There are two levels of intelligentsia in our country, with distinct historical backgrounds.
Thought for today: … .The history of education in our land – like all other indigenous institutions – were destroyed by the oppressors and rearranged to serve their interest. The concept of a ‘universal education’ is a falasey we must understand as South Sudanese intellectuals. There are as many types of education, as there are societies. Education is the way in which a society conditions the individual to be a part of the group, one who understands the cultural values of the community. In South Sudan today, we understand “education” as a purely academic institution; however, it is also – perhaps more so – a social institution.
Many of our compatriots have been ‘chewed up and spat out’ – as it were – by foreign education systems and have never used their knowledge in the service of our societies, nor for their own personal development. These educated South Sudanese often come out the other end of the foreign education system, fully socialized – sometimes better than the citizen – in the foreign culture of the country in which they had their schooling. This has resulted in our intellectuals being ‘amputated’ from their ‘origins and culture’, and they often look down on our indigenous societies, who they perceive as savages. This is a legacy of colonial education – and despite the official end of colonialism – coloniality contimues through education. The system of education was not revolutionized and continues to be an ‘instrument of privilege’ for gaining favour with those who control the ‘means of production’.
In pre-colonial times, young women and young men were separated from the society for a given period and educated in the cultural values of the given society. This was where Indigenous Knowledge Systems (IKS) – developed since prehistoric times – were imparted to the next generation as a means of survival.The advent of colonialism and the slave trade in our land caused a break in cultural continuity and a loss of IKS. In addition, the devastating slave raids resulted in the isolation of many of our societies and with it their regression into ignorance and magic. The South Sudanese intellectuals have been socialized and educated in the curricula of the former oppressors, a colonial education. The oppressor would never give the oppressed a liberating education, it is a contradiction to borrow the ideas of Paulo Freire. This has turned many of our citizens into ‘intllectual mercenaries’, agents in our own destruction.
The history of the modern education system in our land, is rooted in colonial history and culture. The first schools – as is the case world wide – came out of the religious institutions. The Muslim invaders brought madrassa, while the Christian invaders introduced the missionary schools. Both systems taught that our peoples had no history and that we should be thankful for our oppression, because it gave us Abrahamic religions. The great professor, Johm Henrik Clarke, once said: … “religion is the organization of spirituality into something that became the hand maiden of conquerors. Nearly all religions were brought to people and imposed on people by conquerors, and used as the framework to control their minds. There is none more lost in our country, than those of us who call ourselves the intelligentsia, we are the Turuk Col – ‘Black Ottoman Turks’ also known as the Turkiya – who the great, Deng’kur, foresaw would one day become a new oppressor in our land.
There are two levels of intelligentsia in our country and we must be become conscious of them and how they differ. The first level was created from those who collaborated with our oppressors and became their surrogates in the slave trading companies. It was the children of these collaborators who had the opportunity to go to school first, starting the process of uneven development in our land. The curriculum during those days – the Victorian period – was a ‘white supremacist’ curriculum which taught such outdated theories as the ‘curse of Ham’. The education system has since progressed in the world and we have a new intellectual – even in Europe – who have rejected the pseudo knowledge and sciences of the Victorian era. Unfortunately, our intellectuals are stuck in this Medival era, when modern education was first introduced, this level of the intellectual was an individual trained by the colonial administration to assist in the subjugation of our peoples. An African centered education sounds ludicrous to these people.
They are the ‘traditional elite’ and the authors of all the ‘mischief’ in our land!
The next level of the intellectual came into existence through our peoples’ historic struggle. The people of South Sudan – who did not benefit from the slave trade – realized the value of education and began to work hard to send their children to school. In Equatoria, women sold mangos and vegetables on the streets, saved money and sent their children to school. In pastoralist communities, some would cultivate grain to barter for a bull and barter the bull fof a cow, sending their children to school with the profits. There are some who did domestic work, saved money and sent their children to school. This new level of the intellectual would become the officers who later became the staff and field officers during the war of liberation.
The struggle of the second level of intellectual in our land – created by the struggles of our peoples’ – gave more room for the children of the poor South Sudanese to go to school. There are many of our citizens today – young men and women – who have graduated from the most prestigious universities in the world, who started their education in the peoples’ movement schools, under trees in the refugee camps in Ethiopia.
That the government is not engaging this segment of our population, is ‘mischief’?
The first level of the intellectual – the ‘traditional elite’ – are the beneficiaries of the barbaric ‘status quo’ and they would not like to see ‘fundamental change’ in our society. These new oppressors are the descendants of those first intellectuals, who are still standing in the way of our peoples ‘welfare and prosperity’.
We as South Sudanese intellectuals must become conscious of ourselves as a political force, our collective destiny as a people depends on what we do, or fail to do. The real struggle we are waging is for the minds of our peoples, who have been terrorized and are under the mental sway of the ‘traditional elite’. The second level of the intellectual must become conscious of ourselves as a class and transform into a ‘ruling elite’, concerned with our collective destiny and not simply power and personal wealth. In order for us to defeat the pseudo intellectuals, the second level of the elite must become revolutionized. The ‘intellectual mercenaries’ of the ‘status quo’ are not really educated, they are only certified. They have used their certificates to decieve our naive civil population that they have the answers to their problems, while all along they are looting our national wealth and squande
ring the future of our children. Tthe only way we can counter the ‘mischief’ of the traditional elite’, is by studying and exposing them for the pseudo intellectuals they are. The revolutionary intellectual has a duty to study within the colonial curriculum – and because a colonial curriculum will not be liberating – study outside of the system to get an ‘African centered’ educationl. This is the only way we will be able to ultimately win this stage of the struggle.
The ‘traditional elite’ have hijacked the leadership of our peoples’ movement and forestalled the triumph of our revolution. This betrayal has resulted in the failure of the first Republic of South Sudan, characterized by a ‘status quo’ which has prevailed since the days of the slave trade. The current ‘negotiated settlement’ provides the best opportunity for our people to – through non-violent action – dismantle the unbearable ‘status quo’. It is only the ‘revolutionary intellectual’ who can factually disseminate the Agreement to our civil population. It is only by having a concrete understanding of the provisions of the Agreement that we may be able to put sufficient pressure on the regime to implement the Agreememt and bring fundamental change to our country.
There are two types of intellectuals in our country, which one are you?
A luta continua!
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#revolutionaryleadershipandpeopleswar #alutacontinua
The Bieh Telegraph. Org 