When the history of South Sudan is written, it will tell of a people who endured immense hardship and unimaginable suffering, yet never surrendered their dream of freedom.

It will remember the nights under the stars when families whispered prayers for peace.

It will recall the footsteps of those who marched across deserts and rivers, those who carried nothing but hope in their hearts, and those who laid down their lives so that this land could be free.

History will honor the courage of our ancestors, the unity of our people, and the moment when, on July 9, 2011, the flag of South Sudan rose high above Juba.

That day, cattle herders sang songs of victory in the cattle camps, drums beat in our villages, and elders lifted their hands to the sky to bless a nation reborn.

But independence was not the end of the story it was the beginning.

The history of South Sudan will remember us for achieving freedom, but the future will ask a different question: What did we build with that freedom ?

The true measure of our generation will not be the wealth we gained or the towers we built in our cities.

Our children will not count our riches, but will weigh the inheritance we leave behind. They will ask:

• Did we protect the land, rivers, and cattle that sustain our people ?
• Did we keep alive the songs, dances, and traditions that bind our communities together ?
• Did we build schools so that a child in Rumbek, Bentiu, Malakal or Pibor had the same chance to learn as a child in Juba ?
• Did we heal the wounds of war with forgiveness, or did we pass them on to another generation ?
• Did we create a South Sudan where tribes are brothers, not rivals, and where diversity is our strength, not our weakness ?

If we cannot answer these questions, then our independence will remain incomplete.

Because what use is freedom if the child still walks miles without a book, if the mother still suffers without medicine, if the youth still picks up a gun because he has no other future ?

The wealth of South Sudan is not only in oil beneath the ground.

It is in the fertile soil that feeds us, the cattle that provide for us, the rivers that give us life.

Above all, it is in our people the hands of the farmer, the wisdom of the elder, the dreams of the young.

If we fail to invest in them, we betray our history.

If we succeed in empowering them, then South Sudan will rise stronger than any storm.

Our task now is to build.

To build schools in every village where the blackboard replaces the battlefield.

To build hospitals where no mother fears giving birth.

To build roads that connect our people so trade, knowledge, and friendship can flow like the Nile.

To build peace that is deeper than treaties peace that comes from forgiveness, reconciliation, and a commitment to see each other not as enemies but as kin.

 

We must also guard our culture.

Our cattle songs, our dances around the fire, the wisdom passed down in proverbs these are treasures greater than gold.

They remind us who we are and guide us toward who we must become.

A South Sudan that forgets its culture forgets its soul.

Let us also remember the strength of our communities.

For centuries, South Sudanese people have survived by standing together, by sharing the harvest, by defending each other in times of danger.

That spirit of community must now guide our politics, our governance, and our nation-building.

A divided people cannot prosper, but a united people cannot be broken.

This is the responsibility placed upon us. History has given us freedom, but the future demands more.

The young ones who will inherit this land will not ask how much oil we sold or how much wealth we stored.

They will ask if we gave them dignity, knowledge, and peace.

They will ask if we left them a South Sudan where dreams could take root.

And if we succeed if we educate our children, heal our divisions, and build peace then the history of South Sudan will not only remember us as those who fought for freedom, but also as those who secured a just and prosperous future.

Our children will sing our names in the cattle camps, our grandchildren will dance our story in the villages, and our legacy will live in the strength of a united, peaceful, and thriving nation.

That is the South Sudan we must build.

That is the story we must write.

The writer, Deng Chol is a concerned citizen and can be reached at: dengolesmo5@gmail.com