Bundled onto a truck, paraded through Khartoum, and stoned, South Sudan’s only female governor Cleto, rose to bridge divides

For Sarah Cleto Rial, political activism started at the onset of shari’a law in the Sudan, in the 1980s. On her way to school, she was arrested , bundled onto a truck, paraded around town, stoned, and humiliated. Three decades later, she is South Sudan’s only female governor. In this conversation with KEJI ROSE BENJAMIN, CLETO talks music, life in college, political activism, family and her ambitions for Western Bahr el Ghazal state

ROSE: What do you like most?

CLETO: (Laughing). I love so many things. I will not say [they are] my hobbies. But these are things that I love. I love cooking. I try to cook different things. I have not been cooking, may be for the first year since I became the governor, but I always want to go to the kitchen and do something for myself. But I also tell my helper what to cook and how to cook it. My boys love my food, whether it tastes good or not. They like to eat it.

I love to listen to different kinds of music – sometimes, like socially, revolutionary songs. Those are songs that I listen to. Bob Marley has always been my number one singer and, even at some moments, I still listen to his songs, music – which has inspired me in a lot days in things that I do – I remember when I was at college even. I love to sing. I am not a singer, but I loved to sing at College. We, as students, during some campaigns, especially that time because of apartheid movements, we used to organize students to call for the freedom of Nelson Mandela, and there were songs that we sung, especially during the war, sung by Bob Marley. I remember we sung as a group, even one of my professors told me that, ‘You have a very good voice and future in terms of music’. I had so many encouraging messages from my professors. I remember, as a student in college, my professor, who taught political science, the late Dr. Samson Osara, always, when he read my essays, he would tell me that I have a very good future in terms of politics and public activism. I have been listening to these voices since I was at school.

I read a lot. I socialize with people. And, of course, I like dancing. I can’t sit, if I see people dancing – I want to get up and dance.

ROSE: What impacted you to become who you are now ?

CLETO: Yeah. Sometimes the things that are in the person – may be just natural- but things that you also learn along the way. But I have been active in terms of organizing socially. I have been very active during my students’ life and since high school. I was pretty active even in some of students’ movement in organizing in our neighborhood. Even during the time of [Jaafar] Nimeiry and the uprising, I was involved in organizing among the youth. When I joined the University, I also joined the association – the students association. I became the Secretary of Finance of the Juba University Southern Students’ Association. I was also active in faith-based groups, such as St. Augustine Society, by Juba University Bible Studies. So, I was kind of very active in different things. But since my university years, I have been speaking out a lot about the importance of women’s participation and education for girls and upbringing of girls because growing — and even when I was going to schools – there were not so many girls in our school. But I remember, we, the few girls at St. Joseph’s school, we used to compete with the boys. Those of us who used to compete have always been in the first ten and the fourth. The three boys, I remember, my brother was with me in the class – my brother would be the first, and another boy the second, and another boy the third, and I would be the fourth. Now, I wouldn’t go with those kinds of ranking because, sometimes, they demoralize the children. But that was the level of competing with boys because we wanted to portray that women, girls can also succeed and they can also lead competing with boys.

The school had been advocating when I was at the university about the importance of girls’ and women’s’ promotion, and education of girls. When I came to choose my specialization, I loved math from the beginning. That’s why, [I] kind of link so much to statistics and demography. And even colleagues were talking, saying, ‘No! Girls don’t go to statistics – they go to political science – not even economics. Yeah! In fact, I like math, but I also took it as a challenge because we were told that, ‘Oh, girls, whenever female students join statistics they, run away, or they give up at the end, but I entered and I finished, just trying to show people that I can do it. But my love for mathematics is there. I was discouraged not to take statistics because I am female. But I took it and I did well at the end. During my year, there were only four of us – they were three other female students and I. We even formed a bond in the college and, finally, we worked together, supported one another. I even had a very good group; so, we exchanged our knowledge. We helped one another.

After college, I became part of many youth associations. I didn’t [look at] myself so much as a politician, but I was active in different platforms and groups even with my colleagues from northern Sudan, in terms of organizing. So, all of this activism, as a student, is what instilled in me – in terms of becoming a politician – I think a kind of moved more into politics when I was in Khartoum in the early 90s after the implementation of the Sharia Laws. I became a victim. I was arrested and even put in an open truck. I was a student going to my college, just like every day. I was paraded in Khartoum – that time when someone was arrested, you would hear a lot of degrading words being used against you; people were throwing stones at me in an open truck until I was brought to the civil court. At the civil court I was interrogated, humiliated, and I was released at the end. I explained that I was a student. At that time, they wanted me together with my brother. Other people were also arrested on the way. I really felt humiliated. I know there were some other girls, other women – I even met South Sudanese who suffered worse than what I went through. But that it was that kind of treatment or mistreatment that triggered my political activism. And since then, I started becoming politically active.

QN: Thank you so much. And who is your role model?

