Seeds of the Struggle: Garang and his Friends - Inspirations from Kenya

In the middle of the 20th century, Rumbek Secondary School was the epitome of knowledge in South Sudan. The school was to South Sudan leaders as Alliance, Lenana, and Mungu High Schools are to Kenyan leaders. Rumbek was as prestigious to South Sudan as Eton of England is to the English society. Indeed, it was in Rumbek where the seeds of South Sudan struggle for freedom were planted. The best minds from all corners of South Sudan were sorted out through a sterling academic performance at the regional junior schools before the brilliant ones were converged in Rumbek where they were moulded to fit for Sudan as well as for the Southern leadership. It's in this regard that John Garang de Mabior, one of the brilliant students of high academic standing entered Rumbek Senior Secondary School in Senior One in the earlier 1960s.

However, the earlier 1960s saw Christian missionaries expelled from South Sudan by the oppressive Arab minority controlled government of Sudan.

English schools in South Sudan were catered for by the Christian missionaries. The expulsion of missionaries meant that English would be replaced with Arabic in the South. The students protested the government’s decision of expelling missionaries and introducing of Arabic as [the main] medium of instructions in the schools. The government responded to the protest by closing schools indefinitely in the South.

Following the indefinite closure of the Rumbek Senior Secondary School by the Khartoum government, young John Garang and some of his friends found themselves with no option but to join the then Anya Anya Movement in the bush. The Movement recognized in them the future seeds of the struggle and encouraged them to pursue education. For that matter, Garang and his friends decided to go to one of the neighbouring countries to pursue their education.

In an interview with the Kenyan Sunday Nation prior to the signature of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement in 2005, Garang said,"Our leaders told me and a group of other youngsters that to be good fighters we needed to go to school. So we headed south, about seven of us, and ended up in Moyale in Kenya. "

During a research for this article, one of Garang's friends who was among the seven said that they left Rumbek following a strike which was "political in nature." He said that the government responded by closing the schools indefinitely. The group of seven friends headed to Ethiopia. The government was by then suspicious of movements of young Southerners. So their travel became a subject of government suspicion. Numerous times on their way to Ethiopia, the Sudan government operatives would stop them and ask them where they were going. They would then reply that they were going to the next village until they reached the Ethiopian border. After they arrived in Ethiopia, they reported to Ethiopian authorities for some help. Ethiopian authorities helped them but the destination did not meet their goal - education. So they had to leave Ethiopia for Kenya.

In May 1963, Garang and his friends arrived in Moyale in Kenya. In the Sunday Nation interview, Garang was quoted to have said that on arrival in Moyale in Kenya "A white colonial officer in Moyale arrested us for stepping on Her Majesty's soil illegally - without valid travel documents. We were chained and trucked to Nairobi a few days later to stand trial."

Garang and his friends ended up at the notorious Kenyan Kamiti Maximum-Security Prison for entering the British colony without valid documents. Garang was good at making friends. It was in Kamiti that he met Kenyan independence political activist Arthur Ochwada, who had been detained by the colonial government for campaigning against oppression of Africans. Garang's friendhip with Ochwada opened wider opportunities for them to be released. At first, it opened way for them to communicate with Kenyan independence struggle leaders such as Jaramogi Oginga Odinga.

One of the group of seven with Garang, said that after they had secured the friendship of Arthur Ochwada, they were linked to Jaramogi Odinga and were able to send letters to him to make their release possible. Also Arthur Ochwada talked to Jaramogi Odinga about their case. Those connections were possible because of Garang's leadership which he later showed during the 22 years struggle for liberation of Sudan.

"While in remand prison at Kamiti, I met Ochwada, who had been jailed for political activities. We became friends. Ochwada later pleaded our case with Jaramogi, who ruled there was no way blacks fighting the government in Khartoum could have been expected to apply for and obtain travel papers. Jaramogi removed us from jail and arranged for our relocation and asylum to Uganda." Garang said in the Sunday Nation of January 9, 2005.

At an earlier age, Garang showed dislike of subjection of mankind to indignity. When they were in Kamiti prison, Garang was quoted by the Sunday Nation that there was a colonial Kenyan white prison officer "who had a habit of throwing pebbles of sand into the inmates' food as they ate, besides hurling insults and calling us black monkeys. This man would carry pebbles in his pockets and toss into the prisoner's plates as they ate. Unfortunately for him, one of the pebbles fell into my plate. I was so incensed . . . the seven of us surrounded and got a hold of him. We asked him to explain his behaviour. He shook like a reed in the wind, peeing in his pants. We mocked him and laughed at his cowardice."

Kenya was at the peak of her independence struggle at the time period in which Garang and his friends arrived in Kenya. Jomo Kenyatta, the first Kenyan president had earlier been released from seven years in prison and the negotiation for independence with the British government had been ongoing in Lancaster in the UK. While Garang and his friends were in Kamiti prison, Kenya was granted self-rule on the 1st of June 1963 - an autonomy which is almost like the South Sudan's self-rule granted in the Comprehensive Peace Agreemen (CPA). The Kenyan self-rule meant a glimmer of hope for the release of Garang and his friends. Arthur Ochwada, the friend of Garang, was released after the self- rule was granted. He was immediately appointed as assistant minister in the self government of Kenya led by Prime Minister Mzee Jomo Kenyatta. Out of prison and in the government, Ochwada made it a priority to secure the release of his prison friends and distant cousins from South Sudan.

