Making Sense of the Achai Wiir Foundation’s Tricycle Donations to PWDs

 By Deng Kiir Akok

Whether I am in Central Equatoria State or elsewhere in South Sudan, I always feel good when I see people with disabilities (PWDs) smiling on tricycles donated by the Achai Wiir Foundation. They happily cruise the streets of Northern Bahr el Ghazal and Central Equatoria States, as well as other states in South Sudan.

To sum up her long journey to where she is today, it began like this: a few years after South Sudan’s independence, a businesswoman and philanthropist named Achai Awet Alor, better known by her nickname Achai Wiir, founded the Achai Wiir Foundation and achieved so much in such a short space of time to empower people with disabilities in South Sudan. 

Last January, she traveled to Northern Bahr el Ghazal state to visit the needy as part of her charity mission all over the country, where she received a warm welcome from all walks of life. On her tour, she accomplished her goal of making tricycles accessible to people with disabilities.

The author, the sons and daughters of Northern Bahr el Ghazal State, and supporters were pleased with what Achai Wiir had done for the poor, especially when she visited the Jerusalem home for orphans, where she provided them with various food items.

To my surprise, I learned with a heavy heart that the other rich women hated her for sharing what little she had with the poor. Others have taken to social media to criticize her wealth, which appears to be motivated by jealousy. What is wrong with these people? They should better keep quiet and leave alone our pure-hearted Achai Wiir.

Apart from Achai Wiir, there are many billionaires in South Sudan, mostly men, who prefer to eat their money with their girlfriends but do not give it to those in need. Except for Achai Wiir, no one has expressed a desire to share their wealth with the poor to reduce poverty. There are hundreds of billionaires out there. I will not use this piece to name them because they wanted to keep their wealth to themselves and didn't want to declare themselves billionaires, from oil company workers to Juba’s best boutique queens.

We are waiting for the day when they will admit they have billions of dollars in their accounts. They possess resources that can help end poverty. But in their minds, they think spending money on the poor instead of themselves is a waste of resources, which is a bad idea.

Despite her best efforts, some South Sudanese hated her for giving away her wealth to the poor. I disagree with her critics’ assumption that she was involved in puor-dier, a Dinka term for engaging in an unproductive activity. But I ask myself, "Why should she be hated?" Instead of appreciating her charity, thank God that she is still working to save the vulnerable. It shows that God sent her. Achai Wiir is, in essence, a gift from God. She is here to use her foundation to improve the lives of the weak.

In today's difficult conditions, no one in South Sudan dares break their neck and donate the money they have earned, good or bad, for fear of failing in the future because of the country’s current economic crisis.

Go on with your usual program, Achai Wiir, whom I may call the mother of the needy. You should also visit other states in South Sudan where you have never been before to do the same there.

Thank you again, Achai Wiir, for all you have done for the poor. May the good Lord forgive your critics and bless you and your foundation as you continue to support the South Sudanese community.

Deng Kiir is a commentator and blogger. Contact him at dengkiirsouthsudan@gmail.com.

Marking 17 Years Without Garang

By Deng Kiir Akok

The South Sudanese have just celebrated the 11th anniversary of their country’s hard-won independence on July 9 this year. But once again, we look forward to July 30 to commemorate our fallen heroes and heroines who paved the way for the independence of our great nation. It has been eleven years since we commemorated this day on July 30 each year.

It is an important day for South Sudanese to celebrate as it’s the day that we remember our loved ones that perished during the struggle for this country. On this day, South Sudanese commemorate and honour the martyrs of Sudan’s two civil wars from 1955 to 2005.

 

However, this year marks 17 years since Garang, co-founder of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) and former First Vice President of Sudan, died in a helicopter crash in 2005, leaving the marginalized Sudanese without hope.

 

Until in the 90s, while living deep in the village of Awan Chan in Gogrial, when I sensed the world around me and came to hear about the visionary leader, Dr John Garang de Mabior, and what he was doing.

 

Though it was old news, about seven years ago, to hear that Garang and his other comrades, including Salva Kiir from our Muorkua village, went to the bush in 1983 to fight the Islamic-minded government in Khartoum. I was in the bush too, for our area fell under the liberated areas, but I was not yet an active member. They used to call me a Red Army. This was how the young were referred to; I was eight years old.

