Dr. Garang de Mabior in focus

"He is widely known and respected as a scholar and as a gentleman by our faculty, our students and our towns people. His scholastic and social behavior reflected honor on his country as well as on himself and his family. Dr. de Mabior has a brilliant future ahead of him if provided with an environment within which his many talents can become fully developed. These talents include; his personality, leadership and organizational abilities as well as his intellectual endowments." ~ John F. Timmons, Professor of Economics and Charles F. Curtis, distinguished Professor of Agriculture, Iowa state university of science and technology, Dec 23 1981. 

The above quotation is a very strong recommendation for Dr. Garang's capabilities by his major professors from the Iowa State University where he was unanimously granted his doctor of philosophy in economics and a masters of science degree in Agricultural Economics. He earned a 3.7 GPA based on 4.0 which automatically placed him among the top 15 in a graduate class of 200 students representing 27 different countries. 

Dr. John Garang indeed lived up to his professors' beliefs in him for he became an exceptional leader in his life time and a revolutionary who brought forth independence for his country at the ultimate price of his life. Below are some of his most notable quotes that we could go through as a people to reflect on his dreams, visions and ideas for this country to see where we are and/or where we are headed/where we have failed. Enjoy!

1. "I joined the movement with total commitment and dedication. I've resolved to give the ultimate sacrifice, my life, for I'm bound by nothing else but duty and commitment to Africa and the African people."

2. "A nation is not created by God but by people and it doesn't go to church on Sundays neither does it go to mosque on Fridays."

3. "Let us unite against ethnic, religious and racial divides to restore personal dignity for all. Let us reject being mere spectators in life, to becoming masters of our own destiny."

4. "The SPLM is a forum in which citizens shall have a right to ask their government representatives; where are the hospitals, the school buildings and the roads you promised to construct. The SPLM is a forum in which citizens have a right to report a member of the SPLA to face justice in the court of law if he has committed crimes against civilians."

5. "Our struggle for dignity, freedom, democracy and good governance...our struggle for justice and equality for all irrespective of their tribe, ethnic group, race, religion or gender are indications that nobody is anybody's majority and nobody is anybody's minority."

6. "Peace will bless us once more with hearing the happy giggling of children and the enchanting ululation of women who are excited in happiness for one reason or another."

7. "Africa must unite not as a continent but as a nation for therein lies our collective survival as a people."

8. "People accuse me of killing our sons and eating up people's farm produces for nothing, but let me tell you this, our blood will be shed because I hate oppression and marginalization of our people but I'll not even enjoy the fruits of this struggle. There are people sleeping comfortably right now; they don't know the hunger or the sound of a gun. After our job is done that generation will take over; they will cut a large piece of land with pangas and sell it cheaply for a bottle of beer."

9. "Women in Sudan, as everywhere in the world, are the marginalized of the marginalized, whose suffering goes beyond description. The Sudanese rural woman, for example, wakes up at five o'clock in the morning to walk five kilometers just to get five gallons of water after five hours walk, spends another five hours working on the family farm and five more hours making the family meal and then she goes to sleep."

10. "With this peace agreement, we've ended the longest war in Africa - 39 years of two wars since August 1955 out of fifty years of our independence. And if we add the 11 years of Anyanya 2, then Sudan had been at war within itself for 49 years, which is the whole of its independence period."

11. "The SPLM vision, policy and slogan shall be to take the towns to people in the countryside rather than people to towns, where they end up in slums as happened in many countries with the consequent deterioration in their quality of life."