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Alien Community

The Monitor (Kampala)
NEWS
January 23, 2005
Posted to the web January 24, 2005

By Henry Ssali
Kampala
With the dawn of peace, Sudan's foreign ministry said last week it has
finalised arrangements with the UN refugee agency for the return of some
500,000 southern Sudanese refugees from neighbouring countries. Henry Ssali
recently joined hundreds of Sudanese refugees in Kabowa, a suburb on the
outskirts of Kampala, as they celebrated the peace deal and now reports:-
Fifteen-year-old Folksy Ajok Kuol stands at a height of slightly above 6ft. She
has a striking resemblance to Sudanese refugee-turned-supermodel Alek Wek and
in her, fashion designers would find a gem.
Alek Wek and Ajok are both refugees because of the 21-year-old civil war that
has claimed more than two million lives in southern Sudan.
But Ajok has dreams of becoming an architect, not merely a model. "I want to
build Sudan, it has been ravaged by war," she says. Surprisingly, Ajok does not
have a clue about what the country that is supposed to be her motherland looks
like.
"I was born in Ethiopia in 1989; we later moved to Kenya," she says. I have
been to Tanzania and now I live in Uganda but I have never been to Sudan and I
am dying to see it. Mummy tells me it's a very beautiful country with many
resources like gold and oil."
That dream of seeing her country might soon come true for Ajok and thousands of
other refugees around the region after the signing on January 9 of a peace
agreement between Khartoum and the Sudan Peoples' Liberation Army in Nairobi.
We found Ajok with hundreds of other refugees celebrating the peace deal in
Kabowa, a suburb on the outskirts of Kampala.
Little children darted around in the compound of St. Stephen's Church, Kabowa,
dressed in new clothes and they could also intuitively tell that there was a
celebration. Their mothers were busy preparing the food for the big feast.
There was ayat (paper food) that is the staple meal of the southern Sudanese.
Ayat is prepared like chapatti though it has a very thin layer and it is made
out of corn.
They baked bread, fried minced meat, chicken, Irish potatoes and other
delicacies. The young men played cards while others were rehearsing the folk
dance under a mango tree.
Ms Priscilla Nyakot is Ajok's mother. She is the leader of the laywomen in the
area and had just returned from Nairobi to witness the signing of the peace
deal.
"We were so happy. I cannot describe the mood of the Sudanese in Nairobi. We
sang songs and danced. Most of our children grew up here and they are dying to
see the land. We hope to go back soon," she says.
"Southern Sudan is just like Uganda, it is very fertile, with lots of minerals
and it's a very vast country. The Sahara desert is in the north," says Nyakok.
She says that there are currently more than 600 refugees in Kabowa. Nyakot is a
sergeant in the SPLA. "I received training in Sudan because my husband was one
of the pioneers of the force," she says.
After the signing of the peace deal, her husband, Col. Kuol Manyang, is now a
minister in the Sudanese government.
"We fought because of religion. If you were in school and you were not a Zainab
(Muslim), you could not pass exams and you would never make it to university,"
she says with bitterness.
"Our area was also blessed with numerous resources and minerals though it was
only the north that benefited from them," she adds.
She recalls the day in 1983 when her husband who was working in Juba left for
Ethiopia and she soon followed him there with her two children. That was the
beginning of the struggle, which has just borne fruit.
"We all want to return home but we cannot just go individually because we no
longer know the place. UN peacekeepers have been sent there to organise the
ground work. The UNHCR will work out a plan for our return," she says.
Mr James Majok, 21 is the youth chairman of the Sudanese community in Kabowa.
He left Sudan as a young boy way back in 1988.
"I was a lost boy, I did not know the whereabouts of my parents and I still
don't know. We walked for 15 days with my cousin to the Ethiopian border and
UNHCR welcomed us," he says. The Sudanese refugees who had run away from one
war found themselves caught in between another war - the Ethiopia skirmishes
with Eritrea.
Like other refugees, Majok left for Kenya where he studied upto P. 8, courtesy
of UNHCR and in 1999 he came to Uganda. Currently he has completed his O'
level.
He is now a resident of Kyangwali refugee camp in Hoima district. Currently, he
resides in Kabowa with his brother.
Mr John Alier, 22, who also lives in Kyangwali camp, feels at home in Uganda.
He is sporting trendy square pocketed trousers and a casual floral shirt. To
him life can get no better, like several other refugees he has a sponsor who
takes care of his needs on top of what UNHCR provides.
He dreads the memory of life in Sudan as a young man.
"Everyday that one lived was a blessing. There were so many rebel factions in
my area and you couldn't know who was who. There was fighting day and night,"
he says.
"I am very happy that Ugandan people have the spirit of God and they have
treated us like fellow brothers. I wish the whole world was like Ugandan
people," he says.
Alier says he was overjoyed when he got the news of the peace deal and that he
will go home and meet relatives, some of whom could be dead by now.
"They are scattered all over," he says.
Ms Monica Akec, 23, says she has grown up on the road because of the war.
In 1986, when she was barely 5 years old, Akec trekked to Ethiopia and she
later moved to Uganda. She is now pregnant and has a 2-year-old son who was
born in Uganda.
"We are so happy with the peace deal because we have suffered for so long," she
says while frying meat in preparation for the fete.
Twenty two-year-old Chaw Bol is a student at Kampala Secondary School. Hadn't
he left Sudan for Kenya in 1993, education would have been a dream.
"You know that war and education don't go together," he says. He came to Uganda
in 2000 and joined senior one.
"Uganda is our home, we have the same rights as Ugandans and we are not treated
as second class," he says.
"But home is always the best. We have to go back to Sudan and build our place."
Johnson Adut 17, a P.7 pupil at Kitebi Primary School is also eager to return
to Sudan.
"God willing we shall be able to go back very soon," he says. He left Sudan in
2001 with his cousin.
"I am not sure whether my parents are alive or not," he says.
He lives with his 23-year-old cousin in this Kabowa community.
Ms Monica Akon, 30, has four children and all of them were born in Uganda. She
left Sudan in 1998 and wants to go back as soon as possible.
Currently she makes beads and sews clothes to support her family.
Mr Peter Ajok, 31, came from Kyangwali refugee camp in Hoima to join fellow
Sudanese in celebrating the peace in deal in Kabowa.
He says that apart from the supplies they receive from UNHCR, they also dig to
supplement their food and income.
"I want to go back home to meet my brothers," he says.
As it approaches 1 p.m., dignitaries begin to arrive at the venue. Mr Michael
Majok Ayom is impeccably smart, donning a brown suit, with a cream shirt and
marching necktie.
He is one of the founder members of the SPLA and currently he is county
commissioner in southern Sudan.
"The SPLA movement was founded on May 16, 1983, because we were being
marginalised," he says.
"If you are being deprived of your rights and you are not considered a first
class citizen and you are persecuted because of your religion, then you have to
fight for your rights," he justifies their action.
Majok says SPLA has been controlling a part of southern Sudan and that the
peace deal has brought back calm to the volatile region.
He was in Sudan just before the signing of the peace deal and he described the
mood of the Sudanese people then.
"If you have a wife and you are expecting a child, how do you feel?" he says.
He witnessed the signing ceremony in Nairobi and is happy that SPLA has
achieved the goals it has been fighting for for 21 years.
But to him, the struggle continues until total peace is achieved and the small
factions are also subdued.
For the moment, all he can tell the people here is that it is now safe for them
to return home.
However, they have been away for a long time and a plan is being designed for
them to settle safely back into their communities.

   

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