 

Our village learned from hearsay that Garang was born alone on the day of his birthday. This phenomenon made him different. When his mother was giving birth to him, no other human being or animal on planet Earth was giving birth that day. It went on to say that God had set aside a day for his birth because he had an important mission for him. And that assignment was to free his people from oppression.

 

Our childhood brains grew later to analyze any information that came to our disposal. We came to know Garang’s personality and dismissed some stories. We learned about Garang’s characters that reached far parts of his liberated areas of Bahr el Ghazal and embraced some of them later in life.

 

Fourteen years later, in 2003, in Rumbek, when I was there for a school at Rumbek Senior Secondary School. I had a handshake with him twice on different days. It was my pleasure to have handshakes with such a leader like him. Having a handshake with Garang, I observed that he was very energetic and looked like a young man, although he was in his 50s. Although there were many people on the landing airstrip, he wanted to shake hands with them one by one, which surprised me.

 

The first one to meet him face-to-face and shake hands with him was at the Rumbek airstrip. Another Sunday at church meant another chance to shake hands with a leader of the Freedom Fighters. After having had such opportunities, I came to prove his greatness and good personality.

 

While in Rumbek and before schools opened, I worked for Sudan Relief and Rehabilitation Association (SRRA), which changed later to Sudan Relief and Rehabilitation Commission (SRRC), now South Sudan Relief and Rehabilitation Commission (SSRRC).

 

I was lucky to be in a convoy that left the compound with Dr Riek Machar, who was then Garang’s third-most powerful commander and who was receiving him at the Rumbek airstrip while returning from his first-ever Bahr el Ghazal tour since he rebelled against the Sudan government. His deputy, Comrade Salva Kiir, was in Yei on a mission he and his commander-in-chief were most familiar with. Dr Riek, the current first vice president, welcomed him and followed him while greeting the attending masses, before he proceeded to the Rumbek Freedom Square to enlighten the people of Rumbek about the peace that was ongoing in Naivasha, Nairobi, Kenya.

 

While at Rumbek square, he told the attending crowd that if the ongoing peace in Naivasha was fruitful, southern Sudan would govern itself for six years in the semi-autonomy government. It would also choose whether to vote for separation or unity with the north. The President of the semi-autonomous government in the south would be Sudan’s first Vice President.

 

He went on to say that he had not fought this long and had simply accepted the position of deputy president to Omar al-Bashir, but it was a more powerful deputy.

 

Garang maximized the opportunity to answer the long-time rumour that was lingering in Bahr el Ghazal that said that Garang had said about Bahr El Ghazal that the region was just the far side of his farm, referring to the outsides of his liberated areas. It did not worry him even if something bad happened to it, including various attacks from Messiria militias and Sudan armed forces.

 

However, he denied this and said that the region was a vital one among the areas under his control. In a minute, he brainwashed the present crowd, who were listening to his long-awaited response to this poisonous rumour. He was such a wise man that he could convince anybody at the earliest opportunity.

 

In those few days he spent in Rumbek when he saw the people by the roadside while passing by in a heavily guided convoy, he could have wanted to stop and get off his car to greet them. Garang had a lot of things to remember about him by now, especially on Martyrs’ Day.

 

Garang, as you may roll in your grave, that man who threw a rotten egg at you in London, United Kingdom, and continued to yell at you about who told you to free them. If you recall well, his name is Martin Elia Lomoro. He has a tiny speck of grey hair on his forehead. Otherwise, it may be difficult to identify him if the man developed that looks after you died, but with our help, we can identify him for you if needed.

 

That man in London is now a cabinet minister in Salva Kiir’s government, your former deputy and double as your successor and the President of South Sudan, the country that you founded for us and Lomoro.

 

The man is now the first minister in the so-called revitalized transitional government of national unity, which Salva Kiir formed with his comrades in the opposition after concluding a deal in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia in 2018. That government has many Vice Presidents. Almost half a dozen. That man who embarrassed you has partnered with Egypt, the water hunter, to work on the relaunching of the Jonglei Canal project, which you opposed and fought the Khartoum government until you stopped it.

 

His partnership with other invisible individuals on the revival of the canal drove Egypt to think that we were fools and wanted to steal our water in broad daylight. We are now his victims in our attempt to resist his projects. He referred to us, the youths of your country, as social media criminals. And this came after he learned we had expressed our views against the revival of the canal and the dredging of the Nile and its tributaries.

