The dawn of history of South Sudan and the need to write our history

by Wani Keri ǀ 27.11.2011

Under the Arabs of Northern Sudan it was very difficult if not impossible for South Sudanese to write comprehensive accounts of South Sudan’s history without falling into trouble with the authorities in Khartoum. The book “The Problem of Southern Sudan” by Joseph Oduho and William Deng Nhial fell under the category of classified documents whose discovery in the hands of a southerner by the informers of the Arabs in the North or the South was likely to send someone to his grave. So were the books the “The Nile Turns Red” by Alexis Mbali Yangu, “The Sudan, A Southern Viewpoint” by Oliver Batali Albino.

Possession of all these and other related books could send a southerner to his death because the Arabs of north Sudan did not like any historical account of the slave trade, their political abuse of Southerners and their looting of Southern wealth to be put in black and white as a record for future references. Southern politicians who had witnessed all these upheavals in the hands of the Arabs of the Sudan had died without leaving behind in records any of these historical events as a deliberate Arab design so that the coming generations of the South could not get any history of their past for their knowledge. There was a book about Stanislaus a Paysama written by a southerner and it is titled ‘From Slave to Minister’ and the authorities in Khartoum for years had been looking for the Southern writer of this book to no avail because he had used a pen name.

There are several other books by Southerners which were in the category of those books not to be circulated although they have been published elsewhere other than in Sudan. Such books as “Southern Sudan, From Conflict to Peace” and “Southern Sudan Background to Conflict” written by Mohammed Omer Beshir, a northern academic were allowed in circulation in Sudan because there is much in defence of the northern action  in the government against the South. Otherwise they would not have been allowed to circulate also. The two books were also used by the northerners as propaganda chips to gain recognition as people who were fit as government authorities in the international circle.

At later stage of Sudan’s life as a country the Islamists allowed Southerners to write their autobiographies like Joseph Lagu’s and his “An odyssey of A State”, Abel Alier’s “Many Agreements Dishonoured” books which are more less their autobiographies in order to collect information and data for their own manipulation as without some southern views at a certain angle they found it hard to go forward in their planning and programming in dealing with Southerners. Even some of Bona Malwal’s books fall into that category.

Now that South Sudanese have freed themselves from bondage and chains of Sudan’s Arab slave traders and agents of fear Southern scholars who had been kept in academic desert and drought by not being given money for research and documentation should now try very hard to close the gap and embark on research on different aspects of our history and life and document their findings for our coming generations.

The academics especially the professors of southern universities who were in Khartoum can remember how they were not encouraged in researches and documentation because the Arabs had feared that they might break the taboo of keeping the research area of South Sudan history and other aspects of life outside any documentation for obvious reasons. The Islamic regime of Omer Al Bashir had been dishing oil money to northerners in huge sums for researchers some of whose topics were irrelevant even to themselves in the Zubeir Foundation for Research and Documentation under the cover of religious researches so that Southerners majority of whom were Christians could not benefit from such funds.

Our government should not wait now that South Sudan is independent but to make funds available in our public universities and encourage our scholars to conduct relevant researches and publish their findings as books to benefit our people. Our histories should be written by our scholars without any fear of the past because the Arabs are toothless and can longer stop us from writing our history for our own benefit.

Sudan says taking some South Sudan oil but won’t close pipe

By Ulf Laessing and Khalid Abdelaziz

KHARTOUM | Sun Jan 15, 2012 9:15pm IST

(Reuters) – Sudan on Sunday said it has started confiscating some oil exports from South Sudan it believes it is due to meet unpaid transit fees but will not shut down a pipeline carrying the southern state’s oil.

South Sudan became independent in July under a 2005 peace deal with Khartoum that ended decades of civil war killing two million people but both sides have failed to sort out a long list of disputes.

The biggest conflict is over oil revenues — the lifeline of both economies. Land-locked South Sudan got two thirds of the country’s oil output but needs to pay fees to use northern export facilities.

