GENERAL PAUL ALI GBUTALA

THE LEGEND!

By Edward Abyei Lino

31/01/2009

-1-

General Paul Ali Gbutala, the Legend, who was feared by the Sudan army; was a fare, firm, fearless and forgiving freedom fighter. He was well bestowed with unflinching guts and elastic stamina. He was a courageous man! When he was commissioned as an officer in the early 1950s, his eyes and mind were widely opened to see and analyze the status of the set-up in which Southern Sudanese came to find themselves in the Sudan Defence Force (SDF);during the time of Sudanization from 1953 to 1955 and onwards. The time during which the British and the Egyptians started to pack their files and whatever confidentialities they wanted to remove unseen from the Sudan, ready to depart to end the loathsome epoch of that strange Condominium rule.

Lt Ali Gbutala and colleagues had observed what was happening. They keenly observed and started to fee1 acute over-whelming pains of injustices pricking hard like contorted spikes in their hearts, hooked by a â€کbrother on a brother’! They did observe, asked and closely followed the process in which Sudanization was planned and implemented through the most corrupt ways and means. They were deeply up-set and dismayed with the whole process and so was the South. They were deeply disturbed and madden by what was taking place around them, which compelled them to search for an alternative.

The Gbutalas saw and heard about some of their northern colleagues being lifted up to higher positions and started to wonder as to â€کwhat was wrong’ with them! They tried to find out what lifted up their colleagues from the riparian North so fast and why were they â€کun-lift-able’ unlike them? “Is that how we shall remain behind in our independent Sudanâ€‌! These were the questions which started to dominate and disturb their thinking. They started to look around seriously for deliverance, even if it meant the use of arms!

But, policy makers and civil service leaders of the day in Khartoum turned their backs to all the genuine complains and claims which were presented by Southern Sudanese. All complains presented were negatively considered to be â€کchildish’ claims. They started by refusing to hear, see, feel or even gauge the multiplying pains, which they continued to inflict on Southerners, Easterners, Westerners, Northerners and whoever they perceived to be undeserving, because of greed. They even went ahead to be ready prepared to meet any move by whoever might think to confront them!

The fist-full number of Southern Sudanese officers in the â€کSDF’ were cynically informed by their colleagues and friends that, those who climbed over-night to higher positions, had what came to known as â€کdhahar’, back, to climb with. They inspected and looked around at themselves and found that they had no â€کbacks’ like what people talked about with which to climb the ladder! “Were they more distinguished than us in the army and the civil service?â€‌ They asked and replied, in a painful â€کmonolog’: “We believe not, though few we are.â€‌ “Then what went wrong with our brothersâ€‌! The point I wanted to make is that, people are wrong for sure, if they were made to believe that the mutineers of Torit 1955, did not know what they were in for. No! They knew what they were doing.

I was more than lucky to have met General Paul Ali Gbutala, who told me about how they were disturbed and agitated by the whole situation. “Sometimes when you sit and think about what was going on, you refuse to sleep completely. I tell you!â€‌ They did their level best to find appropriate solutions to problems that were rising systematically in that dim atmosphere in spite of the fact that, the Gbutalas lacked the appropriate political organization and leadership to consult on regular basis.  

General Gbutala told me that, he had been greatly honoured by God who kept him alive up to the time the SPLA was born to continue the struggle. “Oh, I have lived to witness it, my dear!â€‌ He warmly said it, while pulling a deep breath of satisfaction coupled with a tender plaster of smile on his face like a lucky person who succeeded to catch the last bus in the latest part of the night! He talked like a person who suddenly found himself, following the safest route out in a dense dark. “Now I know that President Garang and the SPLA will liberate my people. I am happy for thatâ€‌. From the time I met our dear General, I started to ponder for long, considering the most appropriate and modest way in which to present some living aspects of his feelings and the way he used to see things, as I came to know him closely.

Lt Gbutala and colleagues observed the different ways and means used by the northern riparian elite, who inherited the colonial rule with â€کarrogance’. They saw them preparing to plunge on the neck of the South, with the most malignant intention of strangling it to death. They loved and presented wonderful praise songs to the land but, disliked the people totally! The South was to be assimilated in a great hurry, by depriving it from sharing in the equitable distribution of the national wealth. The South, in the radicalized Arab-Islamic Sudanese mentality, was to be kept begging and yearning for assistance from the North to deepen its dependence and thus, belonging. Constantly nearby from behind like a cart, Southern Sudan was to be maintained a mobile body without engine or will of its own, in order to be pulled to wherever a trip or journey is set to go!   So were the other parts of the Sudan marginalized! That seditious policy was accomplished within a short time. They intentionally planned to turn the South into a sort of a â€کkitchen-garden’, populated by impoverished beggars and submissive followers.

So was Southern Sudan kept as a â€کnatural pool’ from which to recruit and draft whatever type of obedient servants they needed in a pattern, which they insisted to maintain and intensify up to this very day. Southerners were presumed to be a â€کbackward minority’, who must be kept to follow Northerners in every aspect of life. Lt Paul Ali Gbutala and his colleagues saw the dubious ways in which their northern brethren were adamantly bent to administer the South. It was decided to be assimilated and â€کswallowed’ by way of administering it with concentrated shots of indigestible Arabization wrapped in opportunistic political Islam, which degenerated eventually into a very dreadful political weapon.

Hence, the manner in which political Islam and Arabization were imposed in the South, did not even help our impostors to quench the ember that started to glow in the underground chambers of the country. Up to now, most of the politicized â€کnorthern Islamist’ intellectuals tend to forget that; the ember which was ignited by their pioneering-fathers and brothers at the time of the independence was what they inherited and kept on blowing over the years with the fumes of hatred, till it blew up into an outrageous fire!   

Thus, was the South kept behind kicking between survival and extinction! And that was what they had intended, proven by time over the impossible years of bloodshed. It was during Sudanization period, when the politicized northern Arab-Muslim intelligentsia usurped the leadership of the Sudan mistakenly and haphazardly. That was the time during which they hovered around their semi-literate religious leaders for blessings, recognition and reward with positions and favors. They refused to heed to the genuine calls of people like Ibrahim al-Badri during the 1947 Juba Conference, when he solemnly appealed to the Conferees to give Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God. He told them that, Southerners were asking for federation to maintain their identity and personality within a united Sudan. But unfortunately, they started to politicize Arabism and Islam once they picked the archaic gum-boots of the Condominium colonialists and put it on forcefully. They decided to take the call for federation to mean separation!

It took them forty-nine bitter years to understand what the South wanted, before they woke up to embrace â€کfederalism’. Federalism was adopted in 1993 without recognizing it as a brilliant idea which emanated from the South since 1947 Juba Conference. But, not a single person from the North was able to remember great leaders like Buth Dieu, Stanslaus Biasama, Benjamin Loki and Bullen Alier who initiated the call. The habit of denying genuine national calls and contributions therefore, became one of the deepest and the roughest pitfalls, which started to swallow most of the radicalized Arab-Muslim Sudanese elite, who are habitually fond of looking for survival from far, beyond the Red Sea. Thus, was the Sudan ushered into semi-perpetual pains to this time! From that time onward, those who inherited the colonialists found it difficult, if not impossible, to deliver the country safely to the shores of peace in order to prosper in a balanced way. It is true therefore, to assert that almost all the pre-and-post independence leaders from the north had premeditated the planning, the execution and commitment of heinous deeds throughout the country, starting from the South. They adamantly refused to take the genuine advises of the northern nationalists who are staying in the South. Many inhuman deeds were committed individually and collectively.   

Without mastering or learning how to dress and how to free their swollen feet from that inherited colonial gum-boot, which was a clear classical British make, it started to prick hard and harder on their feet: too tight and too heavy, with which they cannot run or even walk. So did they plunge that emerging Sudanese nation in a hurry, into ruthless decades of criminal bloodshed, killing hunger, painful poverty and shameful backwardness! Since then, the â€کheirs’ missed the road intentionally by a very large margin. Panicked like a blind staggering and   pita-patting in the market, the Sudanese started to search and wonder aimlessly from problem to problems.

The short-sleeved, so-called â€کheroes of independence’, who inherited the country from the British colonialists were subsequently inherited by their contemptuous off-springs over the post-independence years, like Mohamed Ahmed Mahgoub, Hassan el-Turabi, as-Sadiq al-Mahadi, al-Juzuli Dafalla, Nafei, Haj-Nur, Salah Abdalla, Ibrahim Shams-ed-Deen, Awad al-Jaz, Abdel-Hamied Saleh, Atheyib Mustafa and Quthbi al-Mahadi who blindly followed their fading footsteps with arrogance. Now the country suffers greatly from the compounded mistakes and omissions which were committed by those bankrupt political leaders.      