 

The Red Army, or young people, as you might call them if you were alive, are what Mr Lomoro calls criminals. It’s unfortunate that you’re not here to witness the once-London-based opposition and that the man we confirmed to have stabbed you in the back during the liberation period is currently enjoying the fruits of the country that took your life, yet we have you in our hearts. 

 

We have no regrets about creating this nation for ourselves. Regardless, Lomoro is benefiting more than any other South Sudanese. Let him eat the way he likes. If you see us with these disorders, remind him of what he did to you last time in London. No matter that you’re not here with us, you have freed us and Mr Lomoro from Arab slavery, which was the most important part of the struggle, and not to forget to mention having got Africa’s newest country, which Mr Lomoro is now eating with joy and love.

 

If you were alive, you would have added more for us and taught Lomoro an unforgettable lesson for working against you and the people’s party, the mighty Sudan People’s Liberation Movement. Because without him, our country will prosper the way you promised. Based on your deep expertise in agriculture, you thought this country could thrive. And last but not least, ask him to leave us alone if there is no way to send him back to London, which was his stronghold.

 

And more than anything, you would have punished your old comrades for their corruption. I wish you’d visited us someday to see their mess. Also, bring to their attention that they have lost their minds in the middle of the way to dreamland or taking this nation to the next level. 

 

Education was your first order of business. Not unlike today when attending school is a waste of time and witchcraft is the best way to live in Juba these days. If you do not know, they request spear-masters from the countryside to come up to Juba and perform spiritual powers for them. It is to get a job with the government or to cement them in their positions if they’re already working in a livelihood office.

 

Much to our dismay, everything in our country is in shambles today. There is no better institution. The worst of them are the military, the police, and other organized forces. At least, promotion in the ranks and files of the South Sudan People’s Defense Force (SSPDF) and organized forces requires brokering, lobbying, and relationships. Otherwise, except for the son, daughter, or in-laws of a powerful general, routine promotion is out of order until further notice.

 

 If there were promotions, they would go to untrained militiamen or through community balance, which was supposed to be done during recruiting. This idea is primitive and must be discouraged in the modern armed forces. They do too much to replace the old Garang policy, which was to balance tribe member officers.

 

It was not about the balance of community officers. Even ranks have lost their value. We knew in Garang’s time, one could not get a word to describe the powers of a mere sergeant, who in today's army lacks powers and is as soft as an ice cream seller. In those days, it was a problem because Garang was a tough leader and his men should also be tough. Such an officer had more duties and was better protected than the present-day South Sudan army general.

 

The spear masters and witches have invaded our capital city, Juba, with a mission of no return and are working hand in hand to let their clients get what they want in the city.

 

They dress in suits just like everyone else, if not better than them. Back in the day, they loved to wear red clothes, thinking they were untouchable and that no one could manipulate them. They resembled fans of the Al-Merrikh SC fans of Sudan when they were not. If they looked like this, anyone could identify them. Some of these spear masters and witches are government employees and occupy key positions in the revitalized transitional government of national unity.

 

If anyone follows the daily news from South Sudan, you may have heard of Atenydior at one of the social functions in Juba. A senior government official used to preach Atenydior, the god of his father and Pakuein clans all over the world, as he says while attending his or his boss’s invitation opportunities. He frightens the social gatherings with the unlimited powers of this god. According to him, Atenydior is useful because it can get his sons and daughters employed in J1 and keep them there for years, if not for their lives.

 

These practices result in a government in which illiterates or academic license thieves outnumber literates and claim unjustified loyalty among no-ABC guys. Another problem with such people is their belief in witchcraft. They believe nothing can win over their gods on this planet.

 

The government institutions where senior public servants are the laws that govern these institutions, leaving behind their rules and regulations.

 

We have wasted eleven years with no real infrastructure. The government continues to operate in Abel Alier’s former regional government infrastructure and has not yet constructed a single office since 2005.

 

The South Sudanese Pound, with your half-image on it, was issued by your successor's parliament. This currency is now dying for US dollars and has become worthless.

 

The same leaders, in keeping their promise of seeing the face of the country's father, do not even bother to carry that money in their pockets for they could not buy anything at the skyrocketing market prices of South Sudan.

