New Life Ministry (For the Sudan Mirror)

The New Life Ministry for Sudan is an organization operating in Aweil in upper Nile. In its relatively short history the organization has achieved considerable successes. This is made all the more impressive given the obstacles which were faced during the first couple of years. James Lual Atak is Founder and President of the organization and he gave me some insight into how a young Sudanese man with no capital or resources came to establish an NGO that now runs four schools and an orphanage.

‘I started the organization about six years ago. It was a dream and the dream has come true. I was one of the lost boys who went to the United States. I was supposed to be in the United States. But after I got all the paperwork done to go to the United States I said no. I will go back to Sudan and help my people. I was twenty four years old. People said “How are you going to make it and I said I am going to make it. I had a feeling. I told people I was going back to Sudan. I had to go back. No one helped me. I was living in Nairobi under a scholarship of Christian Organisations. There was no one who gave me the money. Even the organizations who sent me to school did not give me the money.’

James threw himself into his work with enthusiasm that would eventually prove infectious. Taking the initiative himself he made his own way to Sudan and began preparation of a site for the orphanage he planned to build. ‘I decided to go and I went on May fifteenth 2002 and I started clearing the site by myself. Then I came back after spending six months without sponsorship. I had no money to pay for a plane so I had to ask for a lift. I said to a pilot “I have no money; I want to get to Loki.” I got a lift off Concern. When I came to Nairobi I showed the pictures to different organizations and I was given five hundred dollars by Open Doors. When I got the five hundred dollars I went back.’

This DIY attitude was to give James the momentum he needed to get his project off the ground. He started teaching classes on his own under trees. Teaching up to three classes at a time with no real resources to speak of he would spend his time going from one group to the next and give each class something to sing or recite while he moved between the three. He at this point had nobody else to assist him and he used to have to and fetch water from the river for the children. ‘I couldn’t afford even a bicycle.’ He tells me and explains that in those early days there were times when he had to sell his own clothes simply so he and the children could eat. However his use of the meager resources available to him was to prove crucial in securing further assistance.

‘One of the days I came to Nairobi. I went to Open Doors again and they gave me two thousand dollars. I took this money and I made a borehole. The children could drink close to their school and go to the class under the tree without textbooks.’

The local community also came to use the borehole. James then opened up three clinics in the area to help the local people in 2003. ‘I could not also close my eyes to those children who lived close to the school and were poor. I allowed them to come free to the school under the tree.’

‘When I came to Nairobi again I got money off a lot of different organizations. Any time I got anything I would rush in again because I was so touched. I was really touched by my people. When I came here I would run around with the proposal. I would get the money from different people and then I could establish a school for the outside community. Although the orphans were the priority I wanted to deal with the outside community first in order to keep them there. And also so they knew someone was thinking about them, who was one of them and giving the support they could.’

‘All the children were under the tree and they would leave when it got too hot and when the wind blew the papers in their hand would blow away and even the blackboard would blow over. When I got money I constructed classrooms for them.’

‘People in the area were going to the river for water and this often caused them to be sick so I constructed eighteen boreholes in the area. When I started in this area it was just bush but now it has become a town. People used to say “You will run away” and I said “If I run away God will see.”’

Once he had helped to ensure a future for the local people and they would not be forced to leave the area James was now able to concentrate on his main priority. Helping young people who like him had been orphaned. He explains how there were no shortage of children in need of assistance, ‘From there I could start concentrating on the orphans. From 153 orphans the number increased to 303 orphans last year, 2006 to 400 now in 2007.’

I ask him about how he feels that a young man like him should have to provide such services for so many people and if he feels the New Sudan is developing in the way it should he gives a typically candid answer, ‘Health is a big issue in Southern Sudan. We got peace but we are not concentrating on development. Then what did our people die for? They died for development, they died for education, they died for our rights, because of people being neglected. I want everybody inside and out to understand that it is our task to work to improve the situation, to change the system.’ He feels that it is the responsibility of Sudanese people to help themselves and to take the responsibility for the development of their society and illustrates the enormity of the task New Life Mission. ‘We have constructed the biggest orphanage in Southern Sudan, in a place called Aweil west. Aweil West County is our main headquarters right now but we are also supporting Aweil north.’

