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By Paul Ndiho – JUBA
July 9, 2011

“Free at last! Free at last! Free at last! – Salva Kiir took the oath of office as South Sudan’s president and leader of the world newest nation. As tens of thousands of South Sudanese danced and cheered as their new country formally declared its independence on Saturday (July 9), some of their former countrymen in the north were also celebrating. The north’s Khartoum government was the first to officially recognize the new state – whose creation divides what was once Africa’s largest country.
The Speaker of the South Sudan Legislative Assembly, James Wani Igga, read out the Proclamation of the Independence.
Crowds then cheered as Sudan’s national flag was lowered and the new flag of South Sudan was raised as trumpets played the new national anthem.

South Sudan became the 193rd country recognized by the UN and the 54th UN member state in Africa.
North and south Sudan fought each other for decades in a civil war fuelled by ethnicity, religion, ideology and oil. The violence claimed an estimated two million lives, forced four million to flee and destabilized much of the region.
Guns fell silent six years ago after a Comprehensive Peace Agreement brokered by regional countries with international support was signed in neighboring Kenya promising a referendum six years later, giving southerners a choice between unity or separation. In January, the southerners went to polls and more than 98 percent of southern voters chose to secede. That referendum came after of decades of war between the predominantly Christian south and the largely Muslim north.
The new state will have its capital in Juba. But analysts say recognition did not dispel fears of future tensions. Northern and southern leaders have still not agreed on a list of sensitive issues, led by the exact line of the border and how they will share oil revenues, the lifeblood of both economies.
Earlier in the day, celebrating the birth of the world’s newest country traditional singing and dancing sweep across Juba, the capital of the new Republic of South Sudan. It became a nation at the stroke of midnight, six months after the residents of the under-developed, but oil rich country voted for independence.

By Paul Ndiho
July 7, 2011
Final preparations are underway in South Sudan’s Capital, Juba, ahead of Saturday’s independence celebrations on July 9TH. The National Anthem Choir in Juba is working on the coming nation’s new anthem, and residents of Juba are treated to rehearsal parade. With just a few days left before the official declaration of the independence of South Sudan, members of the National Anthem Choir are practicing hard for an historic performance. The choir has been rehearsing for four months. There are 200 members of the choir, selected for their vocal abilities and their command of English.
There are two versions of the national anthem — English and Arabic — and the government intends to translate it into all south Sudanese indigenous languages.
Composer and choir master, Edison Arkanjiro says the anthem’s tempo is similar to that of a march — to commemorate and symbolize the final march to freedom of the people of south Sudan.
“First of all, we think of the culture here in South Sudan, the songs in South Sudan. We have many different types of songs here, we have reggae, we have Reggaetone, we have hip-hop music, we have R’n’B, we have African music here. So we say, let this music, let this tune mention, speak of the culture here in South Sudan.”
Arkanjiro is a member of the Juba university team that won the X-Factor-type singing type competition to write the music for the national anthem, titled ‘God Bless South Sudan’.

The lyrics were composed last year by a collaboration of 49 poets, academics and musicians. In three short stanzas, the words praise the motherland, God and the martyrs.
The Republic of South Sudan was born from a referendum in which more than 98 percent of southerners voted for secession from the north. The vote was a product of a 2005 peace deal, following decades of war.
“I feel like an angel. Because I feel the pain, the 21 [years] of paining of war… and I feel, I feel really, I don’t know, it is like a dream.”
The National Anthem Choir will perform in front of thousands guests and a swarm of media. Juba residents witnessed a rehearsal parade ahead of independence celebrations this weekend.

There was a flag raising exercise, and the new flag of the Republic of South Sudan was raised.
SOT: Barnaba Benjamin Marial, Southern Sudan Minister of Information
“The flag will be raised and the Sudanese flag will be brought down and we will equally, there will be off cause the signing of the constitution, the transitional Constitution by the president and then the president will take an oath as the first president of the Republic of south Sudan. President Bashir is expected to make his statement finally as the president of the Republic of the Sudan with his national anthem playing for the last time in southern Sudan, and then our president will speak finally.”
High emotions were on display at the celebration grounds, and this student says he is too excited to rest or stay home.
“I am very happy today, that day I cannot sleep, I will sleep on the streets here I cannot go home because we have been waiting for so long, so many years and we lost many people, so this day is a very important day for us southern Sudanese, I am very happy today.”
South Sudan’s independence celebration is slated to start at midnight on Friday 8 July. Church bells and drums will sound marking the birth of the Republic of South Sudan. At least 3,500 dignitaries from all around the world are expected for the event.

BY Paul Ndiho, Washington DC
JULY 7, 2011
Sudan’s south will mark independence from the North on Saturday, July 9, and the South’s government says it has thrown open its borders to foreign traders to supply goods, labor and expertise to help build its economy.
After the Comprehensive Peace Deal for Sudan was signed in 2005, foreign traders filled the gap left by the departure of many northerners. Neighboring vendors rushed to Southern Sudan, hoping to cash in on opportunities there.
The south’s After decades of conflict, Southern Sudan has almost no capacity to manufacture essential goods, and almost everything needs to be imported.
South Sudan is due to declare independence from the north on Saturday, and authorities are eager to build a robust environment for business to build the economy.

