Remove Offensive Vestiges Of Arabism In Juba by changing the names By: Rengo Gyyw Rengo, Jr. Juba
MAY 14/2011, SSN; Hai Jalaba, Rujaal Mafi, Keli-Baalak, Lubas-Mafi, Atlabara, etc, are live vestiges and reminders of cruel experiences in Juba in the hands of Arab oppressors. We can't pretend as though we're happy with such offensive names acquired during the oppression and war era. Now, there are Juba estates, virtually called after such horrific names. Both GOSS and Central Equatoria Governments have not thought of changing such names for our local or English names, at least to signify a new era of freedom, liberty and dignity. Such names should not be allowed to continue tormenting us. Our children and posterity will not find reasonable explanation as to why such names have extended their life-spans beyond our times. Perhaps, I need to translate the above names in Arabic into their English equivalents first, and then I shall continue protesting, by justifying why they should be changed immediately. Rujaal-Mafi [means: No Men], Keli-Baalak [means: Be Careful], Lubath-Mafi [no pants], Atlabara [means: Move out or Come out], and Hai Jalaba [Arab Merchants Quarters]. It should be noted that it was not Southerners telling the Arabs to come out of Juba, though we did it successfully. But the Arabs telling our people to come out of their homes in Juba, looking for women and girls to rape, for suspects or collaborators or sympathizers of the Southern Cause, or men to annihilate, name it. Where do we generate any sense of pride in having such names? Of course, memories of Arab presence in Juba are unforgettable and unforgivable. This city has been under hostage for years and decades, subjected to mass rape of women and girls, murder dungeons, etc and I intend to be specific on a number of issues and incidents that were no secret, even to a SPLA rebels in the bush, no matter how shrouded they were. The idea that one must compulsorily report his or her daughter to the Arab officers upon her first menstruation period in order to break her virginity was no secret. The fact that, girls were mobilized, rounded up and taken to barracks for weeks to serve Arab-soldiers was no secret. The fact that, whenever soldiers suffered defeats in the hands of the SPLA in the fields, revenges and reprisals were taken on the Southern citizens in Juba was no secret. How about tying people when they are alive into maize sacks or nylon sacks together with stones inside and thrown inside the Nile River, was it a secret? How about live pruning of human beings shoulder-by-shoulder, using pangas to their graves, was it a secret? It is also no secret that no single SPLA POW was kept by Khartoum during the two decades of war. In one terminology, Juba was an evil center. There was no sacrosantification of life here. Just beneath Jebel Kujur, there was a human abattoir, not animal abattoir, euphemized as “Bed El-Abiad” [meaning: White house/home], famous for killings. Only mention of a place was enough for our people to join generations of ancestors and martyrs. It was an annihilation center by design similar to Sorbibor Holocaust Center in Poland where Jews were put to annihilation by the Cruel German Nazis. As someone wrote in his book, “They Were The Target”, our people were the target! Also in Lologo area south of Juba and East of “Gieta”, there is a visible underground tunnel with all assortments of metals which could have been human abattoirs’ tools used for butchering our people. It is closer to the River! It was through that underground tunnel that the so-called collaborators and captured rebels’ dead bodies were lowered into the Nile at night- a process clandestinely dubbed as the “Final Solution” to the southern problem or “sending somebody down the Nile,” to use Roger Winter’s phrase. Thus, due to fear, utterances such as Rujaal Mafi, Keli-Baalak, Hai Jalaba were developed and made to sound as if there are something. The moment we hate nothing, then we love everything including relics of slavery and its footprints. Arabs were either bullying our women after rapes and so on, that they were doing all that, because there were no men to protect them or our women and girls were made to hide their men under beds and tell the blood-thirsty Arabs that “there are no men,” so as to be left alone. Whatever explanation there is, I do not care, provided such names are removed by the government and people of Southern Sudan, who are now free. On this occasion of writing, I am reminded of a letter Mr. Atem Yaak wrote in late 1970s in which he defied and protested Khartoum’s national honor accorded to a murderer, Arab slave tycoon of the 19th century called Zubair Rahma Mansur Pasha, whose slave Headquarters was based in Northern Bhar El Ghazal, an area now known infamously as Duem Zubair [which means Zubair’s Camp]. Through that barricaded slaves’ camp, Zubair marauded the whole of the Southern Sudan especially Western Equatoria, Central Equatoria and Bhar El Ghazal region taking slaves of our people. Our people were chained and caged in this carnivoric man’s camp, left for days like chickens, awaiting further movement to the markets in Northern Sudan, Egypt and Middle East. Thus, the Dinka and Nuer use of the derogatory term “dor” to refer to all Equatorians, a sort of fallacious generalizations, is a reminder of those moments. The term was taken from the Arabic word, “dor-ru,” which means “Move, or move on.” After Zubair Pasha and his slave expeditions had captured their slaves, in Equatoria regions, especially in the now Western Equatoria region then adjacent to greater Bhar El Ghazal region where Zubair was based, they would chain our people together and make them to move in a long line, normally beaten or coerced to trek long distances to Zubair camps in Bhar al Ghazal. The term “dor” fell into the ears of the nearby communities who mistakenly thought it was an “ethnic name” of the captured slaves. Because, the slave merchants would shout at our people, telling them “dorru”, i.e. to move on in Arabic, with a whip in the hands like someone prodding animals, people in Bhar El Ghazal in their limited knowledge of other peoples thought the people being driven were from a certain ethnic group, called “dor.” Thus subsequently, they referred to all Equatorians as “dor.” Otherwise, the word would be meaningless without this background being known. However, its usage should be shunned altogether. Understanding Atem’s censuring of the honor and continued usage of Zubair’s name in the map, this situation is akin to that of Zubair Pasha who was honored in Khartoum as a national hero for