I set out for Juba in January, in order to photograph the referendum on the independence of South Sudan. “You’ll never get there”, I heard everywhere. Not only did they arrive on D day, January 9th, but everything went smoothly. Men and women wore their best attire to go to vote, despite of the long hours of waiting in lines. People were very proud and happy, thanks to that vote, they are part of their destiny.
Once the euphoria from the referendum washed away, I set out to Malakal, where reality and the difficulties that the new government and the whole country have to face are enormous. Thousands of repatriated people arrived by boat, trucks, buses, escaping the discrimination from the North and dreaming of a better life in their origin land. Whole families would arrive to the Malakal Stadium to wait for a cousin that would lead them to the village, a brother that hasn’t been seen for 25 years or a military husband that is supposed to be arranging things for the new life. Almost no governmental structure helps them. I then set off for the frontier with the north, at Renk, where I set sail with 1,700 other people escaping from Khartoum, a real floating city on the White Nile. Families and their furniture were attached, youngsters listening to rap and drinking alcohol that made them aggressive, the old people talking while women cooked with what they could find aboard, and with two children in each arm. Their trip will last over a month to arrive to Juba.
Difficulties of South Sudan do not finish with the Northern/Southern conflict, far from that. Each ethnic group will be represented in the new government, and the disappointed will take the arms, once the truce of the referendum has passed. I went to meet David Yawyaw, a murle rebel that couldn’t find its job in the administration and that has taken the arms alongside former military, killing and raping a good amount of civilians, all murles or close. Similar with Georges Athor in the Jonglei State, he joined the maquis, disappointed in not having the job he wanted. Military SPLA are close, I was able to meet and photograph Robert Gwang, a shilluk rebel that momentarily left his weapons and is negotiating with the SPLM. Moreover, there have also been tribal conflicts in relation to lands, as the government, in absence of resources and also maps and reliable documents on the territories, struggles to find solutions. A stick as a gesture of defiance in the middle of a desert of plants that divides the limits between dinkas and murle.
South Sudan has gained its independence but faces so many difficulties, the international community mustn’t abandon it.
Southern Sudan – Benjamin Loyseau
Visa pour l’image – Perpignan
Evening Shows – Campo Santo
