Seed of South Sudan Read Online Free Page B

Christianization of the three kingdoms of Nubia in about 580 AD. The era continued until 1400, when most of Nubia became Muslim. 15 (Their counterparts in southern Sudan retained their Christianity or their animist religion.) The British, in the 19th and 20th centuries, encouraged the autonomy of the south and encouraged Christian missionaries in the area. With the withdrawal of the British in the mid–20th century, several attempts were made for the South Sudanese to become independent. 16
    Majok says that the Agar Dinka were not enslaved, and it is possible, given their remote location in the Sudd, and their ferocity as warriors, that they were able to elude capture. As Baker, the English explorer, wrote, “They are something superlative.” 17 With their very tall stature, and their tendency to color their hair orange, rub their bodies with ashes and indulge in intricate and showy body decoration, as well as their fearsome skill with spears and shields, they were probably a formidable foe. Not to mention the high jumping, part of the unique dance of this group of Dinka, but also very useful in battle. In addition, while the Europeans only in the 1840s discovered a way through the Sudd to the White Nile headwaters, doubtless the Dinka were skilled in plying those waters, and could use them to escape those pursuing them. The pages of Warriors of the White Nile: The Dinka provide a glimpse of very proud and complex traditions and ways of protecting themselves, much of which are present in other South Sudan tribes as well.
    There is no doubt that there are large divides between Sudan and South Sudan today, and it will be a struggle for either side for the South to achieve true independence. But that was the agreement that capped a series of protocols signed in Naivasha, Kenya, in 2005. The south and the north agreed after a twenty-year civil war to provide for an election to allow southerners to decide if they would like to be a separate country. On January 9, 2011, almost 99 percent of those voting approved the separation of South Sudan from Sudan, and the new country formally became independent on July 9, 2011. 18

    The vote for independence occurred in January 2011, and the country of South Sudan formed six months later, but already war has broken out over the oil fields that lie in South Sudan—the source of the North’s wealth since the end of British ownership. Many challenges remain.
    My country, South Sudan, as you might guess, is a tribal-based culture with few modern conveniences, and the life today, although there are many hundreds from my village who went missing or were killed in the 1983–2005 conflict, is not much different than it was before that. Any improvement would lessen the hard life and the illnesses that attack our people today. Wells for a supply of water would be nice, making unnecessary the hours-long trips to bring water back to the village for cleaning and cooking—the endless job of women. Then perhaps they would have time for schooling, a luxury for men and women, as even under the pre-independence system, only one son was able to attend the bush schools that offer rudimentary learning. A clinic would be helpful to treat the many illnesses coming from bad water: diarrhea and dysentery.
    Former United States president Jimmy Carter has a personal goal of eradicating the guinea worm, a painful highly replicating worm that lives in the pools of water that are cooking and bathing sources in our environment. He hopes the election aftermath and the new independence for South Sudan will not mean an interruption to his goal of outliving the last guinea worm. Malaria is on the rise in Sudan; underground pumps are needed to replace the stagnant water that attracts mosquitoes, for even though there have been tremendous efforts to supply our people with bedding nets to keep out mosquitoes, the water sits in pools, when it is available in the rainy season, and attracts these