As a highly disciplined officer, things were much clearer to Lt Paul Ali Gbutala and his colleagues to follow and understand more than the others. Many strange queries started to spring up in their minds, collectively and individually: “ For what reason am I a soldier?â€‌ “Since the Sudan shall be an independent country, why should my people be subjected again to pains and miseries?â€‌ “Why should I stand against my people?â€‌ “What is the meaning of brotherhood to an insincere brother who insists to take me for a wretched-servant?â€‌ “Shall they be fare to us really?â€‌ “What would be the future?â€‌ “Why should I continue to sit on pains in an unjust army?â€‌ “What should we doâ€‌? “Should we do it now? And why not, when we are men and in armsâ€‌! There were many queries which cropped up to dominate their minds!   

Being soldiers, the very people on whom the protection and defense of the new era of independence rested entirely, they were able to feel the simmering danger! They saw, felt and witnessed the injustices being inflicted on them, as soldiers. Dejected as they were, they could see pains multiplying rapidly; vertically and horizontally. They visualized that â€کnew’ independent Sudan about plunging into an endless abyss. They felt the Sudan was heading fast into a huge lightless cave of segregation, subjugation and oppression, like that unjust â€کapartheid’ South Africa. The Gbutalas saw all the injustices that were happening. They succeeded to diagnose the ailment, but stopped short of naming!

-2-

To answer those challenging queries, Lt Paul Ali Gbutala and colleagues had to take one of the most significant and toughest life-long decisions ever. And they decided! So was the mutiny of Torit, 18 August 1955 ignited. He joined hands together with Tafing, Latada and others. They cared not a damn for the divisive notions of tribalism nor did they listen to the demanding dictates of sectionalism. They considered all those negative realities to be nothing but, shackles that could have tangled them into bothersome times of pains and uncalled for disservices, which could have reversed their march and prevented them from attending to the real dangers just ahead of them. They accepted to depart with those types of divisive problems and moved forward. They decided to stand firm under the banner of patriotism!

The group solemnly vowed to resist that wanton order of transferring them to the north without prior notification or a single convincing reason; especially, when most of the soldiers had large families who were adapted to life in the South in their extended family system. By then, to transfer the soldiers with their families to the north would have been like transferring them abroad to a foreign land where they could not know how to interact in the new communities within which they were to find themselves. The soldiers needed ample time to digest the order of transfer. In any sincere and transparent situation, the families should have been taken care of in the first place, before they could be transferred to the North. Such a serious military order, given in a very tense political situation, was never given consideration by the officers of the new junta. They bulldozed the order and it boomeranged with a lot of death, over a long time!  

Beside guns and military knowhow which they had, to dissect and remove the malignant political tumor that has started to threaten the life of the Sudan, Lt Paul Ali Gbutala and colleagues, went ahead as soldiers to implement what they had decided. That was how they took the situation, analyzed it properly and decided to take that radical action. The soldiers might have misunderstood the order, but the senior officers from the north did not do their best to explain what was meant accordingly, in a proper way. “We were given orders to move and we asked them â€کwhy should we be transferred in a hurry like that, when many of us in the Company have families and relatives who are dependent on us’?â€‌ So was I told by General Gbutala!

The mutineers of Torit and other related garrisons over the South, considered that ambiguous administrative order of transferring them to the North at that specific time to mean nothing but, war against them as Southerners and soldiers, who must be removed from the South before they proceeded to take whatever adverse action they wanted to take. Therefore, they decided to resist to the last that ambiguous order of transfer!

Lt Gbutala and colleagues started the mutiny during the morning parade right in Torit and persistently kept on the fire ablaze. Hence, they succeeded to ignite that protracted liberation war, which came to be known as: Torit Mutiny. The Arabized northern intellectuals, who took the reins of power in Khartoum, were all decided to crush that mutiny at any cost. They refused to handle the situation wisely, for they considered the mutiny to be a localized â€کsecurity problem around Torit only’, which ought to be â€کcrushed instantly and Southerners given a severe lesson, so that they not attempt to repeat it again’!

Cynically, they considered that mutiny in Torit to be a localized problem, on one hand, while they took it as a mistake committed by all the Southerners for which they should all be punished, on the other! Hence, from 1955 onwards, Southern Sudan was systematically and dramatically militarized. And by so doing, the northern politicized military elite vitalized the market for the â€کjallaba’ traders to contract and supply the army, the security and the police with whatever goods they wanted, including â€کshatha’, chilies, which was extensively used for torturing people. And thus, was the war turned into a real bonanza!

The mutiny in Torit spread fast like fire in the wild, till it reached all the corners of Southern Sudan, through what became known all over the world as Anya-nya Movement. At last the Gbutalas succeeded to ignite a brilliant revolutionary fire, in spite of the inadequacy of the vision which torched their way, for which they should not be blamed. At that time, nationalism had not yet developed nation-wide. Primarily, people looked at themselves from the narrow angels of tribal affiliation, ethnic inclination or religious belonging. Generally, people spoke about nationalism nationally, but acted in a different way locally. That was how parliamentarians were oriented. Most of the members of the parliament from the North utterly failed to understand what Southerners were in for. Southern members of the Parliament, though more superior than their colleagues from the north in tackling national issues with sincerity, were taken for mere simpletons who were kept, perhaps, to add colour to the house!

However, most of the members from the Northern parts of the country were in fact, a bunch of profiteering supporters who would do many things for things that could be personal or local. Hardly did they attend to the national call. And if they happened to wake up, they would start first by taking permission and blessings from the guru in the â€کGubba’ across the Niles. It was in that polluted political atmosphere â€کfederalism’ for the South was discussed thoroughly, but it was unfortunately laid off tactically from the agenda of the National Constituent Assembly that, â€کit shall be given due consideration’ in what they prescribed as â€کforeseeable future’.

They succeeded to block it and arrested those who call for it, up to the time when power was handed in a â€کwhite-peaceful’ take-over to General Ibrahim Abboud on the 17^th November, 1958. Yes, General Ibrahim Abboud, the very person who sentenced the mutineers of Torit to prison and to death! We all came to know that, it was during the reign of General Abboud that the South suffered greatly. Because, General Abboud and his officers intensified the war, for they took the problem to be that of â€کinsecurity’. After sentencing them in Juba and Torit early 1956, Abboud went back to fight the â€کremnants’ of that same Torit mutiny, who mushroomed and spread over the South as a viable revolutionary force, from the Imatong Mountains under the command of Gbutala, Tafing and others.

At the time of the independence, the Sudan had desperately needed a wise and craft-full visionary leader like J. L. Nehro in India. Indeed, a wise, charismatic and transparent leadership was desperately needed, to forge a formidable free nation out of its inherent diversities and multiplicities: geographical, cultural, languages, religious, ethnic and colours. All the ingredients and the potentialities required for constructing a formidable-house that could have accommodated all the Sudanese peoples, to which they could have cherished their belonging with dignity and pride, were there intact. But very unfortunately, the Sudan lacked that kind of leadership. The mutineers of Torit therefore, had not seen or heard of a charismatic leader emerging from that dim-dump-dawn of the independence to lay off their genuine fears! It was the lack of a visionary leader, which led the Sudan into turmoil from 1955 to this very day.   

-3-

When that mutiny erupted, Torit 1955, the Priminister was a national, Ismail al-Azhari. A man whom people respected nationwide as our â€کindependence hero’. But, a very few people knew where he came from originally, if they were there! They used to call him with utmost respect: â€کSayed/ Ismail al-Azhari’ and stop! Even in el-Obeid where his grandfather was revered and buried in a lofty â€کGubba’, people know not his full name or from which ethnicity he came from! Popularly, the whole country did not know the mane of the person whom they loved to eulogized and glorify as their most respected hero, whenever people stood to sing in commemoration of the independence! Sayed/ Ismail Al-Azhari, is only known to be the hero who led the Sudan to the dawn of the independence. But, as a matter of fact, Ismail al-Azhari was â€کknown’ to the urbanized Sudanese of the North, more than to the other Sudanese. However, the Sudanese respected him and endeared him, because he was among the first educated Sudanese university graduates to lead, till he became the first Priminister who raised the flag at the independence!

