I celebrated Independence Day yesterday. Not America’s — the Southern Sudan’s. I joined a couple of hundred Southern Sudanese, the so-called “lost boys” and their families, who had gathered from all corners of Virginia at a Methodist church in Richmond’s West End to mark the birth of the world’s newest nation. These black Africans were all refugees of the Darfur-style warfare that the Arab regime in Khartoum had inflicted upon the region before the United States brokered a peace several years ago.
There was dancing, feasting (an interesting mix of Sudanese and American cuisine) and, of course, speech making. At last, the people of the Southern Sudan have a chance to build normal, peaceful lives. Thousands of refugees living in America, many of whom are now college educated, share their aspirations and hope to help.
As my artist friend Awer Bul told me, the last time he went back to the refugee camps, where he spent much of his youth growing up, the children there would draw pictures of soldiers, war and mayhem. After 10 years of peace, he hopes, they will be drawing pictures of happy domestic scenes.
Whether lasting peace will come is anyone’s guess. Oil deposits have been discovered in the Southern Sudan, and many fear that the genocidal Khartoum regime may renew the conflict by arming the militia of neighboring tribes. This time, though, the southerners will be prepared to defend themselves. Still, what a shame it would be to spend the emerging nation’s oil wealth on arms. Awer’s goal is to bring schools and water wells to the villages of his people — and, who knows, to build a museum to preserve their history and culture. Let us all pray that Awer’s vision prevails.