 

I will not mention the fact that his ex-comrades, as I know to the best of my knowledge, are incapable of keeping Garang’s legacy alive. Their current and unique program is to plunder the few resources available by granting invisible projects to their children, friends, and in-laws in businesses. 

 

After all, I understand Garang more than any of his former comrades and more than I did while he was alive when I first met him twenty years ago, plus watching the 2013 crisis. Now, each day brings me closer to him.

 

I understand him, though he is no more. We still celebrate his fallen life and the lives of those who shared the same destiny with him on this day, July 30th, to remember them as our martyrs. May you, Garang, and the others who shared your fate continue to rest in peace.

 

The writer works as a journalist and blogger. He graduated from the University of Juba with a degree in mass communication. You can contact him at dengkiirsouthsudan@gmail.com or visit his blog at https://dengkiirsouthsudan.blogspot.com. Tel: +211912186333.

 

Toronto Boys - The Supreme and Reigning Gang that Terrorize Residents of Juba City

This piece is a personal observation about some motorcyclists (boda boda) in Juba who use to grab handbags and other valuable items from the pedestrians. The public later named them “awlad Toronto or Toronto boys” because they suspect them to have been coming from the Toronto Hotel parking yard in ATlabara. 

By Deng Kiir Akok 

Awlad is an Arabic word for boys while Toronto is a provincial capital of Ontario in Canada.

The author will later, in this piece, educate his audiences on how the Juba residents came to name some Juba boys with the above name.

But before everything else, let’s revisit those years that have brought the change in Sudan.

In 2005, the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement and Sudan government signed the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) to end the Africa’s longest civil war, which has killed 2.5 million people and displaced four million others. 

The deal granted a southern region a six-year semi-autonomous. The period set the region to go to Referendum to decide whether it would vote for the separation or the unity of the Sudan. 

A sweet dream - a dream for separation as this author refers it to, was in the minds of many southerners. And this came true in 2011 when the southerners voted for separation with 99.9%. The percentage whom voted for the separation was unquestionable that led to the birth of a new nation in the African continent. 

As a new nation with new investment opportunities and a new hope for the entire world, the foreign investors saw a promising future in it. They come in different nationalities and invest in what they think would benefit them.

The Eritreans took the lead in Hotels industry and in water tankers. To name these hotels, the Juba residents have seen the names that exist in the world named in the capital Juba and other towns across the country. Those names were in remembrance of the countries where those investors hail from.

Though some hotels bear overseas names, those are the foreign countries that they once stayed and slept well or having gained their nationalities. Literally the foreign countries they once lost to as our lost boys and girls of the Sudan who lost to foreign countries during the civil wars.

One Eritrean-Canadian has built a property in ATlabara on a busy street of Shar-Facebook (Facebook Street) and named it ‘Toronto Hotel’. The hotel is located at the strategic street famous for Shisha smoking. Every addicted smoker in Juba had to visit this place at least three times a day.

In the front yard of this hotel, the boda-boda (motorcyclist), mostly young boys, whose majority of them ride numberless Senke motorcycles used to park there as they wait for passengers.

In 2015, when the South Sudan economy began to shrink, the unidentifiable motorcyclists developed grabbing handbags and other valuable things from the pedestrians on their ways to and from the market.

The grabbers come in two numbers and on one motorcycle, mostly riding in Senke which some people believe have their gears altered, and that no other motorcycle would try to chase and cash them due to its mechanical capacity except for YAHAMA.

The duo has different functions: one is to ride a motorcycle, and the other is to grab items from their victims’ hands. As the cases of grabbing were on the rise, the people were trying to find out where exactly did these boys come from.

It’s not that long ago that the public grew a suspicion on the Toronto Hotel parking yard motorcyclists that they are the ones responsible for the grabbing activities across the city. 

The rumors were already flying around in the capital. One rumor and of which the boys got their name had it that these boys were from Toronto hotel while the other maintained that they were from hell.

Since then, the boys have grabbed hundreds of handbags and other worthy items from the pedestrians and the passengers in the open vehicles.

For your safety, be careful with these boys whenever you are in the streets. There are many of them out there. All the Juba streets are full of them and have eagle eyes that they see anything you are carrying in your hands in the distance.

