Précis

Five years ago it burst into life in a euphoric celebration of new nationhood. Now the fear is that South Sudan is barrelling towards failed-state oblivion, its future trashed by tribal conflict and bloodshed.

But try telling that to W J “De King”, local reggae star.

“Peace will be here,” he says matter-of-factly.

As South Sudan’s elders fight over the spoils of independence, dreadlocked WJ criss-crosses the country to sing for peace, rallying young people who make up 70 per cent of the population.

Let me cry now through my music, if my leaders will listen to me... People are dying, all because of them – lyrics of WJ song

The meaning of his songs is touching our hearts – teenage girl at a WJ concert

Like WJ, most of South Sudan’s young people were born into war. Many lost loved ones, homes and any chance of an education in the war for independence from the mostly Arab north.

Now they are claiming their future... For that they need peace. And in a largely illiterate country with barely any TV or Internet, the anti-war message is best spread by radio.

People are so hungry for information– Tethluach Yong, Eye Radio presenter

In the capital, Juba, Sally Sara meets a team of young journalists who risk their lives to keep countrymen informed about the intricacies of the latest peace deal and other vital news.

Driving to Torit. Super:
TORIT, SOUTH SUDAN

Music

00:00

Aerial. Village. TITLE:
GET UP, STAND UP
Reporter: SALLY SARA

SALLY SARA: Welcome to the youngest nation on earth –

00:05

Driving to Torit

South Sudan. It’s vast and untapped, a country born of war. We’re on our way to see a young musician

00:16

WJ dancing on rock

who’s singing for peace.

00:25

WJ singing to camera

[singing]

00:29

WJ De KING: “Music to me is very, very important.

00:38

WJ interview. Super:
WJ DeKING
Reggae artist

You know one day, peace will be here”.

00:41

WJ and crew walk through village

SALLY SARA: He calls himself WJ De King. He’s a reggae superstar in South Sudan.

00:45

WJ singing to camera

[singing]

WJ De KING: “We really

00:55

WJ interview

want our generation to have a good, better future, we will stop this fighting and peace will come in this life”.

01:06

Crew member in car on loudspeaker

01:17

SALLY SARA: WJ’s crew is taking to the streets. This is concert promotion, South Sudanese style.

01:24

[calling over loudspeaker from car] “Quickly, quickly. Let us go to Freedom Square. Bring your chairs. Bring your chairs”.

01:30

SALLY SARA: There aren’t many newspapers out here in the town of Torit and most people can’t read anyway, so it’s word of mouth.

01:37

Crew driving around calling out over loudspeaker

 “We all love God. Let us all go to WJ. WJ is now in Freedom Square”.

01:45

Mwaka interview. Super:
DANIEL MWAKA
Manager, House of Talent

DANIEL MWAKA: “I think young people has a great role to play in promoting peace in South Sudan and what I’ve been seeing lately, young people they’ve shown that they really need peace. They don’t need any other wars or any violence. They really need peace”.

01:50

Young men on motorbikes

SALLY SARA: Young people make up more than 70% of the population in South Sudan. What’s happened to their country is a tragedy.

02:03

GFX: Militia/Map

The South Sudanese spent more than 20 years fighting against the North for independence. More than two million lives were lost.

02:12

Victory dancing

They won their freedom in 2011, but soon afterwards,

02:25

Civil war fighting

they started killing each other in a bloody civil war of tribe against tribe, faction against faction.

02:32

Young children sitting on parched ground

Millions of young lives have been shattered along the way.

“Have you been frustrated

02:39

Mwaka interview

by what’s happened?”

DANIEL MWAKA: “So much. Very frustrated. Not only me, I think most of the youth and the people of South Sudan are so frustrated”.

02:45

Torit concert

Music

02:52

SALLY SARA: After years of suffering, a concert like this is a big deal. It’s a rare chance for young people to have fun.

02:59

Music

03:07

WJ arrives at concert singing to crowd

SALLY SARA:  For WJ, it’s show time.

03:23

Music

03:25

WJ De KING: [singing to crowd] “My brothers, we have suffered too much in Juba. We have suffered so much. Our brothers have died for no reason. The land of the South is full of the blood of innocent people who have been killed for no reason. South Sudanese!”

03:47

Mwaka interview

DANIEL MWAKA: “People are always excited when they see an artist singing in front of them.

04:08

Concertgoer dancing

Yeah they enjoy the music and they feel really free to express themselves”.

04:14

Mwaka at concert/Crowd

SALLY SARA: Danny Mwaka is WJ’s manager and the promoter of the show. He wants South Sudan’s new wave of musicians to be heard around the globe.

