[Juba, South Sudan, TCT] Like never before in the history, the diversity and unity of the South Sudanese communities are severely tested as we face current challenges with disquiet. The SPLM/A war of liberation and the recent crisis of the 15 December 2013 and the consequences of these events have had significant impact on community relations in our country.
Innocent South Sudanese were and are being wrongfully blamed, threatened or isolated. Many have been hurt, or have their properties damaged through ethnic sanctions. There are those who claim ethnic sanctions for their actions, despite there being no ethnic basis for such crisis. South Sudanese now see themselves as directly threatened by the crisis. In this context, community harmony and social cohesion are pivotal elements in enabling South Sudanese themselves, to contribute effectively to combat negative ethnicity and in safeguarding our diversity and unity.
Social cohesion is the opposite of the natural tensions that exist within any plural human collective. It is amended through?cross cultural and ethnic understanding, respecting, renegotiating and maintaining a level?of balance in the power relations, resources, functioning and capacities among potentially conflicting groups, whether these are based on broadly economic, political, social, ethnic, racial and religious or cultural distinctions.
Therefore, social harmony and social cohesion are important factors for South Sudan because they then represent the bare ‘minimum’ community standard upon which one can hope to build social, economic, cultural, political and other architectures that are necessary, within local communities. To find a sense of shared purpose that is necessary for a society to function in any practical and sustainable way.
Hence, the objectives of such campaign for social harmony and diversity are to:
a) Promote and contribute to a cohesive, inclusive and culturally rich South Sudanese community;
b) Advocate for achievement of the principles of democracy, access and equity to different ethnic groups in the country;
c) Enhance the diversity choices available to the public that expand the variety of viewpoints in South Sudan;
d) Reflect a sense of South Sudanese identity, character and cultural diversity;
e) Advocate for reduction of cultural and ethnic prejudices.
Understanding Diversity
Diversity means differences, variations, or unlikeness. Indeed, diversity has many different contexts such as human context, ecological context, business context and politics. In human context, diversity discusses the variety of cultures, languages, ethnic groups, physical features, socio-economic backgrounds, opinions, religious beliefs, sexuality, and gender identity.
In other aspects of diversity, Oxford English Dictionary casts some entries briefly for us to pay attention to and these are pluralism, culture, gender, race, ethnicity, ethnic minority and affirmative action.
According to the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, pluralism means a state of society in which members of diverse ethnic, racial, religious, or social groups maintain an autonomous participation in and development of their traditional cultures or special interests within the confines of a common civilization. In this context, pluralism can be synonymous to diversity.
Gender on the other hand characterizes shape, social rank, manner of existence or sex, while race has shared these similar perspectives as it refers to family, tribe, people, or nation belonging to the same stock. But if we look at ethnicity and ethnic minority, we can distinguish these two as larger and smaller groups.
Ethnicity refers to cultural and linguistic characteristics within a larger system; and ethnic minority is a group of people differentiated from the rest of the community by number and proximity to the ‘centre of gravity’.
Meanwhile, affirmative action in diversity is also taken to affirm an established policy, dealing with discrimination among minority group, especially during recruitment or employment opportunities.
However, the term diversity has complex definitions and it has different nuances. Diversity can bring us both harmony and division, depending on how it is applied.
Nevertheless, this new concept of diversity brings peace, understanding, tolerance and harmony. It creates a sense of rich third culture. Diverse ethnic background, languages, ideologies, religious beliefs or capacities can enhance and enrich third culture perspectives.
Diversity can be applied as an exchange for the word compassion, tolerance, non-violence and understanding. Basically, human beings were born with diverse dependencies caused by individual’s actions. Through thought commands, individuals speak; through speech commands, individual act, and through action results differences or diversity that we can see physically or mentally expressed. And these differences of action exist in every one of us!
Language is the important tool for culture and diversity. Through language, people can become the creative members of diversity; and this emerging diversity brings peace, harmony and prosperity to the community. But more importantly, individuals must understand well about their obligations to abide by the rule of law. Paradoxically, diversity brings along with it conflicts and divisions also. It is naturally diverse to differentiate people from each other. This differentiation is unique and complex. We can experience conflicts from this diversity through our daily contentment and discontentment.
People share common dispute and jealousy with both close partners and strangers. This small dispute shifts to broader ethnic community, as we have already experienced in our country. It starts from individual to individual, family to family, clan to clan, tribe to tribe, state to state, and so on. In fact, the original meaning of diversity has implied conflict by itself. It diversifies people from each other.
However, diversity enables the reality of human beings, and it is this reality, which we have to content with. More than this, learning about diversity is mostly affirming us to find the best solution.
The reality of diversity is that it is divisive and challenging. And when we realize this, we can learn to deal with it starting from our individual’s process, because individuals are the centre of all problems, especially the conflicts in diverse multi-ethnic society such as ours. When individuals experience peace, family will experience peace, country will experience peace and the whole world will experience peace. Different cultures in this planet; we cannot assume that our culture is the best, and other cultures are repugnant. Every culture is valuable and acceptable. Each tremendous price of culture is negotiable.
Each culture has no absolute moral or value to it. Indeed, self is the centre of all things including cultures, economics, politics, environments, information, and social norm; therefore the self must be a pivotal core of our universe. Individual’s selves are the main composition of differences and diversity. Our diversity becomes good or bad depending on our individuality.
