No way out!

Only idiots can’t see the darkest point in our history!

Chapter 07

No way out!

By Gwado J. Ador

Things have gone from bad to worse. Fighting was everywhere and people were vanishing one by one into the north.

Like everybody who was angry with the bad situation at home, I also left Juba for Khartoum immediately after my graduation from the University of Juba in late 1988.

South Sudan was now reduced to something little more than a coordination office in Khartoum. In fact, they were three namely, Equatoria, Upper Nile and Bhar el-Gazal and were scattered around Khartoum.

At these coordination offices, you will notice an unusual gathering of people who most of them happen to be former officials in South Sudan, businessmen and women, including students. All were sitting under shades where they talk social matters, political issues and they drink tea and coffee all throughout the day.

Government offers nothing, no jobs, no money, no any kind of help except quotas of Dura or Sugar, which was meant to be sent to their respective region in order to alleviate shortages of food items in the face of the looming hunger during those days.

Under one of the trees, I could smell the aroma of fresh coffee in a mixture of Sinnamon scent coming from where two young ladies wearing ‘lawo’ whose names were revealed later as Naybaj and Omjuma. They were surrounded by little blocks and stones arranged as seats for their customers.

Side by side, they were sitting on s stool. One of them was fanning smouldering charcoal on a cooking tin, while the other was washing tiny glass cups, then poured hot tea into cups on a tray.

I said, ‘Please could you give us three cups of tea and ‘legaymaat’ for six pounds’. (Legaymaat is a sort of deep-fried pan-cake from a mixer of durum wheat flour and sugar made into little ball shapes and damped into frying oil pan).

With clumsy laughter’s and cheer idleness in the middle of the heat, I met some friends who were colleagues in the past. They were sitting on those stones while chatting and making jokes. They were bound to spend value time under those trees waiting for a chance of winning a quota of a lifetime to strike.

The quota system is strikingly awful, it’s similar to what we currently know as ‘contracts’, it was a lucrative business in the run-up towards independence.

Too many people were running after these contracts including young girls which means lots of money coming into a personal account. These contracts involve dealing with construction, military, education and health supply…etc, whereas, the Quota system was confined only to food items as it was being practised by our people who call themselves businessmen and women.

A quota is always awarded to a network of individuals or persons who understand the formula of 10% kickback in disguise… a trick that certifies… the item was already on its way to the designated areas in South Sudan.

But, the actual quota permit ends up being sold on papers to big merchants who would, in turn, divert the item or resell the papers for higher price wherever possible! Then you end up getting free money you had never dreamt. This is true for the contract system in South Sudan today!

Usually, the quota permits were being issued only to relatives, close friends, business acquaintances, including girlfriends. The lucky ones with top-ranking officials were just waiting for such kind of chances to knock at their doors.

There were always prayer offerings in private and sometimes in public that a relative should be blessed enough to hold government’s top position so that their tribesmen, sons, daughters, cousins, nieces and friends reap benefits out of such positions.

When the spoiled minded individuals left Khartoum on the eve of the peace agreement and took over the administration at various institutions in South Sudan, they started to practice the same habits of quota and 10% kickback they left behind in Khartoum.

It was so sad that most of our people don’t draw a line between what is theirs and what for the public is, everybody wants to hold such a glamorous position to loot. Many among them had never sweat before, then overnight they got themselves millionaires.

Perhaps, that was the beginning of the corruption story, when the ‘quota system was transformed into what became known later as contract system, which was prevalent like wildfire between 2007 – 20012, depriving thus, South Sudan from development resources and progress since the independence in July 2011.

Coup d’état

I was already in Khartoum looking for another challenge altogether. I applied for a job and got hired by the Catholic Bishop’s Conference Secretariat to join their information team in spring of 1991. Then later, Fr. Martin an Italian who was in charge of the communication department sent me to Kaduna State in Nigeria for a short course on Radio and TV production.

After my return from Nigeria, I got the condition still bad at home, fighting was creeping up everywhere in South Sudan, while in the North, peace talks between the government of Sadiq el-Mahdi and SPLM of Dr John Garang wasn’t going well as expected. There was no hope!

The Sudanese military generals, on the other hand, they were signalling to topple the civilian government if El-Sadiq el-Mahdi who was in league with Mohamed el-Margani don’t work hard to silence guns in South Sudan.

The generals warned saying if Mahdi and Margani failed to secure peace with SPLM or end the conflict in the South, they will take over the government. But, El-Mahdi- el-Margani coalition government was dragging its feet, they were busy shuttling envoys to meet with SPLM officials at Kokadam, Addis Ababa and Nairobi.

Shortly, after warning and another warning, Brigadier Omer el-Bahir on top of a military Revolutionary Council took over power in a bloodless coup d’état on the 30th June 1989. Thus announcing a new era full of contradiction and a new dawn for the people of South Sudan.

Bashir had three South Sudanese generals in his cabinet, (Brig. Pio Yukwan, Brig. Dominic Kasiano, and Brig. Martin Malwal), they were picked within his revolutionary council to look after South Sudan council affairs in Khartoum.

Shortly, the nature of the military coup was revealed, Hassan el-Turabi emerged as the ideologue behind Omer al-Bashir's military take-over, thus turning the whole country into an Islamic state overnight, then things started to take shape in South Sudan.

Activities of the main two Christian denominations represented by the Catholic Bishop’s Conference Secretariat and the Sudan Council of Churches were put on hold and under constant scrutiny in Khartoum.