Yeah. Hahaha! Walai! I love my parents. I follow my parents. I took so many things from my parents – my father is a political activist. I think that one could be natural. That is, I feel like there is something already in me because my father was active politically. Now, coming here, so many people had come to know me as the daughter of Cletus and Rial because they knew those days of his activism as well as politics. So my father did not finish his race. But I am here to finish his race.

My mother is an educator. She has been a teacher. She was even the headmistress in many of the schools, including St. Joseph’s Primary School, where I was, Juba Buluk English School, and primary schools in Khartoum. She is well known as Mama Theresa Samuel Ibrahim. She just passed on recently in June, 2021. She instilled education in all of us as her children, but she also encouraged education of all the children, especially women. She did a lot of developmental projects for promotion of women. There is an organization called Women Training and Promotion Association (WOTAP). She was the founder of WOTAP, and did a lot of trainings for women. So, she wanted to ensure that girls were educated and that they continued to progress wherever they went with their education and work and, generally, in terms of women’s empowerment. So my mother also played a lot in bringing me up where I am.

QN: So, you being the only female governor in South Sudan, what are the challenges that you are facing?

I know, men kind of a bit hustle (laughter)  men hustle a lot, but women sometimes feel reserved in terms of the way they address things. But being a female governor, at the beginning there was no acceptance from my constituent, itself: That why bring a female governor – and all of that that women cannot do it. People who [didn’t] accept it, they have come to a point where I presented myself as a capable person and I am able to do it, I brought people together, I reached out to different constituents and even the voices that did not accept, they doubted. There are still those voices that don’t accept a female to be the leader – these are the challenges. But in terms of navigating the system, I have been able to navigate the system and even been able to bridge people closer. And I feel, as a female governor, there were certain things a male would have done, because the way that we approach issues is: women are tender in ensuring that there is no violence; women are mothers. Even if you have so many children at home, some of them will be good, some of them need some discipline, but you still bring all of them together. So, I cannot find it the same way. I have people who are tough, who take things wisely, but then I bring them altogether because there were some moments in my governorship right now, if I did not handle it with wisdom and the heart of women, Western Bahr Ghazal would have been in a different [state] right now. There are still those elements – those voices that are insisting on instability in the State. Thank God that it is stable – myself and my cabinet and all the [members of the] security committee, security organs, directors and the officers, were able to come together to collaborate, where we want to ensure that there is stability in the State. So, we put our heads together, but it also requires the leadership that doesn’t separate [has no internal divisions].

I am there serving the people – the servant of Western Bahr el Ghazal.

I am there on the party ticket, but I am working as a civil citizen – I am there to serve the people. I am not going to be working as a political party, especially in the government. We have our political party, insisting we need the party, but when we come in the government, we work as one government that brings people together.

QN: What challenges do you face?

I am a member of the SPLM-IO party (Dr. Riek Machar-led opposition group). So there are challenges. As a female, I still feel there are so many challenges. Sometimes females are very timid, they don’t hustle so much, and they are kind of humble themselves and sit in the back. But sometimes humility – personally, I take the bible or religion very seriously my faith – I pray a lot and I humble myself. As God said, humble yourself and you will be elevated (Matthew 23:12).  And that spirit, I also bring it to work. Sometimes at work (smile) you are very humble, you will lose a lot of your opportunities, but that does not mean that I give up – [there is] still time – my ways to hustle very nicely, but not hustle violently. But there are challenges that are general, especially in terms of trying to support the cabinet. We don’t have enough resources. Women always find difficulty in terms of gaining resources.

I don’t have so many resources in terms of supporting even the cabinet.

With those things, if I had not been able to provide them in a timely manner, people would still say, ‘IO, if it’s a man, it could have been different. Because it is a female, she is not able to do this or that’. But most of the things – for me, [it is about] serving the people.

QN: What are your achievements so far since the time you were appointed as the governor of Western Bahr al Ghazal State?

Looking to different areas – like in the area of security, we will be saying, [it is a] huge achievement that the security in the State is very stable. And we have been able to achieve so many things due to the stability. When I assumed my office, I started visiting different parts of the area. We have areas that are under the control of the SPLM-IO (former rebel group) within the State. But we have initiated that we have to visit these areas. So we come as a whole government, including the army, the police, and national security, go and visit the people in the area. Some of these [visits are] used to build confidence, to build trust, and to bring people close together. And, I also visited the neighborhoods in the State. In Wau town, when I went there, people were so divided. You would find even the neighborhoods are divided. [In] one area you would find mostly Dinka and [in] other areas, mostly people from the other tribes from Western Bahr al Ghazal, and [in] other areas, [you] would find mostly Luo. So, what we are doing is to bring all of these differences together. So, I visited all the areas. And through the activities that we have done – sports that would bring people together – that time there used to be [a] football tournament – they used to call it the Governor’s Cup. But when I went there, the minister of sports came. I told him that, Okay, let’s change it, instead of the Governor’s Cup, I am stepping down from the other one, let’s call it the Peace Cup. That’s where people go watch the football – the parents, and that brings us together.

