A nation is born

It’s not every day that you enter a church for a service in one country and emerge an hour later in another. But this is what happened to me on the evening of 8 July at the Episcopal Cathedral in Juba, capital of what started the evening as southern Sudan. At midnight the church bells rang and a new nation – the Republic of South Sudan – was officially born.

Long before midnight, Juba, and the rest of South Sudan, had already erupted into exuberant celebration as car horns were honked and people danced in the streets. And the party then went on all through the night.

The people were rejoicing because, after nearly 50 years of struggle against the brutal Arab/Islamist regime in Khartoum, they had finally won their rights to freedom of religion and to their distinctively African culture in their own, sovereign, country.

Next day, with representatives of my NGO, Humanitarian Aid Relief Trust, from the UK and the US, I attended South Sudan’s inspirational independence celebrations

The new nation of South Sudan has many problems to overcome, and needs the world’s goodwill and practical support. It was disappointing therefore to hear the sour and partisan opinions of a few commentators - some giving us the benefit of their views from outside South Sudan – that the newly born country may be heading for disaster.

I don’t agree with setting up either an individual or a society to fail. In rebutting the claims of the doomsayers I can do no better than quote the inspiring words of South Sudan’s President Salva Kiir when he told the independence rally: “They say we will slip into civil war as soon as our flag is hoisted. They justify that by arguing that we are incapable of resolving our problems through dialogue. They charge that we are quick to revert to violence. They claim that our concept of democracy and freedom is faulty. It is incumbent on us to prove them all wrong!”

Having visited southern Sudan thirty times during the war and seeing the resilience, courage and resourcefulness of the people, I believe that they will certainly prove Salva Kiir right.

In the words of their new national anthem, God bless South Sudan!