the any-anya rebel movement, which started in 1964, assigned her assigned to collect monthly contributions from well wishers in juba. Rebel reps would present a blank paper stamped with the Anya-nya seal, but without any wordings – the cue that they had been officially sent – before She would hand over the money to them to take to Uganda.
Author
EMMANUELA LIYONG/ ROSE KEJI BENJAMIN
Reporting for these series is funded by the Norwegian People’s Aid (NPAID) through the Female Journalists Network (FJN) as part of a project to bring women’s voices to the fore. Badru Mulumba is the project editor
Agnes Poni Lukudu has lived a life of firsts. But the refugee student who would later attend Uganda’s preeminent girls high school, Gayaza, and become the first female governor in Africa, and first female ambassador and cabinet minister in the Sudan, enrolled in elementary school by accident. The second of 7 children, born in Juba in 1945 as Agnes Poni Salvatore, to a medical assistant and pharmacist, she grew up a tomboy, embodied in rough character from playing with boys in the villages and in Juba.
“I was taking care of calves and I was among boys. I was a fighter- fought a lot. If two people were fighting, I [would[ fight on behalf of the weak. Throughout my life, if someone aggressed me I paid back.”
When she was 6 years old, her father sent her to her uncle’s village. The daughter of the uncle, Marrela Poni, a teacher in Rejaf, requested that she be sent alongside Marrela’s daughter to her home. When she was 10, she would escort Marrela’s daughter to class. Every day pupils were tasked to recite the timetable before entering the classroom. “I knew it. Then it happened. One of the girls was asked. She kept quiet. So, I shouted from behind, telling her the answer. This was my second year.”
The teacher asked, ‘Who is that girl?’
Told that Agnes was the daughter of teacher Marrela, the teacher wanted to know why Agnes was not enrolled in school, yet she was clever and requested that they put Agnes in school. “That time the school was about to break for the holiday and they put me inside the class in second year because I could recite the timetable by heart and I didn’t know how to write. Up to now my handwriting isn’t good because I missed the first year. Because they wanted to please me, they said I was promoted.” But her mother said she wasn’t supposed to be in school. “The daughter of my aunt told her, “This girl will cause [you] trouble with her father”
People in the village wanted me to grow up in the village so as to marry me to a rich Mundari man and bring more cows. I was happy about that – to bring wealth to the family, but my cousin insisted that I go with her until Salvatore called my mother. That is how I went to school. Many times I ran away and my aunt brought me back.”
Salvatore was the father.
A Life of leadership
Her journey into politics began in secondary school. For a week, the school latrine had not been cleaned, forcing them to revolt and force the school to close for a week until a cleaner was hired. During the Anyanya rebellion, which started in 1964, the movement assigned her to collect the money from well wishers in Juba every end month. Rebel representatives would present a blank paper stamped with the Anya-nya seal, but without any word written on the paper. That stamped paper was the cue that they were officially sent. She would hand over the money to them to take to Uganda. Her political inspiration was Hilary Logali was an inspiration. “He was full of love and he was a politician. He used to bring the Bari community together and give advice on how to behave, be nice and love.” Logali encouraged girl-child education because there were no educated girls. He was the reason she joined the National Congress Party. From him, Agnes learned to value good relationships, friendship, love, sincerity, sympathy for the poor, truth, and keeping one’s. In fact, to this day, Agnes too wants to open a school for girls because girls, she says, can change lives.
“Girls are sensitive. I think that girls should be taken care of, even if they are not educated, they should be given priority; they are so tender and I think a girl is full of life”
Her rise in politics was swift, but unexpected. She says: “I didn’t know I would become a governor. At first when I was named a minister, I refused. “I didn’t want to face the politics of men who admire a woman not for the good, but for selfish reasons. So you have to fight against that. I fought.“ She had to keep her guard up at all times. “Don’t embarrass yourself because you will get antagonized throughout. Men who are jealous will employ themselves to destroy you. Those women who allow themselves [to be used by men] there are some men who talk about them.” Sometimes, though, it can help to be a woman, she says, because some men want women to succeed simply because they are women, “Some will say, ‘let us stand with her because women are tender’.”
But she soon found out that people didn’t respect women in politics.
“In politics every wicked man thinks that the woman is there for them; to go to the bedroom. You have to be careful… The thing I hate in politics is that even a colleague who knows that you are intelligent still thinks you are good for a bed.”
In fact, when she joined politics, the family first rejected this, insisting that the husband ought to be the one to join politics. Among the few who could write, Agnes, instead, saw her position cemented because when authorities, mostly Arabs from the north, visited, they would look her up and ask her to write and take minutes. And women would always come to ask her to explain policies and concepts.
The women saw success in her life. Some found inspiration. What many didn’t understand that her had attained all this through sheer grit. She met her future husband in a refugee camp, where she exceled in class to join Gayaza High School, a preeminent girls’ institution in Uganda. The relationship with her husband deepened when they returned to Sudan following the 1972 peace agreement, but family challenges always presented themselves. The first challenge was that her parents did [not[ approve of her marriage because the husband didn’t have wealth and cows. “If you marry a rich man, you can even sit on fire, but years later the fire may flame out. But if you marry a poor man, as they say, you will raise the children [well].” It reached a point when the family didn’t like her children ‘because of the tribalism that also led the parents not to accept my husband’. She, herself, is the mother of ten, 7 of whom survive to this day. Her husband’s family and relatives didn’t like her either. “But we loved ourselves”. Later, when she started brewing alcohol and bringing clothes and gold from Khartoum for sale, the relatives started to love her.
Her last word
“Qualify yourself. Get the knowledge. Speak knowledge. Teach and lift yourself.
“I want to encourage mothers to enroll daughters in school.
If Agnes, who grew up in the village, became the first woman governor in Africa, north of the Sahara, anybody can become a governor. I went to school at 11 years old. Refugee life was very hard.I want women to not give up on careers.
”To mothers: Take care of the daughters the same way as the sons.
“To those who live in poor families: Don’t get discouraged.
“To every woman leader: try to get chances for women to continue with education. When you continue your education you will get the courage to do the things I have done. Don’t allow your daughters to marry young.
“I want to say to men: treat your family equally, both girls and boys. Some men have problems with their daughters and they think that their daughters should stay at home ”.
Education and early career
- Gayaza High School, Uganda
- BA Arts and History, University of Khartoum, Sudan
- Teacher, Juba Girls SS, early 1970s
- Assistant Director for Educational Planning, Ministry of Education, Equatoria Region
- Director for Nutrition Education, for a WHO/UNICEF funded project
- Established UNICEF’s Toto Chan Centre for Child Trauma
Leadership in Sudan
- Member of Assembly (Equatoria Region);
- Member of the Transitional National Assembly, Omdurman;
- Minister of Information, Culture & Religious Affairs (Equatoria Region);
- First female governor (Governor of Bahr-el-Jebel State, now Central Equatoria);
- first female national cabinet minister (Minister of Labor, Khartoum;
- First female ambassador: Sudanese Ambassador to the DR Congo and Angola;
- Presidential Advisor on Development & African Affairs, Khartoum;
Leadership: Southern Sudan
- Presidential Advisor on Development (Government of Southern Sudan);
- Minister for Wildlife, Natural Conservation & Tourism (Government of Southern Sudan);
- Minister for Transport (first cabinet of the Republic of South Sudan);
- leader of a political party, National Congress Party.
Honorary awards
- Doctorate in Political Science, University of Juba,
- Doctorate in Women Development, Sudan University of Science & Technology,
- Ohio Honorary Peace Search Certificate,
- Honorary Citizenship of Columbus, Ohio.