That Sayed/ Ismail al-Azhari was accepted to be the first Sudanese Priminister from that emerging metropolitan Omdurman of the Mahadists could have been perhaps, because Africa with its pre-colonial state formation was developing into nationhood. That was the time when people decided to belong to wherever they were, before the independence. One could have originally belonged to a tribe or an ethnicity in what came to be known after independence as Nigeria, Ugandan, Ethiopia, Mauritania, Chad, Congo, Turkey, Egypt, Europe or whatever. There is nothing wrong or shameful what-so-ever about origins, for people are one in essence. It is the way and the habit in which we were brought up in chauvinistic atmosphere, to shun and belittle people, origins and colours as: non-Arabs, non-Muslims, non-Christians, black or white; which are our problems today!

Hence, the Sudan is among the leading emerging African states, which is sharing lots of ethnicities across the borders with its many neighbours. However, the Sudan became the first of the African â€کamorphous’ states, which led Africa into independence. But unfortunately, just before the Sudan could be freely allowed to attend to its immerging intricate internal problems, in order to discover itself and lay solid foundations to that effect, it was hurriedly plunged into the bosom of the Arab League.

The Sudan became a member at the time it was about to transform itself into nationhood, after which to freely choose a direction with unanimity. The Sudan has not been given time to look at itself as a nation, since it came into being. It was turned to look out-wards with reverence to distances far, in order to reshape itself like a black person who has been made to believe himself to be white, simply because, he talks, sings and pray in the language of the white! That is precisely how the Sudan was badly mishandled and pushed to â€کmis-shape’ itself, in order to look different than what it should be.   

So were Arabism and Islam elevated to dominate the country! And people, who knew nothing about Arabs and Arabism in the Sudan beside â€کtrade and Islam’, were presumed to be Arabs over night, since the 19^th of January 1956, the day the Sudan was admitted to the Arab League. In 1972, a certain Dinka man who come to Khartoum from Rumbek far in the South for his first time in life, was looking down from a tall building where he went to visit a relative. The moment he looked down the ninth floor, he saw an unending chain of cars in a long jam. He was greatly astonished and asked about what was happening! He was told that, that was a normal jam. So he wondered: “Ahaa! That is why the Sudan is being called â€کdoula Arabia’. He took the word â€کarabia’, the colloquial word in Arabic for â€کcar’, to mean Arab country. Yet, you find such a man being cynically considered as an Arab, by the Sudanese chauvinists!

The Sudanese Nationality Certificate used to be issued in the center, Khartoum. That pattern went on for more than thirty years after the independence. People do their best to move to Khartoum from all the corners of the one-million square miles Sudan, to be certified as Sudanese nationals, which could be refused. After having certified ones birth place, the Nationality Certificate was issued through belonging to a tribe, attachment to a tribe, proximity to decision making people, work place, residence in a trade location or belonging to a religious sect. And as the Sudan is still an immerging state, so are the Sudanese. In the hands of the Sudanese chauvinists, that way of doing things went on un-abetted to include the Palestinians and the Islamic fundamentalists of the world. These are the people illegible for the Sudanese nationality, today!     

So, describing the mutiny in Torit as a â€کstorm in a tea cup’ therefore, our First Sudanese Priminister issued orders to confront the mutineers with â€کexcessive forces’, but desisted to contain the situation in person. He left the whole issue to the outgoing colonial administration, who contained the mutiny by proxy. The mutineers who were apprehended were sentenced in a great hurry and brutally executed by defence-less courts without adequate translators and in the absence of the British, who witnessed the mutiny. No witness was allowed except those brought in by the prosecution!

The hasty way in which things were mishandled by that kangaroo court, which was headed by Brig. Abboad, contrary to the findings and recommendations of the investigation Committee led by Justice Batran, added fuel to that mutiny in Torit and kept it glowing in the Mountains of Imatong, where it went on burning till it gained momentum and once more erupted, early 1960s. That was how the Anya-nya Movement was born as a continuation to the Torit mutiny.

Anya-nya Movement was commanded by the same mutineers who escaped the killings hands of the radicalized northern elite led-army. However, that Anya-nya Movement restarted to move as an anger-driven-force. It took upon itself the mission of revenging for their colleagues, till when their vision developed and transformed into broad-based nationalist movement, with a clear case to present nationally and internationally.

That â€کsplinter group’, which transformed itself into Anya-nya Movement was commanded by Gbutala, Tafing and others from that Torit Mutiny. Within a short time the Movement started to add fresh blood of recruits into their ranks. Then, it expanded vertically and horizontally. Within a span of time, when the war was intensified, that Torit mutiny expanded to attract seasoned politicians, students and civil servants; as the civil population started to run for refuge in the neighbouring countries: Uganda, Congo and Ethiopia. That was the time when leadership was gained and lost through different ways and means. Of course, Gbutala and Tafing were there, in process of loosing or gaining leadership.

The chain of leadership that came and went included seasoned personalities like Joseph Oduho, Fr Saturnino, William Deng, Agrey Jaden, Gordon Muortat, Ezbon Mundiri, Samuel Abjohn, Ferdinand Goi, Philip Pidak, Emmanuel Abur, Gabriel Kau, Akonon Mithiang, Dominic Morwel and Micheal Taweil, nephew to General Gbutala and many others. They applied different ways and means to reach the leadership, which included the use of force and ethnicity or both. Through despotic and democratic means and otherwise, leadership came and went each contradicting the other, but consistently addressed the main problem objectively as time went on, in an amazing way.

That was precisely, how things mutated and developed in that â€کmelting pot’ called the â€کAnya-nya Movement’, in which the Southern personality started to develop positively into â€کnationhood’. That was the situation, up to the time when General Joseph Lagu, from that small Madi tribe along the White Nile divided by borders between the Sudan and Uganda, took over the leadership. That was a good development. It was one of the most mature signs of the struggle which indicated that, the people of Southern Sudan have started to turn their backs at the narrow dictates of tribalism.

Guided by a new vision, which he could not articulate sufficiently about how he perceived the Sudan as a whole, philosophically, General Joseph Lagu succeeded to lead the South through Southern Sudan Liberation Movement to reach and conclude the Addis Ababa Agreement and endorsed the â€کunity of the Sudan’. He accepted the solution which was rejected by his Movement originally and so did his followers, though be â€کunity’ accepted on different grounds. It was â€کunity in diversity’, which was by then, a new political terminology in the vocabulary of the Sudanese.

The South was considered to be a full â€کautonomous Region’ within the Sudan, though Khartoum remain as the center. But, the meanest surprise of the epoch on record was that, almost all the politicized and radicalized northern Sudanese intelligentsia turned their backs to the peace agreement and stood firm against it. Without providing an alternative solution to the problem, they considered the Addis Ababa Agreement to be an unacceptable sell-out to the imperialists of the world, the Church and Western World, through the World Council of Churches, which brokered the Peace Accord!

The radicalized Arab-Islamic intelligentsia of northern Sudan refused to accept and recognize the fact that guns have been silenced all-over Southern Sudan and peace was achieved! Instead of doing their best to improve on the agreement, which had been achieved, they worked hard to trigger the war anew. When the war started in May 1983, they did their level best to fight it again, because it was started from the South by Southern Sudanese leaders! They wanted the South to fight the war for them. Southerners, as â€کunder-dogs’, were expected to remove whoever was in power in Khartoum! They refused to know that, the war which erupted in the South for the second time was being fought on different grounds. It was no more â€کSouthern Problem’ people were fighting for. People went ahead to fight a â€کnational war’ for the transformation of the whole Sudan.

People fought so relentlessly to be liberated from backwardness. It was no more a liberation from â€کwho’ but, liberation from â€کwhat’! And of course, to liberate a people from â€کwhat’, has its own dynamics, which could be frightening to the one from whom to liberate the people. The Sudan has to be renewed and revitalized for all the Sudanese peoples to live dignified in peace and prosperity. That stand should be taken as the last-best resort in hand to keep the country united. But, that particular stand raises the problem to unprecedented heights, which gravely threatens the unity of the Sudan, as it tends to take the country to the verge of breaking up into two entities or even more, as things continue to unfold.  

-4-

General Paul Ali Gbutala did not record his thought, speeches, auto-biography or biography. He was a well known leader, who rose from the lowest ranks to lead a daring revolutionary liberation army! He was a practical man who did his things right in the open for people to understand and undertake with ease, for he did not write or read fluently. He was a lean and truthful man who took things as they were meant to be. He always took a spade for a spade and that was the secret which elevated him to leadership. People felt comfortable with him and followed his stand, style and mannerism with satisfaction. General Paul Ali Gbutala was a likeable commander, who exerted all his efforts to keep his people together, as a man who inhaled from that small Baka tribe divided between the Sudan and the Congo like General Joseph Lagu!

