Date: June 24, 2013 To: Pojulu Community Politicians Intellectuals Elders Chiefs Women and youth Church Leaders In Diaspora Subject: What should we do to make the future of Pojulu Better? A) Questions Who are the Pojulu people? Where are they located in Central Equatoria State? How did they get divided between two different district administrations? Have we benefited from this division? Why Wonduruba is asking for a county? How can we polish our Pojulu unity? Which is the elder clan of the Pojulu tribe? What is the way forward? B) Identity and location The Pojulu tribe is one of the Bari speaking ethnic groups which comprised of five chieftaincies and /or A courts established during the colonial time and which later developed into rural councils in the old Sudan and payam in our new republic of South Sudan as follows: Wonduruba, Lainya, Kenyi, Mukaya, Kupera and Wuji payams. Four of these A courts were located in former Yei district and now are payams in Lainya County whereas Wonduruba A court was in former Juba district and now is a payam under the office of the Governor CES. C) How did the Pojulu got divided into two administrations At the beginning of the colonial administration in the area, all the five A courts of the Pojulu communities were united with their headquarters in Leliyu which is now Lainya payam. Leliyu headquarters however had no enough water at the time to serve the growing population in the area, and given limited water technology at that time the colonial authorities ordered the centre to be 1
moved and changed to become the former Yei river district. Before Leliyu was moved, the colonial administration decided to create B courts to serve as centres for resolving disputes which could not be handled by the A courts as well as to support the colonial administration. Four A courts were required by the colonial administration to qualify for a B court centre. The colonial administration show that west of Juba district which is predominantly Nyangwara tribe had only three A courts including Tijor, Rokon, and Miri A courts where as the Pojulu had five A courts as mentioned above. The colonial administration asked the five chiefs of the Pojulu communities if they could allow the A court at their northern boundary to join the three west of Juba A courts to form a B court centre at Jokala. Realising that these A courts of western Juba were going to miss getting a B court if Leliyu rejected, the five A courts of the Pojulu community accepted the request and advised Wonduruba A court at their border with Nyangwara to join the three A courts west of Juba to form a B court at Jokala centre. This was the time Wonduruba became separated from the rest of the Pojulu brothers administratively and was the time when the Pojulu became divided into two separate administrations. Although Wonduruba A court was taken away administratively from Leliyu still the unity of our people was in place as it was only an administrative arrangement, but not separating Wonduruba from the rest of the Pojulu people (source our late elder Yesua Wani Lubang Lukana, Lainya payam). From the above history, it is clear that the detachment of Wonduruba to join Jokola B court was not the need of Wonduruba people, but was the demand of the colonial administrators through the agreement of all the Pojulu communities at that time, to qualify those brothers at our northern boundary not to miss an opportunity for a B court. This was probably thought by our grandparents as a very good thing by taking care of the needs of other people at that time. D) Have the Pojulu Benefited from this division The question which can be raised here is that have the Pojulu people achieved anything useful at all from this division or not? As the process of administrative devolution continue to evolve after the independent of the old Sudan, Lainya from Yei district evolve into a sub- rural council and later into a full rural council when Yei became a province and finally into a county in 2004. 2
Wonduruba on the other hand in Juba district became a sub-rural council in 1989 and a full rural council under Juba province in 1996, and now it is standalone area under the office of the Governor with a complete separate administration equivalent to that of a county let by a coordinator. This administrative arrangement of Wonduruba payam is only temporary but soon it will be confirm into county by our president. If you reflect back to the thinking of our great grandparents, what do you observe? On our part we see that they made a long term strategic plan for the future of the Pojulu community who are now about to achieve two counties in central Equatoria state. If this is for our benefits as you have seen from these developments, why do our people turned against us claiming that we are trying to divide the Pojulu people? E) Why Wonduruba is asking for a county? To dispel the wrong information passed to you by those people from Wonduruba who refuse to understand why Wonduruba is asking for a county and instead choose to misinform and confuse our Pojulu communities, it is better to give you a synopsis of why the demand of Wonduruba changed for a county. These people who continue misinform you for God sake are self seekers who have no aim for the whole but just ignorance and self interest, they are not politicians but petty politicians who exclusively have nothing good to offer but only seeking for recognition through violence and lies. The idea for the creation of a Pojulu administrative centre started right after the Addis Ababa agreement when the Pojulu people thought it was necessary to ask for an administrative centre in Lainya and since 1973 all intellectuals and politicians including those in Wonduruba were united in pursue of this goal. In mid eighties, the idea to bring Wonduruba under Lainya rural council started spear headed by Mr. Kenyi Bendere Lomira but the idea divided the community sharply into two opposing groups causing division and hatred. After the CPA the struggle to bring Wonduruba under lainya control interfiled and continued without success while creating more division within the Wonduruba community. When we paused (selegi selega) and tried to understand what was hindering us from achieving what the Pojulu community wants. We discovered that most of us did not understand and realise the presence of an underlying giant which wanted the Pojulu of Wonduruba to remain permanently under Juba county administration if Wonduruba cannot come out with another alternative instead of joining Lainya County. 3
