in exile, which required of them complete readaptation to a homeland they do not know.

Why is our media uninterested in following the story of an African region the size of France after the end of what has been described as the Twentieth Century’s longest and bloodiest civil war? Five million displaced and two mimmion dead! What is it about the initiation of peace and democracy that persuades news editors to look elsewhere for stories? This virtual blackout of information about Southern Sudan is what led me to visit. I wanted to meet the people who are making the transition to a peaceful society.

Now that I’ve returned, I have more questions than before, but they are no longer based on a total lack of information. How does a rebel army like the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) make the transition from rebel forces to official army of Southern Sudan and member of the Joint Integrated Units with its former foe, the Sudan Armed Forces? How is former soldier, Lt. General Salva Kiir Mayardit adapting to his new job as President of the Government of Southern Sudan (GoSS) and First Vice President of  Sudan’s interim Government of National Unity (GNU)? What are the most imposing obstacles to the peace agreement (and there are many: serious underdevelopment, food insecurity,  intertribal conflicts, international pressures, border disputes, resource sharing, slow/non implementation of CPA requirements, census results, February 2010 national elections, the 2011 independence referendum, etc.)

I will attempt to address the above questions and others in future posts to this blog so I invite you to return here and comment on what your read. I am in regular contact with people I met in Southern Sudan and will be following their stories and the story of Sudan as it unfolds. I’ve just begun to review the thousands of photographs, hours of video footage, dozens of audio interviews, and the pages and pages of notes taken throughout my trip. I’ve started reading the books, reports, newspapers and documents I picked up while in Southern Sudan and have consolidated the names and contact details of people I met there. I’m reviewing websites of organizations I came across in Sudan and am adding links to the relevant ones to the sidebar on this blog. There are many news blogs that provide regularly updated news about Sudan, many of which I’ve added RSS feeds here as well.

Burningbillboard.org is my South Sudan resource gathering point. If you are interested, it can also be yours.

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)