South Sudan

Dar es Salaam, Tanzania — A swell of laughs and chatter fills the air as men and women dine and wine.

The spectacle grabs the attention of a group of foreign journalists, who spotted a lavish Ethiopian restaurant, known for its sumptuous traditional cuisines, as they were aimlessly strolling in the streets of Cape Town.

Among them is Chol Duang, a 28-year-old South Sudanese TV reporter and news anchor. The scribes were in CapeTown for a week-long training Workshop for reporting religion and LGBT issues.

A smart-dressed waiter, clutching food & beverage menus rushes to the table, splashing gleaming black booklets.

A visibly excited Duang grabs one, and after a cursory glance, he makes his mind.

“Let me order this,” he mutters as the waiter listens attentively.

Duang ordered Injera. This is a savory Ethiopian dish, entail a sourdough flat bread with slightly spongy texture. It’s usually served with grilled goat meat or succulent beef slathered in spicy hot stew.

A mid-aged Chef in a giant toque blanche hat grabs sliced pieces of anointed meat and toss them on a hot grill for slow sizzling.

A vile stench wafts, as woman scolds a nagging toddler in perfect Swahili. She then frantically whisked him away to a nearby toilet. The stench becomes unbearable, and  Duang orders the waiter to freshen the air with a deodorized spray.

Soon the waiter returns with a tray containing ketchup, salt, chili, spoons, soft napkins and forks. On his way back, he stubs his toe and falls down.

Duang burst out laughing.

Kemo Cham, a senior editor with Sierra Leone-based Politico newspaper, politely warns Duang not to laugh at him.

The food soon arrives. Duang cuts a piece of bread and eats it.

“This is very delicious” he chuckles while patting his pockets to reach a vibrating smartphone.

Duang’s first trip to the legislative capital of South Africa, arguably was a defining moment for his media career. It was a pleasant opportunity to forget, the dirty realm of history in his war-torn country.

Charming, singularly modest, with a fine intellect, Duang is a gifted young leader endowed with an inherent ability to build and sustain relationships.

“His landmark smiling face makes him irresistible,” says Cham, adding “He is open and friendly.”

According to Kemo, Duang’s chatty nature makes it easy to see his characteristic smartness and intelligence.

“Meeting him changed a lot about my grim thoughts about his war-torn country of South Sudan,” he says.

During the five-day workshop, the South Sudanese scribe, who always wears a smile and a deceptive sense of humor, displayed exceptional intellectual ability.

SOCIALIZATION

He mingles so effortlessly with people from all walks of life.

Duang, who has assumed a new role as a political activist, and a strategist committed to reverse a dangerous narrative being peddled by the ruling elites in South Sudan, that Salva Kiir, the current president is the solution to the misery pitting the war-ravaged country, is also a fellow of the Mandela Washington Fellowship for young African Leaders — a flagship program of the U.S government’s Young African Leaders Initiative(YALI).

Duang who had until recently worked for the state broadcaster, SSBC-TV, the only television in South Sudan, is considered by a legion of his followers a symbol of hope for the young people in the war-ravaged country.

It’s rare for a TV broadcaster to join a rebellion, but Duang made a surprise move. In February, he announced on social media that he was ditching his media career to join a rebel movement.

Duang, whose vision is to make South Sudan a prosperous nation with abundant opportunities for the youth, has joined  General Paul Malong Awan Anei — the former  Chief of General Staff of the Sudan People’s Liberation Army, who’s the current leader of South Sudan United Front (SSUF/A). Duang wants to help “pursue South Sudanese dreams.”

According to Duang, General Malong, is a mentor through whom young people can grow and develop their skills and help the community.

Duang believes General Malong was falsely removed as South Sudan Army Chief of Staff by a clique who wanted to prolong the civil war to benefit from the national wealth.

“He’s since refused to wage a war and advocated for silencing guns across the country because he cares about South Sudanese people so much. But a propaganda machine run by the state continues to untruly portray General Malong as a warmonger.

Malong, is largely popular in the country and that’s the threat to the political and security establishment,’’ Duang asserts.

TROUBLED HISTORY

The world’s newest country which formally declared its independence from Sudan on July 9, 2011, has been ravaged by a ruinous civil war that has killed hundreds of thousands of people.

The country’s independence comes after a referendum that saw a nearly 99 percent vote in favor of secession.

Salva Kiir was sworn in as president, with Riek Machar as his deputy. The two men are rivals but also leaders in the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) that led the push to secede from Sudan, which is now South Sudan’s northern neighbor.

In an interview with Ubuntu Times, Duang, eloquently explained the reasons behind his decision to join the rebel movement.

“I have taken this decision to fight on behalf of the young generation in which I am part,” says Duang, adding, “I realized that my media voice was getting suppressed slowly by those in power.”

According to Duang, his four-year media career has given him a rare glimpse of what he claims South Sudan’s “Murky, criminal and retrogressive system.”

Duang is increasingly concerned by endemic tribalism, favoritism, cronyism, and discrimination currently taking root in South Sudan that has pushed thousands of youths on the edge of survival.

As a victim of “uncle politics” Duang has immensely suffered in silence watching others climb the ladder to prosperity.

He accuses what he calls glaringly incompetent South Sudanese elite, who, he claims have escaped poverty at the expense of the majority of people trapped in the quagmires of poverty.