DANIEL MWAKA: “The world views South Sudan

04:18

Mwaka interview

as a country that’s full of negative things. Full of violence, wars, death, hunger. So that’s what the media always report about South Sudan. But I think if they are to look at the positive side

04:30

Concert crowd

that also, there’s good music in South Sudan. There’s good culture. There is something good that can come out of that situation of course we’ll be exposed. We have a story to tell to the world”.

04:43

WJ singing to crowd

WJ De KING: [singing to crowd] “Before you make a mistake, take your chair and sit down. Before you make a decision about anything”.

“In South Sudan,

04:56

WJ interview

people love music. Love music so much… so, so much. And music has changed our people”.

05:07

WJ singing to crowd

[singing to crowd] “You see this child who is standing there is not happy. You see this old man who is standing there is not happy. God we want peace. God we want love. God we want to be rich in our own land”.

05:17

Woman singing to crowd

WOMAN SINGING TO CROWD: “We women have become tired of burying our husbands. We women have become tired of burying our children”.

05:39

WJ singing

WJ De KING: [singing to crowd] “God bless our leaders. God bless our country. God bless our children. God bless our singers and all the people in the country. The people of radio, the people of television”.

05:50

Concertgoers dancing as sun sets

SALLY SARA: The concert is a race against the sunset. There’s not enough electricity for lights so when the sun eventually goes down, the show is over.

06:07

WJ leaves concert as darkness falls

Music

06:18

Landscape. Sunrise

06:40

WJ singing with children

SALLY SARA: The town of Torit holds a lot of history for WJ.

06:49

[singing with group of children] “Even if a woman makes you angry, you can’t beat her. It’s the season of peace”.

SALLY SARA: This is where he grew up. His mother sang in the local church choir. WJ learnt music by ear.

06:55

WJ shows Sara church

SALLY SARA: “Wow amazing place. You can see some bullet holes there? Is that what shooting?

WJ De KING: “Yeah bullets, yeah”.

07:10

WJ interview in church

“The reason why I brought you guys here in this church because I start my music in the church through my mum. I used to play around, running when they are singing there and always good music come from the church”.

07:17

Machinegun drawn on church wall

SALLY SARA: The war came to Torit when WJ was seven. He was separated from his parents in the chaos of gunfire. He ran one way, they ran the other.

07:33

WJ interview in church

WJ De KING: “A difficult time because you’re in the bush, no school, no hospital, no anything. Can you believe that a man like me now, I cannot read all because I’m in the bush.

07:48

People outside church GVs

So what I want to tell them is that let them not give up from this school. When you got opportunity for you to go to school, go to school and if you do not get opportunity for you to go to school,

08:18

WJ interview

still you have the knowledge. The one God give it to you. Use it in a good way. Use it in the right way.

08:33

Kids in doorway of church

Don’t put yourself down there because I didn’t go to school now I’m useless, I’m nobody – no! You need to stand

08:41

WJ interview

and see what is happening”.

08:50

Boy rolls tyre down street/Man walks through field/Women walk

SALLY SARA: Even now, WJ can’t read the lyrics of his own songs, instead he remembers them by heart. Almost three quarters of people in South Sudan are illiterate and just like WJ, their homes and families have been shaken again and again by the war.

08:55

WJ interview

WJ De KING: “Peace is like an egg. You need to handle it well because when you don’t handle it well you leave it, something will happen, but still you go back. So don’t want nothing happen to happen again. We don’t want to lose our people again”.

09:18

Augustine/Augustine walks with WJ

SALLY SARA: This is WJ’s father, Augustine. They were separated for more than 20 years. Each didn’t know if the other was still alive. Later, WJ’s father even attended one of his concerts not knowing his son was on stage.

AUGUSTINE OBELIA: “I’m happy”.

09:36

Augustine interview

SALLY SARA: “Really happy?” So you didn’t know that it was your son?”

SALLY SARA: “What a surprise, huh?”

09:56

Family cooking/Home GVs/Family gathering

It’s taken years for WJ’s family members to find each other again. The war scattered them from one side of the country to another.

10:03

His sister lost her leg when she was shot at the age of seven. His grandmother lost her sight because of a lack of medical care. Their story is the story of so many families in South Sudan.

WJ De KING: “This time is this time for us to be together, to unite our hearts.

10:15

WJ interview

This is what we want here. But it’s a matter of time. Peace will be here”.

10:36

Village GVs

SALLY SARA: The atmosphere is still uncertain, fighting can break out again at any time. Families are always ready to run, to take cover. Twenty per cent have been forced to flee their homes because of the war.