Both countries have failed to agree on a transit fee but will resume on Tuesday talks sponsored by the African Union in Ethiopia. Previous rounds ended with the parties still wide apart.

Sudan has started confiscating southern oil to compensate for Juba’s failure pay a fee to use Khartoum’s pipeline and the Red Sea port of Port Sudan, members of the northern delegation for the talks in Addis Abeba said.

South Sudan pumps around 350,000 barrels per day (bpd), officials have said. Sudan produces 115,000 bpd in its remaining fields but needs it entirely for domestic consumption.

“Since early December we’ve started taking part of our share after the southern government refused to agree on a deal for a transit fee,” Saber Mohammed Hassan, a member of the delegation, told reporters.

He said Khartoum was now demanding a pipeline fee of $36 a barrel, up from an initial demand of $32.

Delegation member Zubair Ahmed Hassan added Khartoum was taking some southern oil to use for northern refineries but gave no volumes.

South Sudan has accused Khartoum of blocking oil exports of 3.4 million barrels in Port Sudan and asking foreign oil firms to divert some oil to refineries in Khartoum and El-Obeid.

In a second demand, Khartoum wants Juba to pay a total of $1 billion for transit fees since July, said deputy central bank governor Badr el-Din Mahmoud, another delegate.

He said South Sudan also owed Khartoum another $6 billion in debt. “The South has sent us a letter demanding $5 billion but this amount is not correct. We actually demand from the South $6 billion,” he said.

Sudan’s government is under pressure to overcome a severe economic crisis after losing the southern oil which made up 90 percent of the country’s exports. It generated $5 billion in oil revenues in 2010.

“The national economy cannot do without oil,” said Idris Mohamed Abdul-Qadir, head of Khartoum’s delegation.

South Sudan has refused to shoulder Sudan’s foreign debt pile of almost $40 billion which has been a burden for the economy for many years in addition to a U.S. trade embargo deterring most Western firms.

NO COMPROMISE IN SIGHT

South Sudan has accused Khartoum of “stealing” its oil exports at the northern port of Port Sudan by ordering its security services to load 650,000 bpd of southern oil worth $65 million on a Sudanese tanker.

“The Government of Sudan has chosen to steal this oil in broad daylight just days before its own proposed commercial oil negotiations with the Republic of South Sudan,” South Sudan’s oil minister Stephen Dhieu Dau said in a statement on Saturday.

He said the oil pipeline would be closed within days since storage capacity was filling up in Port Sudan but Azhari Abdalla, director general of Sudan’s Oil Exploration and Production Administration, dismissed this.

“What I can confirm from our side is we will not close any line. It will stay open. You can take this for granted,” he told Reuters.

South Sudan’s top negotiator Pagan Amum said on Sunday oil companies had sent a letter to Khartoum verifying that South Sudan has paid for the use of oil infrastructure in Sudan since July.

“This letter makes it clear that the government of Sudan has no basis to demand any payment from the government of South Sudan because it has been paying and we cannot pay twice,” Amum told reporters in the southern capital Juba.

But northern delegate Zubair said since Sudan owned the pipeline it needed to be paid directly by Juba, not via companies.

(Reporting by Ulf Laessing with; additional reporting by Hereward Holland in Juba; Editing by Greg Mahlich)

http://in.reuters.com/article/2012/01/15/sudan-south-oil-idINDEE80E08920120115

Horror of Violence and Death Devastate South Sudanese; Just A Few Months Old, South Sudan Already In Turmoil

Sitting on the edge of the bed beside his nine-year-old daughter recovering from a gunshot wounds, Mangiro recounted how he lost the rest of his family in recent tribal clashes in South Sudan’s troubled state of Jonglei.

“This child was carried by her mother, and her mother was killed”, the next day we carried the child out from under her mother,” said Mangiro, who did not give a second name.

“They were gunned down as a family. Her mother and sisters, all four of them are dead there”, he added, glancing at his surviving daughter Ngathim.