When asked how he feels about Foreign NGOS who come to Sudan and the way in which they operate he is equally frank, ‘They have the money. Millions of dollars and they could not even it use it wisely to focus on helping people. So they just spend money on constructing out of mud bricks. Which is not fair it is better to construct something permanent. Most NGOS, international organizations, have wasted their money. People come to Aweil now to see what we are doing and they are amazed. They wonder how this could happen. Right now we are building a big two storey building and it is the first building of its type in the area.’

James is also extremely proud that the buildings built by New Life Mission are made from concrete and not out of prefabs or mud bricks as many foreign NGOs use. He feels that it means that something will be left behind for future generations and the buildings will guarantee that children can be helped and educated for many years to come.

Further to this as he employs only Sudanese people he feels that not only is money not leaving the region but skills and experience are arriving. He feels that this experience will be invaluable. ‘What I need is for them to work hard. Every child of Sudan needs to work hard to build a future. Every morning at the work site we have 87 people working. Every single brick must be lifted up by hand and the water must be taken up. There was nobody who tried to improve their situation and tried to help them and tried to support them and show them the right direction. You see it was not easy when in the beginning I used to say “Hey Brothers it is good to work hard. To make what you need here.” People come at around nine o’clock and they want to leave at around twelve and I said no that’s out you cannot be paid a full day.’ However with their new income and skills the workers were able to begin improving their life situations, ‘With the money they bought cows or goats. Some got married.’

Skilled labourers were initially brought in from Kenya so the Sudanese workers could work with them and learn new skills, ‘The important thing is to get the skills from the Kenyans. I could see they are really working so hard to improve their situation.’

He feels it is extremely important that Sudanese people learn to help themselves and feels that anybody living in the Diaspora who have skills and experience that can help the people of Southern Sudan should return to help build a future for their people. If anybody is interested in visiting the project and learning how to initiate and run projects James is more than willing to help.

His contact details are;

Nairobi office: + 254 20 272 4700

Nairobi mobile: + 254 722 370 870

Satellite phone: + 88 216 4333 5404

Email: jameslual@yahoo.com

African Herbal medicine (For the Sudan Mirror)

A recent UN report warned that in ‘developing’ countries fake prescription drugs are now widespread. The International Narcotic Control Board warned that in some countries the figure for fake pharmaceuticals could be as much as fifty percent. This could have disastrous consequences for those using these drugs. Not only will they fail to treat the ailment but they could actually have adverse effects on the health of the people using them. Much of this could be as the result of the sale of ‘generic’ non-branded drugs on the market. There is also the problem of drugs which are available for sale on the internet which require no prescription. Many of these drugs are not traceable and carry no guarantees of their authenticity or safety.

Of course such issues are part of a series of broader concerns about the safety of many medicines. For example the use of antibiotics can cause many diseases to evolve and become more resistant to treatment making them more dangerous and meaning in turn that more and stronger medicines will be used to treat them adding further to the problem.

Examples of irresponsibility on the behalf of pharmaceutical giants can be seen when in the late nineties when an American company donated large quantities of medicine to NGOs and groups working in Sudan. However as it transpired these medicines were all expired and would have had to been destroyed otherwise. The company had reasoned that it would be cheaper to fly them to Sudan and offload them in this way than to destroy them in a proper manner which would have been costly. It is estimated that the company saved $42,000,000 us by doing this. Further to this when large companies donate to charity in the United States they are entitled to generous tax rebates. To make matters worse it transpired that a large number of these drugs were actually slimming pills. Something that certainly is useless in the middle of a war!

I learned the ruthlessness of multinational healthcare companies when I worked in a factory making medical devices. The pieces we made were used in procedures to unblock arteries and were designed to be used once as after this not only were they not sterile but they could actually cause a heart attack. However they were so overpriced that in many countries south of the hemisphere they were used three to four times as it was not affordable to operate in any other way. Western pharmaceutical companies make massive amounts of money from selling drugs to ‘developing’ countries. Very often however these drugs are based on traditional medicines that are being abandoned by the people who have practiced them for centuries.