As an obedient soldier and a Catholic too, he considered lies to be mortal-sins for which a person must seek absolution by way of confession. That was the reason he hated liars, swindlers and pretenders. He considered theft and corruption to be shameful criminal attributes a person could be described with. He considered them to be qualities of â€کindiscipline’ people, who deserved not to be trusted and respected. To be “caught as thief, a swindler or a corrupt person would be too shameful indeedâ€‌. As he told me! He also went on to tell me that, “Self-respect is one of the most important attributes of a commanderâ€‌. That was how he took â€کgood and bad’ and its related contradictions. General Paul Ali Gbutala added these yard-sticks to militarism, the only trade he was born and brought up to know, throughout his life. Gbutala was born in a military garrison, grew up therein, recruited, promoted an officer, staged the mutiny and led the struggle. He was born, grew, lived, until he died a General!  

The General was a generous person who lived to share whatever he owned with his fighters. He led an extremely simple life. He lived and died as the poorest-richest person I came to know. Poor in what he owned personally, but rich with what he offered to free his people! He had about six guns, but he owned nothing more as his own, beside what was on him in terms of clothing in half a handbag. He replaced his eating and drinking utensils once he lost one of them! He had a small farm from which he was able to get something to sustain his living. Beside dry fish, chicken, birds and meat from the wild, General Gbutala depended on cassava leaves and roots! He lived simply as a truthful man. He knew how people liked to follow truthful leaders. And that was what crowned his personality in the eyes of his soldiers and followers.

General Gbutala considered a leader to be a brave enduring person who should be generous, gallant, truthful, appreciative, disciplined, honest, neat, secretive, trusted, dependable and little-talking personality. “Why for should a leader lead a lavish life?â€‌ He once told me one morning in Kaya as he was taking his tea and porridge. I had asked him about the food he liked most to be prepared for him that day. He told me that he was ready to take whatever was there, though he had lost a number of his teeth to help him chew with ease.

At once I remembered how the Chairman, Dr John, asked one of his cadets in an interview which he had with him: â€کWell. Which kind of food do you like?’ The cadet answered that he had no specialties with regards to food. â€کI eat whatever I find’. The Commander-in-Chief responded: â€کExcellent! Congratulations, you are a real guerilla fighter’. General Gbutala saw and appreciated these fundamental qualities of leadership being inculcated constantly in the rank-and-file of the army. In fact, the General as a person could definitely belong to the school of the stoics!

Many decades glossed, from Gbutala and Tafing, to Fr Saturnine, Buth Dieu, Stanslaus Biasama, Joseph Oduho, Luwiji Adwok, Agrey Jaden, William Deng, Joseph Garang, Peter Gatkuoth, Abel Alier, to Joseph Lagu. They all stood and resisted obediently and faithfully by standing firm as real Sudanese leaders, who were facing peculiar problems in their own areas for which they should not be seen, taken, treated or considered to be Southern Leaders or Southerners only. Indeed, people are required to avoid dealing with fundamental issues driven by inferiority complex and sit behind to believe in the manner in which things were set to be believed. Like when some people get naively driven by whims to accept to point at northern politicians, as Sudanese Leaders and not northern Leaders.

It is shamefully self-defeating indeed, to assume, pre-judge and land verdicts on things, which are believed to be difficult to change without attempting to affect the change. People tend to defeat themselves once they give up and presume that things are pre-set and thus, impossible to change. These types of fallacies should be by-passed specially, when the problems which our Sudanese leaders from the South faced at different times, were serious national problems in reality. There is nothing â€کpre-set’ by God, with regard to the problems of the Sudan. They are all solvable!

Our leaders and intellectuals from the southern parts of the Sudan have suffered a great deal and sacrificed for too long, by looking for comprehensive ways and means to diagnose and resolve the national problems, which started right from the South and the whole country. All the plans, ambitions and aspirations they have, however sharp they appeared to be, have never attempted to cross the gate of that united Sudan people yearn for. But, alas, up to now the Sudanese leaders who inhale from the South have never been treated as Sudanese leaders. They are still being considered as â€کSouthern-leaders’, who are expected to follow their leaders or masters from among the northern Sudanese leaders in Khartoum.

Southerners have to exist and move within a given controlled context! Up to now there are areas which are being considered to be no go areas for Southerners. Southerners have not been perceived or treated as Sudanese leaders, since the time the Sudan became an independent country. That is how things turn to look like they are tightly controlled by a sort of â€کbelonging syndrome’; meaning that the South belongs to the North. Of course, that way of doing things remains one of the most abusive realities of the Sudanese modern politics!   

-5-

In some highly respected homes and places in the north, both leaders and the led from the South and other marginalized areas, are still being chauvinistically seen and considered to be descendants of slaves. â€کAbid’ and â€کfarikh’ today still top whatever they say while pretentiously joking, when expressing the true feelings. Others are still being referred to as â€کawlad al-khadam’, sons of female slaves or â€کwed al-khadim’ son of a female slave; in the same mean manner without the least respect to motherhood and creation!

As a matter of fact, with a nostalgic â€کglee and clownish glamour’, those out-dated chauvinists still consider Dabba, Merawi, Barbar, Matama, Hosh-Banaga and Jeili, the hometown of ez-Zubeir Pasha Rahama, that most infamous slave baron of Africa, in the same way and manner like when those markets were the busiest slave-marketing centers of the 18^th and the 19^th centuries. That abominable rust-stricken rail, which was stretched over the years deep into the minds, traditions and cultures of those people, some shameless elite included, are still holding on. That vocabulary has never dried nor withered from their memory, which is still being commonly used wherever, in the streets. That unbecoming behavior, in particular, had even been worse before and during the years when the Gbutalas were recruits in the army.

The Sudanese leaders from southern Sudan and elites were seriously fought in many different ways with different types of archaic and modern impediments, improvised by the politicized-Arab-Islamic elite of the North. They vigorously fought and continue to fight them in many ways, which consider Southerners to be mere simplistic beings; judged by the stomach, creed and colour or taken for â€کmodern-slaves’, who should always be under-paid. The elite of the riparian parts of northern Sudan, who inherited the British, were not knowledgeable and wise enough to learn nor were they keen to sit, listen, analyze and understand Southerners as expected of them.

Look at the mean way in which they insist to defend notorious slavers in western and southern Kordufan and Dar-Fur, where heinous crimes were committed in the open and culprits apprehended with â€کhuman-booties’ in possessions? Keenly look at how they refused and refuse to apologize to the people for having abated and committed abominable crimes of: looting, raping, abducting, kidnapping, torturing, pillaging and killing, while they insist to go on committing crimes all the more, in God’s name? Look at the way crimes are planned, committed and denied officially in Dar-Fur today? Up to when shall we admit our wrongs!     

Most of the administrators who were posted in the South depended on the type of â€کjallaba’ who were avowed profiteering lords. They almost stumbled into that loathsome pitfall of ez-Zubeir Pasha Rahama, when they came to deal with the South. Had it not been for the great global changes which took place, by today they would have done what ez-Zubeir Rahama, their godfather, did in the South, Dar-Fur and the other marginalized areas! They would have been driving their â€کhuman-rovers’ by now with utmost pleasure! I intend not to point fingers at any person or people pushed by personal pains or gains. Never is that my intention. I simply want to venture to say whatever has been left unsaid over the past bitter years, because that is what divides the people in essence, like written by our most respected Dr Frances Deng in his â€کWar of Visions’ to avoid the pitfalls.

The civil servants who were selected and entrusted with the administration of the Southern Provinces went and installed themselves as â€کsuper-beings’. They did not bother to look into the cultures of the people as the British did, when the basis of all our cultures in the Sudan is one in essence; before Christianity and Islam were introduced into the Nile valley to interfere with the way things were developing, the time when we were considered to be the most leading civilization. But, they did their best to â€کhastily’ Islamize and Arabized the South in order to up-root the Southern personality and dominate it in the way they wanted.