An unknown number of people — at least dozens, some fear hundreds — were killed in tribal clashes this month in Jonglei, declared a “disaster zone” by the Juba government, with the UN warning some 60,000 people had been affected by the violence and are in need of emergency aid.

In Pibor’s clinic run by medical charity Doctors Without Borders (Medecins Sans Frontieres-MSF), Ngathim was in one of the few functioning rooms after attackers looted and ransacked the town’s only concrete structure and medical facility.

The euphoria of South Sudan’s independence six months ago after decades of civil war with the north was shared by all, but violent cracks in the new state now threaten to split it wide open.

In a dramatic escalation of bitter tit-for-tat attacks, a militia army of around 8,000 Lou Nuer youths recently marched on Pibor county, attacking villages and taking children and cows away with them, to exact revenge on the Murle whom they blame for abductions and cattle raiding.

From the air, black spots pockmarking the earth show where homes and fields were razed as attackers left villages smouldering in their wake. Large herds of stolen cattle were also seen being driven towards Nuer villages.

In Gumruk, about 40 kilometres (25 miles) from Pibor, the UN’s World Food Programme (WFP) registered more than 2,000 people this week who fled attacks on surrounding villages.

“We were just sitting at home, and then we were attacked — these Nuer guys came in with their machetes and started cutting people and so we ran”, said Ismiah Shan, a mother of eight who saw villagers shot and slashed with knives, spears or machetes in Thaugnyang, two hours’ walk away.

The government has confirmed around 80 people killed in revenge attacks in Lou Nuer areas this week, but the UN and government cannot confirm the number of Murle killed in the first assault.

Some estimates by local government officials in the thousands are not yet verified, as teams asses a vast area lacking roads.

Access difficulties and a state the size of Bangladesh have been cited as the reason why UN peacekeepers and government troops failed to stop the deadly column advancing.

Others say troops were dispatched late and clearly outnumbered, or were hesitant to intervene in a tribal conflict that last year killed around 1,100 people in a series of cattle raids.

When the violence started, Philip Mama Alan fled his village of Lawol, three hours’ walk from Gumruk, but ran into more attackers.

“These people came and took some of my colleagues. One of them came and held my hand and said ‘sit down’. Before I sat down, I saw them kill my colleagues and so I ran,” he said.

Running for his life, Alan described the scene as a “slaughter”, saying the men were gunned down and women knifed.

He does not want revenge, just for the government to build roads to bring trade into the neglected state, that was one of the worst hit during the decades of civil war with the north.

In the meantime, the huddled masses sitting in glaring sun outside food distribution centres in Pibor and Gumruk were not thinking about home.

Many had been living off wild berries and said there is nothing to go back to after they saw villages destroyed. Others seemed to be taking matters into their own hands in an effort to regain their livelihood.

WFP head of security Wame Duguvesi said that in Pibor this week the body of a Nuer army officer was discovered, while the death toll from other suspected revenge attacks continues to climb in increasingly remote areas far from the security forces.

“Peaceful dialogue is the only way forward to reach a final and durable settlement to their differences”, said Kouider Zerrouk, spokesman for the UN Mission in South Sudan, who urged communities to end the extremely worrying cycle of violence.

“The reconciliatory peace process must restart immediately”, he said, after peace talks between the two tribes fell apart in early December.

http://www.africasia.com/services/news_africa/article.php?ID=CNG.34be495e35b48c3d695e48eec41f8832.151

Just A Few Months Old, South Sudan Already In Turmoil

By MICHELE KELEMEN

EnlargeMichael Onyiego/APPeople who escaped ethnic violence in Jonglei state wait for food rations at a World Food Program distribution center on Thursday. South Sudan gained independence just six months ago, and already ethnic tensions inside the new country have forced tens of thousands to flee their homes.

Credit: Alyson Hurt/NPR

South Sudan gained independence just six months ago, but the country is already plagued by ethnic violence at home and ongoing tensions with its previous rulers in Sudan.

Potential humanitarian crises are brewing in both Sudans, and U.S. diplomats are sounding frustrated that the two are not talking to each other enough.