enslaving our people. There is a monument [statue] erected and a street named after and in honor of him and Bundas, another slave trader! Thus, Atem in his June 23 1979 article quoted in Y. Wawa’s book “Southern Sudan Pursuits of Self-Determination” affirmed his belief as follows: that “[...] the real problem with the map [...] is why certain names should continue to appear in modern maps of the Sudan. I am referring in particular to Deim Zubair and Said Bundas. The names which make the paper, on which they are written stink, should be erased from the map of the Sudan. [...] The Southern people who do not like indignity and humiliation must do something to remove such names. The people’s representatives in the Assembly must raise the question to the authority empowered to change names, to erase Said Bundas and Deim Zubair from the map of the Sudan and substitute them with local names from the area”. [Wawa, 2005:266,267] The negative connotations in the name did not escape the attention of our leadership. Renaming places given wrong names is part and parcel of liberation and independence. Recently, the late leader, Dr. John Garang renamed Duem Zubair [Zubair’s Camp] to Duem New Sudan [which means New Sudan’s Camp]. While I cast my 'aye' for the move, I still protested the continued use of the name Zubair. It should be discarded altogether. Of course, Bhar El Jebel was changed to Central Equatoria, Unity to Western Upper Nile, etc. In the former Zaire, Mobutu renamed all the towns, cities and areas formerly given Belgian names in a process he called Africanization of D. R. Congo. This is quintessential. Sometimes, our energies are misdirected. There are others who cast their nays against the importation of the name New Cush to Equatorian Region which is less dreadful compare to the above mentioned names. At least, SPLM was progressive when it was alone. Now, it is bogged down by disoriented conservatives accompanied by cynics, charlatans, and political wolves. I, like Atem Yaak, feel greatly offended by the continued use of such names in our liberated City, moreover, the Capital of Southern Sudan and their would-be appearance on the maps of Juba and Independent Southern Sudan. I propose if the local people do not have local names to be given to such places and if the government cannot provide appropriate names of our taste to call these areas, then they should be re-named as follows: 1. “Hai Jalaba” to “Hai Liberty” 2. “Hai Rujaal-Mafi” to “Hai Rujaal Jaai” 3. “Hai Atlabara” to “Hai Home land” 4. “Hai Lubas-Mafi” to “Hai Crown” 5. “Hai Keli-Baalak” to “Freedom Africa” Even the term “Hai” [area] should be removed, discarded and we go free from the Arab phonetics and their Arabic philological backgrounds. Other Names Being Contested In Juba. Juba has also acquired other names such as “Thong-Piny” in its correct spelling [which means “the Earth is the same”] and Jebel Dinka [Dinka Hills]. “Piny” is a universal term for all the Luo speaking groups, which means “earth”, “ground” or “the world”. Having places with such names in Juba is seen by Equatorians and Bari in particular as “land grabbing” and “plundering” by the Dinka. Nobody knows how the Dinka called this. While Southerners always talk of the need to change the Arab names, the Equatorians talk of the need to change Dinka names and they become silent on the Arab naming of the places inside Juba. Since I have decided to talk of the offensive names-changing, there is no way I can ignore this aspect of names-politics in Juba. However, I do not wish to talk about the history of land grabbing, whether it exists or not, and all sentiments associated with it such as the now defunct “Kokora,” though some might say it is alive and kicking or lurking. Juba has acted as a Southern Capital for long and this attracted all southerners into Juba, among which are the Dinka, considered the largest ethnic group in Southern Sudan. The Nuer, Zande, Chollo, Lotuka, Balanda, etc, are all here because it is where our Flag of Independence summons all her children to form one identity, a government, contrive and plan, share ideas and resources and progress together. When this finds a different meaning, people do react differently. However, let me begin with the origin of the name “Thong-Piny” which was born in late 1970s. The nearest Dinka groups to Juba are Bor Dinka and those of Yirol, Atuot, Kiec, Apaach and Aliab. Since 1960s up to 1980s, the Bor Dinka interacted with Bari and Mundari tribes along the Juba-Bor Highway. They share cattle camps with Mundari while traversing the area transacting various businesses and prodding animals. There was no significant problem registered between and among these groups. However, in late 1970s and early 1980s, political differences which sprouted between Joseph Lagu, an Equatorian and Abel Alier, a Dinka from East Bank of Bor, at a national level, presented an appearance of a “Kokora” [Bari for division], a local apartheid that emphasized: parallel ethnic existence, ethnic discrimination, and expulsion of non-Equatorian citizens from Equatoria region and Juba became an issue. The Bor business people, thought to be a menace, especially the butchers of animals were expelled from Juba town during the era and made to move to a swampy or wetland which is now “Thong-piny,” a name given the location by those Bor people evicted to mean, “Though we are chased from there, the land is the same [Thong-piny], we shall settle here”. Thong-piny was near a cattle camp outside Juba town and it was uninhabitable. Since then, the place has been known that way, as Thong-piny which was a group retort to the expulsion. While Jebel Dinka is a very recent thing especially after the CPA, it has added fuel to the already existing Juba areas naming-problem and its politics. The Hill West of Juba has been there except that large number of Dinka settled there after the peace because they could not find land within the main Juba area. However, because of being many there, outnumbering other ethnic groups in the area, those ethnic groups especially Equatoria began referring to the place as Dinka Area, Dinka Infested Area and because it is suited on a hill, they call it Dinka Hill [Jebel Dinka in Arabic]. Everybody is quite certain that no Dinka is responsible for the naming of the place that way, despite Dinkas accepting the name without protests. Because in the first place, describing the place after the Dinka was meant to be offensive. No one noticed it and it went the opposite way! -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "JFD info" group. 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