I don’t care for the murderous and cruel, those who call down the locusts on their own people, those who build themselves a palace on piles of corpses. John Garang was unquestionably a brilliant man, smart, charismatic, a strong leader. But to what end? In all his years as a freedom fighter what did he give back to his people?
Early in my career, I asked a colleague with decades of professional experience in the Horn of Africa about John Garang: why a man with all his gifts, a man who could be a success anywhere and at anything, a man with all the choices in the world would choose unending war. My friend gestured expansively, sweeping his hand to include the dusty, rutted track; the dirty, fly-tormented children; the bent women scratching at a parched field; the young man hopping about on one leg, barefoot and without a crutch; the men old too soon lying drunk and passed out in the ditch . . .
“What? And give up all this?”
Garang liked to invite visitors – the aid workers and diplomats and military advisors – to his villa. Many people I know enjoyed a dinner with Garang and his wife. Garang never failed to turn on the charm at these parties. My colleagues always came away impressed with his “genuine” interest in the difficulties faced by humanitarian workers; his “real” concern for the plight of his people and their development; his “unfeigned” commitment to human rights and a better tomorrow for all Sudanese.
Most of them eventually got over their hangovers. I hope Sudan does too.
Posted by Martial