U.S. officials still don’t really have a handle on the violence that exploded this month in a remote part of South Sudan. But U.S. envoy Princeton Lyman says the deadly cattle-raiding and ethnic clashes that have forced tens of thousands to flee shows that the new government’s reach is still weak.

“There are real fragile points in this society and years of neglect of their basic needs,” Lyman says. “The government is going to have to move very, very fast to get a handle on it and not let ethnic politics get in the way.”

Humanitarian groups are desperately trying to reach people in South Sudan’s troubled Jonglei state. Noah Gottschalk of Oxfam America says the violence threatens the new nation’s plans to develop its agricultural sector.

“When you see this type of displacement happening in this short period of time, where you see the challenges cattle keepers are facing … it’s really worrying,” he says. “If [agriculture] is what the government of South Sudan pins its hopes on, this will need to be addressed.”

EnlargeMichael Onyiego/APFood aid from the U.S. is delivered Thursday as part of efforts by the World Food Program to assist people displaced by fighting in the South Sudan state of Jonglei.

U.S. Sending Military Advisers

The White House announced recently that it is sending five military advisers to help United Nations peacekeepers, who warned of the latest violence but mainly stayed on the sidelines.

The Obama administration also cleared a legal hurdle to provide military assistance. Lyman says the goal is to help a former liberation movement that fought for independence become a real army with civilian oversight.

“Right now we are looking at help for establishing a stronger Ministry of Defense, command-and-control capability, human-rights monitoring and better overall organization,” he says. “We have no plans under way for lethal assistance to South Sudan.”

One of Lyman’s former aides, Cameron Hudson, says the U.S. needs to show more tough love with South Sudan. Hudson is now with the Committee on Conscience at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, and he’s worried about what former rebels now in government might do during this volatile time.

“Politically their instincts, I think, are in the right place, but when faced with really overwhelming violence, tribal violence and intercommunal violence around them, there are tendencies and temptations on the ground that make doing the right thing difficult on a day-to-day basis,” he says. “So the United States and other allied countries, I think, have a real opportunity and responsibility to keep Sudan on track.”

There is frustration, but there is frustration that both countries have failed to establish the kind of relationships, or even any of the basic institutions for dealing with their bilateral problems. There’s almost no high-level communications between the two.

– U.S. envoy Princeton Lyman on the tension between Sudan and South Sudan

The U.S. is also worried about the relationship between the two Sudans. The north accuses the south of arming rebels. Lyman can’t rule that out, though the south denies it is meddling.

“There is frustration, but there is frustration that both countries have failed to establish the kind of relationships, or even any of the basic institutions for dealing with their bilateral problems,” Lyman says. “There’s almost no high-level communications between the two.”

Humanitarian Concerns

Now there are fears of famine in those areas where Sudan has been cracking down on rebel movements.

“We’ve gone to the government, we’ve gone to countries around the world to say, ‘Look, this is a catastrophe, but a preventable one,’ ” Lyman says. He says that the U.S. has urged other countries to tell Sudan’s government that it must allow in the United Nations.

The U.N. Security Council, though, has been deadlocked on the issue, says Hudson, the former State Department official.

“What China and Russia see is a proxy war,” says Hudson. “So they are reticent to take really strong action like the U.S. government would like to see because they think there isn’t just one side involved here. Both sides are at fault.”

And there is another brewing conflict between the two Sudans that the U.S. is trying to manage. They are fighting over their shared oil wealth, and U.S. officials warn that if this isn’t resolved soon, both countries could face a serious financial crisis.

http://www.npr.org/2012/01/15/145188077/just-a-few-months-old-s-sudan-already-in-turmoil

UN Secretary-General Appoints Zimbabwean as Special Representative to South Sudan

UNITED NATIONS Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today announced the appointment of Raisedon Zenenga of Zimbabwe as Deputy Special Representative (Political) in the United Nations Mission in South Sudan.