Andrew Kuria is an herbalist practicing in the Kawangware district of Nairobi. He has been practicing for seventeen years having learned about herbs from his parents. He in turn is training his children in the same manner. Every family member learns this tradition but they also study pharmacology or nursing in order to allow them to diagnose their patients or to understand the medicinal qualities of the herbs.

Herbs that can have medicinal qualities are found throughout Africa in a variety of climatic and geographic conditions but the strongest herbs are found in the driest areas. This has meant that herbal practices vary from region to region. For example the treatment for malaria on the coast or in the higher regions use different herbs but to the same effect. Not only will the treatments vary but so to will the doses. Kamirithu herbs where Andrew Kuria works gather these different treatments and blend them into one strong drug that can be used by every tribe or in every region.

Kuria says herbal remedies are no longer as popular among many Kenyans due to the massive amount of money multinational pharmaceutical companies are able to spend on promoting their products. He also points to the failure of the Kenyan government to decolonise the health system. He tells me, ‘Currently we have nobody in the ministry of health who is responsible for herbal medicine. We are only covered by the Culture Ministry and this is more than culture. It is tackling health issues.’ This has meant that the herbal market is largely unregulated with no quality controls on products being sold. This has led to a situation whereby practitioners from outside of Kenya are able to import whatever they wish into Kenya and sell it there. Meanwhile the government will not even know if the clinic exists.

The other problem facing Herbalists is that ‘at the same time the multinationals have done a vigorous campaigning to promote their drugs. They have sophisticated ways, networks to reach their clients, to reach hospitals. Which is a definite advantage over us.’ The result is that Herbal medicine is lagging behind and the government has done nothing to promote it.

However many ‘conventional’ medicines are based on traditional formulas which can be duplicated and manufactured in large quantities at a cheaper price. ‘We have drugs for malaria, for syphilis, stomach ulcers. We have drugs for asthma, which can cure. So the only advantage I know is that herbal medicines have no side effect. They have no side effect because herbal medicines contain no chemical compound and therefore the issue of a dose does not arise. You can take as large a quantity as you want as long as you are able to. That’s why they are more effective. Herbal medicines are more effective in curing diseases that are chronic that are not easily treated with conventional medicines.’ A problem faced by herbalists though is that they don’t have access to the same means of publicity as the large pharmaceutical companies and so depend on word of mouth.

When I ask what it is that makes people choose herbal remedies he tells me, ‘What drives people to herbal medicine is when the disease becomes chronic. When they have been there in the hospital for five years and nothing is happening. That’s when they turn to alternative medicine. That’s why it is called alternative medicine. So when you come here you have developed a lot of complications and that is why it is not easy to treat you and furthermore it’ll cost you a lot of money. We are damn expensive.’ Here he hesitates as he decides on a price to tell me. ‘We can’t charge less than $50 us per month’s dose.’ With treatment possibly lasting a year or six months this can add up. This is of course expensive compared to mass manufactured medicines some of which are even given out for free by the government.

For the treatment of meningitis a course will last one month, malaria can be treated in two weeks. The medicine should be taken every day and it is important to eat a lot of food while undergoing the treatment. He feels that it is not the cost that is prohibitive but rather how people have been brought up. If somebody is raised to go to hospital for treatment they will do that but if they have been raised to see the benefits of herbal medicine they will prefer this treatment. However when hospital treatment fails people go for alternative treatment. Kuria however is quick to point out the limitations of herbal medicine. For example while he is able to treat a stomach ulcer if the patient has a perforated stomach he will refer them to a hospital to receive appropriate treatment. However this is a one way process ‘There is no Doctor who can refer somebody for herbal medicine.’ As they know so little, unless they come from a background in herbal medicine they generally will never refer a patient to a herbalist. This is because they fear herbal medicine as they do not how the drugs work and think that they are toxic. Some doctors will also tell their patients that they should not take both herbal and conventional medicines but according to Kuria there is no problem in mixing the two.