So how can we grow each self to become the advantageous components of our diversity? The answers will be various. But first of all, individuals have to develop their right thoughts and right understanding about diversity in unity. We will never make our diversity a peaceful progress if we don’t have the right vision in living with diversity; and we will never get any benefit from diversity if we don’t have the right understanding. It is also important to understand that unity does not necessarily mean uniformity.
Right vision starts with the expedition of the middle path in which diversity is the compound of mixing together, until this combination has become a very tasteful seasoning. Balancing, negotiating, open-heartedness or flexibility is the synonym of the middle path. When individuals believe in glorious life of the middle path, they will be aware of thinking, uttering and committing every time to the values of unity and diversity.
Diversity in Unity: A Challenge for Multi-ethnic South Sudan
It is understood that one of the greatest strength of a nation is its cultural and ethnic diversity and we therefore, call on the Republic of South Sudan, to commit itself to multi-ethnic South Sudan, with policies and programs that recognizes our diversity as South Sudanese citizens; working to make a fair country for all.
We believe that the key to success of South Sudanese multi-ethnicity is inclusiveness and therefore every South Sudanese must be made to benefit from our diversity as every South Sudanese have the right to be active and equal participant in South Sudanese affairs, free to live their lives and maintain their cultural and ethnic expressions.
South Sudan’s ethnically diverse people have made and continue to make unique contributions to this country. Indeed, their contributions together with the significant contributions of their forefathers have helped the country that we belong to today. In the knowledge-based economy of our time, where people are key to a nation’s productivity and competitiveness, South Sudan’s multi-ethnic society is a most valuable resource the government must not estrange.
Therefore, we urge the Government to encourage diversity in ways of thinking and stimulate innovation and creativity, because it helps us to forge links with ourselves and with the rest of Africa and the world that can deliver increased investment through expansion of markets and the development of diverse goods and services.
Over sixty languages between us, we have one of the most pluralistic populations in Africa. Cultural and linguistic diversity is a feature of life for our nation, and it must remain a feature of modern South Sudanese life, as it continues to give us distinct social, and cultural advantages as a country. Therefore, if we are to reap the reward of our diversity, it is important that policies and programs in this country must be made to respond to the associated multi-ethnic composition of the people in our country.
As a young nation, we must commit to multi-ethnic policies that maximize these benefits and address the challenges in order to build South Sudan as a peaceful, cohesive and prosperous nation. Its vision must be vigorous, multi-ethnic South Sudan, united by a shared future, and the overriding commitment to our nation should be to build democratic institutions and values, and support for the rule of law.
On that basis, we call on the Government of the Republic of South Sudan to be committed, both in theory and in practice, to ensuring that all South Sudanese have the opportunity to be active and become equal participants in South Sudanese society, free to live their lives and maintain their cultural and ethnic traditions. This social equity must be enshrined in the national and state legislations. South Sudanese multi-ethnic policy must recognize and celebrate cultural diversity as a new agenda for this county. It must embrace the heritage of ethnic South Sudanese population regardless of their number or place, in relation to the ‘centre of gravity’.
We look forward to the freedom of all South Sudanese to express and share their cultural values in dependent on their abiding by mutual civics obligations. We also expect all South Sudanese to have an overriding loyalty to South Sudan and its people, and to respect the basic structures and principles underwriting our young emerging giant among the African nations. The civics obligations must reflect the underlying values of South Sudanese citizenship. South Sudanese citizenship, or national identity must also involve reciprocal responsibilities and privileges and enables individuals to become fully contributing members of the South Sudanese community.
Citizenship must be a strong unifying force in our diverse multi-ethnic community. Our commitment to and defense of South Sudanese values of equality, democracy, freedom and national identity must unite us in our diverse origins, and enhance the ability of us to participate fully in all spheres of South Sudanese society.
In summary, the Government’s aim should be to unite and build on our culturally and ethnically diverse community, accepting an open society, united through a shared future, and a commitment to our nation, its democratic institutions and values, and the rule of law. Such vision must be reflected in the four principles that underpin multi-ethnic policy globally:
Responsibility of all: All South Sudanese have a civic duty to support those basic structures and principles of South Sudanese society, which guarantee us our freedom and equality and enables diversity in our society to flourish.
Respect for each person: Subject to the law, all South Sudanese have the right to express their own cultures and beliefs and have a reciprocal obligation to respect the right of others to do the same.
Fairness for each person: All South Sudanese are entitled to equality of treatment and opportunity. Social equity allows us all to contribute to the social, political and economic life of our country, free from discrimination, including the ground of race, culture, religion, language, location, gender or place of birth.
Benefits for all: All South Sudanese must be made to benefit from productive diversity, that is, the significant cultural, social and economic dividends arising from the diversity of our population. Diversity works for all South Sudanese.
This multi-ethnic policy must provide framework for maximizing the social, cultural and economic benefits that ethnic diversity brings to all South Sudanese. But more than that, it actually promotes good community relations and social harmony amongst us all.
The writer is a Pastor and Freelance Consultant in the area of Peace Building and Reconciliation Concepts.
He can be reached on: +211 (0) 921037248 | This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.BLOG COMMENTS POWERED BY DISQUS