Raisedon Zenenga, Director of the Africa II Division of the Department of Peacekeeping Operations (DPKO)

With over 28 years of United Nations, Government and diplomatic service, including more than 10 at the management level in complex peacekeeping operations, Mr. Zenenga has a diverse and substantial background in political processes and mediation, proven skills in managing peacekeeping operations, significant experience in working with Government and other key stakeholders in conflict and post-conflict settings, and 19 years of experience with the Organization in the field and at Headquarters.

Mr. Zenenga has worked for the United Nations in some of the most challenging field missions, including those in Somalia, Liberia, Iraq-Kuwait and Sierra Leone. As a senior manager at United Nations Headquarters for the last 10 years, he supported the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the United Nations Operation in Côte d’Ivoire, among other peace operations. Most recently he was the Director of the Africa Division II, Office of Operations, in the Department of Peacekeeping Operations.

Educated at the University of Zimbabwe, Mr. Zenenga holds degrees in public administration and political science. He also received diplomatic training from the Australian Development Assistance Bureau.

Mr. Zenenga is married and has three children.

http://www.thezimbabwemail.com/zimbabwe/10199-un-secretary-general-appoints-zimbabwean-as-special-representati.html

UN Secretary-General Appoints Zimbabwean as Special Representative to South Sudan
The Zimbabwe Mail
UNITED NATIONS Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today announced the appointment of Raisedon Zenenga of Zimbabwe as Deputy Special Representative (Political) in the United Nations Mission inSouth Sudan. With over 28 years of United Nations, Government and …

Sudan says taking some South Sudan oil but won’t close pipe
Chicago Tribune
KHARTOUM (Reuters) – Sudan said on Sunday it has started confiscating some oil exports fromSouth Sudan that it believes it is owed to meet unpaid transit fees but will not shut down a pipeline carrying the southern state’s oil. …

Sudan says taking some S.Sudan oil but won’t close pipe
Reuters India
By Ulf Laessing and Khalid Abdelaziz | KHARTOUM (Reuters) – Sudan on Sunday said it has started confiscating some oil exports from South Sudan it believes it is due to meet unpaid transit fees but will not shut down a pipeline carrying the southern …

Foreign Minister: Support for South Sudan in all fields
Egypt SIS (press release)
Foreign Minister Mohamed Amr confirmed on Saturday 14/1/2012 that South Sudanese President Salva Kiir Mayardit reiterated that he will not take any decisions that could affect Egypt’s quota of Nile water. Minister Amr said that his meeting with the …

From Burma to Haiti to South Sudan and back to America
OpEdNews
The world’s newest country, South Sudan, which has a great deal of wealth and potential is not doing as well as even Burma these days. According to the New York Times, “”Bitter ethnic tensions that had largely been shelved for the sake of achieving …

Just A Few Months Old, S. Sudan Already In Turmoil
NPR
South Sudan gained independence just six months ago, and already ethnic tensions inside the new country have forced tens of thousands to flee their homes. People who escaped ethnic violence in Jonglei state wait for food rations at a World Food Program …

Horror of violence and death devastate South Sudanese
Africasia
Sitting on the edge of the bed beside his nine-year-old daughter recovering from a gunshot wounds, Mangiro recounted how he lost the rest of his family in recent tribal clashes in South Sudan’stroubled state of Jonglei. “This child was carried by her …

South Sudan exerting efforts to increase food production
Sudan Tribune
January 14, 2012 (JUBA) – South Sudan on Saturday said the government is exerting all efforts to increase food production in what he described as “greenbelt” areas in the fertile but landlocked newly-independent country. Betty Achan Ogwaro, South …

Press Statement about a major SPLA victory in South Kordofan/Nuba Mountains State.

