By: Hon. Juol Nhomngek Daniel, Former MP on SPLMIO Ticket
6th Sept. 2025
The majority of our leaders in South Sudan are hypocrites. They are in denial while constantly finger-pointing at other people for doing the same things. For instance, some youth and leaders in the government always point at the Nuer people, saying that they are followers of Ngundeng and their current spiritual leaders. They have reached the extent of mocking Nuer people when they talk about Ngundeng, while in fact, they believe more in spiritual leaders and magicians than Nuer people do. They are constantly in contact with the spiritual world through their spiritual leaders and magicians. They suspect and blame each other for their misfortunes while running after the spiritual world and protection. To make matters worse, they view education as a secondary need since academic qualifications no longer work. What works most for them with instant results is spiritual qualifications. It is actually spiritual fraud.
Some transport their spiritual leaders from Bahr el Ghazal and accommodate them at their homes and hotels, as they need them for constant consultations and protection on matters of jobs and money. Whenever they hear rumors of being removed from the government or when they want to get lucrative income-generating projects, they seek support from the strongest spiritual leaders and magicians. Ladies and gentlemen smoke their targets with spiritual powers to get money or other valuable things; they bury the photos of their rivals and even go under deep oceans for spiritual consultations and directives. Some even use spiritual powers in an attempt to capture the presidency through a spiritual coup d'état. The SPLM-IG and SPLM House are the political shrines for spiritual powers, and that was the reason the SPLM House got burnt—because the spirits were fighting inside. The new spirit in the end defeated the old spirit. Some brilliant SPLM-IG cadres that can run this country are staying idle because they have been buried spiritually and their destiny tied down or mutilated.
The spiritual powers are now costly, as the hyperinflation of South Sudan has caught up with them. The less money one pays, the fewer spiritual powers are given to him or her. South Sudan has become the headquarters of spirits, whether good or bad. The leaders and other interested individuals who have become influential have extended their ranks to spiritual realms. Hence, the line between magicians and traditional spiritual powers is blurred. There are no longer any differences between magicians and traditional natural spiritual leaders, as what matters is what can produce quick results. The powers in different spiritual worlds are fused and used concurrently, as what they look for is what can produce instant results. This explains why some of our leaders go or delegate some people to go on their behalf to Al-Damāzīn, a town in southeastern Sudan; Raga County in Western Bahr el Ghazal State; Warrap State; Lakes State; Mombasa in Kenya; Nigeria; Congo; and India.
I believe one of the causes of the bankruptcy of the country is the investment in spiritual powers and protection. Our leaders are spending more on procuring spiritual powers and protection than on education and health services. Our traditional spiritual leaders and churches are no longer relevant except for those born against churches that produce instant results. According to the statistics that I have, the majority of those who go to Al-Damāzīn and other areas that I have already listed above are Dinka cliques in power. They believe that what gave them the power to protect their positions and resources are personal spiritual leaders and magicians. Spiritual leaders and magicians are also their defense lawyers. Whenever they face life-threatening situations or anything that threatens their positions, they directly call their spiritual guardians, who direct them on what to do and how to behave. The eating habits of our leaders have been shaped by the directives from their spiritual guardians. The role of education and academia is slowly being replaced by spiritual qualifications. Academic qualifications are just for formality in South Sudan. We no longer work on merit and academic qualifications.
The top leaders in government at all levels are more powerful spiritually than the traditional spiritual leaders and magicians who gave them those powers. Unfortunately, the leaders in the government and their supporters are quick to point fingers at the Nuer people, saying that the reason they are resisting government policies is because of Ngundeng, who said that one of their sons would become the President of South Sudan. Unfortunately, they tend to overlook the fact that their policies and attitudes towards Nuer people are worse than the Arabs' used to be towards Southerners during the liberation war. The government officials from the SPLM-IG negatively view the Nuer, not as citizens of South Sudan; they term them as terrorists, meaning they can be destroyed by the state without any regret. Thus, the Nuer people are the target because of the notion that they are not citizens but tribes that must be dominated or destroyed if they resist domination, so that they do not take power.
Therefore, the SPLM-IG's government officials have come up with the plan to treat them as tribes to target them as a tribal group, not as citizens of South Sudan. I do not know what those particular Dinka cliques who call the Nuer people terrorists think about the power of South Sudan. Do they think that they will rule South Sudan forever? They have not yet understood that South Sudan is the country for all, and what can keep us together is law, not force; trust, not discrimination and control.
As a matter of fact, the conflict in South Sudan, though it is a national conflict for reforms, has been reduced by the SPLM-IG into a tribal conflict, and all policies of the government are aimed at the Nuer people. This is because they are seen as threats both physically and spiritually, as promised by Ngudeng. It is the same reason some of us who are with Nuer people in politics are sometimes described as followers of Ngudeng, though we only believe that Nuer are citizens of South Sudan and have the right to take power of the country, provided that we have good politics guided by law.
We joined politics under the Nuer leadership because we viewed them as leaders. Though they believe in Ngundeng, it is normal, as others also believe in Mombasa, India, and in traditional powers, but their belief does not define us. Rather, we are defined by South Sudanese identity. However, the cliques in the SPLM-IG from Dinka backgrounds are trying very hard to isolate Nuer in politics and sell them to the public. They are playing politics of both co-opting those who can accept their view and presenting their cause as a national agenda, and isolating those Nuer leaders who need South Sudan to be run based on justice, liberty, and prosperity.
It is a fact that the leaders of the SPLM-IG are involved in different spiritual worlds and corruption, but they always portray the Nuer people who believe in their traditions as people who are causing problems because of their beliefs. Some of the SPLM-IG's leaders had at one time gone to some of the strongest spiritual leaders in the world to destroy Dr Riek Machar because of the fear they hold towards him, simply because of power. Fortunately, they did not succeed.
The SPLM-IG's leaders and their supporters cannot deny the fact that they are in constant contact with magicians and traditional spiritual leaders currently. If I were to ask them the same question that Jesus asked the Jewish leaders concerning the woman who was caught in adultery, as it is found in the Gospel of John 7:53-8:1, they would disappear one by one.
Let us agree that magicians and spiritual leaders are the main source of our crisis because we decide to use them negatively instead of making them part of the solution, peace, and nation-building. They are being used for self-destruction.
END
Grammar errors edited. Abunerry, Ayella John Bosco.
Comments
Post a Comment