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Riek Machar

Perspective Stephen Mpofu
“When two elephants fight, the grass suffers,” goes a well known saying valid to a large extent and with tragic connotations when applied to human life.Today, in Africa’s fledgling state of South Sudan two political jumbos are in combat and the fluffy grass is burning with palls of smoke billowing into the sky to try to draw the attention of international fire brigades to move in swiftly and put out the conflagration before everything in that world-forsaken new state is burnt to cinders.

The question that must be on the lips of many watching a looming humanitarian crisis in that oil-rich country is no doubt about why those out there in the global village with the wherewithal to restore sanity and order to save the lives of South Sudanese — which are sacrosanct, liked those of other human beings elsewhere — remain perched on the sidelines and twiddling their fingers as if the fighting in South Sudan is between flies that are inconsequential as far as human consideration is concerned.

In a way, the fighting in which government troops arranged against rebels led by former South Sudan’s Vice President Riek Machar amounts, for lack of better terminology, to an act of self-immolation rather than of self-determination, as thousands of innocent people are dying, are displaced or left to the vagaries of starvation.

What is worse, humanitarian relief groups — the Medecins Sans Frontiers (MSF) and the International Committee for the Red Cross (ICRC) — reported last week that they had pulled out their staff from Leer town in Unity State where fighting has been raging for control of the oil-rich state and where China has vested interests in the oil.

It is understood that about a million South Sudanese have been displaced and that thousands among those who have remained at home are running out of food and medical care as a result of the fighting that regional governments have failed to bring to an end in meetings held between President Salva Kiir and his former deputy, in Ethiopia and under the auspices of the East African community.

But with the stalemate known to the rest of the world, why is the United Nations dragging its feet and issuing warnings that remain ineffectual, instead of jumping into the fray with troops to restore and maintain the peace, and in that way save South Sudan from complete disintegration?

And why, also, has not the African standby army, so loquaciously talked about by leaders on the continent, not been loosed to cut its teeth by restoring peace and stability and save many precarious lives in South Sudan?

The Muslim north, Sudan, from which the South seceded must be watching developments in the breakaway colony with obvious, callous interest that peace-lovers elsewhere in Africa must be forgiven for believing that the international community also shares that value; otherwise why not move in speedily to get Salva Kiir and Riek Machar unlock their political ivories to give their new nation a fresh start into a brave new future?

What is going on in South Sudan and political unrests in other parts of Africa will no doubt remind many who enter memory lane of tribal wars that gave ancient Africa a primitive image in the eyes of a so-called “civilised world”.

Those wars caused economic stagnation where they were fought so that the combative tribes remained divided and weak for white imperialists in the stampede for Africa to subdue and literally enslave the Africans.

In light of that, the political upheavals in South Sudan and elsewhere pin a tag as it were that portrays Africa in the 21st century as still being “primitive”.

Or has South Sudan, because of its immense oil wealth, been turned into a turf for a silent political battle between the West — which rushes troops and arms to conflict zones especially in Europe — and China whose economic presence in South Sudan must be causing consternation in the imperialist West?

If the answer to the question is in the positive, this would suggest that the West would prefer that oil in South Sudan remains unexploited in order to fix the Chinese whose cutting-edge economic prowess is no doubt a worry as it must be causing considerable discomfort to those known for a penchant for dominating the world militarily, economically and politically.

Be that as it may, Africa has certainly come of age, politically, and leaders who believe that only they have an incontestable mandate to rule, and are thus disposed to dictatorial tendencies by clinging onto power at all costs, ought to be shoved in the shade by peaceful means so that others take turns to use their energy, wisdom, knowledge and patriotism to enhance peace and stability as the only environments conducive to unimpeded economic, social and political development that fills the bellies of the masses and puts a smile on their faces.

The masses who will always possess the political trump card should use that instrument to ensure that democracy, not tyranny, reigns for as long as the human race remains on this earth.

Long live South Sudan with damnation on those who substitute the politics of chieftainship for the politics of democracy and good governance.