Sudan: When Death Becomes Normal
From SudaneseDrima of Global Voices...
For most of us, witnessing someone’s death can be a traumatizing experience. However, when you’ve been surrounded by it for a long period of time, it’s just “one of those days” and no big deal. This is what SudaneseReturnee discovered after spending years abroad in Europe and upon returning to Juba, Southern Sudan, a place that witnessed two decades of bloody war:
For ages, I never knew the reason why I always thought I’d die young. In Juba, people talk about tragedy and death may be more often than Europeans talk about the weather.
… Just after 2 days in Juba, something happened that stunned me. I was seated with some friends at home under the night sky.
… then an loud screams of what sounded like pain, confusion or freight.
… It was an accident… His head was totally deformed… it looked like he died instantly when he was hit by whatever hit him. Then I heard someone say there was another fatality.
… He clearly looked dead, but some people would still kneel down to feel his pulse and without any emotion announce “aaah, de intaaha!” (this one is finished!)
… They were brothers from the same mother!
… The crowd slowly dissolved into the night… for most of them, it was just another day in Juba. For the mother and me, this day we shall never forget.
SudaneseReturnee was also feeling ill. He tried looking for Dr. Konyokonyo but couldn’t find him in his clinic. Maybe that’s because Dr. Konyokonyo was busy blogging a post on prioritizing health issues in Southern Sudan:
How do you chose which problems to tackle first? When the GOSS [Government of South Sudan] came on, they promise quick fixes for lots of things like building hospitals, clinics and health centers where none existed before. Old hospitals will be rehabilitated. Health surveys were done in all the states. What happend next?
It is unfortunate that many of the promises have fallen down the drain… We need priorities in health.
- continued -
For most of us, witnessing someone’s death can be a traumatizing experience. However, when you’ve been surrounded by it for a long period of time, it’s just “one of those days” and no big deal. This is what SudaneseReturnee discovered after spending years abroad in Europe and upon returning to Juba, Southern Sudan, a place that witnessed two decades of bloody war:
For ages, I never knew the reason why I always thought I’d die young. In Juba, people talk about tragedy and death may be more often than Europeans talk about the weather.
… Just after 2 days in Juba, something happened that stunned me. I was seated with some friends at home under the night sky.
… then an loud screams of what sounded like pain, confusion or freight.
… It was an accident… His head was totally deformed… it looked like he died instantly when he was hit by whatever hit him. Then I heard someone say there was another fatality.
… He clearly looked dead, but some people would still kneel down to feel his pulse and without any emotion announce “aaah, de intaaha!” (this one is finished!)
… They were brothers from the same mother!
… The crowd slowly dissolved into the night… for most of them, it was just another day in Juba. For the mother and me, this day we shall never forget.
SudaneseReturnee was also feeling ill. He tried looking for Dr. Konyokonyo but couldn’t find him in his clinic. Maybe that’s because Dr. Konyokonyo was busy blogging a post on prioritizing health issues in Southern Sudan:
How do you chose which problems to tackle first? When the GOSS [Government of South Sudan] came on, they promise quick fixes for lots of things like building hospitals, clinics and health centers where none existed before. Old hospitals will be rehabilitated. Health surveys were done in all the states. What happend next?
It is unfortunate that many of the promises have fallen down the drain… We need priorities in health.
- continued -