10:44

WJ hugs Augustine

WJ’s mission is to get his music to the people…

11:03

WJ sings

[WJ sings]

11:06

…but that’s tough in a country where there are few roads and few guarantees. The best way to spread the message is to take to the airwaves. The radio has become a lifeline.

11:12

Aerial over radio tower

[Radio broadcast]

11:28

Interior radio station

11:38

Men play pool. Radio broadcast

11:56

SALLY SARA:  South Sudan’s first independent broadcaster is spreading news and music.

12:05

Radio announcers

12:11

Eye Radio began back in 2010 with foreign funding. It’s now in local hands.

12:17

Chang interview. Super:
KOANG PAL CHANG
Station Manager, Eye Radio

KOANG PAL CHANG: “Eye Radio is run hundred per cent by South Sudanese employees, journalists, administrators and even the cleaners

12:28

Chang at radio station

– a hundred per cent South Sudanese content. We give them what they need. You know this radio station is 24/7. You have to feed it, you have to feed it with information”.

12:38

Driving shots

Music

12:50

Journalist at interview

SALLY SARA: Most of the broadcasters are under the age of 35. They’re risking their lives to deliver the news. Some young journalists have already been threatened, beaten and killed for simply doing their job.

KOANG PAL CHANG: “I can’t say it’s like

13:01

Chang interview

most people who commit this crime against journalists like they are above the law. Nobody prosecute them, nobody take them to court. They are not held accountable.”

13:15

Driving shots

You walk outside and one can just pull his gun and just shoot you. So I

13:24

Chang interview

normally joke with my colleague and tell them, ‘Guys, we are walking dead, really dead, dead people because anyone can be shot’.

13:30

Razor wire around radio station

SALLY SARA: It’s no wonder security is so tight here. Nine South Sudanese journalists have lost their lives in the past two years.

13:38

Photos of Gatluak on facebook

The latest, 32-year-old John Gatluak shot dead by soldiers last month. His youngest child was born the day after he died.

KOANG PAL CHANG: “Nobody knows who killed him. There’s no

13:48

Chang interview

investigation that has been done or if there’s any investigation that has been done, it has not been made public and just, they just die like that”.

14:01

Tethluach cleaning shoes and getting dressed

14:11

SALLY SARA: Tethluach Yong is one of Eye Radio’s big stars. He doesn’t let the fear of attacks get the better of him. If he could broadcast 24 hours a day, he would.

TETHLUACH YONG: “And believe me

14:16

Tethluach interview

I can get a show that is from six to six I would love to have that because the people are so hungry for information in this country, you know? People really need information. People need to know, especially like with the peace agreement being signed, I feel that South Sudanese need to know every bit of that agreement, what does it mean?”

14:29

Tethluach into car

SALLY SARA: Tethluach is only 27 years old. Like many other young people, he’s frustrated by the cycle of war and poverty that’s left his country broken.

14:47

Tethluach drives

Music

15:07

TETHLUACH YONG: [Presenter, Eye Radio] “I feel like if I would have a big microphone

15:23

Tethluach interview. Super:
TETHLUACH YONG
Presenter, Eye Radio

that I can be able to address all the people of South Sudan and tell them, ‘Now don’t you see how the world is progressing hmm?’ I wish that I could ask this question to every South Sudanese and tell them, ‘While you are busy dividing yourselves,

15:27

Tethluach into radio station

while you are busy trying to stand along ethnic lines, don’t you see the world is progressing? You will be the only people who are left behind’.”

15:44

SALLY SARA: He co-hosts the afternoon program called Sundown. Back in 2014 he had to flee to neighbouring Uganda for six months because he received death threats for broadcasting the news.

15:53

Tethluach into studio

MALE RADIO ANNOUNCER: “Welcome to the Sundown show. On this show we bring you the movers and shakers of South Sudan and the world over”.

FEMALE RADIO ANNOUNCER: “And to begin with we have

16:10

Sara with announcer in studio

a guest in the studio, Ms Sally Sara is journalist from Australian Broadcasting Corporation and she’s doing a program currently here in South Sudan with the title Foreign Correspondent. Welcome Sally”.

16:22

SALLY SARA: “Thank you. We’ve read and seen a lot about Eye Radio from a long distance in Australia and we’re very impressed by that and it takes a lot of courage in other places to do that story when you worry about your family or your own safety so it’s hugely, hugely important and you know, I salute those young people who are doing, doing that job. It’s great”.

16:35

Radio listeners

Young listeners are tuning in to learn more.

17:04

Tethluach interview

TETHLUACH YONG: “A huge number of the youth ah were the ones that were actually driving the war and that is because they were not educated.

17:11

Young people GVs

They, they do, they are not aware of what they’re doing. They’re just told that this community has done this and we in return, we have to revenge. So first of all I think is we really need to include the youth into taking this country in a new direction, then we need to educate them first. Then the rest will be easy”.

17:20

Young men stand with cow

SALLY SARA: But more than half of the children in South Sudan have never set foot in a classroom. Instead, many are continuing the cycles of violence that go back for generations. Young men will even kill each other over cattle.

TETHLUACH YONG: “So you’ll find

17:43

Tethluach interview

this community will go and take a thousand cattle from this community. This other community will not forget. What they do is wait. They arm, they fit themselves,

18:02

Cattle/Young men

reorganise themselves and go, you know? And the problem is that within the process people die”.

SALLY SARA: It’s not just community

18:11

Town people GVs

against community, but tribe against tribe. There are more than 60 tribal groups in South Sudan. The two largest, the Dinkas and the Nuer have a history of killing each other by the thousands. They mark their young warriors with distinctive scars.

18:19

Tethluach lives in one of the most dangerous districts of Juba. Dozens of people

18:55

Tethluach walks with Sara

were killed here during the tribal killings of December 2013.

“So this area

18:49

during the fighting was very, very dangerous for Nuer people like you?”

TETHLUACH YONG: “Exactly. Only that well for me it was different because I am not marked so…”

SALLY SARA: “You don’t have the scars on your forehead?”

TETHLUACH YONG: “Yeah, exactly. Exactly. So it was easy for me to come and pick relatives from around here and take them to the POC camp. If you hear about people have

18:55

Woman and boy walk

died in Juba, this is the main place”.

SALLY SARA: “You know during the day on the radio station

19:13

Tethluach with Sara

you’re doing stories about the, the peace agreement and yet there are members of your own family who are living in one of these camps because they’re too frightened to come home”.

TETHLUACH YONG: “Well I would say everything comes at a gradual process. The peace as you are seeing is still, it is coming slowly”.

19:20

ARCHIVAL. Fighting

SALLY SARA: The deadly tribal and political violence broke out yet again last month. Hundreds of people were slaughtered; thousands of others ran for their lives.

19:38

POC camp

This is what fear looks like on a huge scale. Almost 40,000 people are crammed into this camp in the capital Juba. Many have been here for more than two years.

19:57

Music

20:09

SALLY SARA:  This place is a POC, a protection of civilian site. It’s run by the United Nations and

20:18

Sara to camera at camp

it’s become home to thousands of South Sudanese who are still unable to return to their villages and towns because of insecurity”.

20:23

Charity with children at market stall

Twenty-three-year-old Charity tries to get by, by selling cakes in the makeshift market. She has two mouths to feed, four-year-old Dawid and a four-month-old daughter. The baby girl is named after the United Nation’s mission here known as Unmiss.

20:32

CHARITY AJUNIA MOGIS: “Her name is Unmiss because I gave birth to her in the UNMISS compound”.

20:50

UN truck/Charity at market stall

SALLY SARA: Charity’s house is only a couple of kilometres from the camp, but she’s too scared to go home because she fears fighting can start again at any time.

20:55

Charity interview

CHARITY AJUNIA MOGIS: “The problem is, all the people in the residential area have gone. All the people have run away and that’s why I ran away. Bullets went straight into the house itself, through the wall. Even if you go under the bed… one woman got shot under there. I thought I might get hurt, so I ran away”.

21:06

Kids in camp

SALLY SARA: There are more than 1.6 million internally displaced people or IDP’s within South Sudan. More than 640,000 others are refugees in neighbouring countries. Even if the fighting and tension stopped tomorrow, it could be another two years before people return home.

21:29

Charity interview

CHARITY AJUNIA MOGIS: “About peace I don’t know, because I hear that peace has come but there are no changes, there’s not anything. Is this the peace they talk about?”

21:48

Music

22:04

Aerial across plain/Nile

SALLY SARA: South Sudan should be one of the richest countries in Africa. It has fertile ground and the mighty river Nile, but less than 2% of the land is cultivated and more than 2.8 million people go hungry. War and uncertainty have put the nation on hold.

22:08

Odong working in garden

David ODong is one of the millions trying to scratch a living.

22:31

DAVID ODONG: “For the children at the moment it’s worse than ever. They can eat once a day. From morning until sunset – nothing.

22:39

Sara with Odong

Just once a day. They’re just lying on the ground, they sleep. I as a father am not feeling okay. And when the children are lying on the ground and so on, it gets me distressed. You cannot do anything. What can you do? You sit down and you pray to God”.

22:46

Odong’s family

SALLY SARA: David’s family is going backwards. He can read and write, but his children cannot. All the local schools have been closed for months because the government has failed to pay teachers’ salaries. Foreign donors are threatening to turn off the tap. The United States has poured more than $1.6 billion dollars into the country in the past three years but there’s not much to show for it.

23:01

Odong and Sara

DAVID ODONG: “The future of my family actually if I am still in South Sudan… it will never be developed. Even especially for this young generation who come tomorrow. Me, I will go, but what about those children who are coming for the future?”

SALLY SARA: More than 80% of people in South Sudan live

23:29

David’s village

in basic conditions like this. Less than 1% even have a bank account. Most just survive from day to day.

23:49

Odong and Sara

DAVID ODONG: “Hunger always is not like a gun. You can shoot a gun – people they run away – but the hunger, it is the worst thing ever”.

24:00

Women breaking rocks

SALLY SARA: Back in the capital Juba, life is harsh too. Inflation is running at 300%.

24:08

Petrol stations

Many petrol stations are dry, despite South Sudan’s massive oil reserves, and corruption is swallowing billions of dollars.

JAMES WANI IGGA: “Greed is high.

24:32

Igga interview

Greed is high. Even when we talk of corruption, it is a form of greed really”.

24:45

Igga looks into camera

SALLY SARA: James Wani Igga was a military commander in the South’s war against the North. He now says he’s an advocate for peace and development.

JAMES WANI IGGA: [2nd Vice President] “I know

24:52

Igga interview. Super:
JAMES WANI IGGA
2^nd Vice President

how destructive the war is. I have tasted it for 21 years so I know, and having experienced the first war as a child”.

25:02

Soldiers

SALLY SARA: But independence has brought little relief for the people. Many of their leaders who helped win the war of independence have failed to make the transition from soldiers to responsible politicians.

“Why have no politicians

25:10

Igga interview

been convicted of corruption if this problem’s very deep?” Why... why is justice not coming then?”

JAMES WANI IGGA: “Well this is a good question actually. Like many other Third World country

25:24

where there are new system, corruption is high, but we are determined to fight it but we need time to totally, you know there is no country in the world which has 100% erased corruption”.

25:35

Young people in market. WJ playing and singing in market

25:46

SALLY SARA: The young voices of peace are growing louder in South Sudan. They want their leaders to stop fighting, stop stealing and start running the country.

25:56

WJ De KING: [singing in market] “My ears are tired of hearing bad news all the time, I’m calling God. We are calling God, come and help”.

26:07

WJ interview

“Let me cry now through music, if my leaders will listen to me. Tell them they do not see what is happening. People are dying all because of them”.

26:22

WJ singing in market

[singing in market] “See the blood is pouring. See our children are dying. And we are just killing ourselves. South Sudanese brothers – why?”

26:32

Vox pops with people at market

MAN AT MARKET: “He has inspired a lot of people. Yeah his music has got a meaning which can change people’s mind”.

26:48

BOY AT MARKET: “The meaning of that song actually is touching our hearts. So we are happy for that”.

26:55

WOMAN AT MARKET: “May God bless him for his words. And if our elders would listen to this words they would change, and the suffering of the South Sudanese can change into something good”.

27:02

TETHLUACH PETER YONG: “It’s a very funny thing with youth. They are able to listen

27:12

Tethluach interview

to what their fellow youths are saying”.

27:15

WJ talking to crowd

WJ De KING: “If we don’t change our hearts, no one else can do it for us”.

27:18

Tethluach interview

TETHLUACH PETER YONG: “Cause when this old man come, you know, they’re like ah! They, they’re like same old politicians. But when a young person comes, they want to listen, what is he trying to tell us?”

27:23

WJ talking to crowd

WJ De KING: “If we can come together nothing bad can happen in this country”.

27:33

Tethluach interview

TETHLUACH PETER YONG: “And I think that is a good thing that he is doing. He should continue doing that”.

27:37

WJ walking and singing

Music

27:40

WJ De KING: “The day that peace will be in South Sudan, hey…

27:48

WJ interview

the whole world will be happy because we lost a lot of our people”.

27:51

WJ singing

[singing] “Peace! We need peace in our country. We need law. We need peace in our country. We need law…”.

28:01

Reporter - Sally Sara
Producer - Matt Davis
Camera - Greg Nelson, Matt Davis
Editor - Matthew Walker

Executive producer: Marianne Leitch

abc.net.au/foreign

© ABC 2016

28:19