South Sudanese writer motivated by desire to tell stories reflecting his people

By Simon Deng

Tong Lueth Matiok,29, has for long been motivated to write stories that reflect both his community and South Sudan.

The graduate of Agricultural Science at the University of Juba, said writing is a passion that anybody can take up to tell the stories that reflect his surroundings.

“I was inspired to tell stories of our community and everything that takes place in South Sudan. When you have passion for something despite the background you come from, you can write,” said Matiok during an interview with The Dawn on Tuesday in Juba.

Matiok’s collections include two books such as Poverty Robbed Me published in April 2022 and Resilience of an Orphan which is yet to be published.

Born in 1994 in Aweng Village of Twic County of Warrap state, Matiok went to Aweng Primary school in Twic County and then to Standard Secondary School in Wau of Western Bahr El Ghazel state before enrolling for his studies at the school of natural resources at the University of Juba.

 “As South Sudanese, we have a lot of stories that we have to share with the world but other people are coming from outside to write our stories which they distort, they take something they feel is okay with them,” he said.

Matiok in his first book “Poverty Robbed Me” talks about a young boy who lost his parents and was subjected to suffering but still succeeded at the end, whereas his second book titled “Resilience of an Orphan” is about a young girl who was forced into marriage at an early age but refused and instead focused on her education to become successful.

“I began writing long time ago, though I was not doing it publicly, I was writing on social media and in journals. In 2020, I put much of my time writing on social media sometimes in newspapers,” said Matiok.

In November 2021, Matiok wrote and published article entitled Poverty Robbed Me on his Facebook page which received wide audience. This endeared him to many of his followers who suggested he writes a book.

Matiok said he wrote his first book for a period of three months.

He said that the biggest fear for writers is plagiarism, adding that the other challenge is the choice of words as the writer is locked in dilemma over the type of words to be used in writing the message.

“What I want to achieve is not about money, it is about the legacy, most of the authors think that when you write you want to get rich, it is not about getting rich, the number one priority is to tell your own stories to the people that is the biggest motivation, “ Matiok said.

 “What I would like to tell the youth out there is that life is never easy, it is full of ups and downs, no matter the consequences you face on the way, you do not have to give up, you have to keep pushing until you make it,” he added.

Matiok revealed that he comes from a very humble background, adding that while starting school at a young age in his Aweng village he was taught under trees in Maper primary school.

“Writing has never been easy, it is a commitment, if you are not committed you cannot write, writing needs you to take your time, when I was writing my first book, I was doing research, I was doing exam, I was reading school books and still found time to write,” he said.

He said most South Sudanese writers are preoccupied on writing on politics, adding that his focus is on the social aspect of life in South Sudan.

“I put it in form of fiction sometime but in reality I am touching things that we overlook,” Matiok said.