Dear All,
Please find attached a Press Statement about a major SPLA victory in South Kordofan/Nuba Mountains State.
Thanks
Anwar Elhaj
SPLMN Representative to the US

SUDAN PEOPLE’S LIBERATION MOVEMENT

Office of Spokesperson

January 15, 2012

In the dawn of January 15, 2012, the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) in South Kordofan/Nuba Mountains State ably inflicted another major defeat against the joined Special Forces and Republic’s Guard of the National Congress Party (NCP). These were the same forces that fled Al Buram and Al Tess on January 10, 2012. They sustained heavy losses in lives and military equipments and are fully repelled from the strategic villageof Al Lehimir which is about 15 km South of Kadugli City. The SPLA captured large amounts of equipments and ammunitions which are being assessed. 

After the liberation of the Al lehimir village, we [the SPLM] ascertain that the SPLA will continue its advances toward emancipation of Kadugli City and bring the war criminal, Ahmed Harun, to International Court in Hague. 

A Salutation to Officers and Soldiers of the Sudan People’s Liberation Army on their successive victories and devotion to the removal of NCP mobs to establish a nation of freedom, justice and equality.

Arnu Ngtullu Lodi

The Spokesperson of the Sudan People’s Liberation Army

(Translation by Organization for Advancement of Young Nuba)

Grandson of Prophet Ngundeng: All Nuer Should Fight Murle

All Nuer Should Fight Murle Youth and SPLA Defectors who Create Insecurity in South Sudan

Decree No: 001/1/12

Hon. Gai L Ngundeng, Grandson of Prophet Ngundeng and Chairman of Prophet Ngundeng’s Historical Society Association

January, 15, 2012

Based on the authority bestowed upon me by the family of Prophet Ngundeng, and based upon the moral authority of Prophet Ngundeng upon Nuer tribe, I, Hon. Gai L Ngundeng, the grandson of Prophet Ngundeng and Chairman of Ngundeng’s Historical Society Association, do hereby issue a religious decree ordering all Nuer in the world to fight Murle tribe. This decree is issued as a result of Murle’s attack on Wec Deang (God City) on January, 14, 2012 in which 15 women and children were killed and 4,000 heads of cattle stolen.

Prophet Ngundeng’s city has never been attacked by any force since the beginning of 20^th C. It was 1902 when British forces attempted to capture Wech Deang but Prophet Ngundeng acted as an emergency response to alien forces in order to protect Nuer values and killed all the British forces with his divine Rod. His divine Rod was returned to South Sudan in 2009 by Prof. Douglas Johnson from United Kingdom.

Since January, 6, 2012, 900 Murle members of the SPLA army in Nasir, Maiwut, Ulang, Malakal and Bor towns left their barracks and joined Murle Youth to attack Nuer villages. They first attacked Dengjok Payam and killed over 30 civilians and took over 20,000 heads of cattle. In few days, they attacked Uror County and massacred over 60 civilians and took over 6,000 heads of cattle. On January, 14, 2012, the Murle fighters attacked Prophet Ngundeng’s Bieh (Pyramid) and killed innocent civilians.

The people of South Sudan and international community should be made aware that no human being or force ever attacked Wech Deang even during the war. When the SPLM/A was fighting successive governments in Khartoum, no force had ever attempted to attack Ngundeng’s pyramid. Neither the forces of Sudan governments nor the SPLA ever attacked the holy place.

When Riek Machar and John Garang were fighting in 1990s, neither faction had ever attempted to go near Wech Deang. The holy city has been a place of refuge for people running away from any danger. When Riek Machar’s forces chased Garang’s forces in 1996, the forces of the latter took refuge at Wech Deang. The leader of Ngundeng’s Bieh ordered Riek Machar’s forces not to attack Garang’s forces who took refuge in holy city. Dr. Machar’s forces complied and returned without attacking the holy place. The elder of Bieh (pyramid) served Garang’s forces with food for one week until they left safely for Bor where they joined the forces of SPLM/A-Torit faction.

What the Murle did is similar to the attempt of colonial forces in 1902 who tried to attack the holy city. Therefore, Murle’s attack on January, 14, 2012 is an attack on Nuer religious values and dignity. All Nuer officials, politicians, students, soldiers, youth, doctors, lawyers and white army have to fight Murle youth and defectors to bring them to justice for attacking holy city of Wech Deang. All the Nuer in USA, Canada, Europe, New Zealand and Australia must come back to South Sudan to join the war against Murle who defiled Nuerland by attacking holy city.