We realised that since the time our grandparents in Leliyu advised their brother to join west of Juba A courts immediately the land of Wonduruba became part of Juba district administration, and in 1956 during the independent of the old Sudan someone called the constitution gave orders to his son the Boundary not to change, but to remain as they were set up by the colonial administration. For this reason Wonduruba had to remain administratively under Juba district in 1956 although our grandparents did not have that intention. From the research we made, we want to explain to you clearly what the constitution and the boundary says in 1956. The constitution of Sudan and now South Sudan says all bounders remain as they stood in 1956. What does this mean? It means for example the territory of greater Yei can be spitted into more administrative units (counties) provided that it remained within the boundaries of greater Yei as it stood in 1956. Morobo, kajokeji and Lainya have evolved from the 1956 boundary of greater Yeti and nothing outside it. But no parts of greater Yei can be taken and added to another part say of greater Juba to form an administrative unit or county. Similarly no part of Central Equatoria state can be taken to be added to another part of Eastern Equatoria State to form an administrative unit (state). The Lokoya tribe shared between central Equatoria and Eastern Equatoria is a typical example, they cannot come together to form a lokoya county. The Jur tribe Shared between lakes state and Western Equatoria cannot come together to form a Jur county. Also no part of greater Bahar el Ghazal for example can be taken and added to greater Upper Nile to form a state, but if the three greater regions or the current states want to create states within their 1956 boundaries, they can do so without any amendment to the national constitution. Anything outside this will require amended to the constitution and this is where our problem comes in. Even our great leader Dr. John Garang when he was creating the new counties in the new Sudan did not break the 1956 boundaries as warranted by the constitution. This is a fact that people need to understand and if you think this is not true study all the boarders of all the counties created in republic of the South Sudan and where this rule has been broken, let us know. To further justify this during our struggle to bring Wonduruba under Lainya, we sent our community leader Dr. Martin Elia Lomuro accompanied by late Dr. Samson Kwaje to the president who is the custodian of our constitution to request him to annex Wonduruba to Lainya. When they came back, to brief the group they told us that, they asked the president, but the president was silent. When we asked why he was silent? He told us that it was not possible which implies that the constitution and his son the boundary cannot allow. The 4
chairman of the Pojulu community knows this very well but we do not know why he cannot explain this to the Pojulu people and instead choose to be silent like the president. Brothers and sisters, although the constitution and the boundary do not allow Wonduruba to return administratively to Lainya, the good thing with it is that it gave an alternative solution to our problem. If we the people of Wonduruba do not want to be in Juba administratively, we have the right to call for our own administrative centre in Wonduruba as it says more counties can be created within the boundaries of 1956. This is the reason which made us to change our strategy and begin to ask for our right from greater Juba because we do not want to be under Juba administration as is the wish of the Pojulu people. However to the contrary some of you do not want us to come out with something from Juba and refuse to support us in our quest for a separate county as do the Arabs supporting the Palestinians in their struggle for their own country, but instead continue to mislead the people claiming that we want to divide the Pojulu people. How can this happen? You all know until now the Pojulu are living in five administrative B courts each with its own separate traditional administration. The question is have these five traditional administrations divided the Pojulu people? Unless you want us to remain permanently in Juba as the constitution says, but we believe that the constitution has also given us an opportunity and creation of more counties in Pojulu land is just the same like having these five local traditional administration which helps bring more resources and even development to our land. Since the time of chief Gindalang, Sasa Gindalang and up to the time of chief Gordon Sasa Gindalang all Pojulu resources from Wonduruba were taken to Juba in which Sasa Gindalang ended up in fatal accident after delivering resources to Juba. Why do you our brother in Lainya County refuse Wonduruba to come out from Juba with something to compensate for our resources as you have come out from Yei with a county? We in Wonduruba know that our grandfather Gombura took Leliyu district to Yei, but the good thing is that he has brought it back to its original place in Lainya. We believe that Gindalang is also waiting in the office of the governor to carry back our resources in the form of a county to Wonduruba when it is declared as Gombura has done for Lainya. Brothers and sisters, the petty politicians from Wonduruba payam who do not want anything good to happen in Wonduruba are complaining and creating lies that Wonduruba under the governor s office is in prison, but we say this is not true, the administration of Wonduruba under the governor s office is an 5
indication that Wonduruba is now totally separate from Juba County administration and is a step towards complete independency. Now we have the office of the coordinator in Wonduruba which is equivalent to that of the commissioner and we must give thanks to our state governor for this wonderful decision. The people of Wonduruba are happy with this arrangement because being in the Governor s office is a step towards a county and if this is not true where do you think Wonduruba will go? Do you think our governor will make a mistake to take it back to Juba County again since Lainya is out of question as clearly stated by the constitution?. So we want to advice our brothers in Lainya County particularly our neighbours in Lainya payam not to listen to these petty politicians from Wonduruba who want to lie to you so that they get your support although we know that our Pojulu people in general do not always give support to people who fabricate nonsense. F) Pojulu Unity Brothers and sisters, while we have talked about political and administrative issues in our greater community, we would also want to say something briefly about our unity. We realise that at