Unlike other East Africans, South Sudanese youth who suffered from impaired education, have limited access to opportunities.

“They are uncertain about their future which appears robbed and exploited,” Duang stresses

While leadership world over has shifted to young people, Duang believes the majority of youth suffer and the privileged few tend to deny the suffering of others.

Born in 1992 from a family of three brothers and many siblings from his polygamous father, Duang was lucky to flee Sudan, then, at the height of political turmoil which culminated in the independence of South Sudan.

“My mother is the second wife and came from a wealthy rural background,” he says, adding: “I was lucky to receive strong upbringing from both parents.”

His home region, Northern Bahr Ghazal (Aweil), nestled on the border with The Sudan, and was the epicenter of many Sudanese wars, that crippled its development and kept it on the periphery from current political leadership.

From his humble beginnings, Duang grew up helping his family herding goats, fishing and watching over their crops from birds, as a child.

Because school was not a priority when he was growing up; Duang’s future was uncertain.

“My early childhood schooling was largely informal, and the future was bleak,” he says.

As a young schoolboy growing up in a sprawling swathe of Africa’s youngest nation, Duang and his peers huddled under a huge tree known as ‘Kuwel’, shielding themselves from the blazing sun.

The giant tree, which served as a classroom, was also used for church services and as a playground for Angol and other nearby villages.

Lack of educational materials meant that learning was an uphill struggle for Duang.

“I wrote on the floor for almost a year before I was provided one exercise book later in 2002,” he recalls.

Guided by a burning desire to get education amidst air bombardment unleashed by Sudanese military Junta, Duang switched schools while searching for knowledge.

Educated in both Uganda and Kenya, Chol returned to his country, South Sudan, in 2015 to participate in the ‘Development’ effort. Two years earlier, a civil war had broken out across the country, and Duang thought his journalism career would help tell South Sudan’s story, especially about the conflict. This hope would be frustrated by South Sudan’s political actors and state apparatus, who have become wary of journalists telling the truth about their actions.

“South Sudanese youth appear to be mere spectators in their own affairs. Interestingly, they’re lobbying on behalf of elderly politicians for appointment. They doubt themselves that they cannot hold public office,” his comment on Facebook in February this year reads.

In an attempt to deprive South Sudanese children the right to education, Duang says authorities in Khartoum then criminalized schools.

“Male children were then abducted and teachers either killed or kidnapped along with children,” he says.

This move prompted Duang’s parents to send him to a refugee settlement in Uganda where he continued with his education.

“Schools in the refugee camp were relatively better compared with what I had learned in my home,” Duang says.

HOW HE BECOMES A JOURNALIST

Duang never woke up one morning wanting to be a journalist. The realization that his future lay in journalism hinged on a burning desire to tell the story of a war-torn country.

“I was in Uganda when I decided to study Journalism,” he says.

Haunted by an unending wave of violence, which crippled his learning, Duang did not initially have the skills he needed to effectively communicate at University.

“When I finished high school at Zana Mixed Secondary school in Kampala, in 2011, it became a tough choice for me whether to go ahead and do Journalism or Diplomacy, which was my second preference,” he says.

“I made up my mind and took Journalism immediately after high school.”

As is the case everywhere in Africa, it was quite natural for Duang’s elder siblings to support him and pay for his education from primary through secondary. They’d continued to support his college years in Nairobi.

“While in Journalism college, I taught myself writing, speaking and reading so that I would leave college well prepared for the field,” he told Ubuntu Times.

“I would address community events and read consistently for improvement and knowledge,” the former TV anchor remembers.

Duang completed his college education in 2015 and quickly started an internship with South Sudan television, and, thereafter, got retained by the station after his 3-month training.

As the civil war expanded, Duang was thrust into covering the very conflict, traveling around either with the military or UN convoys when they’re on assessment missions.

Armed with an Advanced Diploma in Journalism and Communication Science, Duang spent four years working as a TV reporter, assistant news editor, and news anchor.

As a cub reporter, Duang extensively reported about the country’s civil war, which put him in the line of fire.

“As a young reporter, I didn’t have the skills for war reporting nor did I have a bulletproof vest for my safety. My parents became concerned and once floated the idea for me to quit, which I dismissed. I would travel from place to place as I interviewed civilians fleeing violence,” he narrates. “Throughout my four years at the TV, my reporting had been in Upper Nile and Central Equatorial region where conflict largely concentrated,” he says.

 2018 YEI HOTEL INCIDENT

Duang had traveled to the town of Yei to cover a sporting event intended to encourage the local people to return home from bushes. That event would be interrupted when a hotel, where journalists and UN workers were staying, was attacked at night, resulting in 4 deaths. “When my job became increasingly dangerous after our hotel was attacked in Yei on March 24, 2018, my family advised me against accepting risky assignments from the TV. It was after that advice that I ventured into social and entertainment stories. I also realized that much of the real stories get blocked by government censors, making our daring reporting invalid. This discouraged me greatly and my Journalism passion began to wane steadily,” he says of his past experience, adding: “This apathy was being watched by agents who started to question me. Also, my involvement in international journalism training programs and human rights activism raised the eyebrows higher, leading them to ramp up interest in me.”