Poet | Writer | Social Entrepreneur
I re-member... I re-member... I re-member Battalion 104, Volcano Battalion and Katiba Banat. I re-member the New Kush Division, The Cadres in Bilfam, The contributions of Musa Kuwa Idriss, and The Red Army. And I charge you brothers and sisters to re-member...
I met this sun, light years away from its beginning,A ball of self-consuming flameIn a perpetual manifestation of brilliance. Awestruck, can’t begin to describeMy state of being. And then, Yo,It tried to lick me with its fiery tongue! But little did it know thatI am a phantom of its future obsession, encoded in Its perpetual [...]
Happy 9th Independence Day, South Sudan! As we celebrate, let us reflect and resolve to do better. As we celebrate, let us honor our sacrifice-laden past, and seize our opportunity-filled present to secure our prosperity-promised future. This young boy pictured celebrating our first independence day is now nearly a man. 9 years later, are his [...]
One smoldering afternoon in Juba found me completely uninspired. I needed two things: a refreshing drink and some excitement. Well, the first is a no brainer, Logali House’s kerkede[1]mixed with tonic water. It always satiates that desire. As for the latter, it is nothing a bar could offer. So, I turned to my ever-intriguing companion [...]
The choice of an official language has a significant role in garnering a national identity, and I cannot overstate its centrality in the processes of nation and state building. In the case of South Sudan, the lingua franca is “Arabi Juba” in the Equatoria states, and many vernaculars of Arabic in the states bordering Sudan. [...]
“Be kind to all, at all times,” an adage my father says whenever he advises me on what brings blessings to one’s life. He also says that, regardless of how poor he may be, and what little possessions he boasts of, what is priceless, is his good name. “They can call me anything, but they [...]
Sovereignty is a concept that is relevant to all tiers of existence and identity, from the individual to the group, community to the nation. It is inherently tied to the formulation of interests, and to the submission of energies and resources towards their achievement, without external interference. You may ask, what is sovereignty for a [...]
Duk Padiet – The Beacon of Peace We arrive at Duk Padiet in the morning, after a short flight from Juba. It is the rainy season, and to the pilot’s delight, the dirt landing strip is dry and clear of cattle, although we land right by the market’s cattle byre. I notice as immediately as [...]
We have founded this nation upon great human sacrifices in the fight for justice and equality for all. We have a legacy of struggle centered on the elimination of all the forms of marginalization, suffered at the hands of successive regimes in Sudan, be they social, cultural, economic, political, religious, and or racial. It is, [...]
On October 4th, I woke up to this beautiful photo on my facebook feed. It had this caption: These 5th graders have surprised us with their reading abilities as they have accepted the challenge of reading poems aloud from a poetry collection authored by one of their own "a South Sudanese." The program was meant [...]