All the plans were clear, as demonstrated by the iniquitous way in which they indulged themselves to produce their images and left them like ashamed of their origins throughout the South. Instate of going to the South as real brothers, they went there as the real masters. So were they perceived to be potential foes by the common people! And â€کa foe is always a foe’, unless things get straightened. Being a bunch of chauvinists, they did not feel the backlash of their deeds! To them, to be transferred to the South meant to amass wealth, which came to be the pattern throughout the bitter years which followed the independence. It happened in a flash, before the eyes of Lt Gbutala and his colleagues. But, our â€کbrothers turned into masters’ thought and believed that, they were super-smart and therefore well covered!    

Hence, the central point that explain the fears and mistrust, which introduced, maintains, increases and perpetuates hatred and repulsiveness in the psychology of the Southern Sudanese and other related ethnicities in the marginalized areas of the Sudan, can be found deeply rooted in the manner in which the radicalized Arab-Muslim Sudanese intellectuals conduct themselves to non-Arab and non-Muslim Sudanese. That repulsive feeling, though unexpressed, has always been almost uniform among the non-Arab and non-Islamic leaders; wherever they are all over the country.

That overriding fact was what steered Hussein Sharif, an northern Sudanese journalist, who seemed to have been backed by the British intelligence, to pick up his pen and wrote very negatively about Ali Abdel-Lathief â€کTok-mach’, as an unworthy black servant to hail as a leader and to follow; as came in his editorial of â€کHadharat as-Sudan’ newspaper, July 1924.

The way in which the Northern Sudanese make their promises till now, remains a point to be taken seriously. Many promises were specifically made, but nothing was honoured; as came in the book of our learned statesman, Justice Abel Alier: â€ک Southern Sudan - Too Many Agreements Dishonoured’! Northerners exert a lot of efforts to resolve a problem and then, work hard and harder against what has been agreed! In that respect, they have become the most notorious defaulters of the world! An agreement that was witnessed and accomplished before the whole world like the Addis Ababa Accord was ruthlessly demolish, when people like Dr Abdel-Hamid Saleh travelled throughout the South to dish out money, in order to destroy peace and disappeared when the war intensified.

Today I believe that General Ja’far Numeiri was right when he described the Addis Ababa Agreement not to be â€کthe Bible or the Koran’, when he thought to take the country into hell. No logic could have supported him to act the way he acted, unless he was decided to destroy the country! Those radicalized northern Sudanese intellectuals have continued to address themselves in many negative ways throughout our post-independence years. That repulsive and unbecoming way can still be found today in the abominable way in which Atheyib Musthafa, Quthbi el-Mahadi and many others in that â€کMimbar as-Salam al-Aadil’ express themselves in public without the least respect to Sudanese Leaders who inhale from the South in particular and to non-Arabs throughout the Sudan.

That same pattern of highhandedness, insincerity, hatred, mistrust, ruthlessness and lack of openness have consistently been expressed over the years, since the times of Ali Abdel-Lathief and his dedicated wife, mama Aaza; Abdel-Fadhil al-Maz, Gbutala, Tafing, Dr. Ad-ham, Abdel-Rahman Sule, Stanslaus Biasama, Benjamin Loki, William Deng, Mohammed Yassin, Abdalla Ajak, Abdel-Wahab Zein-Alabedeen, Paul Nuul, Buth Dieu, Fr Saturnino, Hassan S. al-Dengkawi, Joseph Garang, Ahmed I. Direij, Rev Philip Ghabush, Stanslaus Kau, Philip Obang, Joseph Oduho, Daoud Bolaad, Fahal Ukanda, Agrey Jaden, M. El-Amin Tirik, Clement Mboro, Joseph Lagu, Fredrick Magot, Eissa Kabashi, Bona Malual, Malik Agar, Yusif Kuwa, M. Saied Bazara, Abel Alier, Mini Arko; right on to Dr John Garang and to Salva Kiir Mayar-dit, time-keeping the march.

The leaders above have not been recognized nor respected by the chauvinistic intellectuals of the riparian north. They are not considered yet, to be Sudanese leaders, for the simple fact that they primarily come from the South, the West or the East; in spite of the enormous contributions, which they made in support of the same ideals and ideas over those impossible years. Attempt to stage a coup as a Southerner, a Nuba or from Dar-Fur and a person would be described as a â€کracist’! One can go even deeper into the rudiments of the superiority complex with which northern Sudanese elite naively express their expectations, as to why had the SPLM failed to liberate the whole Sudan up to the Palace in the heart of Khartoum!

They negatively express themselves, while doing nothing to help the SPLM to lay the golden eggs they cry for. In fact, a person would be shocked and angered by the contemptuousness with which they gaze at our Northern Sudanese comrades who willingly joined the SPLM/SPLA with dedication to save the country! They belittle them and attack them as people who do not know their future. They take them for atheists, spies, turned-coats and traitors! They speak while expressing their disappointment about the way things went on during the war of liberation. These are people who believe in the maxim: At difficult times slaves must rise to undertake the accomplishment of the toughest jobs for the master even if he or she be a brother or sister from the same mother but, different fathers!     

All the leaders from the South met and meet amicably under the same roof to identify the problem. But, they would adversely fall and scatter, based on the manner in which they diagnose the problem on one hand, and illusively differ as they come to follow their different ways, when it comes to â€کwhat, why, who, when and how’ should they confront the problem itself, on the other. Ideologies have always been secondary to the nature of the problem itself. The problem has been how to achieve justice, equity and equality in the Sudan in order to bring peace in the first place, where ideologies meet and reconcile.

This is where leaders meet in their minds and differ when they start to translate what is in the mind into practical and appropriate ways to achieve the same goal. As things went on, lack of a clear unifying way to follow has been the problem. Throughout the modern history of the Sudan, Southern Sudanese and the other Sudanese from the other parts of the country have consistently and repeatedly expressed their fears and concerns in the fruitless futureless segregating ways in which the Sudan was administered and continues to be administered, but they fail when it comes to resolve the problem itself!  

-6-

Digging and looking therefore, into the chronicles of our time, one can see no difference whatsoever between whatever was said by Major Ali Abdel-Lathief, Ali Gbutala, Buth Dieu, Stanslaus Biasama, Benjamin Loki, Bullen Alier, Fr Saturnino, William Deng, Fahal Ukanda, Agrey Jaden, Gordon Muortat, Luwiji Adwok, Joseph Garang, Hilary Logali, M. Tirik, Henry Bago, Angelina Paul, Faustino Roro, Ahmed I. Direij, Abel Alier, Dr Mansour Khalid, Joseph Lagu to Yusif Kuwa, Daoud Bolaad, Ager Gum, Samuel Abjohn and Dr John Garang, down to Salva Kiir Mayar-dit. For instance, they sincerely kept on talking, loud and clear, about the inappropriateness and therefore invalidity of the Sharia Laws in a united country, being a disuniting reality.

But, only a few intellectuals in the northern parts of the Sudan had the courage to listen, understand and act positively. All the rest who constitute the majority of the intelligentsia have been frightened and petrified by a small minority of the fundamentalists, who usurped the power by night from behind the doors. All the fears over the years remain intact. And so shall fears remain valid, perhaps up to the time when the Sudan is ushered into the abyss. The fears of yester-years are still our fears today. But, only a few would like to listen as they wish!            

However, it would be true to assert that, most of the intellectuals of riparian northern Sudan have not yet accepted a Southern Sudanese to lead the country. When our Late Leader, Dr John Garang, declined to take the leadership of the National Democratic Alliance, (NDA) Asmara, May 1995, he expressed himself in a cool manner to that over-heating meeting when he said: “Let Moualana Mohammed Osman Mirghani take the leadership. Let me be his second. The North is not yet ready to accept the leadership of a non-northerner. Let us keep the unity of our NDA intact. For us, that is the most important thing to doâ€‌. We from the SPLM side, who accompanied the Chairman to the meeting, clearly saw the point which he made, though we were heated up by excessive anger: â€کUp to when shall the north accept the leadership of any person from whichever part of the country other than the North’!

Our point of view was promptly made by Dr Peter N. Kok. But he accepted what was said by our Chairman for Khartoum, which was desperately following the meetings through their spies was almost preparing to celebrate, had the meeting failed in Asmara over the issue of leadership. There was a lot of goodwill for the success of the meetings by then, in spite of the fact that Northern Sudanese have not developed yet, to accept the leadership of a â€کnon-northerner’. They utterly failed to understand the point that could have helped the Sudanese to unite the country. The SPLM was not ready to accept or even abet the failure of the NDA. To change the setting of that outrageous rust-stricken archaic mind, we had to struggle much harder under the leadership of Dr John Garang and continue to struggle non-stop under the leadership of Comrade Salva Kiir Mayar-dit, with an unfading hope to build a formidable future for the Sudanese, in a transparent democratic atmosphere.

