“Life in the pastoralist society evolves around cattle, which are at the heart of economic and social setups, as well as main source of nutrients in the form of milk and fresh blood,” Evans Pritchard wrote for Journal of International Humanitarian back in 1940.
In South Sudan, cattle raiding is a longstanding history. Prior to the country’s independence in 2011, the practice was common but not as rampant and deadly as it is in the post-independence South Sudan largely because the then Khartoum administration strictly regulated access to small arms.
Unlike the pre-independence regime, the South Sudan administration has performed dismally in regulating access to small arms among cattle keepers and it is getting almost too late to call them to order.
Last year, after a bloody and horrendous communal violence which emanated from intercommunal conflict displaced thousands and killed hundreds in embattled Jonglei State, President Salva Kiir set a reconciliation committee to restore the situation to normal by disarming those in possession of illegal arms.
It was on this day when the President was met by a moment of truth after armed members of the community disarmed the delegation, forcing them to flee to Juba where they testified that the people they were assigned to disarm were better armed.
Even after the incident, which cascaded to revenge killings, no serious measures have been employed to curb the proliferation of small arms used during cattle raids. A group of pastoralists told the disarmament body last year that “we sold our cattle and bought these guns. We cannot give them away”. The question of who sells firearms to these pastoralists is a discussion for another day.
The phenomenon has reared its ugly head in 2021, this time in Terekeka County in Central Equatoria State. Cattle keepers, including traditional leaders challenged government officials at a community reconciliatory gathering for doing very little in bringing peace.
Furious over the loss of their cows to other counterparts, they vowed to commit to peace only if their stolen cattle were returned. The pastoralists, predominantly the Mundari ethnic group, questioned the government on why they have not, until now, finalized the revitalized peace agreement yet they claim to be agents of peace.
Spearheading the group was Albino Legge Lodu, a Chief at Lori, whose 800 cows were raided and remained unrecovered. The adage “Lead by example” is thrown around during crisis to compel leaders to convince their subordinates and restrain them. Not when the leader lost that many cows.
He [Lodu] is from one of the 11 payams that were raided with thousands of cattle stolen. All victims of this circumstance need their cattle back before they can recommit to a peaceful dialogue.
Though compromising, they expressed unhappiness with the peace conference being called after the cattle raiders left a trail of casualties. They say the attackers could come back, when that happens, they will respond in self-defence.
They are ready to live alone and in peace, with or without their “brothers” but only if their stolen cows are brought back.
Lodu particularly says he received a phone call one night alerting him that he was going to be attacked. By the time he woke up it was too late as the attackers were already firing bullets to their direction, forcing him and several members of the community to flee.
“It was actually a very bad fight,” he recalled adding that the attackers picked two young women and killed them on spot, before slaying two babies, one teenage girl, two adults and eight youths. “15 people that day were killed,” he said.
There will be no trespassing of each other’s path, Lodu reiterates, unless the stolen cows are brought back.
“I will not unite with these people because they are disturbing me. [They are] taking my cows and killing my people and they have been taking my cows in fact not only me they keep taking other people’s goats they find on their way,’’ he narrated.
Favouritism, an opaque justice system and impunity have prevailed amid every strategy brought forward to reunite a fragmented community battling grassroots problems.
The Terekeka incident is another stark reminder that as much as the government of the day toward the full implementation of the peace agreement, the role of cattle keepers cannot be largely overlooked.
As affected people in Terekeka wait for some unlikely compensations for their lost property, the people are furious. The County is in crisis. And the government need to find a lasting solution.