Nothing infuriated me as much as someone arguing while I presented simple facts to them. I even tried the 'agree to disagree' method but young boy wouldn't budge so... this post is in honour of the boy who shall remain anonymous.
Young boy tweeted something along the lines that South Sudan TV (a South Sudanese television channel) needs to abandon the Arabic language and stick to English.
I won't talk about the debate as such and what went down. But I'll just say what I think about South Sudan and the Arabic language.
Background
Sudan separated into two countries and formed Sudan and South Sudan. Arabic language and some aspects of Arabic culture, have always been a part of South Sudanese society. People always spoke their tribal language and usually Arabic as a second language and/or English as a third.
My parents speak Arabic and I am currently learning Arabic but I'm capable of reading and writing in Arabic. I just need to work on my vocabulary and build upon it. I know the grammatical rules... the whole language minus many of the words basically.
My parents always said to me 'you need to know the language of your enemy'. If you didn't know, the Northerners are either Arab or of Arab descent and they inflicted a lot of pain and suffering on other Sudanese people, that's why my parents say 'enemy'.
South Sudan uses Arabic and English on South Sudan TV because that's what the majority of people speak.
South Sudan is comprised of many different tribes and not many people can speak more than one tribal language. Majority of people know Arabic and/or English. For that very reason SSTV needs to carry on using Arabic and English as their main languages on television. South Sudan uses Arabic and English to communicate between cultures.
President Salva Kiir uses Arabic to address the South Sudanese public.
Although Arabic and English are not South Sudan's official languages, speaking these languages instead of speaking a certain tribes language allows people to stay neutral and not perpetuate tribalism.
South Sudan cannot abandon Arabic as such (not yet anyway). We only separated one year ago! How can we abandon a language that we've used for decades, if not centuries? The young generation speak this language as their first or second language.
South Sudan is however, attempting to phase out Arabic by introducing Swahili as its lingua franca. They will introduce it into the schools first. I'm not sure if they can introduce it into the public because not everyone has the resources there to learn Swahili. And who really wants to learn a new language from scratch for the sake of nationalism or 'removal of Arabism'? Just let it phase out!
The very next generation have to be the ones picking up this language and carrying it on... it's only practical and realistic.
Phasing out Arabic is done to erase the Arab influence in our culture. Certain aspects of Arab culture still remain within my own tribe, the Dinka tribe. For example, we use a lot of Arab words in our language because they may not exist in Dinka language. Some of the foods and customs we carry out are also arguably Arab influenced, i.e. henna.
And to some people, whether they like it or not, many South Sudanese families still have relatives in the North. Their families may be comprised of individuals originally from the North and so on.
I have nothing against the Northerners, they are victims like us because of the rule they're under. Much solidarity to them for standing up agains their government in their own Arab Spring type situation.
I encourage fellow Southern Sudanese individuals to be proud of where they come from and be good citizens, but also to remain realistic about how much South Sudan can achieve within a short amount of time. We are not bowing down to our oppressors by using their language to communicate. Tribalism is something that has the potential to destroy South Sudan; keeping the language of TV and government to what the majority of people know ensures neutrality, fights tribalism and includes everyone.
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