South Sudan's English Daily Newspaper
"We Dare where others fear"
By Okech Francis
When the weather allowed, they turned to the sand, teaching children the ABC, and when the call for combat echoed, they responded with blaring Kalashnikovs, fighting for their rights.
A journey which began on May 16 in the town of Bor has borne an everlasting fruit that teacher Ariath Amol Akoon delights in today.
Now a brigadier general, Akoon joined the rebellion mustered by the late Dr. John Garang De Mabior and company, two years after its inception, in 1985, being part of the early recruits in a rebellion that has been the most successful in modern Africa, giving birth to independence for ethnic groups who had faced marginalization in Sudan for centuries.
The Sudan People’s Liberation Army/Movement when on to get that independence for South Sudan in 2011 after 22 years of war which left over 2.5 million people dead.
On joining “the struggle” as he put it, Akoon found himself alongside only 23 other teachers faced with an uphill task of giving education to more than 22,000 children, mostly those who fled after the liberators into the bushes of southern Sudan as it was then called and subsequently to neighboring Ethiopia.
However, people from other walks of life who joined the movement, especially civil servants from Khartoum provided a helping hand.
Without pen, without books, without chalk and boards, and only when the rains hold, would they gather under trees, far away from their homeland, with the hopes that one day they would return and be faced with its development.
“When we taught them, we use to tell them that you are the future of this country we are struggling for,” Akoon told The Dawn from his house in Tomping in Juba.
He cares less though about what life he is living but remains optimistic his role in the liberation struggle helped lay a strong foundation for South Sudan.
“Dr. John use to tell us that while the older people are fighting using the gun, we are providing the young ones with the best weapon for self-determination which is literacy,” Akoon said.
“I can feel that I have taught a generation that is building the country, and this is why I am saying I am very happy,” he said.
“The children I started ABC with on the ground are successful. Some are ministers and some are in other big positions leading the development of the country.”
One of those learners is Dr James Alic Garang, a renowned economist and former Governor of the Bank of South Sudan, who paid him a visit during the May 16 commemoration last week.
A simple structure made of iron sheets, a bed and a set of chairs were all Akoon had in his little abode, yet the veteran soldier believes he has accomplished the desires of his life, removing the burden of marginalization and oppression from the back of South Sudanese forever.
“In 1988 at Torit Primary School, he taught us the English alphabet on the ground for the first time,” Dr. Garang said while they set together, after meeting again since 2006 when they had last seen each other.
“There were no notebooks, no pens and no chalkboards,” he said. “He was the one who taught us the four operations, division, plus, minus, multiplication. For him, he might have thought it was easy, giving simple knowledge to children but for us, that was the key to what we are now,” he said before speaking straight to his teacher, “You are still in my heart and I am very happy for what you did in my life and I am very happy that I have met you again.”
For Akoon, the meeting or “reunion” was simply unforgettable. “I am shocked that when you heard my name, heard I am here, you looked for me, up to where I am sleeping. I am very happy,” he said.
Akoon reminisced in the early days, the challenges and how they were overcome. The main difficult issues were basically learning materials and food.
“We were teaching them under trees and if the rain comes, we would disperse. There were no chalks, no boards, we used charcoal for writing on cartons and the learners would copy on the ground,” he said. “We did not have chairs or desk and there was no proper curriculum.”
As for feeding, plates and cups were luxuries at the beginning of the struggle, Akoon said.
“There were no plates and we served food for children on sacks and they would sit around it and eat together,” he said. “We would pound maize and boil and this is what we would serve the children with. Sometimes we would use containers for the bullets to serve them and this continued until some NGO’s gave us plastic sheets which we used for serving the food.”
Dr Garang too echoed this, noting how the food taste sweet for them as children despite the challenges. “We were eating on sacks. This was 1987, 88, 89, around there. In the beginning it was tough but later the NGOs started providing biscuits, sugar and other foods and bringing plates and cups,” he said.
Akoon now feels those days are behind and what holds for him is that South Sudan has a beautiful future going forward. “I am very happy that we have achieved the target of the cause which we fought for,” he said.