That same unforgettable afternoon, when Dr John Garang arrived to Khartoum, 8/7/2005, the overriding viability and overwhelming potential of the vision of the New-Sudan we were fighting for, which he was bringing to the Sudan that very day, became crystal clear to both friends and foes. The genuine call for building a democratic New Sudan is deeply rooted in the people throughout the nation. It was great and pleasing. That reception was the handkerchief which gently wiped our twenty-two years pains of the struggle, in which we sadly lost over two and half million lives and four million people displaced globally from their homes. That twenty-two years old struggle should be revered as the most expensive endeavor ever undertaken by the Sudanese for their liberation.  

The cheerful multitudes who thronged and flooded the Green Square to receive the man in an unprecedented way over human history, casted the verdict by demonstrating what was in their minds, in spite of the impediments which were put on the way to the airport. Six million people, with twelve million hands up sky-high waving like swimming into a peaceful prosperous future! We saw an overwhelming ocean of colourful people stuck together, dotted by the democratic elite of the North, who believed in the unity of the country according to what had been clearly expressed by the SPLM. That, the vision of the NEW SUDAN is the only option left for our people to embrace with pride, has become an overriding fact, otherwise the Sudan shall disintegrate and scatter into unmatchable pieces!     

What Dr John Garang de Mabior did was a clear action of a man, whom we consider to have understood the real problems of the Sudan, which suggests that we should be prepared to defend our gains in protracted ways. He told me that evening in Nairobi on the 6^th of July 2005, two days before he went to Khartoum: “Peace is unavoidable. A liberation war comes and goes in a process, long or short as it may take, according to its own realities and here we are. You see, no nation is created. Nations are made by people based on a given social contract, mostly unseen though people could feelâ€‌. I had gone to brief the Chairman about the situation in and around Khartoum. “How many people do you estimate will be there in the Green Squareâ€‌? He asked me while taking notes. “Well, almost between three to three and half million people will be thereâ€‌. I confidently told him as I was briefed at length by our commendable cells in Khartoum.

Then I went ahead to tell him jokingly: “You see, Bany, if you go there and tell the people that they can from tomorrow onwards report to duty carrying their â€کaregi’ they will do that at once, I tell youâ€‌! And we laughed. Dr Barnaba Marial Benjamin, our Representative to Southern African Region had come in by then. However, Dr John Garang de Mabior from Wangulei, an unknown spot deep in the South greatly succeeded with an unprecedented honour to diagnose the real problems of the Sudan and prescribed viable scientific ways and means to have them resolved, and why not?

Dr John Garang had fully liberated himself in the first place, before he advanced to become the symbol of liberation. It was with that profound dedicated spirit of continuity; meaning transformation, change, achievement, advancement and development, Dr John Garang stood and saluted General Paul Ali Gbutala. He simply considered himself to be the continuation of the struggle, which had been started since long ago by General Gbutala. Unlike his contemporaries in politics from the South, Dr Garang had made it with a remarkable distinction. He had achieved many amazing records. He succeeded in a convincing way, when he insisted to be considered as a national personality. Of course, as an intellectual, Dr Garang   was a man of the world, starting right from Wangulei, Kongor, Bor, Juba, Khartoum; and globally. He was a citizen of the village, town, city, region, country, continent and the world! He was well exposed, being a knowledgeable person, as an intellectual is expected.

When he jokingly answered the question paused by Taj-el-Deen al-Khazien in London, June 1989, about where he came from, Dr John told him straight that he came from al-Haj-Yusif in Khartoum. In fact, Dr John wanted to tell him that they were equally citizens of Khartoum and the Sudan for that matter and that was it. Nationally, he refused to be treated in the self-defeating context of being a Southerner or a second class citizen, although none from the South could beat him, when he stood to articulate, act or fight for the people of the South with sincerity and dignity. He refused to address the â€کproblems in the South’ from the narrow angle of â€کwant’, in which many Southerners allowed themselves to be trapped by the Arab-Islamic-northern elite.

Dr John took the South for a direction within the larger space, the Sudan, which should have its distinct, equitable and undeniable rights. Dr John Garang for that matter, was never a sell-out, as naively expressed by negativists. He was a very practical out-ward looking thinker, who had always been ready to reach the people wherever they were, as a dedicated freedom fighter. Dr John was ready to learn even from a child! He never belittled or shunned a teacher, for a teacher according to him, is whoever has knowledge from whom to learn. Dr John had consciously believed that, in his hands were lives of comrades, families, citizens, foreigners, friends and foes to take care of. Dr John always moved quickly, but carefully and therefore acted very responsibly. He was a man who had a lot of amazing plans and alternating ways to execute his plans.

Dr John Garang believed that the South was not the problem, but it is the North where the problem lies. He said that, because of the availability of unacceptable contradictions in the North, which require concrete solutions; in order to be able to live and prosper in peace under the same roof with all the other Sudanese. Southerners should stop talking about the so-called â€کSouthern Problem’, because the problem was not created by Southerners, but it was created by a â€کminority clique’ of northerners, who decided to milk the country. He had consistently called for the people of the South to unite in order to address the problem from a different angel in the central areas of the riparian northern Sudan.

Khartoum is for sure the center, where things are being kept, cooked and dished and as such, it should be the real target. And that was how Dr Jon Garang directed the war of liberation and its related politics. He never fought for that long in order to conquer, humiliate and subjugate people in the North nor did he fight to dominate and liquidate the South on tribal basis. He struggled to liberate the Sudanese peoples and usher them free to fruitful horizons. He sacrificed to continue the struggle, which was started since long ago by those of General Paul Ali Gbutala and others from the east, north, west, center, Blue Nile, the Nuba Mountains, Abyei and Southern Sudan, as things unfold. Dr John Garang stood to transform the whole Sudan.      

Therefore, the problem has never been colour, religion, tribe, origin or region per se. The problem lies squarely in the fact that some people have taken upon themselves to rule the country haphazardly, according to what shall make them better, more than the rest. That is how they pretentiously continued to rule through the use of baseless facts coupled with force and bribery. That is exactly the picture wherever we come from, be it from the west, the east, the north, the south or the center; where the first indicators and symptoms of our national problems appeared. If we do not resolve the problem at that level, we shall even have more and more problems all over the Sudan, which shall intern develop into tsunami that shall overwhelm us all. Equality and justice can bring about genuine peace in the Sudan. This is precisely what General Ali Gbutala, Dr John Garang, Salva Kiir Mayar-dit and colleagues had been fighting for over the years. That the Sudan should remain a united country can be maintained, once those self-proclaimed oppressors cease to be, for viable nations are not built on enviable grounds!           

-7-

I was extremely lucky to have met General Paul Ali Gbutala personally. I had very fruitful and memorable times with him. He was somewhere above eighty-five and was graced with sound mind and physical aptitude, though I failed to get from him when he was born in Wau. He simply forgot the date! He could vividly remember when he was recruited as a birds-boy until when he became a full soldier in 1927. But as time went by we came to infer his age. He was born around 1905, the year in which our resistant Gbudwe was killed by the British in Yambio, for he vividly remembered some aspects of the battle of Ariath-dit the great in Aweil area, when he became a knowledgeable young man around 1919.

He liked to narrate how his father and colleagues used to fight the Arab invaders and new comers to the land, specially the Misseriya, by aiming at their horses; along War-Guet and Kiir River. General Gbutala hailed from a Baka family. He was a practicing Christian and a Catholic too, though old to attend the service in the church on regular basis. His father had embraced Islam during the time of Mahadiya in 1890s. But, he was free to choose his faith without the interference of his father or mother, as Southerners do. Gbutala served as a private soldier in the ranks of the Sudan Defense Force. The family was stationed in Wau by the time our Legend was born.

We in the SPLA/SPLM thought that General Paul Ali Gbutala had died a bit earlier in the late 1970s. In his commemoration therefore, a Battalion was named after our great fallen hero General by Dr John Garang, as the most appropriate â€کflowers’ to lay on his resting place, wherever. It was an SPLA revolutionary tradition to name Battalions after our fallen heroes throughout the history of our struggle, which General Paul Ali Gbutala so much deserved.

