{"id":45979,"date":"2026-07-10T15:38:13","date_gmt":"2026-07-10T13:38:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/?p=45979"},"modified":"2026-07-10T15:43:03","modified_gmt":"2026-07-10T13:43:03","slug":"bari-community-calls-for-preservation-of-language-and-culture","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/2026\/07\/10\/bari-community-calls-for-preservation-of-language-and-culture\/","title":{"rendered":"Bari Community calls for preservation of language and culture"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Sabri Dibaco <\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

The Bari community has celebrated the 15th anniversary of Jubek Day with renewed appeals to preserve the Bari language, protect cultural heritage, and strengthen peace and national unity through cultural identity.<\/p>\n

The celebrations, held in Nyaing ahead of South Sudan\u2019s Independence Day, brought together Bari elders, youth, cultural leaders, and community members under the theme \u201cLor Lo Jubek a Lor Taking Ko Mora,\u201d meaning \u201cThe Day of Jubek is a Day of Peace and Unity.\u201d<\/p>\n

Speaking during the event, acting secretary general of the Bari community, David Dogga Jada, described culture as one of South Sudan\u2019s most effective tools for building peaceful coexistence among the country\u2019s diverse communities.<\/p>\n

\u201cCulture is one of the strongest instruments for promoting peace, preserving our identity and fostering unity among the many communities of South Sudan,\u201d Jada said.<\/p>\n

Jada traced the history of the Bari cultural movement to the 1980s, when community members organised cultural activities at Nyakuron Cultural Centre.<\/p>\n

He said that despite years of war and displacement, Bari elders formally organised themselves in Sudan in 1999 to safeguard the Bari language, customs, and traditions.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen people live away from their ancestral land, preserving culture becomes even more important. Our elders worked hard to ensure future generations would never lose their identity,\u201d Jada explained.<\/p>\n

He explained that after the signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA), the Bari community returned home and reached an agreement with the then government of Southern Sudan to recognise 8 July as Jubek Day, a celebration now observed by Bari communities in Uganda, Rwanda, Ethiopia, Canada, Australia, the United States, the United Kingdom, and other countries.<\/p>\n

Jada encouraged other communities across South Sudan to organise similar cultural celebrations to strengthen unity, mutual respect, and peaceful coexistence.<\/p>\n

Chairman of the Bari Language Education Centre, Acolyte Primo Wani Andrea, emphasised the urgent need to revive the Bari language, describing it as essential to preserving the community\u2019s identity.<\/p>\n

\u201cJubek Day is more than an annual celebration. It reminds us of our history, our unity, and our responsibility to protect our heritage,\u201d Primo said.<\/p>\n

Reflecting on South Sudan\u2019s independence, Primo recalled serving as secretary for culture on the organising committee for the country\u2019s first independence celebrations in 2011, where he helped mobilise cultural groups from Juba\u2019s eight payams.<\/p>\n

He explained that this year\u2019s celebrations were moved from the traditional Jubek shrine in Juba Town to Nyaing to accommodate the growing number of participants and proposed rotating future celebrations among different payams to promote cultural exchange and stimulate local economies.<\/p>\n

Primo also highlighted the historical significance of the name \u201cJuba,\u201d saying it originated from \u201cJubek,\u201d which colonial administrators reportedly found difficult to pronounce.<\/p>\n

Expressing concern over the declining use of the Bari language, he noted that it disappeared from government school curricula in the mid-1980s and has increasingly been replaced by English and Arabic in many households.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we do not teach our children our language today, we risk losing an important part of who we are as a people,\u201d he warned.<\/p>\n

He said the Bari Language Education Centre, established in December 2025, now operates 13 learning centres across Juba through volunteer teachers and is officially registered with the Central Equatoria State Ministry of General Education.<\/p>\n

Primo welcomed commitments by the Central Equatoria State Ministry of Culture, Youth, and Sports to promote indigenous languages through its strategic plan and appealed for financial and material support to expand Bari language education.<\/p>\n

He also urged media houses to increase Bari-language programming and encouraged families to speak Bari at home.<\/p>\n

Representing the youth, Emmanuel Kenyi called on young people to embrace their cultural identity and actively participate in preserving the Bari language and traditions.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe future of our culture depends on young people. We must learn our language, respect our traditions and pass them on to the next generation,\u201d Kenyi said.<\/p>\n

Jubek Day is observed annually on 8 July, one day before South Sudan\u2019s Independence Day, to celebrate the cultural heritage of the Bari people, one of the indigenous communities of Central Equatoria State.<\/p>\n

The event commemorates the Bari community’s efforts to preserve its language, customs, and traditions, particularly during years of conflict and displacement.<\/p>\n

Since its official recognition before South Sudan\u2019s independence in 2011, Jubek Day has evolved into an international cultural celebration observed by Bari communities worldwide.<\/p>\n

Community leaders say the annual event not only preserves Bari identity but also serves as a platform to promote peace, reconciliation, and national unity through cultural diversity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Sabri Dibaco The Bari community has celebrated the 15th anniversary of Jubek Day with renewed appeals to preserve the Bari language, protect cultural heritage, and strengthen peace and national unity through cultural identity. The celebrations, held in Nyaing ahead of South Sudan\u2019s Independence Day, brought together Bari elders, youth,[Read More…]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":45980,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[80,79],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-45979","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-national","category-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/The-Bari-community-during-the-Jubek-Day-celebration-as-they-called-for-renewed-commitment-to-preserving-their-Language-photo-by-Denilson-Deniki.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45979","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45979"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45979\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":45983,"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45979\/revisions\/45983"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45980"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45979"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45979"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45979"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}