The official celebrations were nowhere near kicking off. The sun, mid-yawning, had barely finished its imaginary morning coffee ahead of a day’s worth of full-strength, shining work. That’s when the first revellers showed up.
Arriving from the Greater Pibor Administrative Area and neighbouring Jonglei State, a multiethnic crowd quickly turned what is usually a volleyball court into a bustling scene of dancing, banter and laughter.
They were all here, in flood-prone Pibor, in an area often rocked by intercommunal violence, to exclaim not only that peace is possible but also that it begins with every one of them, with you and with me, as the slogan of a nationwide campaign of the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) affirms.
“Despite everything, we have come some way in this country. We want to use this opportunity to celebrate the progress we have made,” said women’s representative Akol Tut, indicating that the hundreds of people gathered, united in diversity, are the “we”.
While a collective endeavour, the responsibility for achieving it is inevitably as individual as the meaning of the word peace. When asked by one of the event organizers, attendees defined it as everything from “the foundation of gender equality” to “the possibility for development”.
As noted by many a high-ranking official speaking on the day, the youth of Greater Pibor and Jonglei, the numerically dominating here and now rather than the future of their country, have a key role to play to make any description of peace a reality.
“Them being here, together, is a reminder that they are the ones deciding the way forward for their country. Peace is built, or not, by our choices, their choices,” commented Khalif Farah, a Civil Affairs Officer serving with the peacekeeping mission.
Meanwhile, Gola Boyoi Gola, Administrator of the Greater Pibor Area, addressed a segment of the audience decidedly belonging to the “future” category.
“Twenty years ago, I was one of you, at an event like this one, learning about the meaning of peace. I am looking forward to seeing one of you in my position, and enjoying peace,” he told a few dozens of young girls and boys.
Like so many happy days before it, this one ended with the feeling of togetherness commonly generated by kicking a football.
Chances are that the friendly game between line-ups made up of local youth and vendors resulted in a practical demonstration of the more-often-than-not winning formula of working together as a team.
Distributed by APO Group on behalf of United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS).