 

For question:

Hon. Gai L Ngundeng

Grandson of Prophet Ngundeng

Chairman of Ngundeng’s Historical Society Association

Email: gngundeng@yahoo.ca

Tel. +211 (or 249)956-155-671

Juba, South Sudan

Prof. Ahang Beny’s Scholarship: Calls For Proposals From South Sudan Universities

Ahang Beny’s Scholarship: Calls For Proposals From S. Sudan Universities
“The winners will be required to verify their enrollment in one of South Sudan’s universities…”
14 January 2012
Call For Applications For the Professor Ahang Beny Scholarship for Students in South Sudanese Universities

It is with great pleasure and anticipation that we the children of Professor Ambrose Ahang Beny, Laura Nyangtung and John Rin Beny, inaugurate the above titled scholarship in our late father’s name. We seek in some small, yet positive, way to advance the hopes, dreams and aspirations of South Sudan’s next generation of youngsters!

Our father unequivocally devoted his life to education and the Letters. Professor Beny, an avid and brilliant scholar, taught English/African Literature at the University of Juba, South Sudan from 1980 to 1987. Moreover, he wasn’t merely interested in his own training (or that of his seven children) but also cared deeply about the plight of his country’s pupils at the primary through university levels. Like many of his colleagues at the University of Juba, he strongly believed a prosperous and enlightened South Sudan could be achieved by unceasingly supporting plus strengthening the country’s institutions of learning; “from the ground up”, he would probably say.

ESSAYS: In this vein, my sister and I seek essays of no more than 500 words, each, from entering and current college students. (Initially, this call for papers will target first through fourth year collegians attending universities across South Sudan.

However, if our efforts prove successful, the scholarship will be expanded to include primary and senior secondary school students in the years to come.) In your essay, you should discuss your academic achievements to date and your academic goals for the future, including how this scholarship would advance your educational aims.

Interested or aspiring, “authors” can write on any subject/topic of their choosing. Importantly, the submissions should address issues that are of “relevance” and import to South Sudanese. (“Frivolous” or clearly unserious write–ups will immediately be rejected and discarded.)

In the Ahang Beny Scholarship’s first year, 2012, my sister and I will act as judges. Final papers, e–mailed for consideration by the two of us, should be devoid of glaring grammatical, or syntax errors, typos, misspelled words, etc.

We will select one winning paper and a runner up. The winner will receive $2,000.00 USD and the second–place finisher will be given $1,000.00 USD.

Award of Ahang Beny Scholarship monies is contingent on the official opening of the country’s universities. The winners will be required to verify their enrollment in one of South Sudan’s universities and funds will be disbursed directly to the respective educational institution for payment of tuition expenses. The prizes are to be used in advancing the recipient’s higher education, no more. Any remaining funds will be retained in a custodial account to cover subsequent school fees.

The following info details deadlines and contact particulars:
1.Due date/time is 16 Apr 12, no later than 5:00 pm South Sudan local time. Late submissions will be returned.
2.Papers are to be e–mailed to ahangscholarship@gmail.com, again not later than 5:00 pm, South Sudan local time.
Thank you for your time and welcomed participation. It is our hope that this effort, though only a small beginning at this juncture, will greatly encourage South Sudan’s youth and young adults to aggressively and tenaciously pursue an education. Knowledge is power and an educated polity can move the highest mountains or seemingly intractable barriers. There’s no time to waste and much to learn/do; in our shinning historic moment, “patience” is a virtue reserved for those who wish to be left behind by human progress. Let’s get on with it right now!

Signed: Laura Nyangtung and John Rin Beny

*Laura Nyantung Beny is Visiting Professor of Law, Duke University (2012) and Professor of Law, University of Michigan, USA

Source: Gurtong.org