Media proposes change of name for South Sudan

By David Ochami in Juba

South Sudan's media is proclaiming independence and one newspaper has proposed a name for the nation, three days into voting at the historic separation vote.

And the military band is test running an English seven-stanza song expected to be adopted as the National Anthem while the proposed Coat of Arms and National Flag are flying in many sections of Juba.

The proposed anthem was created from submissions and entries made by South Sudanese in South Sudan and the Diaspora. However, some Southerners are questioning its length.

The proposed flag resembles the Kenyan one when inverted and without the shield and spears in the middle. South Sudanese flag has an additional blue triangle from the left side of the rectangular cloth pointing to its centre with a yellow star.

The Daily Citizen published by veteran South Sudan leader Joseph Lagu says that the new nation should be called the Nile Republic.

This, it says, would be to recognise the most important geographical feature on earth running through this territory and discard any connection with the phrase Sudan because it is, inherently racist with a bad memory trigger.

Longest river

The editor argues that the Nile, which is the world’s longest river, cuts through the South Sudan and its name should be adopted by the new republic so as to inspire international imagination for a new nation.

"The obvious nation for us to claim as free, proud and dignified Africans is Nile Republic," the report says and adds that the phrase Sudan, though referring to the Land of the Black people has, historically been a euphemism for domination of Africans by Arabs.

It says the new country should adopt a tag introduced by the "very Arabs who colonised us."

The local media is welcoming new statehood but cautioned that euphoria should not lead to post colonial misrule and mismanagement.

A report in the bi-weekly pro-separation, The Independent, alleges in its current issue that a radical Islamist group in Khartoum says the National Congress Party of President Omar Hassan al Bashir should impose Islamic law across North and South Sudan and the ongoing referendum should never have been allowed to take place.

Khartoum Monitor claims in its Tuesday issue that a Ugandan soldier and North Sudan soldiers have been arrested in Juba, with four boxes of 700 AK 47 bullets and concludes that the result of this vote "will be the creation of the world’s newest country on July 9, 2011 and South Sudan is on the "cusp of history."