Our late leader Dr. John Garang quote the above story to narrate the reasons he didn't visit civilians during the civil war. I found the story very funny he was sharing his speech with the groups of civilians he was addressing in the home town of Deng Nhial. He began the story like: In the year of starvation, things were tight, no where to find food easily. There was this smart Dinka woman who defeated the challenge of the starvation and saved her kids. This was what the woman did... she puts "an axe in a pot and cook it." An aggressive reaction she envisioned after she saw how all her children were laid down with the pains of the hunger, every time when one of her children is about to pass away, she would say... kid hang on I have a meat here in the pot. This meat doesn't cook easily... hang on for me, she kept doing the experiment like that until the husband came with the food. The woman grabbed the food from her husband's hand and swapped in the real food with an axe being cooked for almost a day. There she saved her kids lives. In his conclusion, he said, a revolutionary leader don't travel for visit, a leader of a peaceful country does that. Should I came here last time when our movement was shaken by the split of the 1991, there was nothing I would have done, all I believed you would have benefited from was to see me... and seeing me without accomplishments would have made the whole situation aweful and the citizens might have surrendered to the Khartoum government. That's why I distance myself away not that I didn't love you but because not to break your hearts. I think in my case, I had an axe put in the pot those years in border of Kenya and Uganda. Now, the axe being cooked, Yei felt in the hand of SPLA, Rumbek was captured, and now am here with you talking about what are the next steps to go further. Our movement is strong like never before. We gained tough momentum and we will win our rights. In my opinion based on this piece, I found our late leader Dr. John Garang strength in relating tough scenarios with his most engaging task as the civil war leader. He led the movement at the hardest times when many of us knew nothing but total failure in our minds when we were running to the borderlines of Kenya, Uganda, and the neighboring countries.
The late leader Dr. John Garang will be remembered for life time in South Sudan. Although he is not with us physically, his contributions through speeches he gave reminds us about him at regular basis... That's my opinion and what is yours?
Written by DeTall.
