Where can South Sudan turn?

Long ago, before there was even a county of South Sudan or Sudan, the tribes that still exist were part of the bustling Nilotic trade, to which our motherland contributed gold, fish, cattle, agricultural products, and even (sadly) slaves. Trade has always been an essential part of economic life in our region. However, that historically bustling trade has slowed to a trickle. As much as our country needs to be part of the world economy, we have failed to find a successful footing. If we take our petroleum, our supply of which is dwindling, we trade almost nothing. Worse, when trade is discussed, it invariably concerns selling off other fixed resources, such as our gold.

Without economic development, how can our nation hope to maintain its sovereignty, let alone take care of our people? Without being part of the world economy, how can we hope to build the nation for which we hope and for which others have paid such a high price in battle?

A couple of days ago, the 43rd anniversary of the formation of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement/Army in Juba was celebrated to highlight how much our citizens love their country and the sacrifices made by all 64-plus tribes in liberating themselves, and no doubt our people are resilient in their hope for a better South Sudan.

We must trade. We must find trading partners. We must find trading partners willing to invest in developing our productivity. Where do we find them? There is an already identifiable group, one that contains many of our peoples’ old trading partners. It is the group of nations brought together under the Abraham Accords. As a potential agricultural powerhouse blessed with water, something that most of those Abraham Accord nations lack, we could once again be providing cattle and goats to our neighbors. We could grow hay for their dairy livestock. Could we raise fish? We could be growing hydroponic vegetables and fruits. We could be producing nuts, something for which our neighbors have an almost endless appetite.

We cannot continue to go hat in hand to ask for support from wealthier countries. The world of charity has been replaced by transactional diplomacy, a system of give-and-take that benefits

all. South Sudan must once again become a place of trade.What will happen if we do not become a trading nation? First, our people will suffer. Second, those resources we have, such as our gold, will be taken without benefit to us and our country. Third, our hungry people become a new kind of slaves, soldiers lured to fight for others in the hope of feeding their families.

What will happen if we do? That, of course, will depend on the choices we make as a country. With the right leadership, we can build our infrastructure, including a system of dikes and canals to reduce flooding, roads and railroads so people can move about, and a system of healthcare and education so that our young can grow up educated, healthy, and proud. We can make sure that people have jobs that allow them dignity and the freedom to live as they wish. We can make sure that nobody feels alienated from their fellow South Sudanese so that tribal identity does not mean continuing the ages-old tradition of war against one’s neighbors.

How do we begin? The first step of a journey is always the most difficult because it requires us to fully commit. We need our foreign office to make that commitment, to set up an office specifically to work towards an affiliation with the Abraham Accord nations, to come up with clear ideas to bring to our neighbors, ideas that will give them a reason for investing and give us the hope for moving forward.

We must also commit, as a nation, to ensuring that no politician, fixer, or bureaucrat will profit from their work towards this goal until the goal has been accomplished. No bribes, no baksheesh, no perks or Kitu kidogo—only the just rewards for work well done, for real service to the people of our motherland.

~Deng Mayik Atem

Publisher of Ramciel Magazine, author of Jumping Over the Ram, and currently studying leadership and Ethics at Harvard Kennedy School of Government

He is reachable at azdengatem@hotmail.com