PETER KIMANI} seriously speaking
The forum where truth is well told
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So the trouble in South Sudan is all about tribe? This is a remarkable shift from the ‘religious divide’ which the Christian right in the West framed the 50-year conflict between the so-called Christian South and so-called Muslim North.
But the narrative was nullified when Darfur exploded some ten years ago and Arabs were accused of massacring Africans – both groups of committed Muslims.
I toured Darfur then and heard first-hand very different explanations from the victims of conflict. Everything pointed to the alienation of one group from participating, not just in the eating, but also the baking of the national cake.
The conflict had pretty little to do with religion but the widespread poverty and depravation.
I returned to Sudan a few years ago, this time touring the new-born nation of South Sudan. My brief was to explore the opportunities, as well as the challenges that Kenyans faced there.
I discovered the wounds of war still festered, and fretted about the sense of entitlement that many former war veterans harboured. But I worried more about the capitalist vultures that were hovering over the New Site, where the new leadership was reportedly cutting deals with virtually anyone with green dollar bills.
When one of the nation’s leaders died in a plane crash, he reportedly perished with suitcases of dollars on his person.
Once again, the crisis there in South Sudan is developing into a full-blown warfare over oil fields. So why are the Western media framing the crisis as nothing but “tribal” animosity pitting Dinkas against Nuers? That’s how Europe underdeveloped Africa.