But, to the big surprise of SPLM Chairman and C-in-C of the SPLA, Dr John Garang, concrete information reached him that General Gbuatala was alive. “O’ my God, so he is aliveâ€‌! Dr Garang hastily organized an SPLA contingent to go and look for him in the jungles of the Nile-Congo water-divide along the hilly Sudanese-Congolese boarder somewhere around Angudri, September 1990. And so left the contingent with clear orders to accompany him or even carry him carefully, if need be, to wherever the Chairman was waiting!

At last General Paul Ali Gbutala was found. He reappeared in a process that looked like he was born-again! He was told about the fact the Dr John Garang was the one who sent them to him in person, and that he was not far from where he was expecting him. He looked, listened and pondered like astonished, as to what was happening and what should he do in that situation! He sank into his bamboo chair and gazed at the lofty equatorial jungle trees that blocked the horizon like theatre curtains, taken completely by one of his biggest surprises ever!   General Gbutala took his time, after which he responded positively to the invitation of the Commander-in-Chief. At last he was able to remember him, as a young skinny recruit who was with him between the Congo and Angudri in mid-1960s. He was able to remember the famous letter which Capt John Garang had written by then to General Joseph Lagu, in which he explicitly expressed his fears and concern about the Addis Ababa Agreement. Many issues crossed his mind so quick and then: “Are you ready? Now let us goâ€‌!

Upon his arrival to where the Chairman was near Lasu he, Dr John, stood up attentive, as a disciplined solder and saluted General Paul Ali Gbutala! In fact, Dr John Garang de Mabior, Chairman and C-in-C of SPLM/A, unequivocally saluted General Gbutala as the most senior General who was still alive in the long line of our protracted struggle. He saluted the symbol of the struggle of the marginalized peoples wherever they might be. It was great to witness two great revolutionary leaders interact in a glamorous and amicable way. That glorious encounter further helped us to explain at depth the meaning of struggle and gave us, we the living, the meaning of continuity, which we so much enjoyed!

Dr John Garang saluted General Gbutala and then warmly embraced. What a great encounter! To witness such tears-breaking reunion, one started to feel like watching two different generations heading amicably and smoothly towards the same destiny. In a way, they looked like they were the two living characters left, in an imaginary episode where Poles embrace! They freely met and interacted like in an amicable handing over celebration. Yes, it is true that, in the armies seniorities do not fade away so simply or die like in the civil service and in other disciplines. In the armies, seniorities are highly observed and respected for life and would not be changed simply, unless something drastic happens to alter the standing order through promotions, demotions or dismissals.

That day, the Chairman and C-in-C sent an urgent message to all the SPLA Units to inform them about what had happened. And therefore, all the rest in the SPLA rank-and-file had to strictly abide and follow what the Chairman and C-in-C did. It was an order! Those who attended the reception around Lasu were all surprised to witness the Chairman and C-in-C himself saluting instead of being saluted by someone unknown to them, whom they took to be senior to the Chairman age wise. It was surprising indeed! After saluting him, the Chairman introduced him to senior officers and then took him around so that he could be seen and get introduced to the soldiers. They considered him a martyr, for they were told that he had died since long ago. That he was still alive was a very big surprise to the soldiers. They prayed and thanked God, that he was still living in peace. And there and then he was taken to be a real â€کLegend’!   

The Chairman had General Gbutala for several days during which he kept on asking about him, morning, mid-day and in the evening; because he took him for his father, a Comrade, a senior General and a concrete living history. It was a great thing to receive him since he accepted to meet the Chairman and C-in-C, Dr John Garang de Mabior for the first time since 1972, when he broke ranks with General Joseph Lagu and his group and departed to â€کmaroon’ himself in the bushes of the Nile-Congo Water Divide. His departure was caused by the differences, which sprang around the acceptance of the Addis Ababa Agreement and the subsequent formation of an autonomous Regional Government for the South, to be the best solution to the problem, which General Lagu accepted and endorsed instead of separation. He firmly stood against the 1972 Peace Accord and totally refused to bless it as: “a sell out to the Mundukuruâ€‌, meaning the Northerners.

 -8-

General Gbutala never wanted to be identified or seen to have blessed the Addis Ababa Accord and the subsequent formation of the Regional Government, by staying nearby that â€کmini’ government. He stood firm and never surrendered! He sought for a peaceful hide-out somewhere far in the bush of bushes, where he could wait for Southerners to “restart the struggle againâ€‌ for total freedom or simply die unstained like when he was born! General Gbutala had refused all the gifts which were sent to him in totality, including his post service benefits during the Anglo-Egyptian Colonial rule, which were his lawful rights. He even stopped taking salt, because he presumed it to have been imported by the â€کjallaba’ from that far â€کJallaba-land’. That was how people, including his own relatives, were forced to lose contact with him and forgot him!

General Gbutala had no children. He was accompanied by his great grandson from his sister’s side of the family. He was not graced with a son or daughter, but he had us as his grand daughters and sons. He loved his people and wished them the best live in a free land of genuine peace, progress and prosperity. For several occasions, before he returned to our Maker, General Paul Ali Gbutala used to express himself with reverence in public, whenever there was an occasion in Meridi. When he arrived to Meridi after more than forty years, he prayed and offered a sacrificial ram to reconcile the people. He asked Commander Gier Chuang to be taken atop the highest hill with the people from inside and around Meridi, where he asked God, the Almighty, to unite and bring peace to all his children in a free and prosperous land.

However, General Gbutala maintained one contact through out his stay in the bush of bushes. Uncle Gordon Soro, the administrator, was the only irregular contact whom he maintained. Now and then, expressing himself in an excusable way, he would pause and give a wonder: “O’ my sons, the worse things in this world are the two: the â€کmakakos’ and the â€کmundukuru’â€‌! Meaning monkeys and northerners! His farm was attacked and devastated by â€کmakakos’. He seriously fought them from morning to late evening using all his guns and ammunition. But all in vein, he failed to contain the monkeys! He was greatly overwhelmed by monkeys and bitterly lost the harvest on which he depended. Beside the battles he used to wage against the â€کmundukuru’, as a freedom fighter, the General had never witnessed something worse than that, throughout his entire life.

General Gbutala was so much surprised to meet Commander Mohammed Said Bazara giving orders left and right, moving and intermingling freely with his SPLA Comrades at the bank of the River Nile. He kept on following and gazing at him. He was completely taken by surprise! Comrade Bazara was the officer commanding the crossing point by then. Greatly plunged into a deep surprise and amazement, General Gbuatala greeted him very cautiously while talking to himself: “What is this now! Where am I? An Arab right hereâ€‌! After Comrade Bazara was introduced to him as a freedom fighter who came from the north by himself alone as a free man to join the Movement, the General nodded his head approvingly and told him to be careful, now that he was among his brothers. Comrade Bazara looked down and raised his head then saluted him accordingly, while nodding: “No problemâ€‌!

Sometime, before he went to cross the Nile, his Gbutala Battalion received the General in an â€کofficial’ way. It was a great day of homage and dedication. It was one of the most wonderful days to remember, the day when comrades assembled to see and listen to the man under whose name they stood for years to struggle. Indeed, he was the banner, which led them to victories! That encounter marked and symbolized his reunion with his children, the SPLA. The General stood to receive salutations and then sat down and addressed his Battalion. He told them to be active, brave and disciplined.

General Paul Ali Gbutala told his Battalion not to be cowards, but to be always daring. He commended them to be good fighters and added: “Yes! If you go to the battle-field, capture some â€کmundukuru’ and bring them live to me here, so that I may finish them with my pistolâ€‌! He â€کforgot’ that since we started the war, the performance of our fighters during battles has greatly improved, and that was the big reason why SPLA freedom fighters kept many prisoners of war, at the time when the Sudan army spared not even a single fighter from among our ranks, throughout the years of our struggle. But, his Gbutala Battalion listened to him very attentively with utmost discipline and took his talk as something given by an aggrieved General at the moment of anxiety. A tough â€کmilitary joke’, they said!

I saw General Paul Ali Gbutala, for my first time, on the barge: October 1990, when he was crossing to the eastern bank of River Nile at a crossing point of Lobajok accompanied by Commanders Kuol Manyang and Bior Ajang, when he was heading towards Torit. Comrade Mohammed Said Bazara, who had learnt sailing way back in the Red Sea around Port Sudan, was our Captain. Comrade Bazara had to captain the crossing of the big man, being the one commanding the barge. General Gbutala was highly received with a Guard-of-Honour as he crossed the Nile, the father of rivers. We were alerted together with Commander Lual Diing, Andrew Achijok, Marial Nuor and others to receive him the moment he crossed the Nile. People stood up taken by surprise when they came to know that the General was still alive and â€کhe will be soon crossing’! We had all been alerted and ready to receive him with honour.