Bagat Minyang Chan, with Ivory Bank in Juba, says Juba has become a budding area of commerce.
“They (southerners) have been marginalized even in terms of there was no investment in the south before. People did not find themselves with the trade, not many people were trading because trade was in the north. Here you know before the agreement most of the traders were northerners.”
Chan says business people from neighboring countries are cashing in on supplying goods to the south.
“They (business people) are hopeful… there is investment and especially after the north closed the borders with the south, a lot of people have come to us for investment to bring goods, to bring goods from East Africa.”
Elizabeth Mungai from Kenya came to South Sudan in 2007 and now owns a shop selling imported general provisions in downtown Juba. She says she has no plans to leave and hopes for even bigger profits after July 9.
“Because I’ve been here for all that time, through the referendum, the elections I’ve been here, through separation …all those things I’ve been here so I proved there is no problem.”
Not only small traders are grabbing opportunities in South Sudan – banks, construction and agriculture companies, telecoms and financial firms are cashing in as well.
Gihad Ghalayini, a Lebanese businessman who came to South Sudan in 2008 and contracts with the government to supply vehicles. He operates across south Sudan and employs more than 30 people. But Ghallayini says investors have one need in particular:
“If we have land with proper land documentation, proper layout, proper titles then loads of investors will come, buy land, lease land, develop,”
South Sudan’s government says it aims to attract 500 billion dollars in Foreign Direct Investment over the next five years. South Sudan becomes the world’s newest country on July 9 and the 54th Nation on the African continent.

By Paul Ndiho, Washington DC
July 5, 2011
When the award winning novel “Roots: The Saga of an America Family” was first released more than 33 years ago, it generated a lot of interest in Africa. “Roots” author Alex Haley traced his family’s heritage back to Juffure, a small village in the West African Nation of the Gambia. In a similar voyage of discovery, a group of Africans in the Diaspora is organizing an ocean cruise that will retrace the journeys of their ancestors.
The United Nations proclaimed 2011 as the International Year for People of African Descent. Over the years, people of African heritage have attempted to find out what really happened to their ancestors who were taken out of Africa and enslaved. Lamin Sarr, originally from the Gambia, is one of the organizers of the cruise and says this cruise, the “Heritage Revival Caribbean Cruise,” will complete the cycle of freedom and its goals are to promote greater understanding among peoples of African descent.

“When we talk about organizing this cruise, it is not just a simple cruise. It is a platform that will do three things: One, it will help us to celebrate 2011 as the international year for people of African descent. I prefer for people of African heritage, it will also help to launch a program of a dialogue which we call the rejuvenation of the broken African family.”
Mr. Sarr says that the cruise is meant to give people of African descent an opportunity to go back to their ancestral land.
“It will be a voyage that will reverse the very routes of the trans-Atlantic slave trade routes. What we plan to do is actually have a cruise ship and have a lot of people in that ship and we’ll move from the East Coast of the United States and we’ll stop in the Caribbean. Stop in Brazil and cross from Brazil to West. Africa basically the first voyage will be to Senegal. Because form Brazil to Senegal is the shortest route across the Atlantic Ocean, so that will shorten the length of the cruise. “
While the cruise is a kind of cultural heritage tourism, Sarr notes the cruise will also have the ability to transform people’s consciousness:
“When that ship arrives in West Africa, we’ll go through the door of no return and by doing that we’ll enter the land and be welcomed by their African brothers and sisters. In doing that they will have debunked the myth of the door of no return because original

By Paul Ndiho
July 1, 2011
The African Union Mission in Somalia, or AMISON, says that most of the population in the country’s capital is returning to normalcy. AMISON is encouraging Somalis living in the areas controlled by militants to join the government side.
The African Union Mission in Somalia says it’s making some progress in stabilizing the security situation in Mogadishu, but a lot more needs to be done in the fight against al-Shabaab. Aid agencies in Somalia are also concerned with Somalis displaced due to drought, which only adds to the nation’s ongoing humanitarian crisis.
An AMISOM spokesman says that there has been a lot of change in the Somali capital and people there can now go on with their business without fear.

“We are now talking of over 80 percent of the population in Mogadishu in AMISOM controlled areas. I think it’s an indicator of returning normalcy, people are going about their businesses in AMISOM controlled areas and we encourage the population that is still in the areas under the Al-Shabbab to come over to the government side.”
Mr. Ankunda adds that Somalis are becoming aware that there is better security in the areas controlled by AMISOM.
“Change is coming. What we need now is for the people themselves to rise up completely against the insurgents, and tell them that enough is enough, that they would want to live in peace and go about their normal lives uninterrupted. This is the time.”
Mogadishu’s Mayor Mahamud Ahmed is calling on all Somalis abroad to come and invest in their country.
“Any Somali that wants to build a factory, or a hospital, or anything that creates more than 500 jobs, I am ready to give them land, freely, to build it. So, this is the chance before they become too late, come and invest in your country.”
Aid agencies have voiced their concerns over the tens of thousands of Somalis displaced by drought and conflict.
A Red Cross delegate says that after two seasons without rain, Somalia is entering its worst drought in recent years, and aid agencies are unable to feed the majority of people in need.
“The worst situation that you could face is exactly the situation they are facing this year: is that the drought is happening in the same time all around the country, so that prevents people to move from one place to another safe place. They really have to make long journeys to find a safer place.”
The African Union Mission in Somalia is striving to help Somalia restore peace and stability after decades of lawlessness and factional warfare. Political divisions between Somalia’s Transitional Federal Government and the interim Parliament have further hampered the country’s peace process.