Another problem is the stigma attached to practicing herbal medicine. For a long time herbalists were portrayed as witchdoctors. This of course was discouraging to people who were Christian and did not want to be seen to associate with witchcraft and led to many to come from an environment were herbalism was looked down upon. ‘Now they are realizing that this is a tradition they have potentially lost. Now there are so many herbal products coming up. Why? Because people have started to appreciate herbal medicines.’ Kuria feels that many young people feel encouraged to return to herbal medicine and recover the traditions that their parents lost. He also feels that herbal medicine is of particular importance to young people as it provides an excellent treatment for STD’s such as syphilis and gonorrhea.

In order to become a herbalist takes quite a bit of time as there are many areas to learn and if Kuria is to believed will also cost you quite a bit of money but he is eager to point out that this can be retrieved quickly as the job of herbalist is quite a lucrative one.

Oscar Mutua is a Doctor in the clinic. He explains that honey is a large part of the treatment. Firstly it sweetens the taste of the herbs, which can be quite bitter but also it contains components such as fructose which help the treatment. Kamirithu herbs blends all its own herbs on the premises and creates the compounds necessary for treatment. Oscar trained in conventional medicine graduating just a year ago. When I ask him what made him turn away from conventional medicine he says ‘It’s not that bad, the only problem is that at the end of the day it leads you to create side-effects.’ The reason for this is that while conventional medicine may seek to duplicate the benefits of traditional medicine it involves the addition of chemical compounds to stabilize the drugs and to guarantee their effectiveness. This creates problems for the body as it puts pressure on the liver and on the kidneys. This means the body is weaker and therefore less capable of dealing with the disease. Oscar says herbal medicines are different as they leave the body easily and do not put the same sort of strain on the system.

He says that as many people come to an herbalist after undergoing conventional medical treatment it causes more complications due to the strain their body has been under and they then must carry out what he calls ‘damage limitation.’ When I ask how his family felt about him abandoning conventional medicine to pursue more traditional treatments he replies with a smile, ‘Believe me, they don’t even know I’m here. They have a dream of me being in the hospital and making money.’ He says that he feels it is a problem that many Doctors are more interested in their careers or in prestige and money and this was another incentive for him to abandon conventional medicine. He feels there is still a stigma attached to traditional medicine saying ‘It is mostly in the youth. Most people below the age of thirty years wouldn’t come here.’ His overall view of the situation is ‘The more people who can turn to herbal medicine the better.’ Emphasising ‘Good herbal medicine.’

Kola Boof- Blurring the lines between fact and fiction (articles for Sudan Mirror)

Kola Boof is a woman who is shrouded in controversy and even the facts of her life are often disputed. There are some who claim that she is delusional or that she has fabricated events in order to attain publicity but she refutes these claims and maintains that for various reasons there are many in the media who have a vendetta against her. However what cannot be denied is that she is an extremely talented writer.

In order to justice to her art it would probably be better to simply read her works and stay away from the issue of her personal life. But when reading her works the themes which she claims have dominated her life prove to be extremely relevant. Notably issues of race and women’s sexuality.

Kola Boof was born in Northern Sudan as Naima Bint Harith. According to the Sudanese authorities she was born on March 3^rd 1972 but she herself claims that she was born in March of 1969. Her father was an Egyptian Archeologist by the name of Harith Bin Farouk and her mother was a Somali by the name of Jiif. Her racial origins were to play a big influence on Kola’s life. Her father was Arabic and Muslim but was vehemently opposed to the oppressive Khartoum regime. This was to prove a huge influence on Kola and she always identified more with Black Africa and claims Sudanese as her nationality. However her parents’ opposition to the regime was to prove to be lethal and in 1978 they were killed by the regime. She claims that her paternal grandmother did not wish to take care of her because due to her mother’s skin colour she was much darker than the rest of her Father’s family.