Upon his arrival to eastern bank of the Nile, Commander Bior took him by the hand and assisted him to skip the white bull which was laid to be slaughtered as a welcoming sacrifice for his having crossed the Nile eastwards for the first time since 1955. Fresh blood was the bouquet of flowers presented to mark the arrival of the General. To slaughter a bull in reception of an important personality like General Paul Ali Gbutala is still the tradition of almost all the tribes of Southern Sudan. Another bull had to be slaughtered separately for the General, because he was not allowed to taste the meat of the bull he skipped, as tradition goes. Thereafter, we set and had some roasted liver together when said: “Aaah! Today I tasted cattle meat for the first time since 1961â€‌! By then it was more than thirty years earlier. What a big surprise for a celebrity like General Gbutala to miss meat for such a long time, along the borders of Southern Sudan! He spoke in an olden colloquial Arabic which is commonly spoken by the people of the Central and Eastern Equatoria States known as the â€کJuba-Arabic’. He used the word â€کAnsaar’ when referring to Northern Sudanese and â€کqantharah’ for the bridge.   

Among his most surprising queries was that he wanted to know about the where about of General Tafing, to which I ventured to give an answer. I told him that General Tafing had passed away some twenty years earlier. I told him the bad news, though late time wise, in a compassionate way. One was very careful not to injure his feelings in any way. I also told him that General Tafing died peacefully at home. He felt very sad! He looked down for a few minutes, while supporting his head with his hands, deeply absorbed into an unexplainable astonishment wrapped with sorrow. He gently scratched his head, as he thought about how to react to the puzzling news! General Gbutala could vividly visualize General Tafing while he shook his head from left and right disapprovingly, because to him General Tafing was the name which meant the whole eastern bank of the River Nile by then!

Among all his colleagues, General Tafing used to be his bitter rival, with whom he exchanged many messages, hot and bitter. But he had asked about him with due respect as an age mate and a comrade in the struggle. He had wished to embrace him now that he was approaching the Lotuka-land, home of General Tafing. But alas, he sadly departed forever before they could meet, for the long time that had elapsed during which they could not meet or follow the news about each other, was long enough to have them reconciled. “So, Tafing died! Tafing died, he died. May God rest him in Paradise! I am really sorry, sorry! I wanted to meet him and embrace him and see his children…â€‌!  

-9-

When General Paul Ali Gbutala arrived to Torit around October 1990, which he left a long way back before 1955, he was pleased with the way he was popularly received. The General was warmly welcomed by Commander Salva Kiir, Kuol Manyang and Gilario Wurnyang. Commander Gilario had been with General Gbutala as a soldier during the 1955 Torit up-rise. Commander Kuol Manyang had accompanied him from the Nile to Torit. In Torit, General Gbutala visited the graveyard, where all those who fell during the mutiny were buried. When he went to review the epitaphs, he stood for a moment and remembered those who were buried one by one! He went on to recount what had happen, what they did and how each of them used to behave. Commander Gilario nodded approvingly, as they went through the graveyard. General Gbutala was a highly disciplined soldier. He was very strict in all his dealings.

I stayed with the General in the senior rest-house in Kaya. One time he sent for me. The moment he saw me, he almost sprang from his bed and set up straight. He gargled and hummed like a â€کserving’ General and a General he was. At once, he ordered me to go and chastise his bodyguard by giving him twenty lashes for his being drunk while on duty and hence, failed to iron his clothes! That was an order given to me by a General to myself, an Alternate Commander! I was left with no other option, but to execute the order. Wow! For a soldier not to attend to the clothes of a General was, as it is still, a serious omission. Without a word, I found myself to have sprung up, â€کattention’! I received his orders, saluted him, about-turned and departed to execute the orders immediately and accordingly. Having carried out his orders fully, I had to return and report to him in person, which he received by nodding his approval and went back to bed.      

After a short medical check-up trip to Nairobi, which was organized by Dr John Garang, General Gbutala went straight on to Meridi where he was kindly hosted by Comrade Gier Chuang Aluong. He stayed in Meridi until the time he died under the care of Commissioner Edward Bukulu. On his way to Meridi, I was asked to provide him with transport from Kaya, where he was staying under the hospitality of Comrade Daniel Kodi Angelo who was in charge of our logistics on the western bank of the Nile. The journey to Meridi was relatively short, but on a rough and bumpy road that turned it to be longer than usual. It was a great honour to respond to a duty of that nature. I felt happy, as if I was given chance to take charge of my father, my grandfather, my Comrade, my Commander and a living monument! I had him be transported in my car in the caring company of Comrade Martin Okerok to Comrade Gier in Meridi. By then, Comrade Okerok was on his way to Yambio to reunite with his long departed children and in-laws, June 1991.

General Paul Ali Gbutala was well looked after by Comrades from all over the Sudan, not only the South. All the SPLM membership stood to support him as a great revolutionary leader. All the SPLA rank-and-file stood firm to salute him as the person alive, whose name became the banner under which they fought for freedom. General Gbutala had the whole Sudan around him in spite of his being rejected elsewhere as a genuine freedom fighter. Because, we consider him to be a rare revolutionary leader, the symbol of bravery, courage and determination! People were there to respond to his call. We all stood for him: Bolaad from Dar-Fur, Bazara from the Red Sea, Arman form the Center, Daniel Kodi from the Nuba Mountains, Kamal-el-Deen al-Wasila from the North, Oyai Deng from Malakal, Gier Chuang from Atar, Bior Ajang from Kongor, Martin Okerok from Torit, Yaac Arop from Turalei, Zamba Duku from Kajukeji, Deng Alor from Abyei. And of course Gilario Wurnyang, Lual Diing, Yusif Kuwa, Awet Akot, Kuol Manyang, Wani Igga, Salva Kiir and Dr John Garang were around, the eldest sons of the New Sudan. We all do hail him as a great revolutionary leader, who deserved whatever we had!    

It is worth mentioning that Comrade Gier Chuang was graced with a beautiful son. The infant was presented to General Gbutala to name, in a grand â€کtrimtirm’ ceremony in Meridi, the day Meridi decided to sleep not! So, General Gbutala decided to name the child as â€کGbutala’ and raised him up in public, literarily, as the lucky one who shall inherit his age and revolutionary virtues. That evening and after having carried the child for a while, the General stood and danced to the surprise of all the guests who were around. Indeed, happiness of a satisfied great grandfather could be so pleasing! I tell you, beats could be out-dated and get changed with time, but rhythms can go on for a chain of generations and that was what happened. Old as he was, our grandfather stepped up gracefully and danced like gliding on tranquil waters, when he took the stage in a tango to open the party!   He danced without being assisted or outdated to rhythm. It was one of the most capturing moments to remember.

Standing sad like dreaming by his tomb in the center of Meridi in 1998, I started to visualize and ponder on the life of the man who donated whatever he had with utmost sincerity to his people. But, do people die with what they own? Perhaps! General Gbutala died quite satisfied but, penny-less. He died poor but wealthy, for his name shall remain glittering, in the annals of our history, as an icon who participated vigorously in handling and directing the tools of the liberation of his people. He died a clean person. He died a gallant soldier. He died as one of the most sincere and dedicated sons of the land. He died a leader! The fact that he lived without stealing, swindling or robbing; satisfied him enormously!

He died a proud person, because none can point a finger at him as a soldier, who lived a dishonest, disrespectful and a disgraceful life. Nor did he lead the life of a crook or a liar. After a short intensive illness, our revolutionary father, General Paul Ali Gbutala, resisted no more. His precious soul departed finally at around 08:00 pm, on the 27^th day of August, 1997!   He died a great man! His remains were laid to rest on the following day! His tomb lies right in the heart of Meridi. Age and idleness never helped him to resist, while illness was the specific cause of his death!

Oh! That was how I came to know General Paul Ali Gbutala, Lord of the Jungle. Our great revolutionary Leader, whom we gracefully met to fuel our celebrated Gbudwe Campaign in 1990 and crowned our massive Jungle Storm Operations, in 1992!   The Storm, which followed the many storms he steered in the jungles of Southern Sudan. Indeed, we have many institutions that need to be named after our martyrs and heroes. Let that be done to commemorate our Legend, General Paul Ali Gbutala. May his soul rest in eternal peace!!!