“With this celebration of independence we are saying goodbye to the past and embracing
a new thing, without fighting, a new future of reconciliation, solidarity and forgiveness”
says Cardinal Gabriel Zubeir Wako, Archbishop of Khartoum, North Sudan. He is just
one of the many people who has devoted his entire life to bringing peace to his homeland.
South
Sudan has officially declared its independence from Sudan. It is the culmination of
a 2005 peace deal that ended more than two decades of civil war between Sudan's Arab-dominated
north and mainly Christian and animist south. The conflict left over a million people,
mostly civilians, dead.
Cardinal Wako describes how on the eve of independence,
the people of Sudan - North and South - gathered in their towns and villages, build
bonfires and hold prayer vigils throughout the night. Then, at dawn the bonfires
were lit and together they broke their fast, symbolising - he says – something new
that they will be producing from their own hands:
“The bishops conference have
planned a religious celebration – not necessarily on the same day – but in all diocese
there will be celebrations with dance and song in thanksgiving to God and the acknowledgement
of the good that those who have worked for peace have achieved in the country”.
Cardinal
Wako describes how the road to peace in Sudan has been a long and at times perilous
one. He also says that while the South’s succession marks a turning point on the
road, the journey is far from over. And through it all – he affirms – war, dialogue
and political agreements, the Church in Sudan has stood with its people: “It did a
lot to convince people that no solution would be found by violence and conflicts.
That the best path was dialogue and cooperation, so we talked to the government and
on many occasions we had to tell the government that the policies that were being
pursued would not achieve peace. And then the Southern people, those that were fighting,
we told them they had to develop policies for peace, not simply a war for peace.
They had to propose ways in which peace could be achieved without killing people or
destroying things. Even the ways they were organised was all based on military strength,
there were no people capable of dialogue, able to speak and discuss issues on their
behalf and those that had these qualities were not considered. So we focused on supporting
these people. Then among ordinary people we focused strongly on the need to pray for
peace, to do penance for peace. Then we tried to lead people to consider their own
contribution to the situation of war, because tribal wars had also begun to develop,
the question of looting property and people, the soldiers behaviour during the war,
justifying their behaviour because of the war, that was a large part of our pastoral
work. Then of course the problems for ordinary people, hunger, the lack of access
to food because of the insecurity in transportation, the problem of educating children.
We opened a lot of schools during the war, which at least occupied large part of
the young people, rather than their taking up arms. Our aim of developing women,
convincing the women that they could play a very active role in bringing about peace.
We recruited women in order to talk and convince people in the villages of the need
for peace. And we also encouraged literacy among women, we challenged them to do
something constructive, the mothers and sisters to help their men develop and become
the building blocks of the future society in Sudan”. Listen: