ARE YOU AN ELDER, OR ARE YOU JUST OLDER? .- BY Cpt. Mabior Garang de Mabior.

Fellow Junubeen,

In our shared African values, we did not respect elders simply because of their age. It was the monopoly they had on information. In a social economy in which nature offers the means of production, knowledge of the environment was crucial. If a young person wanted to survive, he or she had to respect the elders so that they could impart that knowledge to the next generation. The youth totally depended on the elders to survive.

However, after colonialism and slavery rearranged our values and our environment changed, the information needed to survive in the new environment also changed.The monopoly the elder had on information in pre-colonial times was broken. With the advent of the information technology revolution, the elder is more dependent on the youth of today. This is why our civil population valued the colonial education system. The generation of elders who surrendered long ago to imperialism recognized that they had to send their children to school to learn how to survive in the new environment. They hoped to raise a generation that would one day have the knowledge to lead a new movement.

Comrades,

In the Jieng vernacular, it is said, "ke ye ran dit ting ke ci nyuuc, ka ce meth ting ke toh tim nohm". This roughly translates to "an elder can see sitting down, what a young person cannot see standing on a tree." This was folk wisdom to demonstrate the value of the elder in pre-colonial times.

Because our ancestors knew that elders were not infallible, they balanced the wisdom of the elder with another saying. It was said in Jieng vernacular, "raan dit ku kuc der." This roughly means that elders do not know it all. This can be seen in the Kemetic value systems of Maat. The principle of reciprocity .

Compatriots,

The generation gap is one of the many methods of divide and rule employed by our oppressors. The colonialists used a generation of youth to rebel against the pre-colonial elders and usurp their traditional authority using the colonial administration. Many of these youths became town elders with political power, and our true elders who remained in the deep rural areas of our country remained with some social power. Politics since then has been about how to hoodwink our naive civil population into maintaining the untenable status quo in the name of "our culture." This situation has even devided the older generation, who are locked in a deadly socio-political power struggle.

It is total mischief!

This is where I personally draw the line between an elder and a person who is simply old. The majority of our elders are the older people in our cattle camps and villages. They have remained with the knowledge, wisdom, and understanding of our history and culture despite the destruction of our civilization.

There are, of course, wise elders in the urban areas as well. I would be foolish to state otherwise; however, they are outnumbered by people who simply grew old. It is not simply the passage of time that gave our elders wisdom in pre-colonial times. It was an accumulation of vital knowledge for the survival of society. Many degenerate old men have instituted a tyrrany on youth, women, and our uncles in the villages.

The youth of today are more informed than many of the older people today. What they lack is confidence in themselves. While the old people of today are not as technologically savey as the youth; however, they are full of confidence. This situation results in a decadent, gerentocratic society.

Compatriots,

This is not an attack on our elders. But the youth and women of our country - the majority of our civil population - need to pay attention to this. If our detractors claim we do not value the concept of the elder, then they are sadly mistaken.

We know our elders. They can be recognised by their wisdom and understanding. A true elder will recognise what I am communicating in this discourse. They have the wisdom to understand that the young people of today have more information we need to survive into the coming centuries. The true elder of today values the youth. They are not intimidated by them.

The old people in the towns who have usurped the power of our true elders under the tamarid tree invoke age as a means of intimidating young people and women who are not confident. A respectful young person to these old folks is one with low self-esteem and no confidence. If a young person is confident, he is arrogant. If a woman is confident, let me not even go there!

The purpose of this discourse is not to antagonise our elders, nor is it to undermine old people. It is just an opinion I have developed from observation of our social politics, or lack thereof.

Comrades,

The SPLA/SPLM was a movement of youth. The leadership we have today, our elders, are the beneficiaries of a revolution by the youth of the old Sudan. The movement was founded when the young people usurped power from the older politicians in 1983. This is not a value judgement but a historical fact. These Comrades sacrificed their entire youth to give us this day, and today, they are our senior Comrades. They would have never come to the proverbial like light was it not for that youth movement we today call SPLM.

It is unfortunate to see our senior Comrades divided and unable to provide cultural continuity to the revolution they founded as youths. In many cases, our elders are competing with us, the younger generation.

I am not claiming all this to he necessary true, nor do I expect everyone to agree with what I am saying. I am just contributing to the conversation.

This is my opinion on the difference between an elder and an old person. I will address the difference between a youth and a young person in another discourse as this has gone on and on.

The ultimate message is that "we must be united!"

Aluta Continua!