However, the funny thing they are making in their little heads is that, exceeding a certain distance from home is their right to check whether what you are carrying would benefit them.

The non-Toronto cannot understand the distance the Toronto boys subjected their victims to. But the good thing is that they don’t include in their list the breaking into peoples’ houses. It would have been a hard time for the Juba residents, this one was in the Toronto boys’ list. 

The residents are enjoying the little rest they have while at homes. Although there are rare reports of robberies at night times, we should isolate those from the Toronto boys’ activities. 

The Toronto boys don’t go peoples’ houses because they think if they do so, they would lose their motorcycles to the house owners. Some of them are weak and cannot face house owners with strong muscles. Their victim sometimes overpowered them and confiscated their motorcycles or let them meet their days.

But if your days are still long, there is nothing that will let you call them Toronto boys when they are at peace with you and other road walkers.

Your bad day begins only when you call them Toronto boys while having no proof that shows they are Toronto boys. This is because the name applies once you saw them grabbing anything from you or anyone. 

Sometimes, someone would trouble himself or herself by rushing and used the name on the wrong guys whom he or she suspects. For some reasons, the guys you are suspicious may lack connections with Toronto boys.

And the worse thing is that someone may be forty percent sure of the someone relation to Toronto boys and still use the name. Your idea would be a suicide. 

The guys you see to be resembling Toronto boys may be hardworking ones somewhere who give themselves hard times to feed on what they do with their own hands and they believe in it. They are not making their living out of the loots from pedestrians or passengers in the open vehicles belonging.

In such a way, these boys are not real. They are fake ones who only survive on shoppers’ and pedestrians’ belongings. If they are not, then they should find other ways of survival than to feed on other people’s materials.

Despite all the above, there is still one hope for the Juba residents. The hope is that the Toronto boys do not come up to the people’s houses looking for handbags or backpack to grab. They wait for their victims to come out of their houses about a few meters away from the buildings.

Even though there are night robberies that sometimes happen to some people’s houses at night, we should not treat those as Toronto boys’ responsibility.

Despite that, the only little hope left, Juba residents and the ladies have another latest bad news. The bad news is the Toronto boys have added into their long list of items they termed as wanted items from the pedestrians that any lady seen wearing a wig made of human hair, a type wig imported from India should voluntarily surrender it to them or faces the violence. 

The Toronto boys have just recently learned that some wigs are more expensive than some electronic devices. Some wigs cost up to five hundred United States Dollars according to one shopper in Konyokonyo who was familiar with the modern wigs prices in the town.

There is one moment I enjoy from these boys. This was when the two Toronto boys missed a handbag they were trying to grab from one young lady one evening in Hai Cinema and said to the lady: next time. The young lady was walking by the roadside when the bad luck was about to strike her.

The Toronto boys hoped that they would get her next time. The author guesses they said to themselves that the lady was not going anywhere and will still get her next time.

As of now, the pedestrians from shopping centers live in fear of losing their belongings since the grabbing of anything in possession of them began in 2015 up to date. 

Even a friend of mine, a Chinese man, has seen his laptop and the mobile phone being carried away by these boys in broad daylight. According to him, they took his laptop on way home from the workplace. 

He also lost his mobile phone to them on the different day, a day he termed as the worst day of the days he lived in Juba. Until now, Mr Jackie - that’s his name, didn't believe his electronics were gone.

To encounter this phenomenon, the pedestrians had to reverse the producers’ intended position of a backpack to front-pack. They do this because they do not know the direction in which the Toronto boys would launch grabbing on them.

They may come from behind when their victim is focusing in front. They maximize the moment the victims do not seen them. One would be wrong if he or she thinks it’s only pedestrians that are Toronto boys’ target. It also includes passengers in open vehicles. 

But so sadly, the death involves with these types of victims. Many people have lost their dear lives in such kind of grabbing. The death occurs when the Toronto boys used too much force to take off a handbag or backpack from their victims. 

Their victims in return would make a resistance to defend his or her property. During this pulling, the victim may fall off from a motorcycle or a pickup and lands on the ground with his or her head that could cause his or her neck to break. 

In conclusion, last but not the least, the author would like to thank God for restricting Toronto boys to Jubek State and the capital Juba in particular. Thus, the other states are Toronto boys free.

God bless South Sudan