Western Bahr el Ghazal during the ‘80s or ‘70s was known with sports. Even that time, Bahr el Ghazal used to get all the Cups whether it is soccer or other sports. SO, Wau was the center of Bahr el Ghazal, so we used to number one in sports. That is where the phrase Wau NAR came because Wau was always number one (laughter) in all the sports and used to beat Equatoria and Upper Nile. So, we used to be Wau Nar, Juba Fijet, Malakal Fitim. So, we want to bring those glories back to the state to bring people.

In working with my cabinet, I tell my cabinet, each minister is a minister of peace. If you are [minister of] Trade and Industry, you are for peace. If you are the minister of finance, you are working for peace. So, in our plan, vision is all about building prosperous Western Bahr el Ghazal State. That is one achievement, especially in the area of security, peace and social cohesion. If you can bring people together, they can trust one another, [and] a lot of things will happen. Even at this time, in terms of security, we have a Christmas tournament that has already started, and it is played at night. So you can see people coming out at night, going to the playground until may be 11pm or midnight. So during the Ramadan months, we also had, like, a nightly tournament. So, this is an indication that there is security in the State. This is a big achievement. We also had achievements in the area of agriculture. Most of the population of Western Bahr el Ghazal is farmers and also cattle keepers. There has been so much produce this year. You go to the market, you find so many products. That came because there is stability.

There is peace, people can go to their farms and do what they want to do. And that one was one of my main priorities: that the security is very important so that the people can sleep with no gunshots.

We have proved that – people can go to their farm and nobody disturbs [and] children can go to school and come back homes safely. The youth [are] doing their activities and they are not being harassed. There is no even fighting among the youth. So, a number of achievements came because there is stability, there is security. 

One of my priorities is also around social cohesion. That is, bringing people together, building our social network, and leaving in harmony. I also focus on visiting, going to different neighborhoods, talking to people, listening to them and hearing what they want. My place is open, but sometimes with many meetings, it is difficult to meet everyone.

In terms of the economy, with so many products in the markets, we have also been able to bring down the prices of a lot of the commodities. But that is sometimes impacted by the conditions of the roads. It is very difficult during rainy seasons to get products. Some of the roads are national projects, but we have been pushing the government to fix those roads because during the rainy season it is [difficult] to get [to] the area. But we have also done a lot of activities in construction of internal roads and other feeder roads that connect that connect the Payams and Bomas.

QN: What is your major achievement?

I will give an example because, as I mentioned, I was resettled in the United States. Since I was resettled, I was always working on programs that give back to South Sudan. I was working with an international organization – My Sister’s Keeper – in the US, but their work is in South Sudan. So, I have been traveling back and forth. They wanted to educate girls and empower women. So, through that work, we built a school in Akon, Gogrial West County. We also did a lot of work training women, capacity building for women, especially in the area of peace building. So, I am tying this [in] because a lot of work that I did when I was in the US, balancing life with the children – I traveled to South Sudan and left the children back in the United State, and it is still the same case now. It has been manageable in terms of taking the children early to school and going to work and coming back and taking the children back again. I also have to make a lot of arrangements with support from family members to provide child care. In the US, life is different. I cook for the whole week (Laughter) and put in the fridge. But it is about managing because now I am in South Sudan and my children are still in the US. I have to call them every day to find how they are doing. But we can always manage.

As females, we have so many hands – one is cooking, the other one is holding the child, and the other one is doing the laundry. So, it has to been tough, but I feel it is manageable.

QN: What kind of skills helped you to become who you are ?

Education is really my key tool. Some people say that education is your mother and your father; you have to hold onto it. So, I believe that education helped me a lot. Also, when I was working with My Sisters Keeper, I did a lot of public speaking. So, I did a lot of fundraising; it made me to connect and network with people at different levels. A lot of trainings for women, I attended. So we do a lot of listening with understanding. There are so many skills that so many people don’t have, even the politicians – people take sides. We need to listen to one another:

Someone says, Oh! I am from this party, so I don’t want to deal with anyone from the other party. That one will not help.

I just want to mention that I have public speaking skills, and also other trainings that I had as female leader.

QN: What is your message to the women out side there ?

My advice to women is, [don’t] be afraid of something that you want to achieve – don’t give up. We should not feel tired. Keep going. As women, we are afraid of politics. We should go for it. I encourage women to join political parties because there a lot of opportunities in terms of representation. If they are not part of the political parties, they will not be there. Here I am, a member of the SPLM-IO, but I am here as a woman. I and other women leaders, we are representing the voices of women. Sometimes if we are sitting among men, even in our own political party, may[be] the voices of men will override our voices, but that shouldn’t make us keep quiet. We want everything to be perfect before we put it out. But I want to tell you, just put it as it is. Don’t try to polish.

QN: Any thing that I have not asked and you want let the public know?

I want to encourage families to invest in education of children, especially for girls. I want to discourage parents from giving [away] their children, especially girls, to fight gender-based violence against women because the children are the future of the nation. Girls, most of the time, due to early pregnancies or marriage don’t [back] back to school. Girls should be educated and supported throughout their college until they can even go further. Education is the future of any nation.