She was put up for adoption and eventually was to find a new home in the United States with an African American family in Washington D.C. She has very fond memories of the African American community and says she was made to feel very at home in America. She still lives in California with her husband and two sons. Her life has been one of much variety. At one point she was a star of North African cinema and she claims that it was in Marrakech that she first met Osama Bin Laden. She says that they had a relationship but that this was against her will and that eventually she managed to escape. She refuses to use the term sex slave to describe the situation she was held in as it serves to disempower her. However claims have been made that her relationship with Bin Laden was as much a fiction as her stories.

It is too easy to become distracted by such controversies and to ignore the quality of work that Boof has produced. What is immediately notable in her poetry, memoirs and fiction is that issues of race and gender are at the forefront of her concerns. To her Black women are the most beautiful and powerful creatures on the planet and she rails against all injustices perpetrated upon women and black people. She renounced both Islam and Christianity, the two traditions in which she had been raised and adopted a Nilotic religion. She also insists on appearing bare breasted in photographs on the covers of her book claiming that it is the tradition of African women not to have to cover themselves and that men force women to hide their bodies as it gives men more control.

She prefers to describe herself as a Womanist rather than a feminist and her work is very much influenced by themes effecting women. In the story Day of Vow she details the story of a young South African woman who was raped by the son of her white employers. Boof brilliantly chronicles the thoughts and emotions of the protagonist Zorina as she describes the class and race structures of modern-day South Africa and the way in which Black women are oppressed because of both their gender and their race. However rather than simply pointing an accusatory finger at white South Africans she intricately narrates the complex prejudices held by people of colour in South Africa as they attempt to advance themselves in a world where all the rules have been made by whites and where it seems the only way to advance is to surrender oneself completely to the will of the white oppressors.

Themes of race and gender frequently occur in her poetry also. Given the nature of her childhood it is easy to see why race and identity are such an influence on her work. This led her to become politically active also and she claims that she was an intelligence agent for the SPLA. This however like many facts of her life has been verified by some and denied by others. She did however write a poem to commemorate the late John Garang and it was read at his funeral. This poem is quite typical of Boof’s work in the themes it addresses such as race and motherhood. It is reprinted below.

"Choll Apieth"
(black is beautiful)

a Poem by Kola Boof

_____

In the river crossing and coming through us

The egg has not drowned/Our mother’s long war

--hand of Nhialic, The blood

In the river crossing

and coming through us

Behold today/ that cattle have no tongues

And that the earth is cold where Macardit tangles

in the raid of horses/ charging in our wake.

--we have lost our best son

--we, who bring the morning her spears

--we who are like birds/tired of the Crashing

And have seen the Sky

itself

fall against our dreams

Choll Apeith, warriors!

In all my conversations:

the ones who are victorious...the ones

who are praying

Knowing that Papa Garang shall rise again

In the eye of our fists--the chant of our shouting

The Yoke of New Site/golden as sun and birth

This victory of the everborn's heartbeat...steadily rising

Be it on one foot--Garang

(be it on one foot)

Our hero of the landscape

In the river crossing and coming through us.

In all my conversations--

Come through here...river

Bloody Cross and our father rising from it

to deliver this Everborn;

bring us your cattle and your courage--

bloody womb; our mother, the Goddess Sudan.

Enchant us this victory.

His place with God/And no more flesh.

Everborn the victory...and no more flesh.

Garang...Garang

our best son!

And no more flesh.

Bird of the Sky--black as all black put together.

And no more flesh.

We who give birth to you again--and no more flesh.

Who Speaks for Women? (Article for Sudan Mirror supplement for International women's day)

When we see or hear of scenes of tragedy in the media it is often women who are shown as the ones who have suffered disproportionately. However when women are portrayed in such a manner, often rather than helping them or their plight it places them in the role of victims and sees them as little else. While those who portray women as constant victims may be well intentioned in doing so they rob women of their agency. Rather than being viewed as actively involved in the world in which they live they come to be viewed as passive victims.

