Can South Sudan learn from Norway?
With five million people, Norway’s population is only half of South Sudan’s. Nevertheless, Norway’s historical role in the political and economic struggle of South Sudan and the support of its people — well, let me say it — is ‘grand’.
Norway is one of the countries with long serving non-governmental organisations on the ground. Norwegian People’s Aid (NPA) is one of the aid organisations that have played a great role in sustaining the lives of many ordinary South Sudanese since 1970s – providing support in the sectors of education, food, health and water.
I had always yearned to visit Norway.”
One of Norway’s citizen, Hilde F. Johnson, plays another great role in South Sudan. She spent decades in the world’s youngest nation, today serving as the UN Special Envoy to South Sudan.
Because of this significant role, I had always yearned to visit Norway. May 18, 2014 was the day I set foot on Norwegian soil, but my trip was not merely a visit.
I was invited by the Royal Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, as one of two South Sudanese journalists, to report on an international humanitarian conference during which donors pledged over US$ 600 million to avert a humanitarian catastrophe in South Sudan.
Waakhe Simon Wudu (standing left) with members of the South Sudanese community living in Norway, May 20.
Of course, with only a few days spent in Norway, it is far to soon to compare South Sudan to Norway in terms of socio-economic and political development — but after this short time and the few impressions I gathered, I would say there is much South Sudan can learn from Norway.
The first striking thing upon arrival in Oslo: Norway appears green and hilly, with nice looking houses — houses one cannot compare with the ones in South Sudan. I couldn’t stop looking at it, enjoying at the same time the blue lakes and mountains around.
Visiting a new place often comes along with surprises and discoveries. In Norway I discovered new things, new either in the sense that they don’t exist in my country South Sudan, or new in the sense that things I thought common in South Sudan don’t exist in Norway.
Think of the sun set for example: Normal to all living in the northern hemisphere, but absolutely bizarre for me and perhaps many of my fellow Africans, at 11:00 PM the sun hasn’t set in Norway. 11:00 PM means darkness has fallen over Juba already for more than four hours.
South Sudanese Minister of Foreign Affairs, Benjamin Barnaba Marial, who I and others travelled with to Oslo attending a donor conference on South Sudan, echoed my thoughts the following morning: By 10 o’clock at night I wanted to sleep, but it was still day time.”
To me it was unimaginable when Kasang A. Dedi, a South Sudanese who has now spent over seven years in Norway, toured with me around in Oslo, Norway’s capital, up to the King’s palace without any permission from authorities and we even took photos there.
Waakhe Simon Wudu at the King’s Palace in Oslo, May 19.
In South Sudan spending leisure, involving taking photos around government institutions, is regarded as illegal and a security threat. Spending leisure around South Sudan’s Presidential Palace may even bring one straight into a military cell for an unknown period of time.
According to our great grandparents, South Sudanese are hospitable people. Today, being rude and intolerant to strangers is a common character among many South Sudanese. Maybe it is the trauma, inflicted by decades of violence, which has compromised our legendary hospitality, which we urgently should revitalise.
I was however amazed with the level of hospitality I got in Oslo, despite rumours that have spilled over to Africa about widespread racism in the western world. In Juba, South Sudan’s capital, some foreigners cannot stay and move independently and free without being accompanied by a South Sudanese.
I have not come across any racism during my short time in Oslo and although some Africans who stay in the West may disapprove, but in Norway, moving along the streets and while in a restaurant, mind your own business” seems the common motto. Colour wasn’t an issue of attention. Respect, rights and care is to anyone who deserves it.
Kasang, who left South Sudan for Norway following her husband, justifies my observation. She now works at the Norwegian Broadcasting Cooperation, a government media agency as a journalist and her husband works as a doctor at one of Norway’s national hospitals. These people [Norwegians] they care,” Kasang said.
I am happy. I am treated as a citizen. I and my husband are working and we have children [in Norway].”
She is among thousands of other foreigners now making a living in Norway. Of recent, Kasang and her husband planned to return home, but with the crisis that hit South Sudan last December, the couple may likely take long before returning.
You know we actually planned to return to South Sudan. But with what happened, we now don’t know when we will go back,” she said. About her life in Norway she said: I am happy. I am treated as a citizen. I and my husband are working and we have children,” adding you know here everyone is equal”.
The conflict in South Sudan was triggered by self interest, greed for power among senior government leaders, killing estimated over ten thousand people and displacing more than a million.
This greed, and that is one thing we can learn from Norway, should be replaced by care — care for all people living in South Sudan. It is not even an expensive measure, but maybe a hard one, as we need to admit what it is.
Keeping self interest out, have respect and love for one another and our country South Sudan is the way we South Sudanese should emulate Norwegians to have a peaceful and prosperous country.