Sunday prayers in certain churches around Khartoum were monitored and the activities of foreign priests working for Christian organisations in Sudan were curtailed. Some unlucky ones were extrajudicially detained or deported. Often churches in remote locations were burned into ashes, and priests were arrested or deported.

Women found brewing alcohol in shanty towns of ‘El- haj Yusif Karton’, ‘Margiyat’ and other similar areas around Khartoum were arrested and flogged, South Sudanese young girls in trousers and miniskirts were harassed and detained.

Thus was the situation in Sudan prior to the Comprehensive Peace Agreement and the total independence of South Sudan later.

Refuge in Cairo

In February 1992, I decided to leave Khartoum heading towards Egypt where I found myself living among many friends and relatives who preceded me earlier to Cairo. All the tribes of South Sudan, in fact, were there in their hundreds if not thousands in Cairo.

I settled in ‘Kuberi el-Guba’, one of the busiest areas in Cairo. There, most of South Sudanese were refugees with a significant number of students among them. Though Egyptian were claiming that people from Sudan were at best in their second home, but it wasn’t true. It was all hardship and more suffering. The Egyptian job market was so tight to the extent that our people were scavenging from the garbage.

Sudanese in Egypt were mostly dependent on handouts from churches such as the Sakakini Catholic Church at Abasia under Fr. Kosmos and Zamalek Church offer casual jobs’ opportunities or open markets for handcraft materials made by south Sudanese women and young girls. Another church which was concerned with our plight was the Coptic Church where a number of friends were active members.

Coptic Church in Cairo often invites South Sudanese once every month to join their prayers and happily were they given little cash and carry ration of food items to their flats after the services.

Sources of livelihood were so scarce to the extent that some Sudanese look for unspeakable adventures to hold onto life in Egypt. Sudanese often go as far as selling their body parts to some Egyptian clinics.

For example, the healthy ones among them offer, ‘one Kidney in exchange of cash for livelihood and many were in the record! A situation that encouraged some unlicensed clinics to hunt or look for their victims among innocent people in the midst of the financial crisis in Cairo.

However, such practices among South Sudanese were rare, or non-existence, but most of our women or sisters end up working as domestic maids at Egyptian houses. Men on the other hand, often go for hard jobs available. Some among them were found digging for salts at Port Saeed, which gave them serious health condition later in life. In nutshell, that was the condition most of our people were in Egypt during those days.

Exodus

In 1994-1995, UNHCR came to our rescue in Cairo. Doors for immigration to a third country were open mainly to America, Australia, Canada, Scandinavian countries and the European Union.

Though the process was so slow, and often was subject for Egyptian manipulation and interference, but it was a step forward to freedom and brighter future. Many families who were so desperate to get out of continues miseries saw that as a blessing.

Families successfully registered with UNHCR were able to get some support in the form of little cash to help them buy daily household food. The money helped also to maintain rent bills of their apartments. First batches started to travel out of Egypt in late 1994 to the hosting resettlement countries.

Those of us who couldn’t wait for the slow process, have started to look for other options to quit Egypt as quickly as possible.

A certain Omer Achuil from Wau town, however, managed to secure visas to Kiev through Ukraine Embassy in Cairo, I was among those who took the plunge. I contacted Omer to secure two visas. I was determined to find my own way out and choose a country of my destination in Europe to resettle in as an asylum seeker.

In mid- Nov. 1995 at 21:45 a group of about ‘28’ Sudanese were at Cairo airport bound to travel to Kiev via Amsterdam. I and my wife who was pregnant by then with our first child were among the exoduses.

We lined up at the airport to get into the plane, while the Egyptian immigration officers were making fun of us.

I was afraid that we won’t travel under such a condition, I was nervous arguing with my wife while trembling. With a soaring voice, I asked her just to bent forward so that she could conceal her stomach, which was sticking out.

But, the Egyptian migration officials weren’t bothered about that, in fact, they were concerned about that we should just leave, despite the fact that they saw the drama, which was going on between me and my wife at the airport.

In drove, we entered into the plane one by one and settled in our seats. We were praising our God in secret like Israelites in their exodus when they left Egypt to Sinai during the time of infamous pharaoh.

The number of people leaving Cairo that day was so huge. We couldn’t believe that at last, we were on board of the plane waiting just to fly to the freedom and the future promise awaiting us and our children beyond the Mediterranean sea.

After we settled on our designated seats, the pilot announced welcoming us on board and the stewards started demonstrating safety measures showing signs of exits here and there in case of any emergency landing somewhere.

While still demonstrating the emergency procedures, the plane was already moving on the runway and just within few seconds, off were we in the air and directing its nose towards Amsterdam in eight hours fly from Cairo to Holland.

A sigh of relieving overwhelmed us on leaving Egypt, it was just briefly and then worries took over. We were worried about the future awaiting us after a couple of hours. It started to sink in into our heads.

Anyway, we have enjoyed every minute we spent on the plane, watching movies and switching from films to music on little screens attached on the back of the front seats.

Food and beverages were offered in little trays. Spicy and testy meals were served in small quantities but amazingly were satisfying and nourishing. We were offered all kind of sodas or alcoholic drinks.

While enjoying fresh cool air emitting from the above cabin over our roofs, I could feel special air fill with splendid fragrance mixed with lovely food aroma, at least we were happy only for that moment.

But soon, I realised that we were on our way into an unknown future, which won’t take us long from now.

It’s only just a matter of a couple of hours to arrive at our destination.

To be continued next week…

Upcoming:

‘When two men quarrel, do not allow them to share the same seat on a canoe’

‘Dedicated to the honest and fearless in South Sudan’

Please, follow part five only on Media Projection Ltd