our time our unity does not seem to be strong as it was with our great grandparents. The question is what has gone wrong? (Nyo ta lungasirik ko kiasirik?). It has come to our notice that this is happening because most of our people are involved in divisive petty politics and bogged down in pursue of personal interest while forgetting greater community issues. The evidence is that we have not seen anything organized by our Pojulu elders, intellectuals, chiefs, church leaders or even our politicians who can bring us together as community to poster our unity but not tribalism. Before this we have a revolutionary Leader late Aggry Jaden who united and raised the name of the tribe up politically as he was a national leader who united not only politicians but the whole people of Southern Sudan in the fight for their rights. We also had another revolutionary leader late Dr. Samson Kwaje who fought for freedom of the South Sudanese and was a signatory to the comprehensive peace agreement and stood as a symbol of our unity Also have great spiritual leaders like late Timayo Lole and Simasona Lodu Bara who moved freely through the Pojulu lands uniting people and preaching the word of God. These were very wonderful leaders who at their time the Pojulu were united in their hearts and minds. 6
Currently we have our elder Eliaba James Sururu who tried very hard to unite and wake up the Pojulu from sleeping (Pojulu pureni ta pure), but we have gone back to sleep again. Elder Eliaba Sururu what do you think about this now as the people have gone back to sleep? God also has blessed us with a son from Kenyi community Hon. Dr.Martin Elia Lomuro, who Eliaba James Sururu has handed responsibility of the community to as he grows old. We believe that Dr. Martin has the potentials and abilities to unite our people but this is not happening and we are wondering why. What may be the problems hindering him from carrying out this huge responsibility? We thought he was going to be visiting our communities as well as organizing meetings to unite our people but this has not happened. He might have made some meetings and for some reasons we the people of Wonduruba might have not been invited. We also have people like Hon. Thomas Kundu of Lainya community, Chief Oliver Lukudu Lotole of Wonduruba community, Chief Thomas Dumba of Kenyi community, Bullen Soro of Mukaya community James Amule of Kupera community who united our people in Khartoum and what are they doing right now? Why can t they help our community leaders to model the sprit they had in Khartoum to improve the unity of our people? Now our communities are facing many problems which if not properly addressed will lead to a complete loss of our children and their future. At the moment our children 1) Do not know their land where it begins from and where it ends. 2) Do not know that they are related and should live in harmony with each other. 3) Do not know and respect their culture and tradition The community in general is not able to build our leaders instead we tend to stand against or destroy them. Community representation is not being decided by all the communities so that a recognized person is selected instead of individuals running alone in fulfilment of self interest and later claiming that he/she is representing the communities. G) What is the way forward Based on the above and for the Pojulu to come back like the time of our grandparents in Leliyu, we appeal to our community leaders, elders and politicians, in the six payam to call and organize for a meeting to talk about the 7
future of our tribe. This is important because the unity of our people is more important than any administrative issue among us. Our communities should get organized to avoid further problems and to educate our children about the land and their future, also to build love among our elders, intellectuals, church leaders and politicians because the future of the Pojulu people lies in their hands. Once we fail to do this and if our children destroy themselves or if our families got lost, God will account us as the present leaders because we tend to be enemies of the tribe rather than copying what our grand fathers did for us leliyu. H) Which is the elder clan of the Pojulu tribe? Brothers and sisters, we are asking this because every tribe has an elder clan, every clan has an elder family and every family has an elder son, and if the elder son sees a problem in the house of his grandfather which tends to destroy it, the elder son will immediately interfere to rescue the situation. We are saying this because we believe that Wonduruba is the elder clan of the Pojulu tribe, and this is because we are called mugo Pojulu meaning that Wonduruuba is covering the Pojulu from the Bari and Nyangwara tribes. Another piece of evidence is that land of Wonduruba starts right from Ganji and continues up to our borders with Muru of western Equatoria. Our research indicates that when the Pojulu separated from the greater Bari tribe, they started to move SW and they first got settled in Ganzi right after the Bari. After a while the elder son who is currently in Wonduruba advised the younger ones to continue explore more land and they accepted the advice of the elder brother and continue to advance to secure more land to cover all the Pojulu families which has become the current territory of the Pojulu land. When the younger sons started to move, the second one got settled in Lainya, the third one in kenyi, the fourth one in Mukaya and last in kupera and that is why we are in five communities today. If this is not true please tell us from the five clans which is the elder clan of the Pojulu tribe? And who want to assume this responsibility, because from tradition, nothing should be done if the opinion of the elder is not seeked. So we want this to be clearly established so that if anything concerning the tribe comes up the advice of the elder son is always necessary. Not only being the elder son, but when we look at the hierarchy of the traditional administration in our land at the moment, who is the most senior traditional leader? We believe that Chief Gordon Sasa of Wonduruba who was crown chief in 1951 is the most senior not only in the Pojulu land but in the 8
whole South Sudan. We should therefore respect such a leader who has served our people for such long period and the community should use him as source of wisdom and advice for our future generations. Thanks you and May God bless the Pojulu people. You are free to contact us at +211956073364 in case of any comment or any more information you want to provide to us. Once you get this message print it and please hand it others. 9