—BY THE LIBRARIAN—
–The hotheaded, impatient company commander, Captain Salah Abdel Magid, lit the fire by shooting his driver when he refused to get into his vehicle. That initial shot sent waves of fire throughout the south where the situation was already explosive. Captain Salah’s action drove the soldiers mad.
Within the Sudan, the people of North are differentiated from those of the South not only by religious beliefs but also by practically every other characteristic. Both people differ in their conception of the universe. The value incompatibilities of both groups became more pronounced as the Northerners attempted to use their monopoly of state power to impose their culture upon the Southerners. The Arabs despised the African cultures in the South, called the African blacks infidels, and considered them as fit only to be converted to Islam and to be assimilated into the Arab fold by all conceivable means not excluding a jihad (religious war). The Southern Sudanese resented vehemently the policies of Arab acculturation and were determined to defend their identity.
Historically, in most areas of the world where Arab Moslems made their presence felt, Islamic hierarchies dealt with strangers in their midst either by holding them in tribute as a subject population or, alternatively, by converting them. In the Sudan, the invading Arabs from Saudi Arabia, across the red sea, and from Northern Africa, by way of Egypt, successfully imposed their religion on the indigenous people in the Northern Sudan and, through intermarriages; they eventually established their hegemony over the natives and culturally assimilated them into Arabism. They tried without success to extend their influence to the south in the pre-colonial times. Their slave raids into the region coupled with brutal attempts to establish their domain and to launch Islamization left unforgettable memories on the people of the South. And there is no basis of a common nationality.
News item
On 3 March 1955, the workers rioted in Nzara, a textile town in Western Equatoria, and there were violent demonstrations by the Ansar in Khartoum to protest the visit of the Egyptian President, General Mohammed Neguib. A general strike in Juba followed, and the Police joined the strikers, which was very unusual. These were early warnings of the impending storm.
The storm struck at the garrison town of Torit on 18 August 1955 when a company of the Equatoria Corps refused to obey the orders of their northern commander. He was trying to carry out instructions to move his company to Juba to catch the northbound steamer, allegedly to participate in the Independence Celebrations. The troops were hesitant and suspicious, since they were ordered to turn in their personal weapons. They did not believe their northern officers when they told them that they would be issued arms on arrival in Khartoum.
The hotheaded, impatient company commander, Captain Salah Abdel Magid, lit the fire by shooting his driver when he refused to get into his vehicle. That initial shot sent waves of fire throughout the south where the situation was already explosive. Captain Salah’s action drove the soldiers mad. His vehicle was at the head of the line, and he jumped in, taking advantage of the fact that his men were unarmed, and sped to Juba.
The soldiers then broke into the depot, armed themselves and then attacked the other northern officers. They killed all they could find and went on the rampage in the town, hunting for any who had escaped. Later, they turned on northern Sudanese civilians and killed men, women and children indiscriminately, identifying them their dress, hair and by the color of skin.
Other auxiliary forces later joined the mutinous soldiers in massacring northern Sudanese. In some areas, the mob joined in as well as wild rumours spread that all southerners in the north had been killed.
The situation caught the fourth year Rumbek students at Lainya. They were on their way to Juba to catch the northbound steamer on an annual fourth year tour of the north. The Assistant Headmaster, Ustaz El Naziir, accompanied by his wife and young daughter, took the students for the tour. The Geography teacher and Isaac Eli, the sports teacher, an old boy of the school assisted him. El Naziir, his daughter and the Geography teacher were butchered by an angry mob at the road junction in Lainya while Isaac Eli and the fourth year boys watched in helpless panic. Strangely, the mob spared Mrs. El Naziir, but she suffered the agony of seeing her husband and young daughter murdered.
This dreadful news reached Rumbek on unexpected return of Isaac Eli, the only southern teacher at the school with the fourth year boys who were forced to discontinue their journey to the north and return to Rumbek. A cloud of fear blanketed the school and the whole town .Rumor after rumor spread like a bush-fire throughout the south as news of those dreadful events spread from Equatoria to the adjacent provinces of Bahr el Ghazal and Upper Nile. I shared the sentiments of our people, feeling that there was cause for the uprising, although we were all saddened to hear of the killing of our Assistant Headmaster, his daughter and the Geography teacher. Both men were gentlemen, academics who took no interest in political matters. Years later I began to feel ashamed that we southern Sudanese could behave like that, I reckoned that events blotted our reputation.
— This and last week’s column are excerpts from Abel Alier’s Book: Too Many Agreements Dishonored
