An Open Letter to Men and Women of my Beloved Country South Sudan

The first message I read is RIP and sometimes I feel heavy to write RIP because a week can’t pass without me having to write or read the word RIP. Why why why?

We hear similar stories from other countries neighboring us, for example, we heard about conflicts in some parts of Ethiopia recently but these days it’s calm and life seems to back to normal; in Kenya, we all remember the near genocide which happened during the 2007-2008 post-election skirmishes, fortunately, the country moved on well and that is now only in history. In Rwanda, who can forget about the genocide? my father was in Kigali for medical reasons and when he got back, he asked me whether the country really had the genocide because everything is back to normal and people are living their lives peacefully, you can’t even see a sample of the 2004 genocide unless you go to museums.

But for us in South Sudan, the conflict has persisted and the suffering of multitudes of South Sudanese citizens is profound. We, therefore, need to all stand-up, raise up our hands, drop the guns and park guns in the store then walk towards reconciliation and unity.

I remember very vividly Whenever I fly above juba or Rumbek or Yambio or Torit, see very huge pieces of land that have remained undeveloped. These pieces of land need development, the land shade tears for factories hospitals, educational institutions, huge residential apartments, shopping malls. Yes, we need these facilities in South Sudan, we have space to build them, yet the elusive peace and perennial conflicts stand in our way. Fellow South Sudanese, can’t we say that enough is enough!

The only way we can achieve all this is when we get hold of that elusive peace. This peace is however not far from us. All we need to do is to be united and reconciled with one another, we need to stop the war and focus on achieving a dream of a developed nation.

It is time for us to ask, where are we heading to when we allow things to go on like this? Each one of us as South Sudanese needs to ask ourselves this important question. Those fighting in the bush; those walking around with guns and machetes killing innocent fellow South Sudanese, where are you heading with this?

What is happening with me and you that we can’t seat down and reflect on this endless conflict and then come up with simple mechanisms of promoting peace among ourselves for the better of our country? When I talk about this nation I don’t mean the trees and the stones; I mean a generation that we have misled for our own interest which is selfishness. Let us, therefore, open our hands all, from watchman to the farmer deep in the village, to the top leadership of our country, our president; let us embrace peace and reconcile with one another.

How I wish to one day wake up and read that my countrymen and women have moved to the directions of Rwanda, Kenya, Tanzania, or South Africa? How do I wish to wake up one day and see that my leaders have from their hearts willingly dropped any misleading plans and embrace true and pure love towards each other without expecting any personal gain?

My dear countrymen and women, let me remind you that in South Sudan, we are blessed with a lot of natural resources; we are richer than countries in Europe and America; we have River Nile, rich fertile equatorial land, mineral resources just to mention a few; why are we killing each other instead of looking for ways to tap and enjoy these resources? Why am I taking knives which were made for cutting meat and cut my own brother and sister instead? Is it because of land or money? Don’t I have eyes to see how much vast land I have in this country? If we are focused shall we not have trillions of dollars Through agriculture?

My people, let me divide the roles and plead with any of our elders here to even take this to our president or parliament.

The roles I am assigning to us having the full right of nationalism are as follows:

Equatoria region, you are endowed with fertile soil and favorable rainfall, kindly produce all types of fruits, food crops, and cash crops. Kindly concentrate on maize, rice, cassava, groundnuts, and vegetable farming. Produce enough to feed yourselves and export the surplus to other regions. Let the leaders organized the market.

Bar el Ghazel region: kindly we need canned beef, we need fresh dairy milk. We keep cows for killing each other in the name of marriage. Let us stop using our cows only for killing each other. Our brothers who have cows in Kenya and Uganda are doing much better with their livestock. Wake up Bar-el Ghazel families, my brothers and sisters and uncles I say wake up and open your eyes to look at Kenya and Uganda.

Upper Nile region:  for you, you have the longest river in the whole world teeming with all kinds of fish. Why are you not utilizing the resource? Is there anywhere in the world where fish is not consumed? Think of ways to tap on this resource, how can we process fish and organize it for sale even abroad

These three major regions in South Sudan have a lot to do, you can take this country to the next level, you only need to focus and find ways in which you can tap the natural resources the region is endowed with. Let us focus on developing agriculture, Cattle keeping, and the fishing industry in South Sudan. We have no reason or excuse to cry of hunger and lack of jobs when there is so much work to do and so much food to be produced.

Not all of us can be president, governors, commissioners, and mayors; not all of us can be politicians, however, there are resources in our localities that only need to be developed? We only need to commit ourselves to these.

My dear countrymen and women, this is my humble appeal to you, let us think of that which is important for our existence and the existence of the generation to come. When we waste our time fighting, hating on our neighbors because they don’t belong to the same time as us; when we listen to politicians instigating us to fight for their own benefits; then we are not being fair to ourselves. Love, peace, and unity will certainly prevail if we really want it to. We have the power to bring these to us. Let us chose to do that which will benefit us as a country.

We can start small and simple by just greeting everyone we meet today. I challenge you to smile at everyone you meet today and tomorrow and greet them warmly.

God bless South Sudan, God bless you all

Yours Truly, a son, a brother, and a concerned citizen of our beloved country South Sudan.

Mr. Simon Mikanipare