Jaramogi Oginga was appointed as minister of home affairs. Odinga worked in collaboration with Ochwada to make sure that Garang and his friends were released. He talked to the then Ugandan Prime Minister Dr.Appollo Milton Obote. Dr.Obote allowed Garang and the friends to come to Uganda. Finally, Garang and his friends were released and immediately left for Uganda where they were enlisted in the Refugees Camp.

In a search to record history, New Sudan Vision has been able to find out five of the Garang's friends with the exception of one person which we could not get his name but will try to trace in the future. The men in the group of seven were:
Mathew Mading Riak
Majok Ayuen Kur
Geu Ayuel Warabe
Jok Abiel
Dr. Lueth Garang
Dr. John Garang de Mabior

Like Dr. Garang, some of his friends were men who aimed highly to score their goals. Although politics has not been a cup of tea for some of them, they have been playing the backroom roles in the Sudanese struggle and life. The group of seven had clung together since leaving Rumbek but the refugee camp in Uganda became a dispersal point where each had to take a different route in pursuit of the goal that let them leave their motherland.

Sources told the New Sudan Vision that Matthew Mading Riak went to Ohio State University in the USA where he studied Aviation and History and left the USA in 1971 and came back to Sudan. He worked as a pilot for Southern Regional Semi Autonomy that was brought in after the Addis Abba Agreement. Matthew Mading was the only one among the seven who had completed form four when they left Rumbek Secondary School.

Majok Ayuen Kur went to the USA and joined the prestigious Williams College, a liberal art college in Massachusetts. Majok studied Political Economy after which he obtained his bachelor degree and joined the prestigious Johns Hopkins for Masters degree in economics. He later came back to Sudan where he worked for a while as a lecturer at Khartoum Polytechnic and in the ministry of finance before joining the Executive Council of South Sudan as the Deputy Secretary General. Majok later joined the SPLM/SPLA where he helped play the role of shaping the economic policies of the Movement.

Geu Ayuel Warabe went to Zaire and Angola while Jok Abiel went to Liberia before returning to Sudan. New Sudan Vision could not get their education background.

Dr Lueth Garang was in form two when he left Rumbek Secondary School. He went to Nigeria before coming back to Sudan after the Addis Abba Accord and later won a scholarship to study medicine in Germany. Dr. Lueth as he is fondly known has been one of few doctors in the SPLM/A who took care of the wounded war heroes. His medical skills was of much benefit to the Movement especially during the notorious battle of ten thousand troops that was sent to crush the SPLA army between the Town of Bor and Juba.

In the camp, John Garang de Mabior won a Lutheran Missionaries scholarship to study high school at Magamba Secondary School in Tanzania. At Magamba, Garang's teachers tested him and found out that he was too bright for forms one, two, and three.

"It took me one year to complete my course from Form One to Form Four. My teachers found that what I had studied up to Standard Eight at Rumbek Primary School in Sudan was equivalent to what was being taught up to Form Three at Magamba." Garang told the Sunday Nation on the 9th of January 2005.

While at Magamba in Tanzania, Garang was invited by his friend Arthur Ochwada to witness the declaration of Kenya's Independence on the 12th of December 1963. On witnessing the first celebration of the Kenya's freedom, Garang was inspired to think of leading his people in the Sudan into freedom.

"We appreciated the idea of resistance and we took the Mau Mau Movement as our model - drew inspiration from it. The liberation of Kenya gave us confidence (that) we too would overcome (ours)." said Garang as quoted by the Sunday Nation.

"Excitement and optimism pervaded every sphere of life in Kenya in the early 1960s. The fact that British colonial rule had been brought to an end and Africans were recapturing control of their own country was a source of so much pride to all black people, especially for us from Sudan." the Nation quoted him.

After the Kenya's independence celebration, Garang went back to Magamba in Tanzania to finish his O' Level. After sitting for the exams in 1964, he came back to Nairobi in Kenya. While in Nairobi, he ran into a newspaper advert for a math teacher at Gatunganga Secondary School in Nyeri. Garang applied and got the job. The school was owned by an Indian who ran it from Nairobi.

"I was employed to teach mathematics in Forms one, two and three. I got Sh600 a month. The Headmaster, a gentleman called John from Kisumu, was accused of embezzling funds and was sacked. I was appointed to replace him and my salary was doubled to Sh1,500 with no allowances. I would have expected more but we were all poorly paid by Mr Patel who owned the school in Nyeri and was running it from Nairobi." Said Garang to the Nation.

Reminiscent of his time in Kenya with nostalgia, Garang said, "It was a wonderful time I remember. We were trying to make the best of a bad situation. The children needed secondary education but there were no schools. They paid a lot of money to the school but were not getting good value for it. It was a rip-off. The owner was only interested in making money. For instance, he employed unqualified teachers like myself."

