In the past two weeks, Sudan has plunged into a dire political crisis as citizens rise and protest against difficult living conditions. The uprising has so far been met with severe repression; as of date, over 40 people have been reported killed including children as young as 12 years old.
Many more Ugandan citizens continue to be targeted merely because they have something different to say; their views on how the future of Uganda should look like remain as a fainting source of hope for all of us to hold on to.
The issue in the Sudan was not that the “Black African” south needed to be liberated from the “Arab” north. Those distinctions were the product of European and Arab imperialism in the Sudan. The issue was the lasting impact of foreign imperialism in Sudan and the only way to correct this issue is to create a new national identity. Garang’s vision is even more relevant now given that the role that tribalism has played in South Sudan’s civil war.