Josephine Thomas, a retired teacher with a penchant for social work, landed South Sudanese Women Intellectuals Forum unsung heroines award for Eastern Equatoria State on July 8 in Juba.
Dressed in white and donning a white scarf, Josephine graced the podium with a smile amidst ululation and shouts, as she was feted for her contribution in nurturing the careers of young South Sudanese women who found solace in her wings during the time of civil war.
Her contribution began in 1972—after the signing of the Addis Ababa Agreement—when she was appointed the director of youth at a regional level and also the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sports. Here, she trained women and youth on skills such as carpentry, masonry, tailoring, agriculture production, cultural activities, and music.
Through her passion for supporting women and youth, she managed to groom many people who have turned out to be leaders today. They passed through training centres established by Josephine. Some examples of her work are the members of the original and popular Rajaf Jazz Band.
War breaks out
In 1992, war broke out and the security situation worsened; thousands of women and children were killed and others displaced. This made Josephine and other displaced Sudanese women by then to establish the Southern Sudanese Women’s Association in Nairobi (SWAN).
The group of women was actively involved in peace issues and women’s peacebuilding contributions in Sudan with women at the grassroots in Nairobi, where the women were trained in tailoring.
They also prepared uniforms that were distributed to schools in the liberated areas of Southern Sudan where they also provided farm tools and Oxen for cultivation.
Besides the support that Josephine provided women, she is also a farmer and entrepreneur during the war. She established the women’s agriculture cooperative and a grinding mill buying grains from local smallholder farmers and selling sorghum and maize flour at the market.
The cooperative improved the livelihoods and was also the main food supplier to the SPLA battalions stationed in Eastern Equatoria.
Until this year, Josephine was also a member of the Eastern Equatoria State Assembly where she moved the gender and youth-related motions. One of her numerous proposals for women’s institutional development was constructing the Ministry of Gender, Social Services and Sports.
Unfortunately, the building is currently serving as the Governor’s Office and the State Secretariat due to inadequate infrastructure in the state. She continued working with women and officials from government and opposition-controlled areas to promote dialogue and mitigate communal conflict by offering equal opportunities to women and young men
Josephine tirelessly campaigned for girls’ rights and to discourage cattle raiding to pay dowry telling families and girls that “a girl who accepts to be married with stolen cows is a stolen girl”. She participated in numerous local and national rounds of peace talks and peacebuilding teams. On one occasion, she briefed the chief mediator of the Sudanese peace process, Lieutenant Gen. Lazarus Sumbeiywo on the situation of women and children. Mr Sumbeiywo was moved to tears. She was appointed Chairperson of the specialized committee for Health at the State Legislative Assembly.
Besides advancing health policy, she delivered speeches on various health interventions, including during World Nurses Day and World Breastfeeding Day. Josephine actively participated in International Arm trafficking activities to collect arms in the liberated areas as the conflict takes its toll on families, Josephine now looks after her siblings’ children and grandchildren. Nevertheless, she makes time to mediate peace between community leaders and to speak on behalf and promote the socio-economic wellbeing of women and children.
She was a young mother and teacher who graduated from Teacher’s Training Institute at Loa (Eastern Equatoria) and later moved to Kator, Juba (Central Equatoria). when the coalition government of Prime Minister Mohamed Ahmad Mahgoub decided to arrest and kill educated South Sudanese. Josephine took refuge in Kator Cathedral before escaping on the long walk to exile.
She taught at Koch Goma Primary school in the Nwoya District of Northern Uganda. Then, she was transferred to the Indian International School at Nakasero in Kampala. And attended courses at Makerere University. Josephine remembers the day and anxiety she felt for her pupils when none of them came to school. It was August 1972 when President Idi Amin ordered the expulsion of the Asian minority. After that, she taught at Mbuya army children’s school in Mbuya, Kampala.