While at Gatunganga, "Garang had clashed with his employer for standing up against what he considered unfair treatment of his students." Said the Sunday Nation.

One of Garang's students, Mr Wilson Wamahiu Muhoro, who was at once Under-Secretary in the Ministry of Education in Kenya was quoted by the Sunday Nation that as head teacher, Garang would let them in class without fees.

“The school manager would come from Nairobi and send us home for non-payment. But the moment he left, Garang would allow us all back in school. He was a very good maths teacher. Many of his students ended up as maths teachers," Wamahiu was quoted by the Nation.

Another student of Garang, Mr Erastus Munyiri, had recalled that Garang "was very popular with students because he never raised his voice or shouted at anyone. Instead, he gave personal attention to any student with difficulties".

Mr Munyiri recalled to the Sunday Nation an incident in 1965 when one of the school bosses called a student "you bloody monkey". Garang could not sit back as he watched the racial humiliation happen on his watch. He slammed his boss in the face and said he was ready to be said sacked.

"The boss recoiled and left quickly. Garang was not sacked, and he remembers the incident clearly." The Sunday Nation said.

"I remember very well. I take great offence at any humiliation based on race and this was not right. No human being is superior or inferior to the other.” Garang said to Sunday Nation.

The Sunday Nation quoted Mr Munyiri that Garang "many times would invite us into his small house where (he) would chat for hours after school. He would tell us stories about his country and how black people were oppressed by the government."

"We saw him as one of our own," the Nation quoted Mr. Munyiri as saying. In Gatunganga in Nyeri, Garang mobilised the parents to establish their own school where they would pay less fees and pay teachers more. The parents accepted his idea.

The Sunday Nation quoted Garang as saying, "The fee was Sh60 a term and we had 300 children. I told the community that we could cut the fee by Sh10 a term. I did simple calculations and saw the money was enough to put up a school of their own and increase the teachers' pay to attract better qualified staff. We would then all move from the private school to our own,"

After Garang left for the USA, the Gatung'ang'a community went ahead to implement his project a year later, and the school name was changed to Hiriga Secondary School. And while a headmaster, Garang abolished corporal punishment in the school.

"I abolished corporal punishment that I found degrading and replaced it with digging. The school had only two toilets when I joined - one for girls and another for boys, and students wasted a lot of time queuing during break time. I had pleaded with the owner to put up additional toilets to no avail. When we replaced corporal punishment with actual work, we were able to put up 17 additional toilets in a record two months and everybody was happy," The Sunday Nation quoted him.

After working for almost two years as a headmaster and math teacher at Gatunganga in Nyeri in Kenya, Garang went to the USA where he joined one of the country's prestigious liberal art colleges - the Grinnel College in Iowa State. After studying at the Grinnel College, Garang won the prestigious Thomas J. Watson Fellowship.

Thomas J. Watson Fellowship is awarded to graduating seniors where they study outside of the USA for a period of one your without returning to the USA or the home country. After getting the fellowship, Garang chose to come to Tanzania for the second time where he studied the East African Agricultural Economics at the University of Dar al Salam as a Thomas J. Watson fellow.

After studying in Dar Al Salam University and after graduating from Grinnel College in Iowa, Garang returned to Sudan where he joined the Anya Nya Movement. The Anya Nya was absorbed into the Sudanese army following the Addis Abba Agreement of 1972. Garang was given the rank of a captain in the Movement.
In the middle of 1970s, Garang won government scholarship to study Agricultural Economics at Iowa State University in the USA. At Iowa State University, he obtained his Masters and PhD in Agricultural Economics where he wrote his thesis on the Jonglei Canal Project. While in the USA, Garang went to the prestigious Fort Benning Military Academy where he studied Infantry Officers’ Advanced Course. After his final studies, Garang returned to Sudan in the earlier 1980s. He took up a job at the University of Khartoum as a lecturer. He also joined the Sudanese army and gained the rank of a colonel.

Born in 1945 to Mabior Atem Aruai and Gak Malwal in Bor North, Garang led the Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army for 22 years in the fight for a New Sudan of equality regardless of religious, racial, gender, class, and ethnic discrimination. He finally brought the Comprehensive Peace Agreement(CPA) in 2005 which guaranteed the Sudanese people their rights. He became the President of South Sudan and the First Vice President of Sudan on the 9th of July, 2005.

On the 30th of July 2005, his sun set when he died in a mysterious chopper crash on his way from Uganda to New Sudan.

Garang was described in many media circles as larger than life during his death. However, to his critics and opponents in South Sudan, Garang was a mere man from Bor and if anything at the national level, they would refer to him as a dictator and a unionist. But to his disciples of masses in all four corners of Sudan, he was the embodiment of freedom and equality in Sudan.

References
Mathenge, Gakuu. (2005, January 9). Garang: Lessons from Kenya,
The Sunday Nation. Retrieved June 21, 2007 from
the www.nationmedia.com/archive.
Notes from an informal conversation with a close friend to Garang.