The late John Garang said that women were the ‘Marginalized of the marginalized.’ They suffered not just because of the war but also because of their position inside their society. Their suffering was not simply because they were the wives, mothers or daughters of the fighters but because they were viewed as such. And because they were viewed as the victims of a man’s war. So much so that when women SPLM delegates campaigned for positions for women inside the new Sudan the GOS resisted saying that they had not been fighting women.

Among national liberation movements in Africa there was a tendency to ignore women’s issues. Women who dared to speak out against their oppression were accused of being selfish and ignoring the plight of their people as a whole. The result is that in the transition from one system to the next women never achieved any advances for their sex. When the struggles were gender blind when the time for negotiating peace came women’s issues were left off the agenda. So inside of the new societies women continued on with the same disadvantages as they had before. The new rulers of the society ensure that as men they are in a position of privilege and as such were not too quick to capitulate to the demands of women. So while women activists may have made sacrifices in order to help the struggle. They may not find this work rewarded especially if they were compliant with the demands of others to keep the gender issues off the agenda.

Similarly African women cannot look to European or North American women to understand their position and to help them. Western Feminists have a distinctly Eurocentric view. While the women’s struggle has been ongoing in the West for over a century the focus at present is very different. There is a danger that western feminists when looking at the situation of women in Africa will be able to see them as little more than victims. This can lead to a situation where a lack of cultural understanding can create the view of African women as being inferior in the eyes of Western Feminists and they will advocate changes which are not sensitive to the needs of African women.

The reason for this is a question of moral relativism vs. absolutism or universality. While certain human rights are taken to be Universal there are also certain rights which we consider to be a part of our culture. If we take for example the issue of Female Genital Cutting. The vast majority of cultures consider this to be an act of mutilation and an assault on a woman’s bodily integrity. Further more many quite rightly view it as a form of control that is exercised over women to deny them the right to control over their own bodies and places sexual control in the hands of men. However proponents of FGC claim that it is an integral part of their culture and say those who criticize it do not properly understand the practice.

So here then is a dilemma, should the concerned individual look upon the right to bodily integrity as a fundamental human right and campaign against FGM if they are not from a culture where it is practiced or should they regard it as a cultural practice such as any group have the right to? However there is a view somewhere in between these two. Any concerned individual does not have to openly attack FGM to oppose it but to oppose it from outside the culture in which it is practiced will actually strengthen it as a practice. Outsiders, especially westerners, opposing FGM can actually have the effect of making it seem a more important cultural act and hence increase its popularity. Here too women who are interested in their rights as women and in protecting their culture face a dilemma. While they might not agree with FGC they may want to defend themselves from what they see as an outside attack on their culture.

Similar attitudes can be seen towards the wearing of the Hijab. When the French President Jacques Chirac recently banned the wearing of veils in schools there was public uproar. Not just from conservative Muslims but also from European Liberals. In Europe the practice of women wearing a veil is seen as anti-women but the practice of opposing it is seen as anti-Muslim. So many of those Europeans who claim to promote Human Rights find themselves in a paradoxical situation. If they look at human rights in a universalistic manner practices they view as anti-women such be condemned no matter where they happen. But in order to look at them in a relativist manner, then the culture in which they occur should be respected.

Such phenomena are by no means new. In nineteenth century India as the British consolidated their control they outlawed the practice of Sati which is also referred to as wife burning. This was the practice whereby when a man died his wife while still alive would be placed on the funeral pyre and burned to death. While it was claimed that this was the wish of the wife as she did not wish to live on without her husband more often than not it was due to the husbands family who saw the wife as an economic burden and Sati as a convenient way of relieving this burden. The English placed themselves in the role of protectors feeling that it was their duty to protect brown women from brown men. However the real result of their action was that an obscure and dwindling practice enjoyed a massive revival as the Indians attempted to defend their culture from Imperialist attacks.

So in order for women to achieve their rights there must be a space inside their society for them to have their voices heard. Too often other forces will claim to represent the interests of women while fundamentally undermining their position and their rights. Many of these forces will also seek to prevent women’s voices from being heard. Rights for women are something that should be guaranteed inside of any society but in a society that denies women their rights every effort will be made to prevent their voices from being heard.